Logic Magazine, Issue 13: Distribution

by Ben Tarnoff (Editor), Alex Blasdel (Editor), Moira Weigel (Editor)

The internet was invented for the purpose of redistribution: to move computing power from one place to another. Today, the cloud both has and has not fulfilled this dream. On the one hand, users anywhere can borrow cycles from servers deep in the forests of Oregon or high on the mountains of Guizhou. On the other, those servers belong to just a handful of companies. Data analytics and machine learning have made it possible to optimize supply chains linking every part of the world. But they have not spread production or profits evenly. As blockchain evangelists aim to distribute trust, and distributed-cognition theorists describe a world of matter vibrating with consciousness, this issue will explore the distributive aspects of digital technologies. New futures are always arriving; they are never evenly distributed.

192 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

Ben Tarnoff is a tech worker, writer, and co-founder of Logic Magazine. His most recent book is Voices from the Valley: Tech Workers Talk About What They Do—and How They Do It, co-authored with Moira Weigel. He has written for the New York Times, the Guardian, the New Republic, and Jacobin.

Reviews

[Rohit · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little collection of essays, interviews, and excerpts on technology around the theme of "distribution", approaching it from a variety of lenses and topics. A good snapshot of various critical perspectives on different parts of modern technology and its past and possible futures. The essay on the US Postal Service is especially great.

[Subliminal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cutting-edge reports from the world of platform-coops, big tech and algorithms. From an ethical and critical point-of-view.