My latest Locus column, “Techno-optimism,” looks at how technology has shaped global struggles for self-determination, democratic government and justice, and asks whether, on balance, technology will make the world freer and better or more repressive and worse:

The convenience of privacy-unfriendly social-network technologies from Friendster to Facebook has made them tempting platforms for use in organizing activist causes. Those of us who care about the underlying tools used in causes have railed against their use for the whole time, with moderate success. But our Bug #1 is still open – activists, even technologically savvy ones who should know better – still reach for proprietary, unencrypted, non-private technology, citing the difficulty of using the alternatives.

They’ve got a point: right now, it’s harder to organize a cause without using surveillance-friendly technology than it is to create another Facebook group. It falls to techno-optimists to do two things: first, improve the alternatives and; second, to better articulate the risks of using unsuitable tools in hostile environments. There are high-risk contexts – repressive, bloodthirsty regimes – in which it is literally better to do nothing than to put activists at risk by using tools that make it easy for the secret police to do their awful work.

Herein lies the difference between a ‘‘technology activist’’ and ‘‘an activist who uses technology’’ – the former prioritizes tools that are safe for their users; the latter prioritizes tools that accomplish some activist goal. The trick for technology activists is to help activists who use technology to appreciate the hidden risks and help them find or make better tools. That is, to be pessimists and optimists: without expert collaboration, activists might put themselves at risk with poor technology choices; with collaboration, activists can use technology to outmaneuver autocrats, totalitarians, and thugs.

Cory Doctorow: Techno-optimism

My Make column “Memento Mori” talks about the giddy, delightful vertigo I experience when I realize how fast and how far technology has come, and how fast it’s moving:

I’m often puzzled by how satisfying older technology is. What a treat it is to muscle around an ancient teletype, feeding it new-old paper-tape or rolls of industrial paper with the weight of a bygone era. What pleasure I take from the length of piano roll I’ve hung like a banner from a high place in every office I’ve had since 2000.

How much satisfaction I derive from the racing works of the 1965 mechanical watch I received as a Father’s Day present this year, audible in rare moments of ambient silence or when my hand strays near my ear, going tick-tick-tick-tick like the pattering heart of a pet mouse held loosely in my hand.

The standard explanation for the attractiveness of this old stuff is simply that They Made It Better In The Old Days. But this isn’t necessarily or even usually true. Some of my favorite old technologies are as poorly made as today’s throwaway products from China’s Pearl River Delta sweatshops.

Take that piano roll, for example: a flimsy entertainment, hardly made to be appreciated as an artifact in itself. And those rattling machine-gun teletypes and caterpillar-feed printers — they have all the elegance of a plastic cap gun that falls apart after the first roll of caps has run through it.

Memento Mori

One interesting thing about selling print-on-demand books is that they can be instantiated all over the world, close to where the orders are. For years, pundits have predicted corner store kiosks that can print any book every written, and though we’re nowhere near that stage today, there are the first inklings of what such a world might look like.

The University of Melbourne’s Custom Book Centre has a sophisticated, well-established print-on-demand service that can efficiently print, bind and ship books across Australia and New Zealand. They got in touch with me about my DIY short story collection With a Little Help, which is sold in the US via Lulu and Amazon‘s print-on-demand services.

I’ve got a lot of readers in Australia and New Zealand, at least judging by the sales figures from my Harper Collins titles, and from the attendance at my Austalian events (not to mention the disproportionate orders for the limited edition hardcover of With a Little Help). So I’m delighted to announce that these books are now on sale locally for AUD21.25 from the U Melbourne CBC, which is also wholesaling through the region (which means that Aussie and Kiwi bookstores can order the title for their shelves).

If you’ve got a similar set up in some other spot and want to try your hand at carrying With a Little Help, I’d love to hear from you!

I’ll be speaking at The Independent’s How the Light Gets In festival in Hay-on-Wye on Monday, May 30, where I’ll do two events:

1400h: Technology and Anarchy, with Nigel Warburton
With a 3D printer and laptop, does everyone have the tools they need to build a bio-weapon? Novelist and activist Cory Doctorow questions whether we should regulate subversive technology.

1730h: The Return of Revolution with Evegeny Morozov, Alex Callinicos, Dany Cohn-Bendit and Paul Moss
Revolution is back on the agenda and many have claimed the internet has played a crucial role. Are we seeing a means to convert grass-roots protest into powerful political movements or is the internet itself at the mercy of authoritarian intervention?

This week, I was delighted to learn that my novel For the Win was one of three young adult novels selected for the the Kansas National Education Association’s Kansas State Reading Circle list; and then to learn that the Vermont School Library Association, Vermont Library Association and the Vermont Department of Libraries had awarded the state’s Green Mountain Book Award to my novel Little Brother, this being a readers’ choice award for students in grades 9-12. My sincere thanks to the readers, teachers and librarians who’ve chosen my books for these honors — they mean the world to me.