Gig Work Is the Opposite of Steampunk

They turned the cottage into a factory.

A woodcut of a weaver’s loft, where a woman works at a hand-loom. Out of the window opposite her looms the glowing, menacing red eye of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’ On the wall behind her is the poster from Magpie Killjoy’s ‘Steampunk Magazine’ that reads, ‘Love the machine, hate the factory.’
Cryteria/CC BY 3.0 (modified)

Despite what you may have heard, the Luddites weren’t technophobes. They were skilled workers, expert high tech machine operators who supplied the world with fine textiles. Thanks to a high degree of labor organization through craft guilds, the workers received a fair share of the profit from their labors. They worked hard, but they earned enough through their labors to enjoy lives of dignity and comfort.

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Pluralistic: Excuseflation (11 Mar 2023)


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Pluralistic: The Right accuses their critics of the conspiracy they themselves engage in (10 Mar 2023)


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Pluralistic: The AI hype bubble is the new crypto hype bubble (09 Mar 2023)


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Pluralistic: End to End (07 Mar 2023)


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Pluralistic: Biden set to appoint mass foreclosure cheerleader to the Fed (06 Mar 2023)


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They’re still trying to ban cryptography

The sales office to data localization pipeline for mass surveillance.

An image of a crocodile with a wide open mouth; the Signal logo is in the mouth; in the background is the Union flag of the UK.
John/CC BY-SA 2.0 (modified)

Some bad ideas never die. Since the late 1980s, spy agencies and cops have argued that the public should not have access to working cryptography, because this would mean that terrorists, mafiosi, drug dealers and pedophiles will be able to communicate in perfect, unbreakable secrecy.

The problem is that working cryptography protects everyone, not just the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse: the same cryptographic tools that protect instant messages and “Darknet” sites also protect your communications with your bank, your Zoom therapy session, and the over-the-air updates for your pacemaker and your car’s anti-lock braking system.

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Pluralistic: Solving the Moderator's Trilemma with Federation (04 Mar 2023)


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Pluralistic: VW wouldn't locate kidnapped child because his mother didn't pay for find-my-car subscription (28 Feb 2023)


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Pluralistic: Podcasting "Twiddler" (27 Feb 2023)


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