Iffy Books | 404 S. 20th St., PHL

⚡️ Beginner Soldering Workshop
2024-01-11 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Thursday, January 11th at 6:00 p.m. we’re running a soldering workshop for beginners! Anyone can attend for free, but you’ll need to buy a circuit board with components for $6 to complete the project. Here’s what’s included in the kit:

1 x Weevil-shaped PCB
2 x LEDs
1 x 47k Ohm resistor
1 x miniature photocell
1 x 2N3904 transistor
2 x 220 Ohm resistors
1 x CR2032 coin cell battery
1 x 20mm coin cell battery holder

Register

💾🌾 Iffy Books Permacomputing Meetup
2024-01-14 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Our next permacomputing meetup is on Sunday, January 14th at 1:00 PM EST. You can join us in person at Iffy Books (404 S. 20th St., PHL) or via Jitsi Meet.
➡️ Meetup Link
From Permacomputing.net: Permacomputing is a more sustainable approach to computer and network technology inspired by permaculture. Permacomputing is both a concept and a community of practice oriented around issues of resilience and regenerativity in digital technology. In a time where computing epitomizes industrial waste, permacomputing encourages a more sustainable approach, maximizing hardware lifespans, minimizing energy use and focussing on the use of already available computational resources. We do this because humans are part of nature and technology is an extension of humans, and we acknowledge that technology has been used to harm nature. We want to find out how we can practice good relations with the Earth by learning from ecological systems to leverage and re-center existing technologies and practices. We are also interested in investigating what a permacomputing way of life could be, and what sort of transformative computational culture and aesthetics it could bring forward. If you want to know more, please start reading about what is permacomputing in essence, and then dive into its principles.
Permacomputing Aesthetics: Potential and Limits of Design Constraints in Computational Culture by Mansoux, Howell, Barok, and Heikkilä (2023)

⚙️ Neo-Luddite Reading Group: ‘Race After Technology' by Ruha Benjamin
2024-01-16 18:30 - 20:30 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Our current book for the Neo-Luddite Reading Group is Race After Technology (2019) by Ruha Benjamin. We’ll meet Tuesday, January 16th at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the introduction through chapter 2.
Meetup link
➡️ Official schedule

“Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within.” -R. BenjaminContact:
neoluddite@victorgom.es
Twitter
Bluesky
Substack3rd Tuesday each month 6:30-8:30 @ Iffy BooksDiscord: Email neoluddite@victorgom.es for an invite!
The issues and harms surrounding emergin technologies are especially concerning given the lack of regulation in the tech industry generally, and the tendency of productivity-increasing technology to further concentrate power in the hands of the few. This reading group will explore these risks and engage with how they work in the hopes of better organizing to protect the rights of workers and individuals. The goal is to have a better understanding of the costs (data, carbon, human labor) and risks (misinformation, unpredictability, bias) of making these machines, as well as limitations in what they can learn about the world primarily through text.
We’re currently reading Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code by Ruha Benjamin and will decide what to read next at our first session of the year.
So far, we’ve read “Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence” by Dan McQuillian and The Human Use of Human Beings by Norbert Wiener. The following archived pages include more Information on those sessions: Resist AI and The Human Use of Human Beings. If you’d like to learn more about me, you can visit victorgom.es for a bio.

Schedule
If you’re joining for the first time, I’d suggest you read this before anything else for some historical context: What the Luddites Really Fought Against by Richard Conniff.
The only expectation is that you read the chapter(s) of the book that’s listed for that meeting. You’re still welcome to participate if you haven’t done the readings as long as you are mindful.
The author kindly provides a free reading guide on her website, so I’d reccomend checking it out for the relevant chapters prior to each meeting to get you thinking. For each chapter, I’ve also noted some optional readings for context, so I’d suggest checking those out rather than reading ahead in the book. And remember, if you ever find yourself struggling with any of the readings or concepts, reach out! Either directly to me over email or to the entire group over discord.

