No Tech Reader #15
From the new world, Yang Yongliang.
- $180bn investment in plastic factories feeds global packaging binge.
- Tsunami of data could consume one-fifth of global electricity by 2025.
- Our relationship with work is destroying our humanity.
- Cash may be king, but they don’t care.
- The hard math behind Bitcoin’s global warming problem.
- The long ecologist revolution.
- Former Facebook executive: social media is ripping society apart.
- Facebook admits it poses mental health risk — but says using site more can help.
- The Influence of the number of toys in the environment on toddlers. [Via Ran Prieur]
No Tech Reader #14
- The Switch to Outdoor LED Lighting Has Completely Backfired. [Gizmodo]
- Too right it’s Black Friday: our relentless consumption is trashing the planet. [Monbiot]
- Automated checkouts ‘miserable’ for elderly shoppers. [BBC]
- Do Civilizations Collapse? [Aeon]
- ‘Our minds can be hijacked’: the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia. [Guardian]
No Tech Reader #12
- The moral and ethical weight of voluntary simplicity. [Simplicity Institute]
- Just enough is plenty: Thoreau’s Alternative Economics. [Simplicity Institute]
- Like start-ups, most intentional communities fail — why? [Aeon]
- A sacred light in the darkness: winter solstice illuminations at Spanish missions. [Conversation]
- Aid in reverse: how poor countries develop rich countries. [The Guardian]
Video:
- The birth of a wooden house. Via Fernando Spalding.
- Primitive Technology: Termite Clay Kiln & Pottery.
- Happy People, A Year in Taiga. Via Jon Batzel.
- Japanese Tiny House on Wheels.Via Ed Carey.
- Thousand-year-old windmills still in use. Via Rick Otten.
No Tech Reader #11
- God in the machine: my strange journey into transhumanism. [The Guardian]
- Should you feel sad about the demise of the written letter? [Aeon]
- A year without a byte [code.flickr.com]
- When power is low, I often hack in the evenings by lantern light. [joey hess]
- Olimex Open Source Laptop. [hackaday]
- Why we can’t look away from our screens. [NYT]
- Why I am not going to buy a cellphone. [Aeon]
- Forget smartphones — the Nokia 3310 is still the mobile of the future. [The Guardian]
- Pause! We can go back. [New York Review of Books]
- And their eyes glazed over. [Aeon]
- The analog spaces in digital companies. [New Yorker]
Links via Roel Roscam Abbing, Aaron Vansintjan & Mark van den Borre.





