Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Twenty-Fifth Week
Only those who suffer from paranoid delusions truly believe that everyone else is out to get them but I must confess that there are days when I am surrounded entirely … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Twenty-Fourth Week
You’ve probably heard that in the summer when someone tells you to put on sunscreen what they are saying is that they care about you. So please hear me when … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Twenty-Third Week
We laugh at horror movies for being unrealistic, faced with so many clear signs of the dangers ahead how unbelievable it is that the characters so blithely proceed yes, we … Continue reading
“the ultimate religion of our seemingly rational age” – Revisiting Mumford’s “megamachine”
“If you fall in love with a machine there is something wrong with your love life. If you worship a machine there is something wrong with your religion.” – Lewis … Continue reading
Who are you calling a Luddite? – A review of Blood in the Machine
“If the Luddites had never existed, their critics would have to invent them.” – Theodor Roszak There are two kinds of work about the Luddites. One of these takes … Continue reading
“Y2K was a very real threat indeed” – a review of the HBO documentary Time Bomb Y2K
“Ironically, the greater our success, the more ‘evidence’ critics will cite for declaring that Y2K was an illusion. But it’s always easier to predict the future after it becomes history.” … Continue reading
If Only Beating Climate Change Was This Easy – A review of the boardgame Daybreak
“I’m a pessimist about probabilities, I’m an optimist about possibilities.” – Lewis Mumford (1977) If you’re a fan of complicated boardgames, chances are good that you have some experience sitting … Continue reading
Okay, what now? – Thoughts in the Aftermath of Students Submitting AI Generated Work
“To be ‘against technology’ makes no more sense than to be ‘against food.’ We can’t live without either. But to observe that it is dangerous to eat too much food, … Continue reading
In Memory of David Golumbia
“The lesson from the work that this book deploys is that we have to learn how to critique even that which helps us (much as computers help us to write … Continue reading
“If you don’t have a printing press, you don’t have a movement,” – A Review of Kathy Ferguson’s “Letterpress Revolution”
“Anarchists fiery, revolutionary publications embodied their determination to struggle. Their aesthetically pleasing publications embodied their beautiful ideal.” What comes to mind when you hear the word “anarchist”? A crust … Continue reading
“Y2K is real. It’s coming” – On the Righteous Gemstones and Remembering Y2K
A furious crowd had gathered in front of a prominent televangelist’s church. With placards denouncing the church’s leadership—accusing them of lying—the former members of the flock chanted angrily. And when … Continue reading
What I Wish I Had Known About Applying for Academic Jobs
The start of August brings with it the first smattering of academic job postings. Professors from all over begin excitedly posting “come work with me” messages on social media, academic … Continue reading
What I Wish I Had Known Before Writing My Dissertation
So, you’re getting ready to write a dissertation. Or, you’re contemplating going down a path that (if taken) will eventually require you to write a dissertation. Good for you. Normally, … Continue reading
“Computers enable fantasies” – On the continued relevance of Weizenbaum’s warnings
“The computer has long been a solution looking for problems—the ultimate technological fix which insulates us from having to look at problems.” – Joseph Weizenbaum (1983) Trying to keep … Continue reading
No Such Thing as a Free Lunch : Labor in Open Source Systems Implementations
This post is adapted from a presentation I gave at the Amigos Library Technology Roadmap conference earlier this month. I supervise the library systems unit at a public R1 university … Continue reading
A Luddite Library
“If the Luddites had never existed, their critics would have to invent them.” – Theodor Roszak One way of telling that controversies about technology are intensifying is to watch … Continue reading
Waiting for the Fail Whale – What Y2K can teach us about Twitter
“What we use is not ours simply because we use it.” – Erich Fromm Breakdowns have an annoying habit of not arriving on time. It often seems as if … Continue reading
Theses on the Techlash
“The problem is not to use technology but to realize that one is used by it.”- Paul Virilio Once a term gets widely adopted by the press, and earns … Continue reading
The Internet is Broken. Can We Fix It? – A Review of Ben Tarnoff’s “Internet for the People”
Can you remember the moment when you first suspected that there was something wrong with the internet? Was it when you started to get creepily specific targeted ads? Was it … Continue reading
Life’s a Glitch – what the non-apocalypse of Y2K can teach us
As families watched from home, Dick Clark stood on the steps of the town hall hosting the final New Year’s Rocking Eve of the millennium. The excited crowd chanted the … Continue reading
