Cory Doctorow's Blog, page 45

Net Neutrality is only complicated because monopolists are paying to introduce doubt

My op-ed in New Internationalist,
‘Don’t break the 21st century nervous system’, seeks to cut through the needless complexity in the Net Neutrality debate, which is as clear-cut as climate change or the link between smoking and cancer — and, like those subjects, the complexity is only there because someone paid to introduce it.

When you want to access my web page, you ask your internet service provider to send some data to my ISP, who passes it on to my server, which passes some data bac...

Hey, Kitchener-Waterloo, I’m headed your way next Monday!

I was honoured to be invited to address the University of Waterloo on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cheriton School of Computer Science; my father is a proud Waterloo grad (and I’m a proud Waterloo dropout!), and so this is indeed a very special opportunity for me.

Moreover, the kind folks at U Waterloo worked with the Kitchener Public Library to book a second event that morning, at the 85 Queen branch.

Both events are free, but they’re ticketed, so book now!

Here’s detai...

How to get a signed, personalized copy of any of my books, shipped anywhere in the world!

The kind folks at Dark Delicacies, my local specialist horror bookstore here in beautiful Burbank, California have volunteered to fill orders for my novels; since they’re walking distance from my front door, I’ll be popping in there a couple of times every week between now and Xmas to sign and inscribe any orders you place; they make fabulous gifts and also excellent firelighters! Call them at +1-818-556-6660, or email darkdel@darkdel.com.

The Fight for a Free, Fair and Open Internet | Bioneers 2017

According to journalist, blogger, “creative commons” advocate, Electronic Frontier Foundation Fellow, and award-winning science fiction author Cory Doctorow, the fight for a free, fair and open Internet isn’t the most important fight on the planet, but you can’t win any of the other major battles without it. Although the Net is the nervous system of the 21st century, so far we have misunderstood and mismanaged it and made it susceptible to capture by the powerful and corrupt. Cory will share...

How I lifehacked my way into a corner

My latest Locus column is “How to Do Everything (Lifehacking Considered Harmful),” the story of how I was present at the birth of “lifehacking” and how, by diligently applying the precept that I should always actively choose how I prioritize my time, I have painted my way into a (generally pleasant) corner that I can’t escape from.

Call it the paradox of mindful choosing: after 14 years of throwing away the things that do the least for me and preserving those things that do the most for me...

Londoners! I’ll be speaking at Waterstones Gower Street with Ada Palmer on Nov 8

By a very happy coincidence, Ada Palmer and I are both passing through London on November 8 and we’re doing a joint event at the Waterstones in Gower Street, starting at 6:30! The tickets (which include wine) are £6/£4 for students; you can book them here.

Talking Walkaway on the CNet book-club podcast

CNet has started a new book-club podcast, and they honored me by picking my novel Walkaway as their second-ever title.

We had a long and far-ranging discussion last week about the book and the themes it raises: disasters, economics, technological immortality, community, trolling, bohemianism, and much more (MP3).

Since a big part of “Walkaway” concerns ideas of artificial intelligence and the line between humans and machines (which becomes more blurred as the book progresses), Scott...

My adult novels are being reissued with covers to match Walkaway!

When I first saw Will Stahle‘s cover art for my novel Walkaway, I was pleased beyond all reason (and not least because I am an unabashed Stahle fanboy, as he is behind some of the greatest covers of our era, from Yiddish Policeman’s Union to Autonomous to A Darker Shade of Magic to All the Birds in the Sky).

Then, incredibly, it got even better. My publisher told me they were going to reissue my adult backlist in matching livery to coincide with the Walkaway paperback, with Stahle covers f...

Boring, complex and important: the deadly mix that blew up the open web

On Monday, the World Wide Web Consortium published EME, a standard for locking up video on the web with DRM, allowing large corporate members to proceed without taking any steps to protect accessibility work, security research, archiving or innovation.

I spent years working to get people to pay attention to the ramifications of the effort, but was stymied by the deadly combination of an issue that was super-technical and complicated, as well as kind of boring (standards-making is a slow-mo...

Our technology is haunted by demons controlled by transhuman life-forms

In my latest Locus column, “Demon-Haunted World,” I propose that the Internet of Cheating Things — gadgets that try to trick us into arranging our affairs to the benefit of corporate shareholders, to our own detriment — is bringing us back to the Dark Ages, when alchemists believed that the universe rearranged itself to prevent them from knowing the divine secrets of its workings.

From Dieselgate to Wannacry to HP’s sleazy printer ink chicanery, we are increasingly colonized by demon-haunte...