Librarianshipwreck
@libshipwreck
PhD, former librarian, pessimistic utopian. History of tech, disasters, & doom-saying. Wrote my dissertation on Y2K (currently turning that into a book).
“To what extent do democratic polities need to allow to proliferate technologies whose function is to make democratic sovereignty difficult or even impossible?” As David Golumbia makes clear in his book “Cyberlibertarianism” that’s a question we must ask: librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com/2025/07/18/dig…
Whenever you see references to this being a “race” the question should be what the destination is and if it’s somewhere we actually want to go. Removing the brakes and air bags may make us go faster, but the finish line we’re racing towards is the edge of a cliff…
White House unveils sweeping plan to “win” global AI race through deregulation arstechnica.com/ai/2025/07/whi…
“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 (1952)
When you call customer support and find yourself talking to a machine it’s really important to direct your anger and annoyance correctly. Don’t get angry with the machine you’re talking to, get angry with the company that wanted to save money by forcing you to talk to a machine.
when u call customer support and a clanker picks up
Someone driving while having Microsoft Teams integrated into their car seems like one of the little details in an episode of Black Mirror that’s meant to remind you that what you’re watching is a picture of a dystopian world.
NEWS: Mercedes-Benz is integrating Microsoft Teams into its vehicles, starting with the new CLA model.
I’m genuinely curious if writers are reacting to this association by using fewer em dashes in their own writing for fear of being accused of using AI. Or if they’re avoiding certain terms or phrases (apparently AI likes the word “delve”) for the same reason.
I’m so mad that people associate em dashes with AI now. They were learning from the writers 😭😭😭 we did it first 😭😭😭
Many companies are trying to make “camera glasses” a thing, but no matter how sleek their launch videos are they can’t help but be deeply creepy. “record in stealth” is a great way to get your camera glasses smashed. But I guess glassholes are going to be glassholes.
introducing Waves, camera glasses for creators. record in stealth. livestream all day. pre-order now.
As someone who teaches history, I know I should probably be concerned about what happens if AI puts historians out of work. But as someone who has studied history, I’m much more concerned about what happens to a society when millions (from many job fields) are put out of work.
The good news is this morning I finished the chapter I’ve been working on. The bad news is it’s 18,000 words and needs to be 10,000 words.
Last night when I was at the grocery store I saw a potato that was vaguely heart shaped. So, here, enjoy this picture of that vaguely heart shaped potato…
Sometimes I wonder if I’m being too harsh in my assessments of tech executives, but then I see stuff like this and I’m reminded that I’m not being nearly harsh enough…
"Instead of democracy, we will have basically tech feudalism — fiefdoms run by tech corporations. They're pretty explicit about this point." trib.al/pXinRoS
This really gives new meaning to the phrase “impossible beauty standards.”
Vogue’s August issue has begun to use “AI models” instead of human models for some of their photoshoots.
I know things are terrible at the moment but the new album by @wealdandwoe (released by @thefiadh) is incredible. Awesome castle black metal. Listening to it won’t make things less terrible, but it’ll make you feel like a knight with a guitar. fiadh.bandcamp.com/album/far-from…
This is how I feel about AI companies.
the more I see a dating app company advertise the more I believe it’s failing and panicking