The Computer Room

Part one of a special series about Adam Lanza’s digital footprint. In episode one, I speak with the author of the essay, “The Ghost of Adam Lanza,” BlitheringGenius. This is still a work-in-progress— the un-paywalled version may see slight changes (certainly improved audio quality). Please feel free to flag anything in the comments. I’d also like to add a content warning. We don’t discuss the tragedy at Sandy Hook, but the nature of our discussion may upset some listeners. Theme: Beehive Days by Locust Toybox This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe

On this episode, I talk to the hostesses my favorite podcast, Nymphet Alumni. We talk about the lolcowification of TikTok, Marshall McLuhan, what would happen if Tavi Gevinson met Curtis Yarvin, incel ascension, digital game, and a hell of a lot more.  One of my favorite episodes yet. Also, I quote a hypothetical Russian person at some point. I'm not Russian. The person I made up for my example is!Listen to Nymphet Alumni here. Find this podcast on other platforms here. Other relevant links:Biz's writingaliceandfernsnarkThe Inverse of the F**k BoyIncels, incel ascension, incel chasers.Theme: Lolita Ya-Ya by Nelson Riddle This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe

I have a backlog of episodes! This is a conversation I did with Atoosa Rubenstein, former Editor-in-Chief of Seventeen and founder of Cosmogirl, in January (😅) about her career, the importance of content curation, and her wonderful Substack, Atoosa Unedited. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe

In this special crossover episode, Emmet returns to discuss Carmen Hermosillo's/humdog's iconic essay about self-commodification on the WELL (Whole Earth 'Letronic Link), "pandora's vox." Read it below: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe

Jack Crum of 404Tales joins me for a conversation about internet ethnographies, the history of Tumblr, and what nobody had the balls to say about #GamerGate. Theme: The Great Fairy Fountain EtudeYou can also listen to this episode on Spotify, Simplecast, and Apple Podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe

Happy Wednesday folks.Audio posts are back, with more of my voice than anyone could realistically ever want to listen to. But first, I’m promoting this episode of ex.haust. Emmet Penney and I talk about one of my favorite pieces of tech writing of all time, Julian Dibbell's essay, "A Rape in Cyberspace." There’s just so much to say about “A Rape in Cyberspace.” I think it’s one of those rare pieces I could talk about for hours. In fact, I think this is the third piece of content I’m releasing on it in just a few short months. It was so prescient. I mean, today, The New York Post ran this headline: Mother opens up about being ‘virtually gang raped’ in metaverse. But this piece is so much more than just the question of, “What is digital rape?” It poses some very important questions about the nature of the body, how identity is shaped in cyberspace, the myopia-inducing effect of the Internet, how play helps us construct who we are, how we should govern non-physical places, and what the Internet even is. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:Where virtual reality and its conventions would have us believe that exu and Moondreamer were brutally raped in their own living room, here was the victim exu scolding Mr. Bungle for a breach of “civility.”  […]MUD-made world is neither exactly real nor exactly make-believe, but nonetheless profoundly, compellingly, and emotionally true. […]And then there were what I’ll call the techno-libertarians. For them, MUD rapists were of course a******s, but the presence of a******s on the system was a technical inevitability, like noise on a phone line, and best dealt with not through repressive social disciplinary mechanisms but through the timely deployment of defensive software tools. Some a*****e blasting violent, graphic language at you? Don’t whine to the authorities about it — hit the @gag command and said a*****e’s statements will be blocked from your screen (and only yours). It’s simple, it’s effective, and it censors no one.[…]Toading, they insisted (almost convincingly), was much more closely analogous to banishment; it was a kind of turning of the communal back on the offending party, a collective action which, if carried out properly, was entirely consistent with anarchist models of community. And carrying it out properly meant first and foremost building a consensus around it — a messy process for which there were no easy technocratic substitutes. It was going to take plenty of good old-fashioned, jawbone-intensive grassroots organizing.[…]“Where does the body end and the mind begin?” young Quastro asked, amid recurring attempts to fine-tune the differences between real and virtual violence. “Is not the mind a part of the body?” “In MOO, the body IS the mind.” […]I have come to hear in them an announcement of the final stages of our decades-long passage into the Information Age, a paradigm shift that the classic liberal firewall between word and deed (itself a product of an earlier paradigm shift commonly known as the Enlightenment) is not likely to survive intact. If you’ve been following my work for a while, then you might notice that the groundwork Dibbell laid in “A Rape” has also profoundly informed my thinking about Tumblr: the body IS the mind. I feel compelled to add, though maybe this is misguided, that it’s been bittersweet to see how some of these conversations have picked up in recent months. Particularly the ones around Tumblr and fandom’s role in shaping the Internet. But all that’s another conversation for another post. Like this episode? Subscribe to ex.haust here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe

WARNING: This episode's audio quality is exceptionally, exceptionally bad. Special thanks to Will Kraus for cleaning it up. In future episodes, I’ll be using a better mic.Is a journalist who reports on virtual events that happen in a virtual world still a journalist? If you choose to present yourself as a rabbit online, does that say anything meaningful about who you really are? I spoke with Peter Ludlow, founder of The Alphaville Herald about living your life—fully online. Referenced articles:* Raking muck in "The Sims Online" by Farhad Manjoo (Salon, 2003) * Evangeline: Interview with a Child cyber-Prostitute in TSO by Peter Ludlow (2003)* A Real-Life Debate On Free Expression In a Cyberspace City by Amy Harmon (2004) I am an awkward person, and audio conversations aren’t always easy for me. I forget words, I stutter sometimes, I even lose my train of thought. Needless to say, the podcast format can sometimes be challenging, especially when I don’t already know the person I’m speaking to. Are these conversations valuable? Should I keep doing them? Drop me a line below, let me know how you feel anonymously. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe

I talked about Usenet (and, incredibly, mispronounced it), elitism, and the lost civilizations of the Internet with the most famous blogger in the world. I’m not one of his readers, but I feel like I understand him a lot better after hearing him talk about the Internet. After this conversation, I’m left wondering… do we need to govern the Internet, as though it were a physical place? (I also wish I asked him about his galaxy of other projects.)Theme: Computer Love by KraftwerkAudio edited by: Will KrausReach Will here.Stay tuned for a very special interview with Freddie de Boer later this week. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe

Default Friend and friend of the pod and artist Gio Pennacchietti discuss internet-based creoles, the Internet's obsession with the body, the trad thots of yore, 'found footage' e-girls and self-posters, Girl Bosses as a sexual orientation, and why Default Friend wasn't bat mitzvahed.(If anyone can help me edit audio… I’ll take it… This was my first attempt.)Theme: Sara perché ti amo by Ricche e Poveri  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe