06.08.22
Gemini version available ♊︎Spending the Next Few Decades Tackling Technology’s Threats (Without Being a Mindless Luddite)
Video download link | md5sum d4aa72bc21194759c3ec728e3db2739e
Emergent Threats
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Summary: Techrights is hoping to take on more types of problems, possibly by focusing less on pertinent brands/companies and more on the shared threats they pose to society; more to follow later this week…
YESTERDAY I had a very negative experience with Royal Mail — akin to the infamous Xerox incident of RMS. Not to compare myself to RMS, but when a courier puts a parcel in the bin along with cat’s poo and then calls that “delivered” you have to wonder what sort of direction society has taken. They now advertise an “app” — yes, a piece of malicious software for you to download just so that you can receive or at least track a parcel you’re expecting. As I explain in the video above, which goes through this “work-in-press” strategy/plan document, we’re dealing with sinister companies looking to increase their power (sometimes also profit) by passing a lot of burden to the powerless population. The “self-service” ploy is one example of that. It’s not about automation but about outsourcing the labour to unpaid people (slaves, formerly known as “clients”). Mapping and factorising such threats is essential. It is, at the very least, a starting point.
“We need to develop collective resistance to abusive plots and ploys, such as corrosive, malicious cost-cutting moves that empower the rich (making them ever richer) at our expense while we struggle to keep up.”The Web site Tux Machines turns 18 in less than 24 hours and later today I’ll know if my decision (or for the time being suggestion) to reduce hours at work was well received and also accepted. If so, I shall have more to say about that. It’s partly drafted already.
Either way, Techrights or tech rights are more important than ever. It’s not limited to software freedom and, as I explain in the start of the video above, just promoting a brand (like “Linux”) or obsessing over institutions won’t be enough. In fact, brands seem to be missing the point — they change over time (companies come and go; some rebrand themselves) — and we must focus more on the concepts or the patterns. We need to develop collective resistance to abusive plots and ploys, such as corrosive, malicious cost-cutting moves that empower the rich (making them ever richer) at our expense while we constantly struggle to keep up.
Technology was supposed to make things easier and more reliable. But that’s not happening. █
ᶃ Gemini Space
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