”Are you sitting uncomfortably?
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@CiaraNi I feel a strong resonance with Kim Stanley Robinson: The Ministry for the Future, which I’ve just finished, and Antarctica, which I’m currently reading. They do something analysis can’t, they give us enough imaginative scope to take consequences seriously.
'they give us enough imaginative scope to take consequences seriously'
Much needed. Yes. I've just looked up Ministry for The Future and it went straight on to my To Be Read list. Thanks for mentioning it.
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"We refuse to face the real problem. We consume vastly too much. We waste vastly too much. The material demands from our advanced civilizations will soon be causing a Mount Everest of mining waste every year. If you want to see the future of a civilization, don’t go to its great buildings to talk to its great men. Instead, walk among its dumps, particularly mining dumps. There you will see the future written large. You will find the clearest and most honest story among the stuff we throw away."
@CiaraNi I agree with the diagnosis. And that’s exactly why the political centre now feels like the most radical position. The belief that small adjustments will be enough, and that we can avoid changing consumption, pace, and scale. That is a very extreme faith in the status quo.
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@CiaraNi Thank you so much for doing this, Ciara. It is voices like yours that I have admired for a good while now, that give me comfort that what I have done with 99th Day has some purpose, that it was worth the effort.
@gerrymcgovern @CiaraNi
this is next up on my reading list -
I read Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification recently. Now I’m reading Gerry McGovern’s 99th Day: A Warning About Technology. I'm definitely going to need to read a Terry Pratchett book next. It's by chance I got to these two books close to one another, but they harmonise. They both tell hard truths about the mess were in. But still, I get a sense of hope from them. They make it clear that doing nothing in not an option, which is a call to action, and they make it clear that we do have actual options
@CiaraNi I'm half way through Enshittification at the moment and got so depressed reading it I thought I would take a break and read some fiction instead.
I've just finished Small Things Like These (wow!).
So that plan didn't work.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58662236-small-things-like-these
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I read Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification recently. Now I’m reading Gerry McGovern’s 99th Day: A Warning About Technology. I'm definitely going to need to read a Terry Pratchett book next. It's by chance I got to these two books close to one another, but they harmonise. They both tell hard truths about the mess were in. But still, I get a sense of hope from them. They make it clear that doing nothing in not an option, which is a call to action, and they make it clear that we do have actual options
@CiaraNi According to your writing, I suggest: „Kim Stanley Robinson - The Ministry for the Future“
This book completes that picture.
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@CiaraNi Thank you so much for doing this, Ciara. It is voices like yours that I have admired for a good while now, that give me comfort that what I have done with 99th Day has some purpose, that it was worth the effort.
@gerrymcgovern I am struck by the way the book gives ordinary people and ordinary voices space to tell their stories - the normally unseen, unheard victims of our collective consumption. Strong stuff.
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'they give us enough imaginative scope to take consequences seriously'
Much needed. Yes. I've just looked up Ministry for The Future and it went straight on to my To Be Read list. Thanks for mentioning it.
I should revisit that book.
I started it at some point but didn't make it through...
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@CiaraNi According to your writing, I suggest: „Kim Stanley Robinson - The Ministry for the Future“
This book completes that picture.
@jackpearse Thank you. I have only just heard of this book today, you are the second person to recommend it. I looked it up and it's gone on to my To Be Read list. It does indeed sound like a good companion read with 99th Day and Enshittification. Thanks for the tip.
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”Are you sitting uncomfortably? Then I’ll begin.’
If I wasn’t sitting uncomfortably before, then I am now, and so I should be. Uncomfortable in the good, better-informed way, This is a constructively angry, clear-eyed account of what we’ve done and are doing to the planet. Not just the oligarchs, AI techbros & mining firms, but all of us as we consume, consume, consume. The witness accounts from ordinary people affected by mining, data colonialism & climate collapse are awful & moving.
@CiaraNi Thanks for sharing, I had not heard of this book.
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"We refuse to face the real problem. We consume vastly too much. We waste vastly too much. The material demands from our advanced civilizations will soon be causing a Mount Everest of mining waste every year. If you want to see the future of a civilization, don’t go to its great buildings to talk to its great men. Instead, walk among its dumps, particularly mining dumps. There you will see the future written large. You will find the clearest and most honest story among the stuff we throw away."
