iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

you a freak, bro - the best kind of freak.

Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

We are super excited to share the launch of our new talk show, How to Think About Technology, on which we examine . . . well, how to think about . . . .

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Marc Aidinoff @maidino.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I am strangely optimistic that AI offers a framework to build the state we want. I argue in @dissentmag.bsky.social that progressives must not dismiss the energy and opportunity produced by technology’s productive amnesia to reimagine the state and society. dissentmagazine.org/article/ai-u...

dissentmagazine.org

Can the Welfare State Survive AI? - Dissent Magazine

The U.S. welfare state was built in moments when technical innovation collided with political reality. It can still offer the infrastructure for social protection under an economy reconfigured by AI.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Special episode of Peoples & Things this week, a talk I gave called "Accounting for Computing, or Why We So Badly Need a New Social and Economic History of Everyday Digital Technology Use," which considers how little we know about the effects of widespread computer adoption.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Good question. It's been a long time since I was immersed in standards studies, sadly, but back in the day I would have turned to Andy Russell's histories of computer networks for this.

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Patrick McCray @patrickmccray.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Stoked to see that Liz Petrick's new book will be out soon via @hopkinspress.bsky.social www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Truly tis the season. I will be introducing a new batch of graduate students to the Sandage Method for reading in grad school in my Intro to Science and Technology Policy seminar just next week. Always with an eye to making grad life *HUMANE*, as the story Scott tells in the link below says well.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

The great historian of science, environments, and animals Mark Barrow has launched a new Substack, Wild History. Check it out! markvbarrowjr.substack.com/p/leave-it-t... It's leading up to Mark's new book, _Gator! The Making of America’s Iconic Reptile, from First Encounters to Florida Man_.

markvbarrowjr.substack.com

'Leave It to Beaver' and the Heyday of Mail-Order Pet Alligators

Americans once routinely ordered baby alligators through the mail. This improbable pet became so popular that it inspired a "Leave It to Beaver" episode.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

One of the podcasts I am working on is looking for scholars who are writing about the history and culture of "Gen X" in a serious way. Anyone come to mind?

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Some colleagues are running a workshop called "What Has Driven Our Elites Insane?" and I had fun working up an abstract for a potential paper this morning, "How, Precisely, Does Elite Insanity Matter?: Getting Specific About Behaviors, Mechanisms, Effects, and Problems."

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Cory is an incredibly generous and sweet guy. A Dutch friend also sent me a screenshot of Cory mentioning me on a Dutch documentary last week. He's taught me a lot about how to diligently spread the word about other folks' ideas.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

This week on Peoples & Things, I chat with the wonderful @lanalanalana.bsky.social about _New Money: How Payment Became Social Media_ and her other current, highly-creative projects. I love how Lana thinks through things. It's a really fun chat! newbooksnetwork.com/117-lana-swa...

newbooksnetwork.com

Lana Swartz on Digital Money and Digital Cultures of Money - New Books Network

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

I'm teaching a graduate seminar on global science and technology policy this fall, and I would like to assign some stuff on "sovereignty" around digital technology, including AI. Do we have a good piece that explains where this specific policy use of "sovereignty" came from and how it spread?

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Great thread as usual from Costa on where data centers fit in concerns about climate.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Some months ago, I began typing an email to my friend historian Richard John and quickly realized I was writing an essay I had wanted to do for years. I published it this morning and call it, "Two Forms of 'Technology' Criticism: Cultural Pessimism Versus Materialism." Link below.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Wow. I will be returning to and chewing on this one for quite a while. A *lot* of great stuff in here. The only part I'm not sure about is the bit about "fascism," but that's probably because I don't find that word useful as an analytical concept in general.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Stewart Brand joined The Maintainers listserv in 2019 - see below - and he attended the Maintainers III conference, also in 2019. He knows there are entire scholarly communities studying maintenance and repair. He's not ignorant; he's just a dick.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

It just keeps getting better. Thanks to my friend Dr. @olamichael.bsky.social of the Hype Studies crew for inspiring the improvements.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

I have friends who live in European cities where procuring air conditioning is basically illegal. One theory I've heard is that part of the problem is that the elites - who, let's be real, control environmental policy - have summer homes they escape to when it gets too hot.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Working on a short post called "Notes on Boomer STS" on the problematic twins of a) critique of "technocracy" and b) thinking "participatory democracy" is *the* solution, but now I think my prompt that led to this beautiful image may be my greatest contribution to the field.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Ah, the last bubble was so great.

