bianca wylie
@biancawylie.com
newsletter:
https://time-and-space-studios.ghost.io/
https://time-and-space-studios.ghost.io/
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bianca wylie
@biancawylie.com
· 16d
Less as more: decomputing in the age of tech accelerationism — Resources for today's policymakers
By Bianca Wylie In 2021, in the Journal of Social Computing, historian Jonnie Penn made the argument for “Algorithmic Silence: A Call to Decomputerize.” As he summarizes: “Tech critics become...
www.policyready.ca
The instinct to add rather than subtract when it comes to policy – or any kind of problem-solving – runs deep.
www.policyready.ca/policymaking...
www.policyready.ca/policymaking...
There is a need for deep + strategic pragmatism about ownership vs. control of public technology. We need to understand where ownership is not possible, unlikely, or the wrong site of battle, + where infrastructure minimization or abolition is the right tactic.
biancawylie.medium.com/speaking-at-...
biancawylie.medium.com/speaking-at-...
Speaking at Your City Hall About Technology Policy. Some Possible Whys. (Part I)
Making use of short time for the long game
biancawylie.medium.com
January 1, 2026 at 11:37 PM
There is a need for deep + strategic pragmatism about ownership vs. control of public technology. We need to understand where ownership is not possible, unlikely, or the wrong site of battle, + where infrastructure minimization or abolition is the right tactic.
biancawylie.medium.com/speaking-at-...
biancawylie.medium.com/speaking-at-...
Reposted by bianca wylie
I've published a new article:
The Fog Around the City of Toronto Operating Budgets — And What To Do About It
It's mostly about the need to change Toronto's budget accounting method, but covers a lot of other issues too.
medium.com/@henrikbechm...
The Fog Around the City of Toronto Operating Budgets — And What To Do About It
It's mostly about the need to change Toronto's budget accounting method, but covers a lot of other issues too.
medium.com/@henrikbechm...
The Fog Around the City of Toronto Operating Budgets — And What To Do About It
Although the City of Toronto Operating Budgets are voluminous and detailed, there’s a lot of fog around them, which makes them hard to…
medium.com
January 1, 2026 at 8:24 PM
I've published a new article:
The Fog Around the City of Toronto Operating Budgets — And What To Do About It
It's mostly about the need to change Toronto's budget accounting method, but covers a lot of other issues too.
medium.com/@henrikbechm...
The Fog Around the City of Toronto Operating Budgets — And What To Do About It
It's mostly about the need to change Toronto's budget accounting method, but covers a lot of other issues too.
medium.com/@henrikbechm...
Reposted by bianca wylie
Reposted by bianca wylie
We will be starting with a short Festivus of things people have said to you when you were engaging in systems thinking when they'd rather you didn't! (e.g. "boiling the ocean")
First #PapersInSystems discussion of 2026:
Monday, January 5, 1-2PM Eastern Time (US/Canada):
"20 Things I Learned As A Systems (Over) Thinker" by @johncutle.fish
Here: www.linkedin.com/posts/johnpc...
Discussion will be led by @yvonnezlam.bsky.social
Info/enroll: ti.to/bredemeyer/c...
Monday, January 5, 1-2PM Eastern Time (US/Canada):
"20 Things I Learned As A Systems (Over) Thinker" by @johncutle.fish
Here: www.linkedin.com/posts/johnpc...
Discussion will be led by @yvonnezlam.bsky.social
Info/enroll: ti.to/bredemeyer/c...
January 1, 2026 at 8:53 PM
We will be starting with a short Festivus of things people have said to you when you were engaging in systems thinking when they'd rather you didn't! (e.g. "boiling the ocean")
to lightness as sustainability in 2026 <3
January 1, 2026 at 3:15 PM
to lightness as sustainability in 2026 <3
major noisemaker participation yesterday 10/10
January 1, 2026 at 3:07 PM
major noisemaker participation yesterday 10/10
Reposted by bianca wylie
earlier this year i got to speak with Sarah Davachi, which was a great honour because i've enjoyed her music for a very long time now. but our conversation also helped clarify my feelings on the importance of listening.
www.newfeeling.ca/quietly-brut...
www.newfeeling.ca/quietly-brut...
Quietly Brutal: Learning to Listen with Sarah Davachi
Experimental composer Sarah Davachi resists the impulse to compete by slowing down and listening.
www.newfeeling.ca
December 30, 2025 at 7:32 PM
earlier this year i got to speak with Sarah Davachi, which was a great honour because i've enjoyed her music for a very long time now. but our conversation also helped clarify my feelings on the importance of listening.
www.newfeeling.ca/quietly-brut...
www.newfeeling.ca/quietly-brut...
Reposted by bianca wylie
Sharing this again because it's the best piece I read all year. Go read it!
this piece distills a lot of my feelings about the pandemic and how working class musicians are being forced to bear the weight of its tremendous cost.
www.newfeeling.ca/covid-is-sti...
www.newfeeling.ca/covid-is-sti...
