Nikola Stepic
LightNews LightNews
banner
nikolastepic.bsky.social
Nikola Stepic
@nikolastepic.bsky.social
8 followers 9 following 5 posts
Media & sexuality scholar | Postdoc @ McGill University | Writing on erotic publics, queer film & sex on screen
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Nikola Stepic
brianbergstrom.bsky.social
Not to constantly refer to one of my own translations, but Saitō's use of André Gorz's distinction between open and locking technologies is very pertinent here -- generative AI is locking tech masquerading as open tech
Excerpt from my translation of Slow Down by Kōhei Saitō: It may behoove us here to turn our attention to the nuanced arguments offered by the French Marxist André Gorz. Toward the end of his life, Gorz was clear in his warnings about the dangers of technological development under capitalism. According to him, the productivism that leaves everything up to specialists is, in the end, linked to the negation of democracy, “a negation of both politics and modernity at once.”116 Gorz asserts that to avoid the dangers of productivism, it’s important to distinguish between “open technologies” and “locking technologies.” Open technologies are those that involve exchange with others, that relate to communication and cooperative industry. By contrast, locking technologies are those that divide people, that turn users into slaves and monopolize the provision of products and services. 117 A prime example of a locking technology is nuclear power. Nuclear energy was lauded for a long time as “green energy.” But ostensibly for reasons of security, nuclear energy is isolated from the general public, and information about it is kept classified and tightly controlled. Such a situation leads to cover-ups, inviting major accidents to occur. It’s impossible to manage nuclear energy production democratically. It is in this sense a locking technology, unadaptable to democratic management and necessitating the top-down politics of centralized control. In this way, technology and politics cannot be separated. Specific technologies demand specific forms of politics. In the context of climate change, technologies like geoengineering and NETs are democracy-negating, locking technologies par excellence. LOCKING TECHNOLOGIES
September 9, 2025 at 2:33 PM
nikolastepic.bsky.social
Thank you for the invitation @patrickkeilty.bsky.social! Honoured to discuss how public health crises reframed masturbation as a civic practice, and grateful to connect with the @csgsu-uoft.bsky.social community.
September 9, 2025 at 3:15 PM
nikolastepic.bsky.social
I knew I shared my birth year with Taylor Swift and The Little Mermaid, but turns out I'm also as old as air quotes, bubble butts, cyberporn, cybersecurity, intersectionality and scrunchies.
louiestowell.bsky.social Louie Stowell @louiestowell.bsky.social · Oct 4
Plan on doing something productive? Don't do that! Look up which words were "born" the same year as you! www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler
October 8, 2023 at 12:00 AM