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professor tools for commensality (red scare edition) @inquiline.myatproto.social · 03/04/2026

LA weirdos! It appears that @uchicagopress.bsky.social is giving away my book OIL BEACH for FREE this month (as an e-book) Link is here: press.uchicago.edu/books/freeEb...

vivid cover of said book, depicting a sickly yellow sky, orange sun, and inky black ocean water. the coastline is dotted with oil wells

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

I ask this question constantly. I thought our major upshot of the whole Aaron Swartz thing was that IP is a nonsense construction. Many GenAI haters would clearly have me believe otherwise.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

MIT Technology Review asked me to review Stewart Brand's new book _Maintenance: Of Everything_, vol. 1. I went into it with a lot of questions, including about how he'd deal with labor, politics, and social structure. It's a lot worse than I expected. www.technologyreview.com/2026/04/17/1...

technologyreview.com

The case for fixing everything

A new book by Stewart Brand, an architect of modern tech culture, asks: How do we prioritize maintenance? And why? But it doesn’t quite have the answers.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

So wild that the first Maintainers conference was a decade ago!! The other day I looked back at the class I taught called Peoples & Things that eventually led to the podcast to see when I first conceived of it. ALSO A DECADE AGO. fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu TIME FLIES.

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Chad Kohalyk @chadkoh.com · 09/04/2026

This ep of People’s & Things with @leev.bsky.social and @bialski.bsky.social interviewing @susansegfault.bsky.social about @torproject.org completely nerd sniped me and was very enjoyable! micro.chadkohalyk.com/2026/04/09/p...

micro.chadkohalyk.com

Podcast: Biography of Tor

Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy This episode of …

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

VIBERCRIME!!! Hahahaha. This is neat. Also, the fact that cybercriminals find these tools useful suggests that they might . . . I don't know . . . . be useful?!?! Yes, for crime and for more than crime.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

LMAOOOOOOOO. Not even a little bit surprising given what we already know about how these tools are being used in industry right now, but deliciously ironic given the anti-AI attitudes of some Bluesky subcultures. Should their non-use of AI also entail non-use of Bluesky?

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Paula Bialski and I had such a fun time talking with Ben. I loved his approach to the Tor community, and it was also lovely discovering our many research community overlaps. As I say in the ep, I felt like the spirit of @biella.bsky.social was in the virtual room with us the whole time.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

This week's Peoples & Things features me and my buddy and guest host Paula Bialski talking with Ben Collier, Senior Lecturer i at the University of Edinburgh, about his fascinating book, _Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy_. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

podcasts.apple.com

Ben Collier on Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy

Podcast Episode · Peoples & Things · March 30 · 1h 1m

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

This is one of the studies I'm most excited about right now. Wish I could watch the launch, but I'll be traveling. But YOU should check it out. Mentioned Lana's study as a great example of taking other humans seriously in this piece. peoples-things.ghost.io/why-do-peopl...

peoples-things.ghost.io

Against Narcissistic-Sociopathic Technology Studies, or Why Do People *USE* Technologies?

Why and how do people USE technologies? This question should be at the center of any thinking about human life with technology. The ways in which people use technologies, after all, determines the so...

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Jacob Bruggeman @jacobbruggeman.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Very glad to share this piece in @modamhist.bsky.social! I am glad they let me squeeze 7 figures into the article. You can see one of them here:

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

I like it. I try to send junior scholars fan mail, too. I'm on a panel at the Business History Conference tomorrow: Casey Eilbert, a postdoc at Hopkins. Casey's diss and forthcoming book are a history of the concept of "bureaucracy" and its critics in 20th century USA.

