Hey look at this

* Fascism For First Time Founders https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/17/fascism-for-first-time-founders/

* Could AI slow science? https://www.aisnakeoil.com/p/could-ai-slow-science

* How One 1990s Browser Decision Created Big Tech’s Data Monopolies (And How We Might Finally Fix It) https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/16/how-one-1990s-browser-decision-created-big-techs-data-monopolies-and-how-we-might-finally-fix-it/

* Connecticut House Passes Landmark eBook Bill https://www.ebookstudygroup.org/connecticut_house_passes_landmark_ebook_bill (h/t Dan Gillmor)

* The INCOMM Scientology Keyboard / Cherry G80-1165HAU https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/1m1f0p6/the_incomm_scientology_keyboard_cherry_g801165hau/ (h/t Boing Boing)

4/

#15yrsago Winds howl over the deserted moonscape behind Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper paywalls https://web.archive.org/web/20100716212545/https://www.newser.com/off-the-grid/post/502/whats-really-going-on-behind-murdochs-paywall.html

#15yrsago Vatican: ordaining women is as bad as raping children from the pulpit https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/world/europe/16vatican.html?_r=1

#10yrsago Disney World after humanity’s demise https://www.deviantart.com/eledoremassis02/gallery/34539438/life-after-disney-photo-manipulation

#10yrsago UK schools’ “anti-radicalisation” software lets hackers spy on kids https://web.archive.org/web/20150714144952/https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/07/14/child-surveillance-vulnerability/

#5yrsago What's in Blueleaks https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/16/text-adventures-resurgent/#blueleaks

5/

#5yrsago Librarians' virtual escape rooms https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/16/text-adventures-resurgent/#escape-forms

#5yrsago EU court kills data-sharing deal with USA https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/16/text-adventures-resurgent/#nein

#1yrago Bowen McCurdy and Jordan Morris's "Youth Group" https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/16/satanic-panic/#the-dream-of-the-nineties

6/

Wednesday's threads: Ellen Ullman's "Close to the Machine."; and more!

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114863951080183031

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My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels

--

My next nonfiction book is "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," out from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux on October 7:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

8/

Upcoming appearances:

* #DC: Enshittification at Politics and Prose, Oct 8
https://politics-prose.com/cory-doctorow-10825

* #SanFrancisco: Enshittification at Public Works (The Booksmith), Oct 20
https://app.gopassage.com/events/doctorow25

* #NewOrleans: DeepSouthCon63, Oct 10-12, 2025
http://www.contraflowscifi.org/

* #SanFrancisco: Enshittification at Public Works (The Booksmith), Oct 20
https://app.gopassage.com/events/doctorow25

10/

Recent appearances:

* ORG at 20: In conversation with Maria Farrell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9H2An_D6io

* Why aren't we controlling our own tech? (Co-Op Congress)
https://www.youtube.com/live/GLrDwHgeCy4?si=NUWxPphk0FS_3g9J&t=4409

* If We Had a Choice, Would We Invent Social Media Again? (The Agenda/TVO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJw38uIcmEw

11/

You can follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!

Here's today's edition: https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/18/winning-is-easy/

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https://pluralistic.net/feed/

12/

Support me this summer in the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop! This summer, I'm writing "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux that explains how to be an effective AI critic:

https://clarionwriteathon.com/members/profile.php?writerid=293388

eof/