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Seeing like a software company
The big idea of James C. Scott’s Seeing Like A State can be expressed in three points: Modern organizations exert control by maximising “legibility”: by…
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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 992 posts.
242
EPA Seeks to Eliminate Critical PFAS Drinking Water Protections
The move continues to expose communities across the country to toxic forever chemicals in tap water
243
The Tyranny of Structurelessness (1970)
The Tyranny of Stuctureless by Jo Freeman
244
Meta accessed women's health data from Flo app without consent, says court
A jury has ruled that Meta accessed sensitive information from women's reproductive health tracking app Flo without consent.
245
It's easier than ever to de-censor videos
Last month I asked people to hack part of my YouTube video, specifically to de-pixelate the contents of a folder I had pixelated starting at the 4:57 mark. Your browser does not support the video tag. For years, people have used the censor tool to blur or pixelate out parts of videos where there's sensitive…
246
Free software hasn't won
This is a translated version of a talk I gave at P.I.W.O in June, with cleanups and adjustments for the blog form.
247
Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose
A new study from South Dakota State University reveals how grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that is stronger than traditional plastic and will decompose in the environment in a relatively short amount of time.
248
Questions censored by DeepSeek
Analysis of DeepSeek-R1 censorship using 1,156 political prompts exposing CCP content filtering and bias detection patterns
249
Ring introducing new feature to allow police to live-stream access to cameras
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff is back at the helm of the surveillance doorbell company, and with him is the surveillance-first-privacy-last approach that made Ring one of the most maligned tech devices. Not only is the company reintroducing new versions of old features which would allow police to...
250
What is going on right now?
What the hell is going on right now?
251
Facts don't change minds, structure does
Why do facts bounce off some people? It’s not about logic; it’s about structure. Your worldview isn’t a list of opinions—it's a living network. And right now, it's at war.
252
NCSC, GCHQ, UK Gov't expunge advice to “use Apple encryption”
This is some really embarrassing timing on the Home Office’s (HO’s) part: a few weeks ago when news first broke of the HO’s demand for a backdoor in Apple ADP, I pointed out to MP…
253
EFF launches Age Verification Hub
With ill-advised and dangerous age verification laws proliferating across the United States and around the world, creating surveillance and censorship regimes that will be used to harm both youth and adults, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched a new resource hub that will sort through the mess and help…
254
Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?
I have my suspicions
255
YouTube is a mysterious monopoly
Yesterday I saw this Bluesky post from Adrian Black. He runs Adrian’s Digital Basement, a retro computer repair channel I really enjoy. In the post, he points out a trend I didn’t know about: YouTube views seem to have fallen off a cliff recently.
256
Knowledge-based society, my ass
I've studied the effects of electromagnetic fields on patients with carotid stent implants during my PhD. I've never talked with any patient nor seen any such medical devices even to this day, fifteen years later.
257
Getting a Cease and Desist from Waffle House
I reverse-engineered Waffle House's website to build a live version of the (unofficial) Waffle House Index, and got a cease and desist for it.
258
This map is not upside down
While conventional and commonplace today, maps have not always had north at the top. And they don't need to.
259
The realities of being a pop star
According to my experience...
260
Will Smith's concert crowds are real, but AI is blurring the lines
Will Smith is being accused of generating fake fans with AI, but it's complicated: the crowds are real, but the videos were manipulated by Smith's team and YouTube itself.
261
1910: The year the modern world lost its mind
What one of my favorite history books about my favorite historical period—turn-of-the-century American—tells us about technology, anxiety, and human nature
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Random selection is necessary to create stable meritocratic institutions
Why random selection is necessary to create stable meritocratic institutions
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Let's Ban Billboards
Most improvements to cities are hard — they take millions of dollars and years of planning.
266
If nothing is curated, how do we find things
Bjork is currently promoting a new concert film being released called Cornucopia. She's been releasing new photoshoots and interviews almost every day for th...
267
Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%
Loneliness increases death risk by 32% but we know how to fix it. Real solutions that cut loneliness in half, from mindfulness to community…
268
In Praise of RSS and Controlled Feeds of Information
The way we consume content on the internet is increasingly driven by walled-garden platforms and black-box feed algorithms. This shift is making our media diets miserable. Ironically, a solution to the problem predates algorithmic feeds, social media and other forms of informational junk food. It is called RSS (Really…
269
Mastodon announces new European non-profit, change of CEO
It is more important than ever that the social web is not controlled by corporations. Today, Mastodon is taking another step towards its founding ideals: independence and non-profit ownership. We're transferring ownership of key assets to a new European not-for-profit entity, ensuring our mission remains true to a…
270
Flock's gunshot detection microphones will start listening for human voices
Flock Safety, the police technology company most notable for their extensive network of automated license plate readers spread throughout the United States, is rolling out a new and troubling product that may create headaches for the cities that adopt it: detection of “human distress” via audio. As...