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Patrick McCray @patrickmccray.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

I’m in Kansas City for #ASEH2026. I co-edit a history of technology book series for Johns Hopkins University Press. We are always looking for titles that intersect with environmental history. If you have a project, let me know and let’s talk 🙂 #envhist

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Nancy Fraser's remembrance of Habermas is really great. At once respectful and critical. Fraser is really important to me for her feminist critique of the system-lifeworld dichotomy that is found in nearly all cultural pessimist technology criticism. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

lrb.co.uk

Nancy Fraser | After Habermas

Jürgen Habermas may be variously described as the moral conscience of postwar Germany, the last great systematic...

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steph @urschrei.eurosky.social · 25/03/2026

This thread of replies from Lee (whom I do not know, but whose work I know quite well) demonstrates a degree of politeness and generosity that is wholly unwarranted given the degree of uncollegial lashing out and intellectual dishonesty on display.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Hi there, @emilymbender.bsky.social! Thanks for this. I have a lot of respect from your work, have learned from you, and enjoyed having you on my podcast. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

podcasts.apple.com

Emily M. Bender on AI Hype

Podcast Episode · Peoples & Things · September 23, 2024 · 1h 10m

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

What you see at the bottom of my road. That's Pearis Mountain. She's the queen of these parts.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

We got a new little buddy over the weekend. 3rd dog, the other two are medium sized. His name is Pip, short for Pipsqueak but also has a nice Dickensian ring to it. He's currently sleeping on my side in bed, 3rd pic is right now.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Pleased to announce that my forthcoming book, _A Good History Of Shit Jobs: When, Why, and How the American Economy Left So Many Workers Behind_, has been picked up by University of Chicago Press. Very excited. Probably be out in ~3 years.

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

The critical innovation studies journal, NOvation, has extended the deadline for their special issue call, "The Helix Framework and Beyond. Genealogies, Metaphors and Governance in STI Policy" to April 1: revistas.ufpr.br/novation/ann...

revistas.ufpr.br

Thematic Issue Call for Papers_The Helix Framework and Beyond (2026) | NOvation — Critical Studies of Innovation

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Holy fuuuuuuuuuu I didn't realize that there's not just one criti-hype-y AI "documentary" coming out but at least two. Looks like we will have a whole series of Mystery Science Theater 3000 dissection livestreams. youtube.com/watch?v=xkPbV3IRe4Y

youtube.com

THE AI DOC: OR HOW I BECAME AN APOCALOPTIMIST - Official Trailer [HD] - Only In Theaters March 27

YouTube video by Focus Features

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Folks, please share widely. Minneapolis's Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board has put out a neat call for a Public Project on the Urban History of Commemoration in the Capitol Area. Cool project that it would be good to have great folks on. mn.gov/caapb/commem...

mn.gov

CW Request for Proposal / Minnesota.gov

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

I've long been perturbed that, seems to me, historians of computing do not have a good response to the famous "productivity paradox" in economics. Finally talking about it soon: Accounting for Computing, or Why We So Badly Need Social and Economic Histories of Everyday Digital Technology Use

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

ICYMI: Our most recent episode of Peoples & Things featured guest cohost Paula Bialski and me chatting with Fred Turner about Countercultures, Cybercultures, and Californian and Texan Ideologies. Loads of fun! And Fred's such a sweet guy. newbooksnetwork.com/fred-turner-...

newbooksnetwork.com

Fred Turner on Countercultures, Cybercultures, and Californian and Texan Ideologies - New Books Network

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Lee Vinsel @leev.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

It looks like we'll be recording a Mystery Science Theater 3000 style livestream dissection of this new criti-hype-y movie, _Ghost in the Machine_, which appears to be _The Social Dilemma_ of our GenAI moment - in mid-April. So stay tuned for details. It will be fun! notaidoc.com/trailer

notaidoc.com

Trailer — Ghost in the Machine

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Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Historian of flat-panel displays here to reaffirm that this was a bad idea...

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