Not to be to be a vulgar materialist or be too reductive, but all of that was completely absent from the conversation. Instead we were told it was a "revolutionary" moment, where these new tools would inevitably displace the old… — Astra Taylor Copy Share Image
A big factor is that the enthusiast camp's values are really rooted in Silicon Valley and in these supposedly new business models. But again, I think this such an interesting moment because things like the NSA revelations are really forcing… — Astra Taylor Copy Share Image
One connection I see between the work I did on philosophy and my work on technology is that both communities tend to mystify and… — Astra Taylor Copy Share Image
“wealth and power are shifting to those who control the platforms on which all of us create, consume, and connect. The companies that provide these and related services are quickly becoming the Disneys of the digital world—monoliths hungry for quarterly profits, answerable to their shareholders not us, their users, and more influential, more ubiquitous, and more insinuated into the fabric… — Astra Taylor Copy Share
It's very complicated. There's been this broader mechanism, an industry, which wants people to use free services, from the old days of advertising-supported papers… — Astra Taylor Copy Share Image
“Though it’s hard to believe now, newspapers were once the envy of the business world. Through the eighties and nineties, 20, 30, even 40 percent returns on investment were not uncommon, triple the norm for U.S. industry over the same period. Dollar signs in their eyes, chains devoured up local papers, consolidating and centralizing to maximize shareholder value, sometimes purchasing… — Astra Taylor Copy Share
Those who applaud social production and networked amateurism, the colorful cacophony that is the Internet, and the creative capacities of everyday people to produce entertaining and enlightening things online, are right to marvel. There is amazing inventiveness, boundless talent and ability, and overwhelming generosity on display. Where they go wrong is thinking that the Internet is an egalitarian, let alone… — Astra Taylor Copy Share
“The rub is that over the intervening years we have somehow deceived ourselves into believing that this state of insecurity and inequity is a… — Astra Taylor Copy Share Image
There's something odd about telling people, artists, that they need to work for free to be pure while you're sitting there getting a salary… — Astra Taylor Copy Share Image
“Instead of distinct old and new media, what we have is a complex cultural ecosystem that spans the analog and digital, encompassing physical places… — Astra Taylor Copy Share Image
Art and culture are nonetheless vital, essential even, to what it means to be human, yet digital abundance has diminished our sense of their… — Astra Taylor Copy Share Image
First we need to rethink the terms and recognize that we've imported this language from the technocratic class, from Silicon Valley, that talks about… — Astra Taylor Copy Share Image
I'd go to conference after conference and it would essentially be the talking points. Either pro or con. It's amazing how polarized the tech conversation is. There's also this neurological fixation, the incessant wondering what the Internet's doing to our brain: "Does it make us stupid, does it make us distracted?" And then the other guys say, "No, it's making… — Astra Taylor Copy Share
We've been criticizing these superficial aspects, like whether we are all more distracted. We really need to articulate a defense, a critique, that merges… — Astra Taylor Copy Share Image
