But mass job destruction was not what was actually happening. Self-driving cars did not wipe out millions of taxi and trucking jobs, burger-flipping robots remain a novelty, and as North America and Europe were dreaming of the future of robot senior care, Japan was already pulling back from those very technologies. AI and robotics may have taken steps forward, but they were not nearly as powerful as executives wanted the public to believe and news organizations shamefully parroted with little journalistic investigation. The real effect was not the eradication of millions of jobs, but a more subtle and pernicious transformation of work and workplaces to reduce the leverage of workers and shift that power even further to their bosses. Tech companies took advantage of the desperation in the post-financial crisis labor market to get workers to accept lower pay and fewer rights in exchange for an income, no matter how paltry. Uber and Amazon are emblems of this effort.

But today we haven’t seen that disruption at all. Millions of jobs were not wiped out in the way the industry suggested. Instead, tech companies implemented new tech like algorithmic management to disempower workers, break unions, and push down pay.

disconnect.blog/sacrifice-yo...

Groundbreaking Science lives in Theatre Temporary Institute Salon Series

Tomorrow, ask Transforma Theatre all your burning questions about Science+Theatre. Learn about the Science in Theater Festival they organized, and their recent theatre reenactment investigative documentary: Bioadapted about AI futures. Join the convo here: www.eventbrite.com/e/groundbrea...

Author @gilduran.com was just banned from “free speech absolutist” twitter for criticizing the Palantir CEO’s manifesto— so here’s his upcoming book: www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ne...

How might this track with theories of "cyberlibertarianism"

"beware, devs have abandoned, dead game" <3,498 hrs played>

Make it make sense.

Find out about all the ways to get involved in this campaign.

purgepalantir.com

bsky.app/profile/anar...

Mamdani: "What are we fighting for?. When you look back at the history books of our party, 100 years ago we had a very clear vision of what we were fighting for. It's sad that for too many Americans, when they want to look for ambition in the Democratic Party, then have to turn to a history book."

The crucial thing to understand about Peter Thiel is that he adores "The Lord of the Rings" and no one in human history has ever so utterly completely missed all the salient points of what a book is about.

One of the fun things about playing with the new HTML-in-Canvas API is that it lets me revisit all sorts of cool ideas I’ve seen in the past and wished I could implement on native elements.

Like this one, based on Paola Demichelis article from about a year ago.

(Links 👇)

We don’t want a surveillance state. Call your reps to keep pressure on them!
www.congress.gov/members/find...

#pinks

A New Policy Framework for Governing Collective Sentiment in Online Communities Online communities are shaped not only by rules and enforcement, but by the emotional climates that develop within them, writes Taylor Moore.

Online communities are shaped not only by rules and enforcement, but by the emotional climates that develop within them, writes Taylor Moore. She proposes a ‘Collective Sentiment Policy Model’ that treats community-level emotional patterns as a legitimate and governable object of policy.

The grift never ends. Most corrupt regime in history

Ghost Sharks, Robo-Dogs, and the Theater of Border Technologies Petra Molnar explores border spectacles like robo-dogs and Ghost Shark, revealing how visible tools mask deeper infrastructures of migration control.

Robo-dogs and ghost sharks grab headlines—but they’re just the spectacle. Behind them lies a vast system of surveillance, data extraction, and automated exclusion shaping modern border control, writes Tech Policy Press Fellow Petra Molnar.

Billions of Birds Have Vanished in a Generation | The Walrus To save them, we need to look and listen

One of the saddest things about the #polycrisis is the decline of birds. I grew up in a much more vibrant and bird-filled world in the 1970s, and for people 50 years before that, it was even more so. This is not nostalgia, it's real. #biodiversity

thewalrus.ca/billions-of-...

Rep Justin Jones made a statement entrance, walking into the Tennessee legislature with an"Abolish ICE" flag. No subtlety. No backing down.🔥🔥

Kenyan firm sacks more than 1,000 workers after losing Meta contract Meta paused work with Sama last month after allegations about staff viewing private scenes filmed by smart glasses

I’m sure this is unrelated to the fact that last month data workers revealed they were asked by Meta to review video from Meta Ray Bans of user’s intimate moments like having sex or using the bathroom.

A traitor to both his party and his country.

#permacomputing #folktech #communitytech

I would really like to see a "declouding" movement where consumers demand any software that doesn't strictly need to be in the cloud, be downloadable to run locally on their own hardware.

The way that things used to be.

Stevens to RFK Jr: "To top it off, Mr Secretary, I got a copy of HR-944. You know what it is? It's your impeachment articles, sir. You have abused your office, you have gutted America's public health! You should be ashamed."

The American gestapo abducted an 85 year-old widow.

Was she one of the worst of the worst? No, her step-son, a retired Alabama state trooper, got ICE to put her in a detention center to deport her because he wanted all of his father's inheritance.

Sounds like the son is the worst of the worst.

AI’s New Training Data: Your Old Work Slacks And Emails AI’s New Training Data: Your Old Work Slacks And Emails

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone: this is exactly what Zuboff's concept of #SurveillanceCapitalism is all about, except that what she called "social exhaust" is now being used for training #AI rather than advertising. #surveillance

www.forbes.com/sites/annato...

Sam Altman's Creepy Eyeball-Scanning Company Gets in Bed With Zoom and Tinder Will your boss require an eyeball scan the next time you need to jump on Zoom?

“Basically, every version of World’s approach to verification requires people to go along with invasive biometric scans…”

Oh, it’s the usual from the Democratic Party, they’re having someone that’s not running again take the fall-so that they can actually get the legislation over the finish line….without looking like the war mongers for profits/Israel that they are.

They do it all the time, they think we’re stupid.

Remember this fuck when his name comes on the ballot.

Maine passes first-in-nation freeze on big data centers The Maine legislature passed the first state ban in the nation on the development of large data centers on Tuesday.  The temporary measure, which lasts for 1.5 years, restricts the constructio…

12 more states have bills to ban new data centers but Maine passed theirs first. The future is absolutely up for grabs.

thehill.com/homenews/sta...

A tweet from Representative Thomas Massie that reads: I just viewed 2 Top Secret FISA docs. 1) FISA Court opinion that raises serious concerns about FBI implementation of FISA 702. 2) letter by Senator Wyden describing a secret government interpretation of FISA law. The Constitution requires I vote No on FISA 702 reauthorization.

I sent a classified letter to House and Senate colleagues about a secret interpretation of surveillance law that every American should be concerned about.

Representative Massie is right. The Constitution requires EVERY member to vote against a clean reauthorization.

Mamdani hasn't had time to really think about all that space he now has, because he spends most of his time at City Hall and around New York City. He tries to keep a semblance of his old life by getting around the city on foot, by bike or train. "If you spend every single day driving around in a tinted window security detail, you will have a very specific view of the city," he said. "You actually meet other New Yorkers and you break out of the bubble that so many have come to expect of politics, where politicians only seem to be spending time with other politicians or the people who donated to make them politicians."

I'd say that this applies to anyone traveling in a car in any city. Being in a car versus walking, riding, or taking transit fundamentally changes how you view a place and your relationship to it. I wish more leaders set this kind of example.

www.npr.org/2026/04/16/n...