Meeting 1 (Jan. 16th):📖 Race After Technology

Preface & Introduction

🎥 Are We Automating Racism? by Vox
🎙️ Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000: Let’s Do the Time Warp! by Emily Bender & Alex Hanna

1. Engineered Inequity

🗞️ In Retrospect: The unseen Black faces of AI algorithms by Abeba Birhane
📜 The Whiteness of AI by Stephen Cave & Kanta Dihal

2. Default Discrimination

📜 The Surveillance AI Pipeline by Pratyusha Ria Kalluri
🎙️ Timnit Gebru Looks at Corporate AI and Sees a Lot of Bad Science by Reimagining the Internet

Meeting 2 (February. 20th):📖 Race After Technology

3. Coded Exposure

📜 Large language models propagate race-based medicine by Jesutofunmi A. Omiye, Jenna C. Lester, Simon Spichak, Veronica Rotemberg & Roxana Daneshjou
🎥 Signing Black in America by The TALKING BLACK in AMERICA Project

4. Technological Benevolence

📜 Power to the People? Opportunities and Challenges for Participatory AI by Birhane, A., Isaac, W., Prabhakaran, V., DC-az, M., Elish, M., Gabriel, I., Mohamed, S.
🗞️ How Inclusive New AI Model Latimer Can Fight Bias by Kalina Bryant

5. Retooling Solidarity, Reimagining Justice

📜 Reclaiming AI as a theoretical tool for cognitive science by Iris van Rooij, Olivia Guest, Federico G Adolfi, Ronald de Haan, Antonina Kolokolova, and Patricia Rich
🎙️ Confronting Our Reality: Racial Representation and Systemic Transformation with Dr. Timnit Gebru by The Radical AI Podcast

Additional resources

Outreach Resources & Guides

📜 Digital Defense Playbook: Community Power Tools for Reclaiming Data by Our Data Bodies
📜 A People’s Guide to AI by Mimi Onuoha and Mother Cyborg (Diana Nucera)
📜 Algorithmic Accountability: A Primer by Data & Society

Potential Future Reads

📖 Blood in the Machine: The Origins of Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant
📖 Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor by Virginia Eubanks
📖 Questioning Technology: Tool, Toy or Tyrant by John Zerzan & Alice Carnes
📖 Technofix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the Environment by Michael Huesemann & Joyce Huesemann
📖 Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor by Kim Kelly
📖 The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation by Cory Doctorw

Links to more links

Critical Lenses on AI by Iris van Rooij
A Luddite Library by LibrarianShipwreck
Resources by Ruha Benjamin

More on Luddites

I’m a Luddite. You should be one too by Jathan Sadowski
Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite? by Thomas Pynchon
Byron Was One of the Few Prominent Defenders of the Luddites by Kat Eschner
Ned Ludd & Queen Mab: machine-breaking, romanticism, and the several commons of 1811-12 by Peter Linebaugh

Poems

Song for The Luddites by Lord Byron
A Luddite Lullaby by Don Bogen
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace by Richard Brautigan
I Am the People, the Mob by Carl Sandburg
They Say This Isn’t a Poem by Kenneth Rexroth
Under Which Lyre by W.H. Auden
When I Heard The Learn’d Astronomer by Walt Whitman

✏️ The Writing Room
2024-01-18 17:00 - 19:30, 2024-02-01 17:00 - 19:30, 2024-02-15 17:00 - 19:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Come co-work with other writers in three 40-minute units of silent writing. Writers and projects of any type welcome. 10-minute breaks and accountability check-ins between units. BYO coffee, water, computer chargers, notepads, etc.

❄️ We're closing today (1/19) at 4 p.m.!
2024-01-19 00:00 - 16:00
We’re closing at 4 p.m. on Friday, January 19th due to forecast snow. Sorry for the inconvenience!
The TOOOL lock picking meetup scheduled for tonight has been rescheduled for next Friday, January 26th.

🎶 SuperCollider Workshop
2024-01-21 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Sunday, January 21st from 1 to 3 p.m. we’re hosting a workshop on the audio synthesis program SuperCollider, led by William Hazard.
This workshop assumes no prior knowledge of SuperCollider, computer music, or coding generally. Beginners as well as seasoned SuperCollider pros are completely welcome — we’ll meet where we’re at and work from there. To start, we’ll introduce SuperCollider and go over what it is, a bit about how it works, and why we might want to use it. From there, we’ll get SuperCollider up and running on our Linux, MacOS, or Windows machines, and we’ll dive right into making some sounds. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have created your own software synthesizer in SuperCollider, and you’ll be able to play it and record the sounds you make.
Register:

🪡 Hands-On Darning Workshop
2024-01-21 15:30 - 17:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Sunday, January 21st at 3:30 p.m. we’re hosting a darning workshop and mending session. Total beginners welcome!
Here’s our darning how-to zine.
Register:

