Post #627398
2026-03-11 20:03 UTC
Replies (17)
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@shibacomputer@post.lurk.org 2026-03-12 13:06
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@groxx@hachyderm.io 2026-03-12 01:08
@shibacomputer @Mer__edith (edit to try to minimize distraction: apologies for derailing discussion a bit early on! Signal is a relatively small part of the writing, it's much broader. it was just literally a discussion point for me minutes before seeing this) ironically, I was just discussing Signal with my wife, and she refuses to install it ever since it spammed people who had her phone number in their contacts the moment she signed up, with no warning or option. and I don't blame her one bit. so many of those "it's good for the social graph" decisions are obviously dangerous and directly at odds with the other stated/advertised purpose of "the best option if your safety is at risk". and it put up such a fight to try to force you to sync contacts, for so long. wild, insane stuff, every step of the way. I'm still reading through, but wanted to say thanks for the attempts, and the write-up :blobfoxthumbsup:
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@clayote@peoplemaking.games 2026-03-12 06:25
@shibacomputer I still feel like there was an obvious way Archive Team could've satisfied all parties in their tumblr scrape: they could have just not hosted the archive online. If someone wanted their blog, they'd have emailed Archive Team, who would have sent that blog, and only that blog, to that person. I think I even mentioned this to Jason at the time, but never got a reply on Twitter...
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@b0rn_dead@metalhead.club 2026-03-12 08:26
@shibacomputer @Mer__edith I'm pretty sure I used Signal in 2014 and Wikipedia also says it was released in 2014. Did you mix up the years here? Or what were you building in 2015?
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@mothninja@beige.party 2026-03-12 08:55
@shibacomputer fantastic piece, thank you
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@catileptic@chaos.social 2026-03-12 09:28
@shibacomputer this is a fantastic read, thank you so much for putting it out there! :) in the bookshelf of my mind, i set your essay alongside @Mer__edith's essay on the origins of computing strategies: https://logicmag.io/supa-dupa-skies/origin-stories-plantations-computers-and-industrial-control/ and alongside David Golumbia's Cyberlibertarianism all excellent writing that challenge the dogma of "freedom" that white-washed so much pain caused by and amplified by digital tech
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@jandi@mastodon.social 2026-03-12 10:09
@shibacomputer Wow, amazing read, thanks for sharing! Thanks also to @aral for boosting.
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@FaithfullJohn@mastodon.scot 2026-03-12 10:55
@shibacomputer @Mer__edith Powerful. Beautifully put: There is no such thing as an inert digital object I think about the hype about write-once media that hold petabytes and last for thousands of years. But without the energy-intensive and fragile infrastructure, technology, and the culture that goes with them, the nano-scale binary fluctuations in the medium are basically indistingishable from random noise.
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@NatureMC@mastodon.online 2026-03-12 11:23
@shibacomputer I almost didn't read the text because I thought it was about Signal only. Fortunately, I clicked on it anyway and am impressed. What a great essay on so many levels (including the literary one)! This interweaving of body, landscape, ideologies and virtual spaces says so much between the lines. I read this text as someone who works with cultural heritage: in museums, in living traditions and storytelling. I remember when the Taliban destroyed the giant Buddhas and there was a rush
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@CliffsEsport@mastodon.social 2026-03-12 13:41
@shibacomputer @Mer__edith Really glad to read this, mirrors my own thoughts and concerns from beginning when learning that to use Signal you had to use phone number. Never understood how anyone serious could recommend it for privacy over security with that model. 🙁 Real disconnect from IRL Opsec just for domestic abuse victims and people being trafficked.
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@bourgwick@heads.social 2026-03-12 13:49
@shibacomputer oh wow, can't wait to read this in full! i just presented a less-articulated & more informal version of that historical line on a barlow roundtable at the popular culture conference in albuquerque & was hoping someone would do it properly.
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@knowprose@mastodon.social 2026-03-12 14:15
@shibacomputer @Mer__edith 1/ I lived this. I would not call it angry, sibling... I call it defiance. I participated at the wsis twice trying to influence policy in a forum the tech leaders avoided. I helped build what would have been twitter before twitter, a full year earlier, focused on emergency communication. The Alert Retrieval Cache. I halted work because of the 'trusted sources' problem. Silicon Valley did not care about trusted sources. And it accelerated.
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@mlanger@mastodon.world 2026-03-12 14:32
@shibacomputer @RalphBassfeld @Mer__edith I have a question, though. Doesn't Signal have the ability to block abusers? Suppose I get a nasty message from a fucked up bastard. Can't I simply block him? Block his number? Unpopular opinion warning: I believe that aliases online empower people to say shitty things to each other and share misinformation. If people had to stand behind what they said with their real identities, they might not be such assholes. 🤷🏼♀️
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@josef@mastodon.uniteddiversity.coop 2026-03-12 17:18
@shibacomputer @Mer__edith I've never been notified that a contact has joined Signal, unlike on Telegram
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@barcode@mastodon.ie 2026-03-13 08:02
@shibacomputer Only half way through it and I'm going to be thinking about this for months, at the very least.
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@quite@mstdn.social 2026-03-13 13:18
@shibacomputer rewarding read, thank you. actually haven't seen Lain, gonna get the coalgirls release obvs
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@ericjames@booping.synth.download 2026-03-12 10:05
@shibacomputer@post.lurk.org brilliant, concise writing. thank you for bringing awareness to all of this