Pluralistic: FCC strikes a blow against prison profiteering (19 Jul 2024)


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Pluralistic: Prison-tech company bribed jails to ban in-person visits (02 Apr 2024)


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Pluralistic: Prison-tech is a brutal scam – and a harbinger of your future (14 Feb 2024)


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Pluralistic: Kickstarting "The Bezzle" audiobook, sequel to Red Team Blues (10 Jan 2024)


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Pluralistic: Kinkslump Linkdump (09 Dec 2023)


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Pluralistic: Pinkdrunk Linkdump (18 Nov 2023)


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  • Pinkdrunk Linkdump: Your semi-regular weekend declaration of link bankruptcy.
  • This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018
  • Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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The Shitty Tech Adoption Curve Has a Business Model

It is difficult to get a public procurement officer to understand something, when a vendor’s salary depends on his not understanding it.

A jail cell, seen through the bars. Bundles of US $100 bills are piled up on the floor of the cell.
Flying Logos/CC BY-SA 4.0 (modified)

In the “Shitty Technology Adoption Curve,” oppressive technologies are first imposed on people who don’t get to complain — prisoners, migrants, children, mental patients, benefits recipients — in order to normalize these tools and sand down their rough edges. Once the technology has been rendered a little more acceptable, it crawls up the privilege gradient, bit by bit, until even the most socially powerful among us are using it.

In other words: 20 years ago, if you ate dinner under a CCTV’s unblinking eye, you were probably dining in a supermax prison. Today, you’re likely just someone who bought some luxury surveillance, like a “home automation” system from Google, Apple, Amazon or Facebook.

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Pluralistic: California to smash prison e-profiteers (08 May 2023)


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