Today’s links Petard (Part II): Systematizing and automating the struggle. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2024 Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. Recent appearances: Where I’ve been. Latest books: You keep readin’ em, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Upcoming books: Like I said, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Colophon: All the rest. Petard (Part II) (permalink) Biden’s FCC unanimously passed a rules banning landlords from accepting kickbacks to force all their tenants to use one ISP as a rental condition. Last week, Trump’s FCC boss Brendan Carr (who voted for the rule just last year) killed it, saying that he was sticking up for tenants, who would somehow save money from this sleazy arrangement: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/01/fcc-chair-nixes-plan-to-boost-broadband-competition-in-apartment-buildings/ In some ways, this is to be expected. The Trump agenda is about trussing and plating working people so rich sociopaths can conveniently devour them whole. On the other hand, this move lays bare the long-run historical phenomena that led to this moment. Case in point: back in 2013, I wrote a sf story about this very subject, Petard, which was published in MIT Tech Review’s 2014 anthology Twelve Tomorrows, edited by Bruce Sterling: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262535595/twelve-tomorrows-2014/ I love that story, and upon re-reading it, I realized that it was extremely timely. So timely, in fact, that I decided to serialize it over four days on my newsletter. If you’re feeling impatient, you can tune into a four-part podcast version from 2014 and 2018: https://archive.org/details/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_278 https://archive.org/details/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_292 https://archive.org/details/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_293 https://archive.org/details/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_294_-_Petard_04 Here’s part one of…Pluralistic: Petard (Part II) (31 Jan 2025)