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AGAINST_PEPI_FORMS

                                             August 12, 2025


Starting over again, reading a little
more carefully (not that it helps much):

   _Against Platforms_ (2025)                AGAINST_PLATFORMS
   by Mike Pepi

   subtitle:
   "Surviving Digital Utopia"


    "Critics have been clear to point out that the problems with
    Silicon Valley's expanded view, revealing the ways in which the
    hidden cost of the platforms were off-loaded onto social
    institutions. As Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen put it,
    they 'sold us democracy, but we got dictatorship.'  But this
    strategy of tech critique has run it course.  Meta, Amazon, Uber,
    and their ilk have accelerated the more nefarious natures of
    postindustrial capitalism, damaging our institutions, our minds,
    our economy, and the planet.  Yet the critique is too narrow.
    It's not enough to say that five or six massive technology
    platforms must be dismantled, weakened, or demonized.  And it's
    not enough to say that technology alone-- the actual tools and
    their functions-- are the enemy."  p.32

You may be wondering what is enough, and
Pepi's answer-- at this stage of the book--
is that we need to challenge the underlying
philosophy and attitudes of much of the tech
world's "evangelism".

Pepi complains about

   techno-determinism
   techno-fixation
   techno-utopianim
   techno-music
                           (Oh, wait, he
                            forgot that one.)       Oddly, he objects even to
                                                    techno-critique, though at
                                                    least he conceeds that some
                                                    techno-techno might be okay.




   "How do these successive waves of
   utopian hype continue to happen despite
   their limited real-world traction?
   First it was virtual reality, then
   social media platforms, the sharing           One might object that
   economy, the metaverse, blockchain, and       virtual reality wasn't
   as of this writing.  AI-- the hype cycle      really the first fad,
   is unceasing.  They are agnostic to the       and Pepi has skipped
   technology itself, as evidenced by the        a number of them that
   alacrity with which boosters change out       probably happened
   their momentary obessions-- one quarter       before he was born.
   it's Web 3.0, the next it's AI."  p. 33
                                                       Whenever I talk about
                                                       the weirdly faddish
       But yeah, preach it.                            nature of the tech
                                                       world, programmers who
       I'm somewhat baffled that people                aren't too much younger
       don't seem to notice this cycle...              than me tend to say
       but maybe that impression is just               "Remember XML?"
       the studied ignorance of the
       business press and the other
       industry shills.


   "When you point out the flaws of digital
   utopianism you will be givine a common
   retort: 'So what's your plan?'" p. 35

      Well, yeah, from me too.  When you're
      stating the obvious point that things
      suck, we might be forgiven about being
      curious about recommended courses of
      action-- or even just a discussion of
      possible courses of action.


   "Utopian political thinking is so moribund
   precisely because it disallows critique to
   gain traction.  Is sees the world in
   black-and-white-- progress and blockers."  p. 35

      A problem with True Believers, to be sure:
      You're either with us or against us; Part
      of the solution, or part of the problem.


      Nevertheless, I remain interested in solutions,
      and the possibility of some sort of progress.


   "We need not demand perfection in demanding
   institutional reforms.  Digital utoptians         Everything sucks and
   focus on the current rot as a reason to           nothing sucks worse than
   rebuild from scratch and aim for perfection.      people who think they can
   The weakness of utopians is that they don't       make it not suck.
   want to do the hard work of figuring out the
   problems right in front of them."

       And since the author is not one of
       these utopian extermist types, we          Really, if I'm reading
       can look forward to some hard work         him right, he concludes
       and problems figured.                      with something like
                                                  "capitalism sucks, so
                                                  we need the government
                                                  to run everyting."

                                                      We need to nationalize
                                                      the means of social
                                                      mediation.  Or something.




  This chapter concludes:

  "At the moment in which an ideology threatens
  to settle into normalization, the most
  powerful resistance is a criticism that
  brings its contradictions into the light.         And so okay, maybe
  The only technology that can unseat the pace      some techno-critique
  of digital utopianism is language itself."        is okay-- a few pages
  p. 36                                             ago I thought it was
                                                    "not enough".  I guess
     One would imagine that someone                 the idea is those
     writing a book thinks words can                *other* critiques are
     do something useful.                           not enough, but this one
                                                    is the real deal.
        Myself, I'm still holding out
        hopes for improvements in our
        literary technology.


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