Today I have nothing scheduled except for reading (books for paid reviews) and writing (stories to submit), after a predawn run.

Today is going to be so rad.

Off for that run! 💪🏻 Happy Friday, CoSo.

Out to subscribers just under the wire, this week we wrap up that giant digital tech essay I've been wrestling with for a month.

Today's component starts with some free-to-read philosophy, care of Heidegger, before paid subscribers and I look at three case studies from the history of modern computer tech: times when state systems and/or personal drives for monopoly crushed attempts to build a more inclusive and self-liberating world.

#Technology #History #Democracy
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-digital-tech-utopia-we-didnt-d73

#Health #Disease #MPox

PSA: Please don't sleep with people who have the pox.

There is a vaccine for these deadly variants, and it only spreads through close contact, but wider distribution yields evolution.

“The emergence of a case on the European continent could spur rapid international spread of mpox,” said Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert and professor at Georgetown Law in Washington. “A case in Sweden most likely means dozens of undetected cases in Europe.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/15/mpox-variant-clade-i-case-sweden

*Almost* ready to post today's piece, the second half of a long essay on digital tech and why it hasn't yet brought about grander social changes.

It took a few weeks of chewing over this essay to be satisfied with it, and today's part should make abundantly clear why I was in the weeds for so long, but first: I wasn't on CoSo when posting last week's.

There's a free-to-read on so-called AI futures, which non-subscribers might enjoy.

(Part 2 soon! Walk and revise next.)
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-digital-tech-utopia-we-didnt

Me: *doing absolutely nothing*

Me: *except writing*

Me: *just writing away, making great strides with word count, story juices flowing!*

Also me, out of the blue: *hey now, how about a fierce case of the hiccoughs!*

🤨 Did I really give myself a fit from *writing* too excitedly?

What am I going to get next? A case of the vapours from existing?!

Morning, folks. Just had a great run before the day. Hope you're all doing brilliantly. 💛 Don't have anything until 10, so I'm squeezing in a little more fiction first.

https://youtu.be/LXvaKnUunEs

Oh my silly industry.

I've been tempted to pull out a comically large bag of popcorn amid the latest dumpster fire involving part of publishing that affects me and my team.

But too many people (myself included) need things a little less dumpster-fire-y, so I can't just sit back and marvel at the sheer mess of it all. I'm on "close the barn doors after the horses have fled" detail in that part of my life for the next while instead.

Silly silly problems adding to an already overstressed world.

I just had a perfect CoSo interaction.

10/10, no notes.

Well okay, these notes--

Someone expressed a concern with something I said, and the manner in which I said it.

We had a chat about it, human to human.

And we came out all the better for it. 😊

Dissent is not always our enemy.

Constructive dissent is how we grow.

And I *super* appreciate everyone who makes it safe for others to risk constructive dissent as well. You're all doing mighty important work in our broken world. 💛

#CoSoRocks

The boring dystopia of living in a timeline where you can't read an article warning against the use of deepfake technology in investment scams... because the site hosting the article wants you to give your information to an undisclosed third party before you're allowed to read on. 🙃

#WeAreSoScrewed

Okay, two happy little hours for fiction. 🤞🏻

#AmWriting

@daniel

😅 "a healthy young people".

Oh typos. Always keeping me humble.

With thanks to @daniel for such an important share:

The threshold for survival in heat is lower than we thought: a Wet Bulb Temperature of 31°C, not 35°C, might kill a healthy young people in a few hours.

This kind of research is essential not only for stimulating info-sharing on survival strategies and other forms of mutualism in society, but also for pushing harder for prevention. We do not have to go gentle into this suffocating coming day.

#ClimateChange #Science

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02422-5

😅 I now have nine books to finish reading this month for review purposes. (Eight to go for a two-part Le Guin short-list round-up, and one other accepted pitch this morning.)

I am not complaining at the gift of work, or the pleasure of good reading.

I'm just laughing aloud at myself, for naively thinking that I'd have more time for fiction of my own this month.

(But I still want two stories in queue soon! Going to try to get one there today! 🤞🏻)

Today we go back to colonial times!

We're on the hunt for the context of Franklin's famous line about Liberty and Security.

In the process, we might just stumble upon some uncanny similarities in our struggle for pluralist democracy, among those who always try to monopolize power and shirk responsibility, if given half a chance.

(And I promise, I tried to make colonial politics fun. It's often a dry read, I know.)

#History #Democracy #Politics #Humanism #Religion #US
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/on-the-abuse-of-famous-lines-in-history

As a secular humanist, I am beyond chuffed to see all the folks sharing their different relationships to cosmology on CoSo this morning. There's such a rich wealth of views being held in tension, with no one being attacked for personal views. Love to see it.

(Currently reading up on some 18th-Century Quaker spats for today's newsletter, so switching between those historical tidbits and this gem of a feed is quite the trip!)

The "for rent" sign is down on the door beside me! I'm guessing I'll have new neighbours by the end of the month, to replace the ones with two yappy (overstressed) dogs that moved out a little while back.

What will these new neighbours bring? 🤞🏻 for a nice old local couple, but if it's not *three* yappy dogs (or an unrelenting domestic nightmare, like the couple living above me during the height of pandemic), I'm sure it'll be fine.

For now, though--oh, the anticipation!

And... a morning chuckle.

This clip was shared when talking about a Very Unpleasant Person who got shook last week when UK white supremacists turned on him, even though he's been building a career on hating the same things they do.

No matter what you do to be "one of the gang", if the gang is built on hate, there will never really space for you, except as a useful patsy/megaphone for a bit.

(A lesson that a lot of white women also had to learn, though some never will!)
https://youtu.be/JOza4DPL_II

Morning CoSo!

Still working on rebuilding cardio with the stop-start method - take the breaks I need, but get to the overall distance-run goal no matter what. It's frustrating when you recall how strong you once were (top form when I climbed back in Canada), and how far you have to go to recover stamina and strength.

But! One sunrise at a time. Hoping to cut weight and reform muscle significantly before Navidad, when I'll be dodging natilla and buñuelos to keep it off for a month. 😅