Where We’re Going, We’ll Probably Still Need Roads – a Review of Paris Marx’s “Road to Nowhere”
You can learn a lot about your society’s relationship to technology by looking at its streets. Are the roads filled with personal automobiles or trolley-cars, bike lanes or occupied parking … Continue reading
Singing About the Dark Times – Theses on Doomerism
In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times. – Brecht It sure seems like things aren’t going particularly … Continue reading
Jonah, Cassandra, and the Doom-Sayers — Reading Lewis Mumford During the Pandemic
“If we would conquer the hell that now threatens to engulf us, we must not seek merely for a little less hell, we must not content ourselves with a sort … Continue reading
“Technology in the Present Tense” – Notes from a Weary Luddite
“The future is not a blank page; and neither is it an open book.” – Lewis Mumford 1. Here is a confession from a weary, self-identified Luddite: For someone … Continue reading
Balance of Terrors – on Günther Anders
“You should not begin your day with the illusion that what surrounds you is a stable world.” – Günther Anders It has been 70 years since Bert the Turtle instructed … Continue reading
“I’m so sick of Y2K!” – A review of Y2K: The Movie
“I’m so sick of Y2K!” Contrary to the stereotype that every disaster movie begins with the experts being ignored, there is at least one disaster movie that begins with … Continue reading
“Things Just Go On” – More Theses on Doomscrolling
“That things just go on is the catastrophe” – Walter Benjamin. One of the risks of declaring victory is the possibility that your declaration will prove to have been premature. … Continue reading
Look Around – Yet Another Piece about “Don’t Look Up”
Truly, I live in the dark times! The guileless word is folly. A smooth forehead Suggests insensitivity. The man who laughs Has simply not yet heard The terrible news. – … Continue reading
Inventing the Shipwreck
“Our societies have become arrhythmic. Or they only know one rhythm: constant acceleration. Until the crash and systemic failure.” – Paul Virilio “Conversations about technology tend to be dominated by … Continue reading
Against Technological Inevitability – On 20th Century Critics of Technology
“The myth of technological and political and social inevitability is a powerful tranquilizer of the conscience. Its service is to remove responsibility from the shoulders of everyone who truly believes … Continue reading
The Magnificent Bribe
“The bargain we are being asked to ratify takes the form of a magnificent bribe.”- Lewis Mumford (1964) “Nearly 50 years ago, long before smartphones and social media, the social … Continue reading
Specters of Ludd – A Review of Gavin Mueller’s “Breaking Things at Work”
A specter is haunting technological society—the specter of Luddism. Granted, as is so often the case with hauntings, reactions to this specter are divided: there are some who are frightened, … Continue reading
Imagine the End of Facebook
“On the one hand the computer makes it possible in principle to live in a world of plenty for everyone, on the other hand we are well on our way … Continue reading
Librarian Was My Occupation – Remembering the Occupy Wall Street People’s Libary
In the fall of 2011, the angry shout of “we are the 99%!” could be heard echoing in localities big and small across the US. The movement had seemed to … Continue reading
The Climate of Despair – Climate Change, COVID-19, and the Feeling of Impending Doom
“It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us.” – Walter Benjamin Whenever the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issues … Continue reading
All our grievances do, in fact, remain connected
[hi, long-lost other writer here, apologies for the long absence] Two things got libraryland heated last week, and at first glance they have little to do with each other. First … Continue reading
Technological Lessons from the Pandemic
“The public be damned is the private motto of the majority of our citizens: which means that they are damning themselves; and at a serious crisis like the present one, … Continue reading
Theses on Technological Pessimism
We fly over the mountains As though there was nothing to it Great are the works of humans! But bread for all? We can’t do it. Child, ask why Can … Continue reading
Theses on Techno-Optimism
“If you fall in love with a machine there is something wrong with your love-life. If you worship a machine there is something wrong with your religion.” – Lewis Mumford … Continue reading
Burn it All – a Review of “Your Computer is on Fire”
It often feels as though contemporary discussions about computers have perfected the art of talking around, but not specifically about, computers. Almost every week there is a new story about … Continue reading
They meant well (or, why it matters who gets to be seen as a “tech critic”)
“We need technology to live, as we need food to live. But, of course, if we eat too much food, or eat food that has no nutritional value, or eat … Continue reading
Broom-Scrolling? Assume-Scrolling? Bloom-Scrolling? – what comes after Doom-Scrolling?
