Christoph BeckerJun 6, 2023
🔔 Today is #PublicationDay for my #InsolventBook so here is a 🧵! Insolvent is the story of how #computing got stuck in its way of thinking, how a group of fields I call its critical friends can help it get unstuck, and how that would help it play a more genuinely helpful role in the quest of our societies to become more sustainable and more just. The book is for everyone who cares about #sustainability, #SocialJustice, #Technology, and #Design. #OpenAccess
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/insolvent
Insolvent

How we can enact meaningful change in computing to meet the urgent need for sustainability and justice.The deep entanglement of information technology with o...

MIT Press
Show threadChristoph Becker
#Sustainability and justice urge us to change the direction of computing. #InsolventBook argues that the hegemonic mainstream of #computing is incapable of doing that. It is insolvent: unable to pay the debts owed to the planet and its societies. It is stuck in ill-conceived assumptions (myths) about the nature of problems, the workings of the human mind, and the politics of technology.
Jun 6, 2023 at 3:38pmWeb
Show threadChristoph BeckerJun 6, 2023
The #myths of computing are deep stories about the nature of problems, the workings of the human mind, and the politics of technology. They mislead us and distort what we can talk about when we talk about the role of computing in sustainability and justice.
Show threadChristoph BeckerJun 6, 2023
#Computing isn't neutral. But its mythology evacuates history and politics from design and creates an illusion of a calm cockpit from which technology is steered to a better future, one solved problem at a time. This illusion hides the collateral suffering it produces. The debts of computing are mounting, but computing has gotten away with externalizing them.
Show threadChristoph BeckerJun 6, 2023
The 'critical friends' of computing - fields like #feminist #STS, critical #SystemsThinking and others - critique because they care. (So do I!) That's uncomfortable. Uncomfortable is good! That's a start for a new, better, ecologized #computing. With the #CriticalFriends, INSOLVENT develops a vision for #JustSustainabilityDesign. For those in tech, it can help them orient their work; for those adjacent, it offers insights into how tech reasons and ways to build critical friendships with tech.
Show threadChristoph BeckerJun 6, 2023
Mark Coeckelbergh wrote about #InsolventBook: "Insolvent hits the nail on the head. Timely, uncomfortable, and pointing in the right direction, Becker's book is compulsory reading for engineers, designers, and everyone interested in thinking about technology." 🙏🏻
Show threadChristoph BeckerJun 6, 2023
@amyjko wrote about #InsolventBook: "In a forceful and epically transdisciplinary critique, Becker deconstructs the rationalist, objectivist myths that undergird computing culture, demonstrating how they stand in the way of progress, sustainability, and justice." 🙏🏻
Show threadChristoph BeckerJun 6, 2023
Andrew Feenberg wrote about #InsolventBook: “Offering an alternative perspective to the intellectual practices shaping computing, Insolvent marks a watershed in the growing literature on the world created by computer technology.” 🙏🏻
Show threadChristoph BeckerJun 6, 2023
And Bonnie Nardi wrote about #InsolventBook "Becker provides rich ideas for reframing computing as an expression of the current political economy rather than a neutral set of tools.” 🙏🏻
Show threadChristoph BeckerJun 6, 2023
#InsolventBook is #OpenAccess (the link at https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/insolvent should go online today) but please consider getting a copy from your local bookstore - it's meant to be read! - and suggest it to your library ;)
Insolvent

How we can enact meaningful change in computing to meet the urgent need for sustainability and justice.The deep entanglement of information technology with o...

MIT Press
Show threadChristoph BeckerJun 6, 2023
If you're in the United States, PUBDAY30 gets you a 30% discount on #InsolventBook but only today: https://mitpress.mit.edu/discount-codes/
Discount codes

MIT Press - Discount codes

MIT Press
Show threadChristoph BeckerJun 6, 2023
The #OpenAccess edition for #InsolventBook is now online! Find it at https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/14668.003.0021
A Silicone Ring: Social Responsibility and Collective Action

MIT Press
Show threadSasha AkhaviJun 6, 2023
@cbecker Congratulations! Putting it on my comps list as we speak.
Show threadK.J. ElphinstoneAug 15, 2023

@cbecker

That's a great idea - to suggest it to my library. I've got a bunch of donations to bring to them. Thanks 😊

Show threadK.J. ElphinstoneAug 15, 2023

@cbecker

@cbecker

Yes! I read Algorithms of Oppression and loved it. Your book sounds great. I will try to get a copy. Truly important stuff.

Not an audiobook yet I imagine?