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"I am an inventor of useless machines."

"I spent much of 2014 on the road, traveling and speaking extensively about education technology's histories, ideologies, and mythologies. The Monsters of Education Technology is a collection of fourteen of those talks on topics ranging from teaching machines to convivial tools, from ed-tech mansplaining to information justice."

"I spent much of 2014 on the road, traveling and speaking extensively about education technology's histories, ideologies, and mythologies. The Monsters of Education Technology is a collection of fourteen of those talks on topics ranging from teaching machines to convivial tools, from ed-tech mansplaining to information justice."

"The Fairphone is a modular handset designed with repairability and ethical sourcing of its materials as headline features. It sold 60,000 units. Amazingly, for what sounds like a nerd-phone, almost half of those buyers had never owned a smartphone before. Now the Fairphone 2 is launching, and with a totally-new, in-house design. The new phone is even easier to repair, and because it was wholly designed by the FairPhone team, its supply chain is even more responsible than ever. The Fairphone is thicker than the latest iPhone or Samsung flagship, but that's the point. Instead of packing everything into a tiny case and keeping it there with glue, the Fairphone is designed to be taken apart. The lightweight magnesium frame supports modules that can be easily replaced by the user. "We have designed it with an aim to last three to five years, looking at making it robust and modular-for repairability," says Fairphone's chief communications officer, Tessa Wernink. "Obviously how long it lasts depends quite heavily on the user, so what we as a company are doing is offering an ecosystem around the phone that supports long-lasting use, first-hand or second-hand." Inside the case (itself one of several options) you'll find the core unit, containing all the chips and radios; a replaceable battery pack; a display that can be snapped off and replaced without any tools (not even a screwdriver); a receiver unit, which contains the front camera, sensors; the headset connector and microphones; a speaker/vibrator unit; and a camera module. These modules are designed to balance manufacturing complexity with repairability. For instance, the display comes as a standalone unit, but less-vulnerable components are bundled into one module. The camera, which people are most likely to upgrade as better versions become available, is also housed in its own module. That way you don't need to toss out your whole phone just to get a better camera. "In fact, the motto from the maker mo

"... In addition to serving as a great explanatory example of the potential danger of AI, I have realized that paperclip maximizer is also a perfect allegory for capitalism. Where the artificial intelligence sought to maximize paperclips, the capital maximizer seeks to maximize capital. ... While this story of the capital maximizer might strike some as the anti-capitalist rantings of socialist idealism, it is not meant as such. Capitalism is the most powerful machine that humans have ever created. It can realize the benefits of technological progress and leverage them to improving the human condition better than any other economic system yet devised. The problem is in viewing the growth of capital as an ends and not a means. If we do not demand that our systems maximize the well-being of humans and the environment which sustains us, then all is lost."

"En DIY Coin Sorting Machine from Cardboard se explica cómo construir paso a paso un clasificador que separa las monedas automáticamente según su tamaño. Aunque no sé si el término automáticamente es aplicable en este caso dada su simplicidad, porque la forma de distinguir unas monedas de otras por su tamaño es simple como un chupete. Y eso que cuando uno es pequeño un mecanismo así, capaz de distinguir unas monedas de otras, resulta bastante intrigante - intriga que vuelve a repetirse en la adolescencia al comprobar que una mesa de billar distingue a la bola blanca¹ de las demás bolas."

" "El trabajador solo respetará la máquina el día que ésta se convierta su amiga, reduciendo su trabajo, y no como en la actualidad, que es su enemiga, quita puestos de trabajo y mata a los trabajadores" Émile Pouget (1860-1931), anarcosindicalista francés Si te opones a la implantación de algún tipo de tecnología por los motivos que sea, eres un ludita que cuestiona el progreso. Al menos es así según la Fundación para la Tecnología de la Información e Innovación de Estados Unidos (ITIF por sus siglas en inglés). "

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