🩹 Bleeding Control Basics
2024-01-24 18:00 - 19:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Face masks required!
Presented by Untitled Medical Collective in association with Philly SRA, Bleeding Control Basics will go over first aid as it applies to severe bleeding. We will cover scene safety, injury assessment, basic bleeding control, and tourniquet application. This class doesn’t provide any kind of certification, and is just meant to provide essential information to as many people as possible.
If you have any questions about class content, reach out to untitledmedical@proton.me.
Register:

⚡️ Intermediate Soldering Session
2024-01-25 18:00 - 19:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Thursday, January 25th at 6 p.m. we’re hosting an intermediate soldering class. We’ll have soldering irons and solder to share for free, as well as DIY electronics kits for sale. Or bring your own project!
Register:

🔓 TOOOL Lock Picking Meetup
2024-01-26 18:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Friday, January 26th from 6–9 p.m. we’re hosting a meetup run by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Open Organization of Lockpickers.
> Come join us for our monthly open pick night at Iffy Books! Whether you’re a novice who just stumbled upon LockpickingLawyer, a seasoned safecracker, or somewhere in between, come join us for a evening of fun as we pop some locks.

☀️ Direct Solar Power Working Group
2024-01-27 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us from 1–3 p.m. on Saturday, January 27th for the first meeting of the Direct Solar Power Working Group. (We can change the name if people don’t like it.) Our plan is to discuss & experiment with methods for using solar energy without batteries.
We’re starting this group in response to the article Direct Solar Power: Off-Grid Without Batteries by Kris De Decker (August 2023), which focuses on using small solar panels to run computers, fridges, and heating elements for cooking. We’ll also discuss using solar thermal collectors for cooking and heating.
For our first meeting we’ll have a few 6-Watt solar panels to run tests with. Our goal is to find out what people are interested in and work our way up to bigger projects.
Register:

Photo CC-SA Stan Shebs

🎛 [postponed] DJ Mixing 101 with PILLAR 5
2024-01-27 15:30 - 17:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
We’re postponing this event for a month or so. Check back soon!

On Saturday, January 27th, 3:30–5:30 p.m. we’re pleased to present DJ Mixing 101, a workshop led by PILLAR 5. You’ll learn the basics using the free program VirtualDJ (available for macOS & Windows) and you’ll get to see a TRAKTOR DJ controller in action. You’ll need to bring a laptop to participate in the hands-on portion of this event.
We’re suggesting a $5–$10 donation at the door. No one will be turned away if they can’t afford it.

🏴 Screening & book event for 'The Blue Agave Revolution' by Oso Blanco
2024-01-28 15:30 - 17:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
The Blue Agave Revolution: Poetry of the Blind Rebel comprises magical realist and speculative fiction from the co-authors, an imprisoned Indigenous freedom fighter and a life-long anti-imperialist and decolonizer of European descent. Oso Blanco has a story and poetry cycle, and additional poems and stories, including with collaborators, written painstakingly behind prison walls. Many of the poems and the story cycle are set in Mexico during the revolution of the early 20th Century. Novick adds a selection of his poems written over the course of many decades, some recent political analysis, and two speculative works set in the near future, reflecting situations analogous to anti-fascist struggle. Below are some excerpts from the description, bios and dedications in the book itself.
The Blue Agave Revolution: Poetry of the Blind Rebel is a collection of political poetry, short stories, other writings, and profiles of political prisoners, by two activists, Michael Novick and Byron Shane of Chubbuck, AKA Oso Blanco. These two writers express their desires for freedom, Native rights, anti-racist justice, as well as equality for All Life and Peoples. These writers are life-long artists, creative and political writers, poets and journalists. Each at different levels.
Byron Shane Chubbuck is a Cherokee Nation citizen who is also Choctaw and Celtic, a Wolf Clan Cherokee and a sovereign. He comes from the Chickamauga band, a direct descendant of Nancy Ward. He wrote his first book in the third grade, “Shane the Crane Lost His Feather.” He published Love Me Rebel Love in 2011. He won the Poet of the Year award with the New Mexico Poetry Society. He published his first poetry in 1988 in a Canyon City Colorado newspaper. He has many poems in various poetry books published, and works with writers Elizabeth Frias and Joseph Jordan as well as Michael Novick. Byron Shane of Chubbuck has traveled all over Mexico and has a deep love for its amazing peoples. He has vast experiences in Pulque making, chemistry, ART, and scraping a living from the ground up. He says to the Houseless – who he feeds and aids – “I have been you. You are me! I am commanded by my Creator to love all humanity and all Living beings.” He is now in Federal prison for the Robin-in-the-Hood bank robbery case. Byron and Michael have a deep love for all races and humanity. They seek the revolution towards love and a new, good world, when all are Free, treated with respect as well as compassion.
Michael Novick grew up in an immigrant, working-class, Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, has traveled in Mexico, mostly in solidarity with the Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional Mexicano, and taught school in L.A. for many years. Michael edits, publishes and writes for Turning The Tide, which is distributed free to prisoners for over 30 years, and is dedicated to the just treatment of people and to anti-racist actions. He went to Cuba with the 50th Venceremos Brigade in 2019. He lives in Los Angeles with his spouse, Avon Leekley, who has also contributed to the production, editing and proof-reading of this volume. He is the author of White Lies White Power/The Fight Against White Supremacy & Reactionary Violence, and has been writing poetry on occasion since the second grade. Some of his poems have been published by the Revolutionary Poets Brigade and Vagabond Books, and his other writings have appeared in Brother: A Forum for Men Against Sexism and many other alternative press publications, such as Change Links community calendar. He has been active as an elected listener delegate in the democratic governance of KPFK and Pacifica radio, and was recently named interim General Manager of that radio station, seeking to increase it community engagement and orientation, and openness to expressions of solidarity and liberation in political, cultural and economic spheres. He was challenged by Oso Blanco to write some short fiction for this volume, but is most comfortable writing essays and socio-economic, political analysis, a few pieces of which are also included.