“The true path is along a rope, not a rope suspended way up in the air, but rather only just over the ground. It seems more like a tripwire than … Continue reading
Authoritarian and Democratic Technics, revisited
“The viability of technology, like democracy, depends in the end on the practice of justice and on the enforcement of limits to power.” – Ursula Franklin I. Is technology a … Continue reading
The Cassandra Conundrum
“We hate the people who try to make us form the connections we do not want to form.” – Simone Weil One Let us begin with a riddle. Question: … Continue reading
“The Tree of Science” an English translation of Eugene Huzar’s “L’arbre de la Science” [Part 1]
When the locomotive of progress carries us away, it is quite permissible to ask the mechanics who direct it to be prudent and to moderate its speed before having assumed … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Twenty-Second Week
You probably know someone who has lived through a disaster. Or someone who has lived through a car accident. Perhaps even someone who has lived through a cancer diagnosis. But, … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Twenty-First Week
Please, do not worry, though it is behind a mask I promise you that I have not forgotten how to smile yes, I know, I know, I need to find … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Twentieth Week
I’ve heard it said (by a prominent doctor) that this pandemic “did not have to be as bad as it was,” and they are right it did not have to … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Nineteenth Week
Behind me in the checkout aisle a man in a flag shirt kept asking why I was wearing a mask but I was not listening to him not really anyways … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Eighteenth Week
I asked my doctor if there is a decent alternative to wearing a respirator to protect yourself and she said yes there is a decent alternative to wearing a respirator … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Seventeenth Week
In the early days of the current pandemic everyone was sharing a map which reassuringly showed the countries best prepared and the countries least prepared for a pandemic but that … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Sixteenth Week
If only I knew how to convince people that they should care about sick cattle and dead birds but I don’t even know how to convince people that they should … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Fifteenth Week
Be kind to yourself so what if during this pandemic you didn’t finish your novel learn to play guitar or master sourdough the only thing that matters is that you … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Fourteenth Week
At first they will tell you that everything is going to be okay and when this no longer convinces you they will assure you that at least it won’t get … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Thirteenth Week
When you hear them say (and you will hear them say) that avian influenza only poses a risk to farm workers do not reply by telling them “for now” no, … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Twelfth Week
This pandemic is a once in a lifetime event yes, this pandemic is just a once in a lifetime event at least this is what I tell myself as I … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Eleventh Week
At the pandemic’s start I did not worry, for I believed that compared to the other crises we face handling the pandemic would be easy, in the pandemic’s fifth year … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Tenth Week
If you must grumble that the pandemic has now lasted longer than it took you to earn your high school diploma or earn your bachelor’s degree just tell yourself that … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Ninth Week
They are not angry with you my exhausted friend for trying to protect yourself (or for trying to protect them) from the virus no, my exhausted friend, they are angry … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Eighth Week
When you hear them say (and you will hear them say) that the burden of the old guidelines was too much was just too much to bear know that when … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Seventh Week
We are ready so very ready to change the world and do whatever is needed to take this rotten world and built it anew. Yes, we are ready so very … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Sixth Week
All of us were told that we must be willing to make sacrifices unfortunately as it turns out some of us are the sacrifice others are willing to make. * … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Fifth Week
In the dark times will there also be big games lavish performances funny commercials and celebrity appearances? Yes, in the dark times there will also be big games lavish performances … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Fourth Week
The reports have confirmed that last week was the fifth in a row in which the plague claimed more than 2,000 lives and though 10,000 deaths is only one tenth … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Third Week
Abandoned to death and pestilence to famine and war we keep saying that the cavalry isn’t coming but we are wrong we are woefully wrong for what are the four … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Second Week
Everyone keeps saying we are in a different place yes, now we are in a different place that thanks to vaccines and boosters and some immunity we are in a … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-First Week
Amidst pestilence and death and famine and war how strangely comforting it is to not actually believe in the four horsemen. * After I told her that I always feel … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Two-Hundredth Week
By the fifth year of the pandemic it has become quite clear that we cannot “they have to make their own decisions” our way out of the pandemic and yet … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Ninety-Ninth Week
The year is new the plague is old. * A headache and fatigue nausea and fogginess these are normal symptoms of a hangover after a celebratory night and I hope, … Continue reading
LibrarianShipwreck