Jul 1, 2019 | Uncategorized
After being released internationally a few weeks ago, my new book, Future Histories, goes on sale in Australian bookstores today! Scott Ludlam had the following kind things to say about it: “There has never been a better time to pull the politics of platform...
Jun 15, 2019 | Uncategorized
I was honoured to be named as a Human Rights Hero by Access Now and received the award from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet. See https://www.accessnow.org/heroes-villains-awards/ This is an edited version of my acceptance speech. I also...
Jun 4, 2019 | Uncategorized
There is an augmented reality easter egg artwork in my new book, Future Histories. It’s is by Melbourne based artist Marc-O-Matic. You will need to download an app called Moving Marvels on iTunes or Google Play. You can purchase the book here...
May 31, 2019 | Uncategorized
The rhetoric at Facebook—the largest social media platform in the world—is changing. In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg claimed that privacy was no longer a “social norm.” Today, the same man is asserting that “the future is private.” This was the buzz phrase at the company’s...
May 30, 2019 | Uncategorized
When you see an ad for online gambling, it is never a matter of chance. Take, for example, the story of Sportsbet, an Australian company owned by the global gambling-industry behemoth Paddy Power. A recent investigation found that the company spent hundreds of...
May 21, 2019 | Uncategorized
In the late spring of 1972, Lily Gray was driving her new Ford Pinto on a freeway in Los Angeles, and her thirteen-year-old neighbor, Richard Grimshaw, was in the passenger seat. The car stalled and was struck from behind at around 30 mph. The Pinto burst into flames,...
May 20, 2019 | Uncategorized
Climate activist Greta Thunberg recently declared that her generation’s future had been ‘stolen’ so that ‘a small number of people could make unimaginable amounts of money.’ Rather than acting on the impending reality of climate...
May 18, 2019 | Uncategorized
The rhetoric at Facebook – the most significant social media platform in the world – is changing. In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg claimed that privacy was no longer a ‘social norm.’ Today, the same man is now spruiking the line that ‘the future...
May 14, 2019 | Uncategorized
Today, my book Future Histories is published internationally by Verso. I would love to know what you think! When we talk about technology we always talk about the future—which makes it hard to figure out how to get there. In Future Histories, I argue that we need to...
Sep 4, 2018 | Uncategorized
A new bill will help its intelligence agencies circumvent encryption. And what starts Down Under won’t necessarily stay there. SYDNEY, Australia — A state’s capacity to spy on its citizens has grown exponentially in recent years as new technology has meant more...
May 22, 2018 | Uncategorized
Women’s reproductive rights have been ill-served by top-down politics. The campaign to repeal the eighth should inspire us all No matter what happens in Ireland’s abortion referendum on Friday, the campaign should serve as an inspiration. For too long, women in...
Apr 16, 2018 | Uncategorized
I look at my algorithm-generated ‘Recommendations for Lizzie’, and I don’t like that person – or the control involved in the process Each time I scroll down to Netflix’s “Recommendations for Lizzie” feed, my heart sinks in shame. Like a house of black mirrors from a...
Mar 20, 2018 | Uncategorized
The Facebook scandal shows that the rules of the internet need to be written by ordinary people, not corporations Facebook’s reckless vanity has made the headlines again, with the revelation that data it held on about 50 million users was exploited commercially...
Mar 10, 2018 | Uncategorized
We’re always told to diet and tone – to take up less space, rather than more. Now I’m pumping iron and proud to be expanding I remember the first time I tried to pull a bar off the floor loaded with two big weights. Unease pooled in my stomach. My trainer was patient,...
Nov 24, 2017 | Uncategorized
Workers in the US tech sector are organising. They, not their billionaire bosses, provide hope that technology will improve the lives of the many De-industrialisation and the Reagan-Thatcher years made trade unions seem like a 20th-century artefact. But evidence of a...
Jul 7, 2017 | Uncategorized
We act as if technology were neutral but it’s not. The challenge now is to highlight and remove the gender bias “Most women in the Bay Area are soft and weak, cosseted and naive, despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit,” wrote former...
Jan 25, 2017 | Uncategorized
With Amy McQuire – Our national holiday fails to recognize a legacy of genocide. Every year on Jan. 26, at the height of summer, Australians pull out their flags and barbecues, and raise a glass for Australia Day. But as the nationalism rises with the...