”Are you sitting uncomfortably?
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I read Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification recently. Now I’m reading Gerry McGovern’s 99 Days: 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.
"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."
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@Flatus Yes indeed. Well put.
@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.
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I read Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification recently. Now I’m reading Gerry McGovern’s 99 Days: 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 'Enshittification' is on my reading list for this year. I'll just need to ensure I follow it with something cheery!
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I read Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification recently. Now I’m reading Gerry McGovern’s 99 Days: 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.
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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 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.
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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 99 Days: 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 99 Days: 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.