Years after a toxic mining dump wiped a holiday resort off the face of the earth, killing staff and guests, web robots are still offering the ghost hotel on booking sites and giving it five star reviews.
What a species we humans are. The other primates must be so embarrassed.
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@magsamond Thank you! Yes, we need some antidotes as we digest and deal with all this.
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@CiaraNi 'Enshittification' is on my reading list for this year. I'll just need to ensure I follow it with something cheery!
@macpsych This resonates. I always have one unread Terry Pratchett in waiting. My Emergency Pratchett, for just such situations.
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Years after a toxic mining dump wiped a holiday resort off the face of the earth, killing staff and guests, web robots are still offering the ghost hotel on booking sites and giving it five star reviews.
What a species we humans are. The other primates must be so embarrassed.
@CiaraNi This is crazy, and yet not that surprising.
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@CiaraNi I agree with the diagnosis. And that’s exactly why the political centre now feels like the most radical position. The belief that small adjustments will be enough, and that we can avoid changing consumption, pace, and scale. That is a very extreme faith in the status quo.
@Flatus 'a very extreme faith in the status quo' - that's a great observation, and a phrase I will be borrowing, thanks.
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@CiaraNi This is crazy, and yet not that surprising.
@bodhipaksa Like so much today. I think we need a single word for the feeling 'Shocked, Not Surprised'.
This is going to stick in my mind's eye like an eyelash:
"Google Maps had hundreds of pictures, most of them being of the hotel while it was open, then very occasionally — like a sudden scene from a horror movie — there would be a picture of the mud avalanche that had destroyed everything."
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@CiaraNi I agree with the diagnosis. And that’s exactly why the political centre now feels like the most radical position. The belief that small adjustments will be enough, and that we can avoid changing consumption, pace, and scale. That is a very extreme faith in the status quo.
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@magsamond Thank you! Yes, we need some antidotes as we digest and deal with all this.
@CiaraNi some sort of compass to find out way back 🧭
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@CiaraNi I'm half way through Enshittification at the moment and got so depressed reading it I thought I would take a break and read some fiction instead.
I've just finished Small Things Like These (wow!).
So that plan didn't work.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58662236-small-things-like-these
@baoigheallain Ha no, Small Things Like These is a great book, but not exactly a comfort read.
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@CiaraNi some sort of compass to find out way back 🧭
@magsamond Yes indeed
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@gam3 so, two books I'd recommend:
"Dreaming in Code" is a great one. Not very recent but very good. And sad.
"A Philosophy of Software Design" is very readable and interesting.
Finally, it is not a great beach book, but for understanding the practice I think SWEBOK is great.
https://www.computer.org/education/bodies-of-knowledge/software-engineering
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Io in questa riforma non ho trovato assolutamente nulla che dia modo al governo di controllare i PM.
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@stefano give him linux server in a jail, and then, when "AI" vibe-breaks it, you just restore a snapshot
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Auto, T&E: “Il 2025 anno di svolta per prezzi e vendite delle elettriche. Un rischio allentare il target 2030”
@news
https://www.eunews.it/2026/03/12/auto-te-il-2025-anno-di-svolta-per-prezzi-e-vendite-delle-elettriche-un-rischio-allentare-il-target-2030/
Secondo il nuovo report di Transport & Environment, l’entrata in vigore dei limiti alle emissioni nel 2025 ha spinto i produttori a offrire modelli più economici. Ma l’eventuale flessibilità sui nuovi target previsti per il 2030
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Alright, here we are. The decline is accelerating.
An IT manager at a client company, someone capable I've been collaborating with for years, recently hired three new developers. However, he asked me for a Linux server instead of the usual FreeBSD because "that way the devs can move faster, AIs can't produce valid results for BSD systems".Given our relationship, I called him and told him I disagreed. Somewhat bitterly, he replied that these guys had been "imposed on him". They're polite and willing, but completely lacking any real programming principles. They are "experts in vibe coding", and for management that's more than enough.
In other words, we're not supposed to build a working and efficient server anymore, but a vibe-coding-friendly one.
My instinctive reaction was to ask him whether, when a data breach eventually happens, because sooner or later it will if the people writing the code neither write nor read code, they'll be able to tell the authorities that the data controller was an AI.
He didn't say anything else and thanked me. Maybe, and I stress maybe, management will understand that.
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@evan Ha!
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@gam3 25 real years, or mythical man years?
