There are words, such as ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ which get tossed around like a cat’s toy, tumbling between meanings depending on the speaker. To this list of floating signifiers, we can add ‘automation’ which, when mentioned by business types, is meant to depict a bright and shining future but, when used by people on the…
Read MoreUsually, I try to start these essays with an anecdote to lead you, the esteemed reader, into my topic. These anecdotes lead me into a subject too; a warm up to get the writing process flowing. For this brief essay, which is about yet another video posted to Twitter about a supposedly autonomous killing machine,…
Read MoreAs with death and taxes, you can be certain that whenever a video showing a Boston Dynamics robot is shared on Twitter, there are three reliable formulations: 1.) ‘Skynet’2.) Robot overlords3.) Techie admiration for engineering prowess Typically missing are considerations of BD’s business model; who are the customers and what are these robots actually good…
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