It was 1993, the beginning of the Clinton years. The Wall had come down and Yeltsin had gone up onto the tank. No longer impeded by a curtain of iron, there were now fifteen new…
Browsing Category philosophy
Your life-changing books
Here is the concept: what books have changed your life? I am not talking about your favourite books, or comfort food books that you have re-read over and over again (ahem… Harry Potter series), or…
Technology is a symptom
As “software eats the world,” further intertwining with our daily lives, more and more discussions that are ostensibly about tech are at heart political discussions. What looks like technology criticism is actually political critique, and…
Pulling back the tattered ethical rags of the sharing economy
Mike Bulajewski has written a lengthy reflection on ethical consumerism singling out the “sharing economy.” His premise: We’re led to believe that as consumers and suppliers for these services, we’re supporting ethical values of kindness,…
Tech and social control — an OKDG After Action
@sundaysociology and @chadkoh deep in discussion. Photo by @scdaustin How does technology influence the social and political lives of humans? That was the central topic of discussion during the second half of last night’s OKDG…
4 more horsemen — a review of Cypherpunks
Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet by Andy Greenberg NOTE: Originally posted on Medium. This book is really a footnoted conversation between Julian Assange, Jacob Appelbaum, Andy Müller-Maguhn and Jérémie Zimmermann, some big…
The New Banality — a review of The New Digital Age
The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen Since I read This Machine Kills Secrets first, this book seems particularly dangerous to the web as…
A new study finds that atheists are among society’s most distrusted group, comparable even to rapists in certain circumstances.
Possibly a bit of a sensationalist headline, but there is a key take-away in the final graf about battling anti-atheism: “If you manage to offer credible counteroffers of these stereotypes, this can do a lot…