🌊 Speculative Futures Reading Group: ‘The Obelisk Gate' by N.K. Jemisin
2024-01-31 19:00 - 20:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Wednesday, January 31st at 7:00 p.m. we’ll meet to discuss the novel The Obelisk Gate (2016), the second book in N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy. Hope to see you there!
Get the audiobook on Libro.fm
The season of endings grows darker, as civilization fades into the long cold night.
Essun — once Damaya, once Syenite, now avenger — has found shelter, but not her daughter. Instead there is Alabaster Tenring, destroyer of the world, with a request. But if Essun does what he asks, it would seal the fate of the Stillness forever.
Far away, her daughter Nassun is growing in power — and her choices will break the world.
N. K. Jemisin’s award winning trilogy continues in the sequel to The Fifth Season.

💾 Philly 2600 Meetup
2024-02-02 18:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
> The Philly 2600 meeting is a monthly gathering of local hackers, phreaks, nerds, geeks, activists, tinkerers, developers, infosec professionals, and other interesting people.

🚂 Model Internet Club
2024-02-03 13:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
The Model Internet Club meets again on Saturday, February 3rd, 1–5 p.m. Newcomers are welcome.
The network is up and running! We now have a DHCP server, a DNS server with custom domain names, and handful of websites running as virtual hosts in Apache. There’s a local bulletin board in the works, and we’re considering our options for connecting wi-fi access points.
We’re looking for websites to run on our local network! If you have an idea, email iffybooks@iffybooks.net or join us for our next meeting.
Here’s a photo of the model internet in action:

And here’s a diagram of our plans for the network (so far):

📚 Philly Socialists Reading Group: 'Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict' by Phil A. Neel
2024-02-04 16:00 - 17:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
We’ll continue discussing the book Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict by Phil A. Neel. Email us at admin@phillysocialists.org for more details.
This group is open to anyone committed to collective learning and liberation whether they are a member of Philly Socialists or not. We aim to tackle challenging theoretical texts together. Rather than finding ‘the correct reading’ of a text, the goal of group is to collectively find tools from texts for creating a better world.
Philly Socialists is a political organization committed to creating a just and sustainable future for ourselves and our planet. As socialists, we believe in freedom, democracy, and the right to basic human dignity. Capitalism denies us all these. Only revolutionary change that ends capitalism will win us the future we deserve. And only a massive, organized force can get us there. If you are interested in finding out more, please find us at our website https://phillysocialists.org

💟 Cassette Mixtape Workshop
2024-02-07 13:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On February 7th and February 10th we’re hosting a free cassette mixtape recording session. Bring a playlist on your phone/computer and we’ll help you record it to an audio cassette tape.
We’ll host three sessions each day, at 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and 5 p.m.
Register for 1 p.m. on 2/7:

Register for 3 p.m. on 2/7:

Register for 5 p.m. on 2/7:

👾 DC215: Open Source Tools for Web App Pentesting
2024-02-07 18:00 - 20:00
Join us Wednesday, February 7th for an event from DC215 / Hackers’ Assembly. This month Ben Sylvester will give a talk titled “Open Source Tools for Web App Pentesting.”
This presentation will cover what requirements are needed to properly test web apps as well what compliance we may need to understand, what are some “industry standards” in terms of tooling, what alternatives exist, and a short introduction on how to use the alternatives to test for vulnerabilities.

