also knowledge elitism in institutions eg university education
also normative cultures

note that not all hierarchies are inherently unjust, but many oppressive systems rely on arbitrary, non-consensual hierarchies in order to exercise control and domination
reasonable hierarchies exist with consent and within context eg allowing a knowledgeable clinician to administer a complex treatment, vs the same clinician having complete power and control over every aspect of your life

ethical tech and tech for ethics

split this into two - they mean different things

internet sociology

The internet now as a representative of mass culture, a conglomeration of special interest areas and personally curated feeds of more and less ubiquity
Popular culture now looks like what?
‘Relatable’ content based more or less on certain lifestyles
The concept of ‘viral’ in the early years meaning everyone internet connected saw it, vs now.
The power of cookies, stored data, analytics, targeted advertising forming not a mass hive mind of indoctrination but actually specialising and specifying people into isolation.
Mass control of content by corporations use to over generalise which isolated outsiders but now it bands outsiders together, which can be both beneficial and harmful
Incredibly specialized niches in reddit forums and other special-purpose sites and forums
Locality/community? Community Facebook pages and Marketplace, ‘Nextdoor’ type apps
community guidelines
parasocial relationships
personal branding, aliases, avatars, multi-identity, relatability
cultural exchange

othering other humans

no preview

human diversity

no preview

tech bros

A dominant culture of tech at present is that of Web 3.0, blockchain and AI evangelists. This appears as a fusion of two (mostly white-cis-straight) male archetypes, the ‘bro’ and the ‘nerd’, and here the worst features of both are amplified in combination. This culture is incredibly alienating to any ‘others’ in tech, undermines all forces of tech for social good, and creates tangible harm in the hyper-capitalist almost-technocracy we are in.

Web3 vs Web 3.0 is a crucial subtlety but not even distinguished by eg job postings
tech ethics is more than just AI ethics ! (and AI ethics is more than ‘robot: don’t kill human’)
the metaverse is not the metaverse as seen by Meta
impacts of de-centering the human experience
start-up jobs are abundant, just drop your ethical standards! (/sarcasm)