COVID is (STILL) a Working Class Issue
How the ongoing pandemic continues to profoundly impact working-class musicians and arts workers despite its erasure from the public consciousness.
www.newfeeling.ca
December 30, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Sharing this again because it's the best piece I read all year. Go read it!
Reposted by bianca wylie
2026 will be full of a variety of mosses to lay your hand against and go “oh yes that’s a good one” or “hm this one is not for me”
December 31, 2025 at 8:56 PM
2026 will be full of a variety of mosses to lay your hand against and go “oh yes that’s a good one” or “hm this one is not for me”
pacifism is harder than militarism
December 31, 2025 at 7:28 PM
pacifism is harder than militarism
Reposted by bianca wylie
Letterpress people, I would buy such little cards from you if you made them...
I want to print YOU DON'T GET GOOD AT A THING BY NOT DOING IT onto little cards and just hand them out in conversation sometimes
D1) again, this is difficult to pull off at longer lengths. But you don't get good at a thing by not doing it.
E) YOU DON'T GET GOOD AT A THING BY NOT DOING IT done is better than perfect. Don't worry so much about "practicing right" just practice. You can adjust as you need as you go on.
E) YOU DON'T GET GOOD AT A THING BY NOT DOING IT done is better than perfect. Don't worry so much about "practicing right" just practice. You can adjust as you need as you go on.
December 31, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Letterpress people, I would buy such little cards from you if you made them...
Reposted by bianca wylie
“Technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic, but misunderstanding one’s place in the function and aims of a system is no excuse for magical thinking.”
— me, Sep 25, 2024, riffing on Arthur C. Clarke in response to a bumper sticker about conspiracy theories
— me, Sep 25, 2024, riffing on Arthur C. Clarke in response to a bumper sticker about conspiracy theories
March 11, 2025 at 9:49 PM
“Technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic, but misunderstanding one’s place in the function and aims of a system is no excuse for magical thinking.”
— me, Sep 25, 2024, riffing on Arthur C. Clarke in response to a bumper sticker about conspiracy theories
— me, Sep 25, 2024, riffing on Arthur C. Clarke in response to a bumper sticker about conspiracy theories
Reposted by bianca wylie
I just thought to myself, “wow, we’re really living out the last 4 episodes of the second season of Dollhouse here, esp how they crammed 3 seasons worth of plot into 4h because they got notice they were getting cancelled”
We thought it was for wish fulfillment but it was always about control.
We thought it was for wish fulfillment but it was always about control.
honestly the number of tech policy people that get away with not connecting to militarization. It is counterproductive to the whole venture of democracy discourse. you have to be able to go there. sanitized innovation stories aren’t historical reality.
December 31, 2025 at 6:37 PM
I just thought to myself, “wow, we’re really living out the last 4 episodes of the second season of Dollhouse here, esp how they crammed 3 seasons worth of plot into 4h because they got notice they were getting cancelled”
We thought it was for wish fulfillment but it was always about control.
We thought it was for wish fulfillment but it was always about control.
honestly the number of tech policy people that get away with not connecting to militarization. It is counterproductive to the whole venture of democracy discourse. you have to be able to go there. sanitized innovation stories aren’t historical reality.
December 31, 2025 at 6:13 PM
honestly the number of tech policy people that get away with not connecting to militarization. It is counterproductive to the whole venture of democracy discourse. you have to be able to go there. sanitized innovation stories aren’t historical reality.
Reposted by bianca wylie
I posted this last month already, but Derrida underlines that Heidegger's Nazi insistence on scientific, military, and labour service to the state is reflected in contemporary (neo)liberal democracies also.
I pointed out he might as well have been speaking about Canada under the Mark Carney regime.
I pointed out he might as well have been speaking about Canada under the Mark Carney regime.
December 31, 2025 at 2:07 PM
I posted this last month already, but Derrida underlines that Heidegger's Nazi insistence on scientific, military, and labour service to the state is reflected in contemporary (neo)liberal democracies also.
I pointed out he might as well have been speaking about Canada under the Mark Carney regime.
I pointed out he might as well have been speaking about Canada under the Mark Carney regime.
Reposted by bianca wylie
i am running into a new year
and i beg what i love and
i leave to forgive me
-- Lucille Clifton, from "i am running into a new year"
www.justbuffalo.org/lucille-clif...
"i am running into a new year" by Lucille Clifton - Just Buffalo Literary Center | Buffalo, NY
Read "i am running into a new year" by Lucille Clifton - part of the Poem of the Week series, curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.
www.justbuffalo.org
December 31, 2025 at 4:14 PM
i am running into a new year
and i beg what i love and
i leave to forgive me
-- Lucille Clifton, from "i am running into a new year"
www.justbuffalo.org/lucille-clif...
