Christoph Becker

@cbecker@hci.social
958 Followers
1,001 Following
2.2K Posts
Professor of Information studying just sustainability in IT: design, software, requirements, values, power, responsibility. Critical Systems Thinker, #TechOtherwise, just sustainability design, #degrowth.

Book INSOLVENT: How to Reorient Computing for Just Sustainability @MIT Press 2023 https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/insolvent
#T1D #PHPledge #MaskUp 🍉

he/him
Dead bird @ChriBecker
Bookhttps://mitpress.mit.edu/books/insolvent
Personal websitehttps://christoph-becker.info/
Just Sustainability Design labjustsustainabilitydesign.org/
Keywordsjust sustainability design, social responsibility, ethics, values, politics, decision making, data curation, social aspects of software engineering

Looking for a creative outlet for your feelings around AI? Join us online at FAccT’25 on Monday for a CRAFT session to #SaveTheAI! We are hosting an interactive workshop about leveraging humour, satire, and art to facilitate and strengthen collective organizing around the environmental damages caused by #AI systems. #FAcct2025 #CRAFT

When: Monday, June 23, 10:30am-12:30pm EST

Where: Virtual (Zoom)

For more info and registration: https://justsustainabilitydesign.org/2025/06/05/craft-workshop-2025.html

FAccT CRAFT: Leveraging humour, satire, and art to engage with the environmental impacts of AI

Technologies for Just and Sustainable Communities.

The program is up for #limits2025 - come join us next week for a planetary discussion on (rethinking) computing within planetary boundaries. Join from wherever you are or at one of the 14 hubs across the world. Please register (free).

https://computingwithinlimits.org/2025/
#ComputingWithinLimits #PlanetaryBoundaries

LIMITS 2025 -- Workshop on Computing within Limits

Time for a new #introduction! I'm a critical data/tech studies researcher focusing on human rights, equalities and non-discrimination (especially related to gender and sexuality). I just moved to Seattle for my partner's work, so I'm interested in hearing about cool events/talks/meetups in the area!

The program is up for #limits2025 - come join us next week for a planetary discussion on (rethinking) computing within planetary boundaries. Join from wherever you are or at one of the 14 hubs across the world. Please register (free).

https://computingwithinlimits.org/2025/
#ComputingWithinLimits #PlanetaryBoundaries

LIMITS 2025 -- Workshop on Computing within Limits

Want to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer? Heart Disease? Diabetes? Dementia? And More? Here's How. - WHN

What if simple changes could significantly reduce your risk for serious illnesses, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, dementia, and more? We all want to protect our health: eat better, move more, quit smoking, manage stress, and keep up with medical screenings. But what if one of the most powerful things you could do to … Continued

WHN

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/18/whatsapp-ai-helper-mistakenly-shares-users-number

“It was the beginning of a bizarre exchange of the kind more and more people are having with AI systems, in which chatbots try to negotiate their way out of trouble, deflect attention from their mistakes and contradict themselves, all in an attempt to continue to appear useful.”

But NO. No. Absolutely not. None of these intentions. The bots generate the most likely text to follow. That text looks like deflection and negotiation because that’s what happens in such texts.

‘It’s terrifying’: WhatsApp AI helper mistakenly shares user’s number

Chatbot tries to change subject after serving up unrelated user’s mobile to man asking for rail firm helpline

The Guardian

"But this ecological controversy is an example of how the demand for the metals needed to power battery technology - for electric cars and other low carbon energy sources - can damage the environment.

Indonesia now accounts for more than half of the world's nickel mine production...And while the beauty and biodiversity of the Raja Ampat has drawn attention to mining activity there, mining has been linked to ecological damage elsewhere too."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0k36v50zvro

#PublicHealth #environment

How a race for electric vehicles threatens a marine paradise

Photographs appear to show how nickel mining damaged one the world's most diverse marine environments

Are you a journalist who needs advice for how to prepare your electronic devices for travel across the US border?

EFF and Freedom of the Press have you covered: https://freedom.press/digisec/blog/border-security/

Preparing devices for travel through a US border

US border searches of electronic devices put journalists’ work at risk. But there’s a lot you can do to be prepared

Freedom of the Press
In a dangerous era for journalism – a powerful new tool to help protect sources

Today, the Guardian, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, launches Secure Messaging, a world-first from a media organisation

The Guardian