Podcast #36: Jerry Mander

Author and activist Jerry Mander reflects on a long life of technoskepticism and how it relates to the current global moment.

By Mo Lotman | January 5, 2021 | Advertising, Community, Culture, Economics, Environment, Media, Podcasts, Society | Capitalism, Coronavirus, Environment, Exploitation, Globalism, Grand Canyon, Image, Indigenous Rights, Internet, Media, Native Americans, Nature, Power, Propaganda, Television, The Sierra Club

The Risks of Public Data

A desire for convenience and openness has left local and state public records easily available for mining, combining, and abuse.

By Craig Kelley | March 18, 2020 | Government, Law, Privacy | Cambridge, City Council, City Hall, Convenience, Data, Data Collection, Data-Mining, Databases, Efficiency, Government, Internet, Massachusetts, Paper Records, Privacy, Public Data, Registry of Deeds, Speed, Transparency, Transportation, Voter Registry

Surveillance and the Limits of Law

Section 215 of the Patriot Act is set to sunset. New legislation would kill it entirely. But how much do intelligence agencies follow the law anyway?

By Alex Marthews | March 4, 2020 | Defense, Government, Human Rights, Law, Privacy, Security | Amazon, AT&T, Black Lives Matter, Civil Liberties, Congress, Constitutional Law, Dissent, Donald Trump, Edward Snowden, Electronic Frontier Foundation, FBI, FISA, Foreign Intelligence, Fourth Amendment, Gang of Eight, ICE, Intelligence Agencies, Internet, Jewel v. NSA, Law Enforcement, Legal Precedent, Mass Surveillance, Michael Hayden, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, NSA, Orwell, Palantir, Patriot Act, Privacy, Restore the Fourth, Revolution, Russell Tice, Section 215, Sensors, Spying, Standing Rock, Supreme Court, surveillance, Surveillance Oversight Ordinances, Violence

E. M. Forster’s The Machine Stops (excerpts)

Excerpts of E. M. Forster’s 1909 futuristic dystopia The Machine Stops

By Mo Lotman | January 8, 2020 | Automation, Culture, Environment, Philosophy, Relationships, Society | Atrophy, Communication, Computers, Decadence, Dependence, Dystopia, E. M. Forster, Fiction, Internet, Nature, Progress, Social Commentary, Synthetic Food, travel

The Prescience of E. M. Forster

Compared to 1984 or Brave New World, E. M. Forster’s 1909 futuristic novella The Machine Stops was, in some ways, the most eerily accurate prediction of our current technological milieu.

By Geoffrey Dutton | January 2, 2020 | Automation, Culture, Environment, Philosophy, Relationships, Society | Addiction, Atrophy, Class, Computers, Decadence, Dependence, Dystopia, E. M. Forster, Eugenics, Fiction, Internet, Nature, Pollution, Progress, Social Commentary, Synthetic Food

Print Preview: Issue #4 | Fall 2019

Our fourth print issue—covering issues of identity, censorship, Internet infrastructure and more—is about to ship nationally.

By Mo Lotman | September 5, 2019 | Cognition, Culture, Government, Identity, Media, Philosophy, Privacy, Psychology, Relationships, Review, Society | Book Recommendations, Censorship, China, Eric McLuhan, Identity, Infrastructure, Internet, Katherine Birbalsingh, Marshall McLuhan, Protest, Public Space, Selfie Murals, Selfies, Smartphones, surveillance, The Cloud

The World Wired Web

Despite marketing imagery to the contrary, the “cloud” remains very much grounded in physical infrastructure, including unfathomable miles of wires.

By David A. J. Reynolds | July 24, 2019 | Environment, Media | Amazon, Bandwidth, Britain, China, Choke Points, Coaxial Cable, Communication, Content Providers, Data, Entertainment, Facebook, Fiber-Optic Cable, France, Google, Infrastructure, Internet, Internet Traffic, ISPs, Long-Distance, Railroads, Servers, Telecoms, Telegraph, Telephone, The Cloud, Undersea Cables, US, Wires

The Transformative Power of Print

College students given an assignment of reading a print book learn about their own habits and the power of concentration.

By Michael Bugeja | July 17, 2019 | Cognition, Education | Accomplishment, Addiction, Attention, College, Comprehension, Concentration, Disruption, Distraction, Focus, Intentionality, Internet, Learning, Reading, Relaxation, Retention, Silence, Smartphones, Tangibility, Texting, Twitter

Podcast #32: Josh Golin on Marketing to Kids

Josh Golin, Executive Director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, fights a metastasizing marketing machine that has swept kids into its orbit of consumerism and surveillance.

By Mo Lotman | June 19, 2019 | Advertising, Community, Culture, Education, Ethics, Family, Law, Media, Podcasts, Privacy, Psychology | Activism, Advertising, Alexa, Amazon, Baby Einstein, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Children, Citizenship, Commercials, Community, Consumerism, Critical Thinking, Digital Nanny, Disney, Echo Dot for Kids, Ed-Tech, Edward Markey, Environment, Fast Food, Hello Barbie, Internet, iPads, Josh Hawley, Marketing, Mattel, Movement Building, Obesity, Pornography, Schools, Scree-Free Week, Screen Time Action Network, Screens, Smartphones, surveillance, Technology in Schools, TV, Violence, YouTube

Podcast #30: Gail Dines on Porn Culture

Activist, author, and sociologist Gail Dines discusses the impact of pornography—particularly in its virulent and violent Internet form—on culture.

By Mo Lotman | April 11, 2019 | Culture, Economics, Identity, Podcasts, Relationships, Society, Well-Being | Abuse, Addiction, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Boys, Eastern Europe, Erectile Dysfunction, Feminism, Fun, Gender, Girls, Global Culture, Greed, Hookup Culture, Image, India, Inequality, Internet, Intimacy, Love, Men, Monopoly, Pedophilia, Porn Addiction, Prisoners, Profit, Rape, relationships, Self-Esteem, Self-Expression, Self-Harm, Sex, Sex Addiction, Sexual Identity, Sexuality, Shame, Teens, Violence, Women

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