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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Nathan Schneider
@ntnsndr@social.coop
mastodon 4.5.18Teaching and writing media studies at CU Boulder. Helping to build a cooperative fediverse with Social.coop. Fan of democratic experiences and divine mysteries. Co-leading e2c.how, medlab.host, metagov.org, start.coop, wagingnonviolence.org.
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Joined April 26, 2017
Joined:
Apr 25, 2017
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Bluesky:
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
Lovely profile of our Colorado Drivers Cooperative rideshare: https://denverite.com/2026/04/21/denver-startup-rideshare-drivers-cooperative/
We can do it, Colorado. Let's make this work.
If you were to use a co-op for AI services, would you prioritize privacy or renewable energy first?
I'm thrilled to share that my lab's podcast, Looks Like New, just hosted the brilliant @timnitGebru@dair-community.social on the possibilities of community-serving AI—listen and subscribe here: https://lookslikenew.net/podcast/can-ai-be-rebuilt-to-serve-communities/
Yay Social.coop is fediverse-famous!
Is the glut of publications created by the publish-or-perish academic job market also a sort of slop?
Markets were the original AIs, remember, and they are already destroying the world (as well as doing some neat tricks).
If someone sends you raw AI outputs in the middle of a conversation instead of thinking for themselves, you could reply with this little protocol: https://medlab.host/protocol-droid/#protocols/ai-supported-conversation
These pair well, unfortunately
Humanity without superiority—or, why it is a lost cause to ground our value in what seems to make us unique or better: https://nathanschneider.info/2026/06/humanity-without-superiority/
This post against "age certification" laws is yet another reason I'm proud of our local Colorado Linux computer factory, @system76@fosstodon.org https://blog.system76.com/post/system76-on-age-verification/
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@Gargron It feels the same way from here in the US.
But: It was really wonderful to see my kids excited to watch the launch, and to have something to be proud of in our country that is not attacks on other countries and raids on our neighbors.
I love how @404mediaco@mastodon.social understands exactly what we're all going through right now: "How to Talk to Someone Experiencing 'AI Psychosis'" https://www.404media.co/ai-psychosis-help-gemini-chatgpt-claude-chatbot-delusions/
Something new and rad from the furious engine of Colorado cooperativism: "saas is dead. we're building what comes next." https://destroysaas.coop/
Please share this primer on open protocols with your favorite government officials. https://protocolized.summerofprotocols.com/p/a-government-guide-to-open-protocols
The value of human beings does not have to depend on what supposedly makes us better or even distinct (from machines, from animals). It's a path we've gone down before, and it doesn't lead to good places: https://nathanschneider.info/2026/06/humanity-without-superiority/
Listen! My lab's radio show this month features the extraordinary Dr. Naim Aburradi. He and his friends have risked their safety to document life in Gaza, with a 360-degree camera, before and since the ongoing genocide: https://lookslikenew.net/podcast/how-can-vr-tell-the-story-of-genocide/
Gaza is so, so much more than a headline and a plume of smoke.
"What are apps worth anymore?" An introduction to a couple of my recent experiments, and why they do and don't matter: https://nathanschneider.info/2026/07/what-are-apps-worth-anymore/
What a shameful day. You do not liberate a people by starving and then bombing them.
Are you building a cooperative newsroom or media project? Apply to be part of Start.coop's Accelerator for Worker-Friendly Media, including financial and technical support, plus a week with my lab here in Boulder. Learn more here: https://www.start.coop/accelerator
Great stuff from @loriemerson@post.lurk.org on our fight against CU's OpenAI deal: https://www.axios.com/local/boulder/2026/03/23/cu-boulder-professors-concerns-openai-chatgpt-deal
At #SocialCoop, we've been having a mighty debate about whether experiment with ATProto infrastructure. For fellow members, I've just created a sense check around a potential direction for a proposal: https://www.loomio.com/d/IF5MGpyU/would-social-coop-want-to-experiment-with-running-a-bluesky-pds-/36
My latest piece in America Magazine lays bare the extent to which US government policy seems to be going in outright opposition to decades of Catholic teaching—particularly on climate, war, and civil discourse. Catholics, we cannot participate in this: https://www.americamagazine.org/short-take/2026/03/19/government-trump-america-catholic-church/
@alwirtes@indieweb.social Totally—all the apps I've been making are PWAs, and that makes everything easier.
For the first time, I'm organizing a panel at 4S, the Society for Social Studies of Science, in Toronto. I love this conference. If you do too, please consider submitting a paper! https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_toronto.php
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First, in Colorado we are already working on a similar hybrid model: the social cooperative. It is a global movement that we want to join. This effort is being led by groups with deep community investment. https://www.rmeoc.org/programs/social-cooperative/
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I hope that we can build policy strategies that don't treat artists as special snowflakes (eg art.coop's work, or smart.coop) and that seeks to build on artist experience for a broader solidarity economy.
When that is the goal, I'm here to help.
Media makers, spiritual innovators, activists—especially in Colorado: Please consider applying for our Center for Media, Religion, and Culture's $25,000 Liberatory Media Residency for next academic year. https://www.colorado.edu/cmrc/2026/04/17/open-call-liberatory-media-residency
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@cyberlyra @inquiline @rwg @andresmh totally. One of the big realizations in my early years teaching is that students actually had never heard of labor organizing. I had to switch from being appalled to seeing it as a wonderful opportunity to teach:)
Technology as "an all-purpose agent of change": https://nathanschneider.info/2026/07/technology-as-an-all-purpose-agent-of-change/
Everytime the gov't does something crazy the Times watches the markets, expecting them to agree it is crazy.
But the markets have learned to crave instability. Every disruption is an opportunity. Suffering is an externality.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/business/iran-war-markets-stocks-bonds.html
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Our Center for Media, Religion, and Culture's next conference is on the radical arts of gathering. Join us—along with Fred Moten, Stefano Harney, and more speakers TBA.
The call for abstracts is out, due May 1: https://www.colorado.edu/cmrc/2026/03/26/why-we-come-together-media-religion-and-community
Data centers aren't just noxious, they're targets in war: https://restofworld.org/2026/iran-amazon-data-center-strikes/
Decentralize the data. And end the wars.
I love this new reflection on the experience of randomness in governance from @lizbarry@social.coop of @metagov.bsky.social https://metagov.substack.com/p/randomness-clears-the-way-for-cohesion
Drones, blockchains, and climate: The nation-state is not that old, and probably not long for this world.
https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/a-shakeup-is-coming-for-the-nation-state
Academics: what is your annual quota for peer reviewing papers, and what proportion of invitations do you reject?
I honestly have no idea what is normal or expected.
I don't use it for much else, but somehow Gemini got way better than other AIs at resolving Arch package issues.
It kills me that an xopp file with a handwritten version of an essay is 900 times the size of a .txt file of the same.
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@gert The more infrastructure gets developed on it outside Bluesky, the more decentralized it becomes.
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Phew, really depends. Usually it takes a couple hours of an evening for me, and then I try to check my biases the next morning.
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Well that's a longer conversation, and always happy to connect with you!
Just posted an addendum to my proposal for an academic AI co-op, with some thoughts that have come up from others in discussions, such as
- Student voice from the start
- Liability for model behavior
- Permissioned access for researchers
https://nathanschneider.info/2026/06/an-inference-cooperative-for-academic-ai/