By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 30/07/2026I thought up that example. I don't know if it's really happening. But here's something that really *is* happening: ecommerce sites charge parents of newborns extra when they order thermometers in the middle of the night. 14/ 316355
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 30/07/2026I'm not saying that anyone ever sat down and said, "Parents with sick children will pay whatever we charge for a thermometer at 2AM." They didn't have to: this is the kind of thing an automated system can do without any human intervention: www.ftc.gov/system/files... 15/ftc.gov 414028
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 30/07/2026The goal of surveillance pricing is to shift all the "consumer surplus" (the difference between the highest price you're willing to pay and the price you actually pay) to companies. 16/ 210115
Norm @thebookstoreonpluto.ca · 31/07/2026Let me guess, there will be a limit on the highside so the ultra-wealthy class won't have to fork out $1.45m for a tow truck at 2am on a busy highway? Or $3 000 for an electric toothbrush? 🤔 010
Drai (her she)🍫🏳️⚧️🖤🤍💜🤍 @draialle.bsky.social · 30/07/2026The horrible power of the Moloch Superorganism 000
Voltaireon - 5 caustic French philosophers in a trenchcoat @shaidorsai.bsky.social · 30/07/2026The economic concept of “tacit collusion” is really something that needs to be taught far more widely than it is. 0235
