We’ve previously and repeatedly written about how sex workers are the Internet’s equivalent of the canary in the coal mine as what happens to them will inevitably happen to us.

I was driving home from an errand run early this (Monday) morning when I saw two of my goats in the middle of the side road near our house. We had lent our two male goats to a neighbour, as we didn’t want them knocking up our young female goats (as yet). This neighbour had underestimated both the goats ability to escape containment, as well as their desire to reproduce.

It may no longer be a cliché to argue that we live in different realities that themselves appear to be diverging. The obvious example being the expanding gap between those of us who have taken the science behind this pandemic seriously, and those who have indulged and succumbed to conspiracy.

It’s easy to recognize that automation has had a huge opportunity to advance as a result of the pandemic. However as a concept, automation is both broad and abstract. It manifests in a myriad of ways, depending upon the context and user.

Living out in the country, the repair ethos flourishes. I suspect it is partly a consequence of extra space. Seemingly everyone has a project vehicle or two, in addition to some broken heavy equipment, and extra machines kept on hand for spare parts.

Yesterday we talked about how AI can act unethically, as well as encourage and enable humans to engage in unethical behaviour.
The idea that technology enables us to do things is self-evident, yet the inverse is also true, that technology enables us to not do things.