Podcast – Cory Doctorow's craphound.com

Exploring the difference between feudalism and capitalism, the podcast discusses the definitions of profits and rents in economics. It touches on Varoufakis' analysis and the shift towards a techno-feudal perspective. The narrative includes insights on capitalists' preference for rent-seeking over profit-seeking and upcoming event locations.

Today for my podcast, I read Subprime gadgets, originally published in my Pluralistic blog: I recorded this on a day when I was home between book-tour stops (I’m out with my new techno crime-thriller, The Bezzle). Catch me on April 11 in Boston with Randall Munroe, on April 12th in Providence, Rhode Island, then onto Chicago, Torino, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver and beyond! The canonical link for the schedule is here. The promise of feudal security: “Surrender control over your digital life so that we, the wise, giant corporation, can ensure that you aren’t tricked into catastrophic blunders that expose you to harm”: https://locusmag.com/2021/01/cory-doctorow-neofeudalism-and-the-digital-manor/ The tech giant is a feudal warlord whose platform is a fortress; move into the fortress and the warlord will defend you against the bandits roaming the lawless land beyond its walls. That’s the promise, here’s the failure: What happens when the warlord decides to attack you? If a tech giant decides to do something that harms you, the fortress becomes a prison and the thick walls keep you in. MP3 Here’s that tour schedule! 11 Apr: Harvard Berkman-Klein Center, with Randall Munroe https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/enshittification 12 Apr: RISD Debates in AI, Providence 17 Apr: Anderson’s Books, Chicago, 19h: https://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/cory-doctorow-1 19-21 Apr: Torino Biennale Tecnologia https://www.turismotorino.org/en/experiences/events/biennale-tecnologia 2 May, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Winnipeg https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-tickets-798820071337 5-11 May: Tartu Prima Vista Literary Festival https://tartu2024.ee/en/kirjandusfestival/ 6-9 Jun: Media Ecology Association keynote, Amherst, NY https://media-ecology.org/convention (Image: Oatsy, CC BY 2.0, modified)

Today for my podcast, I read The majority of censorship is self-censorship, originally published in my Pluralistic blog. It’s a breakdown of Ada Palmer’s excellent Reactor essay about the modern and historical context of censorship. I recorded this on a day when I was home between book-tour stops (I’m out with my new techno crime-thriller, The Bezzle. Catch me tomorrow (Monday) in Seattle with Neal Stephenson at Third Place Books. Then it’s Powell’s in Portland, and then Tuscon. The canonical link for the schedule is here. States – even very powerful states – that wish to censor lack the resources to accomplish totalizing censorship of the sort depicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four. They can’t go from house to house, searching every nook and cranny for copies of forbidden literature. The only way to kill an idea is to stop people from expressing it in the first place. Convincing people to censor themselves is, “dollar for dollar and man-hour for man-hour, much cheaper and more impactful than anything else a censorious regime can do.” Ada invokes examples modern and ancient, including from her own area of specialty, the Inquisition and its treatment of Gailileo. The Inquistions didn’t set out to silence Galileo. If that had been its objective, it could have just assassinated him. This was cheap, easy and reliable! Instead, the Inquisition persecuted Galileo, in a very high-profile manner, making him and his ideas far more famous. But this isn’t some early example of Inquisitorial Streisand Effect. The point of persecuting Galileo was to convince Descartes to self-censor, which he did. He took his manuscript back from the publisher and cut the sections the Inquisition was likely to find offensive. It wasn’t just Descartes: “thousands of other major thinkers of the time wrote differently, spoke differently, chose different projects, and passed different ideas on to the next century because they self-censored after the Galileo trial.” MP3 Here’s that tour schedule! 26 Feb: Third Place Books, Seattle, 19h, with Neal Stephenson (!!!) https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/cory-doctorow 27 Feb: Powell’s, Portland, 19h: https://www.powells.com/book/the-bezzle-martin-hench-2-9781250865878/1-2 29 Feb: Changing Hands, Phoenix, 1830h: https://www.changinghands.com/event/february2024/cory-doctorow 9-10 Mar: Tucson Festival of the Book: https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/?action=display_author&id=15669 13 Mar: San Francisco Public Library, details coming soon! 23 or 24 Mar: Toronto, details coming soon! 25-27 Mar: NYC and DC, details coming soon! 29-31 Mar: Wondercon Anaheim: https://www.comic-con.org/wc/ 11 Apr: Boston, details coming soon! 12 Apr: RISD Debates in AI, Providence, details coming soon! 17 Apr: Anderson’s Books, Chicago, 19h: https://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/cory-doctorow-1 19-21 Apr: Torino Biennale Tecnologia https://www.turismotorino.org/en/experiences/events/biennale-tecnologia 2 May, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Winnipeg https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-tickets-798820071337 5-11 May: Tartu Prima Vista Literary Festival https://tartu2024.ee/en/kirjandusfestival/ 6-9 Jun: Media Ecology Association keynote, Amherst, NY https://media-ecology.org/convention

The podcast delves into a personal experience of falling victim to a phone-phishing scam, resulting in over $8,000 in fraudulent charges. Despite knowledge of fraud, the narrator still fell prey to the scam. It explores vulnerabilities in the credit union system and suggests new fraud prevention methods for banks.

The podcast discusses enshittification, the decay of internet platforms, and the impact on users. It explores Facebook's exploitation, algorithms causing wage discrimination, and Amazon's manipulation of search results. The importance of digital rights, self-help measures, privacy laws, interoperability, and labor in the tech industry is also highlighted. The rise of surveillance and control in tech companies is discussed, emphasizing the need for a coalition to combat enshittification.

This podcast discusses the aftermath of the AI bubble burst and the impact it has on young technologists. It also explores the financial aspects of running AI models and highlights concerns about AI technology in high-stakes projects. The importance of open-source projects and small-scale AI models for the future of AI is also emphasized.

This week on my podcast, a preview of Wil Wheaton’s reading on the audiobook of The Bezzle, which I’m preselling through a Kickstarter campaign that I hope you’ll consider backing! MP3

This week on my podcast, I read my final Medium column The internet’s original sin, about the failure of trying to stretch copyright to cover every problem on the internet. Copyright is a regulation. It regulates the supply-chain of the entertainment industry. Copyright matters a lot to me, because I’m in the industry. But unless you’re in the industry, it shouldn’t matter to you. It’s fine to require a grasp of copyright among people who write, publish and distribute novels — but it’s bananas to require people who read novels to understand copyright. And yet, here we are. The test for whether copyright applies to you — for whether you are part of the entertainment industry’s supply chain — is whether you are making or dealing in copies of creative works. This test was once a very good one. Back when every book had a printing press in its history, every record a record-pressing plant, every film a film-lab, “making or handling copies of creative works” was a pretty good test to determine whether someone was part of the entertainment industry. Even if it turned out they weren’t, the kind of person who has a record-pressing plant can afford to consult an expert to make sure they’re on the right side of the law. MP3

In this podcast, a father and daughter discuss a range of topics including the daughter's experiences, wedding plans, and driving lessons. They also talk about volunteering at the LA Zoo, favorite contemporary and older artists, internet habits, social media, favorite TV shows, horror books, Hanukkah gifts, and being Jewish during Christmas.

Exploring the impact of institutions and individuals on the evolution of internet services, discussing 'inshitification' and moral injury. Delving into the tactics of trapping users and the pitfalls of profit prioritization in tech companies. Advocating for a moral internet through institutional change and hope for the future.