”Are you sitting uncomfortably?
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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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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
When you get to #TerryPrachett, I'll suggest Hogfather. They're all good, but that one gets quite deep.
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When you get to #TerryPrachett, I'll suggest Hogfather. They're all good, but that one gets quite deep.
@bytebro I read and reread them all the time, just always trying to make sure I have one unread one left. Agreed, Hogfather is great. I read it as a tradition every December.
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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 and in a dark corner of Arthur C Clarke's 2001 universe an ancient being of unimaginable power is going "See I told you we should have uplifted the damned bonobos instead"
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@CiaraNi and in a dark corner of Arthur C Clarke's 2001 universe an ancient being of unimaginable power is going "See I told you we should have uplifted the damned bonobos instead"
@etchedpixels Yes, and I don't doubt that the bonobos would have been the better choice
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Ottimo consiglio, grazie!
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