Langdon Winner

During Donald Trump's resurgence, a number of "conservatives" have committed themselves to an all out attack on the fundamentals of American democracy and its legal framework. Fortunately, a small group of conservative lawyers has announced its resistance nytimes.com/2023/11/21/opi…

Add this to your list of autonomous technologies. "The Next Fear on A.I.: Hollywood’s Killer Robots Become the Military’s Tools" -- NY Times nytimes.com/2023/05/05/us/…

Racism explained in 30 seconds youtube.com/shorts/9IB3Qu_…

The recent "final" version of the IPCC report on the climate disaster facing humanity has been greeted with the same "Ho Hum..." that has met its earlier dire warnings decades over several decades. "Oh, please don't interrupt our ongoing festival of production and consumption!"

I'm turning off my set. Join me!

The sad decline political news on cable TV now includes MSNBC. Its corporate managers are busily hiring as many Republicans and "former Republicans" as possible. Evidently they think this will "broaden" their coverage as they fire persons with even modest left leaning views.

@technopolitics Good point. I'd forgotten that prescient passage.

@langdonw Marx actually predicted and wrote about AI (in effect) in The Grundrisse, in the Fragment on Machines -

Faced with the extraordinary technological & social transformations of the middle 19th century, Karl Marx studied the situation carefully and proposed a forceful response for the workers affected. Alas, there is no equivalent thinker/advocate for the AI revolution we face today.

Most of the speculation about AI and its uses is sheer boosterism, sometimes with the obligatory faint words of caution.

Given its novel trajectories recently, the term "artificial intelligence" has become obsolete. Among the categories now under discussion are "artificial criminality," "artificial immorality," "artificial inhumanity"... theverge.com/2022/3/17/2298…

An Orwellian moment took shape as the Advance Placement course planners revised the AP African American Studies course plan. The word "systemic" was carefully removed from such topics as "oppression" and "racism." washingtonpost.com/education/inte…

In recognition of the tirades of Ron DeSantis, perhaps February should be re-named "Blackguard History Month."

In 1930s Germany, educators and publishers were forced to comply with Nazi edicts on what was permissible. Sad to see today's College Board yield to similar pressures from Florida's governor (with other right leaning states in line?) rollingstone.com/politics/polit…

Now that book banning and burning is coming into style on the American right, it's worth remembering its earlier origins.

COP(out)27: After nearly three decades of talk, the UN Conference of Parties on "Climate Change" refuses to call for deeper cuts in carbon emissions. pbs.org/newshour/world…

Basic principle of the US "justice" system: If you're rich & well connected, you get off (although it may take while). If you're poor & in socially troubled circumstances, your ass is going to jail--soon! nytimes.com/live/2022/11/1…

It appears that GOP campaign hysteria about US schools teaching about race and gender in the nation's history is losing steam. Learning about such matters does not involve "hating America," instead about learning the roots of key issues and conflicts in our society.

The rise of Christian Nationalism: from Jesus of Nazareth to Trump of Queens nytimes.com/2022/08/03/opi…

The Supreme Court's last year featured tawdry hack work leaving US law and institutions in wreckage. Here's Justice Roberts' delicate description of the mess cnn.com/2022/09/10/pol…