⚡️ Beginner Soldering Workshop
2024-02-08 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Thursday, February 8th at 6:00 p.m. we’re running a soldering workshop for beginners! Anyone can attend for free, but you’ll need to buy a circuit board with components for $6 to complete the project. Here’s what’s included in the kit:

1 x Weevil-shaped PCB
2 x LEDs
1 x 47k Ohm resistor
1 x miniature photocell
1 x 2N3904 transistor
2 x 220 Ohm resistors
1 x CR2032 coin cell battery
1 x 20mm coin cell battery holder

Register

💟 Cassette Mixtape Workshop
2024-02-10 13:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On February 7th and February 10th we’re hosting a free cassette mixtape recording session. Bring a playlist on your phone/computer and we’ll help you record it to an audio cassette tape.
We’ll host three sessions each day, at 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and 5 p.m.
Register for 1 p.m. on 2/10:

Register for 3 p.m. on 2/10:

Register for 5 p.m. on 2/10:

💌 Origami and Love Letters
2024-02-11 15:30 - 17:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Share the love with origami and love letters! Learn different paper folding how-tos and make various Valentine’s-themed origami pieces to share with your loved ones! Decorate thank you and love letters to accompany the final pieces. Join us on 02/11 from 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm.
Led by Nabithoughts.
Register

🔓 TOOOL Lock Picking Meetup
2024-02-16 18:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Friday, February 16th from 6–9 p.m. we’re hosting a meetup run by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Open Organization of Lockpickers.
> Come join us for our monthly open pick night at Iffy Books! Whether you’re a novice who just stumbled upon LockpickingLawyer, a seasoned safecracker, or somewhere in between, come join us for a evening of fun as we pop some locks.

⭐️ PHL Fediverse Meetup
2024-02-17 15:30 - 17:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Saturday, February 17th at 3:30 p.m. we’re hosting a meetup for fans of federated services such as Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, BookWyrm, and PeerTube. Hope to see you there!
Masks are required. We’ll have extras for anyone who needs one.

📚 Philly Socialists Reading Group: ‘Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict’ by Phil A. Neel
2024-02-18 16:00 - 17:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States

⚙️ Neo-Luddite Reading Group: ‘Race After Technology' by Ruha Benjamin (Chs. 3–5)
2024-02-20 18:30 - 20:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Our current book for the Neo-Luddite Reading Group is Race After Technology (2019) by Ruha Benjamin. We’ll meet Tuesday, February 20th at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the introduction through chapter 2.
Meetup link
➡️ Official schedule
“Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within.” -R. Benjamin

Contact:
neoluddite@victorgom.es
Twitter
Bluesky
Substack
3rd Tuesday each month 6:30-8:30 @ Iffy Books
Discord: Email neoluddite@victorgom.es for an invite!
The issues and harms surrounding emerging technologies are especially concerning given the lack of regulation in the tech industry generally, and the tendency of productivity-increasing technology to further concentrate power in the hands of the few. This reading group will explore these risks and engage with how they work in the hopes of better organizing to protect the rights of workers and individuals. The goal is to have a better understanding of the costs (data, carbon, human labor) and risks (misinformation, unpredictability, bias) of making these machines, as well as limitations in what they can learn about the world primarily through text.We’re currently reading Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code by Ruha Benjamin and will decide what to read next at our first session of the year.So far, we’ve read “Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence” by Dan McQuillian and The Human Use of Human Beings by Norbert Wiener. The following archived pages include more Information on those sessions: Resist AI and The Human Use of Human Beings. If you’d like to learn more about me, you can visit victorgom.es for a bio.
Schedule
If you’re joining for the first time, I’d suggest you read this before anything else for some historical context: What the Luddites Really Fought Against by Richard Conniff.
The only expectation is that you read the chapter(s) of the book that’s listed for that meeting. You’re still welcome to participate if you haven’t done the readings as long as you are mindful.
The author kindly provides a free reading guide on her website, so I’d reccomend checking it out for the relevant chapters prior to each meeting to get you thinking. For each chapter, I’ve also noted some optional readings for context, so I’d suggest checking those out rather than reading ahead in the book. And remember, if you ever find yourself struggling with any of the readings or concepts, reach out! Either directly to me over email or to the entire group over discord.

