@Vincarsi Transmutarianism presentation by sev geraskin of Economy of Wisdom at #FediCollective this Sunday.
Joined by a dev from Ottawa and a drafter from the island. Photo by April! #TechPhilosophy #EthicalTech

Shipped out the first two rehabilitated Thinkpads this morning. These have SSD drives, upgraded RAM and are running Linux Mint instead of the usual bloatware/spyware. Light and lean. Yay for repairability. 🛠️

If there's someone in your life that needs decent laptop for general use, let me know. I will refresh and ship one at no charge. (Donations are welcome, to cover the cost of shipping.)

More info at the top of this thread.

#SolarPunk #RightToRepair #Linux #EthicalTech #reuse #EthicalTech

Shipped out the first two rehabilitated Thinkpads this morning. These have SSD drives, upgraded RAM and are running Linux Mint instead of the usual bloatware/spyware. Light and lean. Yay for repairability. 🛠️

If there's someone in your life that needs decent laptop for general use, let me know. I will refresh and ship one at no charge. (Donations are welcome, to cover the cost of shipping.)

More info at the top of this thread.

#SolarPunk #RightToRepair #Linux #EthicalTech #reuse #EthicalTech

#TIL about #MOBIFREE;

"The Freedom in Human-centred and Ethical Mobile Software (MOBIFREE) project works to give European citizens and organizations more choice in, and access to, human-centred and ethical mobile software."

https://mobifree.org/#how-it-works

#HatTip to the @fdroidorg folks who are a partner in this project, and referenced it in their retrospective on 2025;

https://f-droid.org/en/2026/01/23/fdroid-in-2025-strengthening-our-foundations-in-a-changing-mobile-landscape.html

#EU #EthicalTech #MobileComputing

⏰ There’s never been a better time than now to say goodbye to Big Tech.

Thanks to  @Tutanota for this great article featuring us and our partners Fairphone, SHIFT & Volla.

Let’s make privacy and sustainability the new normal. 🌱

👉 https://tuta.com/blog/degoogled-phones

#EthicalTech #deGoogle #EUTech @e_mydata

⏰ There’s never been a better time than now to say goodbye to Big Tech.

Thanks to  @Tutanota for this great article featuring us and our partners Fairphone, SHIFT & Volla.

Let’s make privacy and sustainability the new normal. 🌱

👉 https://tuta.com/blog/degoogled-phones

#EthicalTech #deGoogle #EUTech @e_mydata

Hello #Fediverse! 👋

I’m currently working on a new project: cupertino.social - a future home for the Apple community here on the decentralized web.

I’m building this because I believe we need a space that combines the elegance of the Apple ecosystem with the ethical soul of the Fediverse. A place for those who love the "Unix heart" of their devices and value privacy as a fundamental right.

We are currently "under construction," fine-tuning the infrastructure (strictly European-hosted and independent!) to ensure a smooth, clean, and respectful experience.

Stay tuned for the official launch post soon. I can’t wait to share this journey with you all.

#Introduction #Apple #Privacy #Tech #Mastodon #NewInstance #Unix #EthicalTech

🥰 Everybody loves the Murena Fairphone (Gen. 6)!

That’s why we’re making access even easier: Its price is now permanently reduced to $749 in the USA and to €599 in Europe.

Ethical hardware goes hand in hand with ethical software.

👉 https://murena.com/products/smartphones/
🇺🇲 https://murena.com/america/products/smartphones/

#FP6 #Privacy #EthicalTech #Pricedrop

I started putting my thoughts together on why I don't use AI. It will take time to write it all out, it feels like an essay. I could probably come up with a hundred reasons, but I am currently at eight just off the top of my head.

I want to share one that no one talks about.

Big tech companies are using cheap labor in the global south to filter the human trauma on the internet in order to train LLM models. People in countries like Kenya, India, and the Philippines spend 9+ hours per day viewing the most horrific content imaginable (violence, abuse, hate speech, etc) at $1.50/hr. They are literally using the minds of people in precarious economic situations as a filter to protect the sensibilities of the wealthy. They claim it is opportunity when it is actually predatory.

The next time you ask an "ai" to summarize a 450 word article for you, think about the human filter required to make that answer safe. You are not just saving time, you are benefiting from a predatory labor practice that pays pennies to protect your sensibilities.

Further reading:

https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/28/scale-ai-remotasks-philippines-artificial-intelligence/

#NoAI #NoAI #EthicalTech #LaborRights #HumanRights #FOSS #OpenAI #ChatGPT #Google #Gemini

I started putting my thoughts together on why I don't use AI. It will take time to write it all out, it feels like an essay. I could probably come up with a hundred reasons, but I am currently at eight just off the top of my head.

I want to share one that no one talks about.

Big tech companies are using cheap labor in the global south to filter the human trauma on the internet in order to train LLM models. People in countries like Kenya, India, and the Philippines spend 9+ hours per day viewing the most horrific content imaginable (violence, abuse, hate speech, etc) at $1.50/hr. They are literally using the minds of people in precarious economic situations as a filter to protect the sensibilities of the wealthy. They claim it is opportunity when it is actually predatory.

The next time you ask an "ai" to summarize a 450 word article for you, think about the human filter required to make that answer safe. You are not just saving time, you are benefiting from a predatory labor practice that pays pennies to protect your sensibilities.

Further reading:

https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/28/scale-ai-remotasks-philippines-artificial-intelligence/

#NoAI #NoAI #EthicalTech #LaborRights #HumanRights #FOSS #OpenAI #ChatGPT #Google #Gemini

Quoting Yarn Spinner: “AI companies make tools for hurting people and we don’t want to support that.”

The team behind Yarn Spinner (also known for authoring books on machine learning) have stopped using #AI entirely. Not because they don’t understand it, but because they do. They watched the industry pivot from interesting technical problems to one clear goal: firing people or extracting more work without hiring anyone to help.

Every time you adopt these tools, you financially support companies whose business model is workforce reduction during a time when unemployment can be life-threatening.

The question isn’t whether AI is technically impressive. It’s whether the companies making it deserve our money and support while they’re actively working to eliminate jobs. Yarn Spinner decided they don’t.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

https://yarnspinner.dev/blog/why-we-dont-use-ai/

#YarnSpinner #WorkersRights #EthicalTech

Quoting Yarn Spinner: “AI companies make tools for hurting people and we don’t want to support that.”

The team behind Yarn Spinner (also known for authoring books on machine learning) have stopped using #AI entirely. Not because they don’t understand it, but because they do. They watched the industry pivot from interesting technical problems to one clear goal: firing people or extracting more work without hiring anyone to help.

Every time you adopt these tools, you financially support companies whose business model is workforce reduction during a time when unemployment can be life-threatening.

The question isn’t whether AI is technically impressive. It’s whether the companies making it deserve our money and support while they’re actively working to eliminate jobs. Yarn Spinner decided they don’t.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

https://yarnspinner.dev/blog/why-we-dont-use-ai/

#YarnSpinner #WorkersRights #EthicalTech