Author: Nathan
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The Beautiful Solutions toolbox is now online
You might remember that I co-edited a book, Beautiful Solutions, that tells stories of solidarity economies around the world. Well, now it is A FREE, ONLINE TOOLBOX, thanks to the good folks at Beautiful Trouble: https://beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/bsol Use this, share this, teach with this. I have long used BT’s website in my classes, and I love…
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What is to be done with the perpetrators of climate change?
During a spell of thick wildfire smoke this summer, I was driving my kids toward the afternoon sun; it was a pale red, and we could look right at it—only a little brighter than the moon at dusk. I muttered about how I didn’t think I’d experienced this as a kid. One of them said,…
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OCCUPY podcast from Future Hindsight
Next month, it will be 15 years since Occupy Wall Street took over Lower Manhattan and other bits of the world. I was anxious to revisit it, but I’ve really been appreciating this new podcast on the story from Future Hindsight: https://www.futurehindsight.com/occupy I also wrote a book on it:) https://nathanschneider.info/books/thank-you-anarchy/
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The Conflict Systems zine is out!
The Conflict Systems zine, on designing online communities with conflict in mind, is NOW OUT. The digital version is here: https://www.colorado.edu/lab/medlab/2026/08/12/conflict-systems And there are still a few print copies available here! https://cloud.medlab.host/apps/forms/s/4Ys2HkNo23WB9pBn2cX8kef7
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AI, I tried to love you
Among my peers who study the cultures and economies surrounding technology, I often find myself more tech-positive than most. On the whole I like computers, like the internet, and like in general the emergent human creativity that these things have enabled and revealed. A source of my appreciation is that I expend a lot of…
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Conflict Systems drops Wednesday
MEDLab’s new Conflict Systems zine drops Wednesday—all about the need for building habits and tools for conflict into online spaces. Celebrate the launch: https://luma.com/vqlxb7dy Request a print copy: https://cloud.medlab.host/apps/forms/s/4Ys2HkNo23WB9pBn2cX8kef7
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What comes after Luddism?
What comes after Luddism? In a special free issue of the mighty co-op Flaming Hydra, I probe the limits of centering resistence to big tech around the lore of the Luddites: https://flaminghydra.com/issue-617/#beyond-luddism
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What are apps worth anymore?
An app used to mean something. Whatever “app” meant—Mobile first? Interactive website? Anything that runs on a computer?—it was the coin of the digital realm. Apps were useful for doing things, even necessary, and not everyone could make one. A working app signified significant investment, effort, and expertise. If someone bothered to go through the…
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Conflict Systems zine launch
For the past two years, my lab has been exploring how to create online spaces designed for a basic human activity: conflict. See what we’ve learned on August 12, when we release our new zine, Conflict Systems, at the Metagov Seminar: https://luma.com/vqlxb7dy
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Technology as “an all-purpose agent of change”
One thing I’ve noticed among my students is the use of the word technology as a kind of god-like force. Firstly, they use this extremely broad term to refer to a rather specific set of phenomena—more or less, the things that happen on Internet-connected smartphones or laptops. Secondly, they attribute to it a sort of…