ceargaest

ceɑꞃᵹæꞅꞇ

@ceargaest

[tʃæɑ̯rˠɣæːst]

linguist & software engineer in Lenapehoking; jewish ancom trans woman.

since twitter's burning gonna try bringing my posts about language stuff and losing my shit over star wars and such here - hi!

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ceargaest
@ceargaest
PositronicWoman
@PositronicWoman
austin
@austin
narinarinari
@narinarinari asked:

You mentioned materialism on AMCA recently -- it was either the Acolyte episode or the Steps into Shadow episode, I think -- around the idea that technology can't be inherently neutral, that its nature as an artifact puts a kind of pressure on the people who use it that influences the ways it can be used. Sorry -- I know I'm butchering what you said, but I'm catastrophically stoned. But I'm wondering if there's there a book you like where I could read more?

This really could be an entire course, but the classic short-read starting place is Langdon Winner's "Do Artifacts Have Politics". From there, I'd recommend a collection, something like Does Technology Drive History? The Dilemma of Technological Determinism, which will give you enough perspectives and bibliographies to start tracing out the broader discourse.

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Scampir
@Scampir

I loved reading Do Artifacts Have Politics when a friend passed it along to me a few years ago. The idea that plutonium is so dangerous that a nuclear reactor would necessitate authoritarian control was so good. I remember talking about it for an hour with them to get a grasp on that idea.

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Xuelder
@Xuelder

God I would love to see how ROT 13 SPOILERS FOR ACOLYTE 5&6 gur Wrqv vaureragyl frr pbegbfvf, gur bayl fhofgnapr gung pna abg bayl oybpx yvtugfnoref, ohg nyfb arhgenyvmr gurz nf jryy. N ybg bs bgure snpgvbaf jbhyq frr vg nf gur terng rdhnyvmre, juvyr Wrqv zvtug frr vg nf n phefrq bowrpg bs gur qnex fvqr rira vs n Wrqv pbhyq rnfvyl hfr vg ntnvafg n Fvgu va erfcbafr.

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aaaronbek
@aaaronbek

You may also be interested in Michael Sacasas’s newsletter The Convivial Society on technology and culture, which takes as axiomatic that the material substrate of our lives has particular consequences for the substance of our social worlds and subjectivity. I won’t claim Sacasas has the same worldview as Austin as he’s a committed Christian, but that rarely shows up explicitly in his writing, and he’s a surprisingly thoroughgoing materialist.

https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/

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Dan-Nugent
@Dan-Nugent

I think there might be a distinction between technology and engineering that is important to note. As in, all artifacts are the result of engineering effort, but technology can exist quite independently of implementation.

For example, we have all the technology to build a Project Orion spacecraft. But the engineering required, though it might be physically possible, is constrained by the reality of our society.

I know it’s a fine hair to split, but it’s not that uncommon for technology to be a part of reality well before it can actually be made real, if it can ever be made real.

The way that technologies that have not yet been engineered affect society is what’s really mind boggling.

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