Category: Words

was raised like that

“Self-assertion may deceive the ignorant for a time; but when the noise dies away, we cut open the drum, and find it was emptiness that made the music.” ― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Aurora Floyd

Taken from rntz.net with a grain of salt

Refuse to work on systems that profit from digital addictions.
Refuse to work on systems that centralize control of media.
Refuse to work on systems that prop up an unjust status quo.
Refuse to work on systems that require unsustainable tradeoffs.
Refuse to work on systems that weaponize the fabric of society.

Above all, refuse to work on systems that understand and manipulate people, but offer no affordance for their subjects to understand and manipulate them.

Work on something that matters, if only to you.
Work on something that helps people, even in small ways.
Work on making things understandable.

Once, software let us escape to virtual worlds, choose our own communities, and explore alternate realities. These days, for better or worse, software defines everyone’s reality. Let’s build one worth living in.

Fear, of course, is extremely relative. It depends on who can look down and who must look up. It depends on other vagaries, like the time, the mood, the darkness. But it’s been said before, with great validity, that the worst thing there is to fear is fear itself.