Reposted by bianca wylie
"When we give credence to the idea of AGI .. it signals that a computer program that is proficient at … predicting words from other words … can do important social and economic work, such as addressing gaps in major social services, doing science autonomously, and “solving” climate change.”
The Myth of AGI | TechPolicy.Press
Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender write that claims of "Artificial General Intelligence" are a cover for abandoning the current social contract.
www.techpolicy.press
December 30, 2025 at 10:09 PM
"When we give credence to the idea of AGI .. it signals that a computer program that is proficient at … predicting words from other words … can do important social and economic work, such as addressing gaps in major social services, doing science autonomously, and “solving” climate change.”
Reposted by bianca wylie
Research on additive vs subtractive changes: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
People systematically overlook subtractive changes - Nature
Observational and experimental studies of people seeking to improve objects, ideas or situations demonstrate that people default to searching for solutions that add new components rather than for solu...
www.nature.com
December 30, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Research on additive vs subtractive changes: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by bianca wylie
Re additive vs subtractive change: cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-1052-s...
TBM 10/52: Subtractive and Additive Change
In my new role, I have to think a great deal about the impact of trying to improve (or change) something.
cutlefish.substack.com
December 30, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Re additive vs subtractive change: cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-1052-s...
Reposted by bianca wylie
AI hype produces this frantic rush into tech accelerationism. It's part of the disciplinary power of the AI project. This piece is great corrective:
"Decomputing allows for not only a shift to less stuff in general but also to a focus on taking better care of what we already have"
"Decomputing allows for not only a shift to less stuff in general but also to a focus on taking better care of what we already have"
The instinct to add rather than subtract when it comes to policy – or any kind of problem-solving – runs deep.
www.policyready.ca/policymaking...
www.policyready.ca/policymaking...
Less as more: decomputing in the age of tech accelerationism — Resources for today's policymakers
By Bianca Wylie In 2021, in the Journal of Social Computing, historian Jonnie Penn made the argument for “Algorithmic Silence: A Call to Decomputerize.” As he summarizes: “Tech critics become...
www.policyready.ca
December 30, 2025 at 9:22 PM
AI hype produces this frantic rush into tech accelerationism. It's part of the disciplinary power of the AI project. This piece is great corrective:
"Decomputing allows for not only a shift to less stuff in general but also to a focus on taking better care of what we already have"
"Decomputing allows for not only a shift to less stuff in general but also to a focus on taking better care of what we already have"
Reposted by bianca wylie
“There is an ascendant and erroneous idea that [sovereignty] means funding the Canadian tech sector. … There is scant time allotted to questioning the foundational assumption that more technology, or Canadian copies of it, are beneficial for sovereignty, or beneficial at all.” — @biancawylie.com
Less as more: decomputing in the age of tech accelerationism — Resources for today's policymakers
By Bianca Wylie In 2021, in the Journal of Social Computing, historian Jonnie Penn made the argument for “Algorithmic Silence: A Call to Decomputerize.” As he summarizes: “Tech critics become...
www.policyready.ca
December 30, 2025 at 7:23 PM
“There is an ascendant and erroneous idea that [sovereignty] means funding the Canadian tech sector. … There is scant time allotted to questioning the foundational assumption that more technology, or Canadian copies of it, are beneficial for sovereignty, or beneficial at all.” — @biancawylie.com
Reposted by bianca wylie
Time horizon/window of measurement is a massive issue for determining the sustained impact of *anything* in the real world, in my experience! I think a lot about the "black ice" style problems that happen when things look really good in the short term but lead to long-term maladaptive outcomes
December 30, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Time horizon/window of measurement is a massive issue for determining the sustained impact of *anything* in the real world, in my experience! I think a lot about the "black ice" style problems that happen when things look really good in the short term but lead to long-term maladaptive outcomes
when people go on about building meet them by going on about maintaining.
The instinct to add rather than subtract when it comes to policy – or any kind of problem-solving – runs deep.
www.policyready.ca/policymaking...
www.policyready.ca/policymaking...
Less as more: decomputing in the age of tech accelerationism — Resources for today's policymakers
By Bianca Wylie In 2021, in the Journal of Social Computing, historian Jonnie Penn made the argument for “Algorithmic Silence: A Call to Decomputerize.” As he summarizes: “Tech critics become...
www.policyready.ca
December 30, 2025 at 6:28 PM
when people go on about building meet them by going on about maintaining.
on timing vs time, and the feelings of finding collectiveness in a group (among other things) :)
m.youtube.com/watch?v=SRId...
m.youtube.com/watch?v=SRId...
Oracular Bodies and the Art of Prophetic Futuring w/ Cheryl Hsu
YouTube video by The Stoa
m.youtube.com
December 30, 2025 at 6:20 PM
on timing vs time, and the feelings of finding collectiveness in a group (among other things) :)
m.youtube.com/watch?v=SRId...
m.youtube.com/watch?v=SRId...