Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: Born on technology's third base; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/08/21/world-historic-forces/
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Born on technology's third base: Material forces shape life-chances.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/117136533182049636
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Hey look at this
* Does copyright protect your AI-generated content in Europe? Let’s find out https://euobserver.com/232898/interview-does-copyright-protect-your-ai-generated-content-in-europe-lets-find-out/
* FTC Says It Will Enforce Surveillance Pricing. It Won’t. https://prospect.org/2026/08/21/ftc-says-it-will-enforce-surveillance-pricing-it-wont/
* Why shaming people about AI slop isn’t enough to stop Big AI https://www.anildash.com/2026/08/21/ai-slop-and-shame/
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#25yrsago Glue anything to anything https://www.thistothat.com/
#20yrsago No unions in iPod City https://web.archive.org/web/20061123003816/https://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71629-0.html?tw=wn_index_2
#15yrsago Credit scores are bullshit https://web.archive.org/web/20111013005626/https://a.wholelottanothing.org/2011/08/credit-scores-are-bullshit.html
#15yrsago RIP, Jack Layton https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-14618943
#15yrsago William Gibson on cities and the future https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gibson-interview-cities-in-fact-and-fiction/
#10yrsago Bronx cops can steal anything they want by calling it “evidence” https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/08/how-police-use-a-legal-gray-area-to-rob-suspects-of-their-belongings/495740/
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#10yrsago Robert Moses wove enduring racism into New York’s urban fabric https://web.archive.org/web/20160402184527/http://www.hopesandfears.com/hopes/now/politics/216905-the-lingering-effects-of-nyc-racist-city-planning
#10yrsago EFF takes a deep dive into Windows 10’s brutal privacy breaches https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/08/windows-10-microsoft-blatantly-disregards-user-choice-and-privacy-deep-dive
#10yrsago Inside the “sweatshop” terminally ill Britons must call to get benefits https://web.archive.org/web/20160820094907/https://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2016/aug/20/work-pensions-disability-claim-call-handler-benefits-dwp
#10yrsago How the New York Public Library made ebooks open, and thus one trillion times better https://www.crummy.com/writing/speaking/2015-RESTFest/
#5yrsago Raiders of the lost ARC https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/22/raiders-of-the-lost-arc/
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Yesterday's threads: The actual epistemic crisis; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/117130550369417613
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My latest nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling"The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI," from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/
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My previous nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It":
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
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My ebooks and audiobooks (from FSGxMCD, Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."
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Upcoming appearances:
* #Sydney: The Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Aug 23-24
https://festivalofdangerousideas.com/program/
* #Melbourne: Enshittification at the Wheeler Centre, Aug 25
https://www.wheelercentre.com/events-tickets/season-2026/cory-doctorow-enshittification
* #London: AI and the Enshittification of the Media, NUJ (Sep 2)
https://www.nuj.org.uk/learn/ems-event-calendar/ai-and-the-enshitification-of-the-media.html
* #Brighton: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Carole Cadwalladr (Brighton Dome), Sep 8
https://brightondome.org/whats-on/LSC-cory-doctorow-the-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai/
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