Meeting 1 (Jan. 16th):📖 Race After Technology

Preface & Introduction

🎥 Are We Automating Racism? by Vox
🎙️ Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000: Let’s Do the Time Warp! by Emily Bender & Alex Hanna

1. Engineered Inequity

🗞️ In Retrospect: The unseen Black faces of AI algorithms by Abeba Birhane
📜 The Whiteness of AI by Stephen Cave & Kanta Dihal

2. Default Discrimination

📜 The Surveillance AI Pipeline by Pratyusha Ria Kalluri
🎙️ Timnit Gebru Looks at Corporate AI and Sees a Lot of Bad Science by Reimagining the Internet

Meeting 2 (February. 20th):📖 Race After Technology

3. Coded Exposure

📜 Large language models propagate race-based medicine by Jesutofunmi A. Omiye, Jenna C. Lester, Simon Spichak, Veronica Rotemberg & Roxana Daneshjou
🎥 Signing Black in America by The TALKING BLACK in AMERICA Project

4. Technological Benevolence

📜 Power to the People? Opportunities and Challenges for Participatory AI by Birhane, A., Isaac, W., Prabhakaran, V., DC-az, M., Elish, M., Gabriel, I., Mohamed, S.
🗞️ How Inclusive New AI Model Latimer Can Fight Bias by Kalina Bryant

5. Retooling Solidarity, Reimagining Justice

📜 Reclaiming AI as a theoretical tool for cognitive science by Iris van Rooij, Olivia Guest, Federico G Adolfi, Ronald de Haan, Antonina Kolokolova, and Patricia Rich
🎙️ Confronting Our Reality: Racial Representation and Systemic Transformation with Dr. Timnit Gebru by The Radical AI Podcast

Additional resources

Outreach Resources & Guides

📜 Digital Defense Playbook: Community Power Tools for Reclaiming Data by Our Data Bodies
📜 A People’s Guide to AI by Mimi Onuoha and Mother Cyborg (Diana Nucera)
📜 Algorithmic Accountability: A Primer by Data & Society

Potential Future Reads

📖 Blood in the Machine: The Origins of Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant
📖 Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor by Virginia Eubanks
📖 Questioning Technology: Tool, Toy or Tyrant by John Zerzan & Alice Carnes
📖 Technofix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the Environment by Michael Huesemann & Joyce Huesemann
📖 Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor by Kim Kelly
📖 The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation by Cory Doctorw

Links to more links

Critical Lenses on AI by Iris van Rooij
A Luddite Library by LibrarianShipwreck
Resources by Ruha Benjamin

More on Luddites

I’m a Luddite. You should be one too by Jathan Sadowski
Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite? by Thomas Pynchon
Byron Was One of the Few Prominent Defenders of the Luddites by Kat Eschner
Ned Ludd & Queen Mab: machine-breaking, romanticism, and the several commons of 1811-12 by Peter Linebaugh

Poems

Song for The Luddites by Lord Byron
A Luddite Lullaby by Don Bogen
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace by Richard Brautigan
I Am the People, the Mob by Carl Sandburg
They Say This Isn’t a Poem by Kenneth Rexroth
Under Which Lyre by W.H. Auden
When I Heard The Learn’d Astronomer by Walt Whitman

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🩹 Bleeding Control Basics
2024-02-21 18:00 - 19:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Wednesday, February 21, 2024 at 6 p.m.
Face masks required!
Presented by Untitled Medical Collective in association with Philly SRA, Bleeding Control Basics will go over first aid as it applies to severe bleeding. We will cover scene safety, injury assessment, basic bleeding control, and tourniquet application. This class doesn’t provide any kind of certification, and is just meant to provide essential information to as many people as possible.
If you have any questions about class content, reach out to untitledmedical@proton.me.
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⚡️ Intermediate Soldering Session
2024-02-22 18:00 - 19:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Thursday, February 22nd at 6 p.m. we’re hosting an intermediate soldering class. We’ll have soldering irons and solder to share for free, as well as DIY electronics kits for sale. Or bring your own project!
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