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

✏️ The Writing Room
2023-08-09 17:00 - 20:00, 2023-08-02 17:00 - 20:00, 2023-07-26 17:00 - 19:00, 2023-07-19 17:00 - 20:00, 2023-07-12 17:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Wednesdays 5–8 p.m.
(5–7 p.m. the last Wednesday of the month)
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.

⚙️ Neo-Luddite Reading Group: 'Resisting AI' by Dan McQuillan
2023-08-08 18:30 - 20:30 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Time and Place:
2nd & 4th Tuesday each month
6:30–8:30 p.m. @ Iffy Books
➡️ Virtual Meetup Link
Contact:
neoluddite@victorgom.es
@notnaughtknot
Discord:
Email neoluddite@victorgom.es for an invite!
You may have played around with chatGPT, or perhaps even used DALL-e to generate images from text. Though Large Language Models have been around since 2018, they’re currently dominating the news thanks to the public release of these newer, even larger models. While impressive, like many technologies, they come at a cost and introduce new risks. However, there are specific issues related to the sheer scale of these models and they highlight the dangers of machines which allow for the consolidation of labor.
These issues 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 will begin with “Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence” by Dan McQuillan, with additional optional readings. If you’d like to learn more about me, you can visit victorgom.es for a bio.
Schedule
The only expectation is that you read the chapter(s) of the book that’s listed for that meeting. I tried keeping it around 30 pages on average. Even if you don’t read the assigned chapters, you’re still welcome to participate as long as you are mindful.
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! Optional readings are by no means required, but they may add to and deepen our conversation. They’re a mix of news articles, essays, and journal articles, so you can pick from type of text is most engaging to you. They pull from a range of disciplines and schools of thought, which I hope serves to highlight and survey how many different people conceptualize issues with AI, though it is by no means exhaustive. If you ever find yourself struggling, reach out! Either directly or over discord to the group.
I’d suggest you read this before anything else for some historical context: What the Luddites Really Fought Against by Richard Conniff. The Luddites will also comes up in Chapter 6.
Meeting 4 (August 8th): Resisting AI

Chapter 5. Post-Machine Learning

Pygmalion Displacement, When Humanising AI Dehumanises Women by Lelia Erscoi, Annelies Kleinherenbrink, & Olivia Guest
Everyone should decide how their digital data are used – not just tech companies by Jathan Sadowski, Salomé Viljoen, & Meredith Whittaker
What is the point of fairness? Disability, AI, and the Complexity of Justice by Cynthia L. Bennet & Os Keyes
Automating autism: Disability, discourse, and Artificial Intelligence by Os Keyes

➡️ Complete reading schedule
Register (optional):

✨ A Reading by Wonder at Iffy Books
2023-08-05 19:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
🌻 Wonder is coming to Iffy Books in Philly Aug 5, catch Ted Dodson, Liza Kotlar, Bridget Talone, Josef Kaplan and Ben Fama. There might even be a surprise laureate or two. Hope to see you there 🌻
Doors at 7:00, reading at 7:30.
Ted Dodson is the author of An Orange (Pioneer Works / Wonder, 2021) and co-translator of Death at the Very Touch / The Cold by Jaime Sáenz (Action Books, forthcoming 2025). He works for BOMB, is an editor-at-large for Futurepoem, and is a former editor of The Poetry Project Newsletter.
Ben Fama is the author of the full length poetry collections Fantasy (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2015) and Deathwish (Newest York, 2018). His debut novel If I Close My Eyes is forthcoming in fall 2023 from Sarka Press. He is the editor of Wonder Books and lives in New York City.
Liza Kotlar is the author of HAIL (Wonder 2023). Their poetry has appeared in Sarka, Denver Quarterly, & elsewhere … & is forthcoming in Fence. They live & work in New York City.
Bridget Talone is the author of The Soft Life (Wonder, 2018). She lives in Philadelphia.
Josef Kaplan is the author of Loser, recently out on Make Now Books. His other books include Poem Without Suffering; All Nightmare: Introductions, 2011-2012; Kill List; and Democracy Is Not for the People. He lives in Philadelphia.

🚂 Model Internet Club
2023-08-05 13:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
The Model Internet Club meets again on Saturday, August 5th, 1–5 p.m. Our goal is to build an offline network for fun and learning.
We’re just getting started on building it, so newcomers are welcome!

💻 Philly 2600 Meetup
2023-08-04 18:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
The Philly 2600 meetup will be at Iffy Books on Friday, August 4th, starting at 6:00 p.m.
> The Philly 2600 meeting is a monthly gathering of local hackers, phreaks, nerds, geeks, activists, tinkerers, developers, infosec professionals, and other interesting people.
There won’t be a Philly TOOOL Meetup this month. Sorry about that! The next one will be on Friday, September 1st.

📡 Virtual Meshtastic Meetup
2023-08-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Jitsi Meet (iffybooks.club), 19107
We’re hosting a virtual meetup on Thursday, August 3rd at 7 p.m. to help Meshtastic users get connected. Our goal is to make a wireless chat network across the PHL area using low-power LoRa radios.
To join the network, you’ll need a LoRa radio such as a Heltec LoRa32, LILYGO LoRa32, or LILYGO T-Beam. Here’s a full list of compatible devices.
➡️ Meetup link
Here’s a link to our updated zine on LoRa + Meshtastic.

📡 Meshtastic 101
2023-07-30 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Sunday, July 30th at 1:00 p.m. we’re hosting an introduction to Meshtastic, an application that lets you send private text messages over the air using pocket-sized LoRa radios.
Here’s a link to our updated zine on LoRa + Meshtastic.
If you have a LoRa radio (or reserve one below), we’ll show you how to flash the latest Meshtastic firmware to the device and customize the settings. If you don’t have a LoRa radio, you’re still welcome to attend!
Register:

💻 Router Hack Day III
2023-07-29 13:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Router Hack Day III is Saturday, July 29th! Now that we have a working OpenWRT firmware build for the routers we’ve been working on, we’ll show everyone how to install it. And then the fun begins!
Here’s our how-to guide for Saturday:➡️ Install OpenWrt on your Atlas Media Router

💻 Philly JS Club Hack Night
2023-07-28 18:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Bring your laptops and hang out with fellow community members of Philly JS Club for an evening of hacking on personal projects.
➡️ Register on Eventbrite
The Philadelphia JavaScript Club, founded in 2022, is a place for developers of all skill and experience levels to connect, show off their work, and learn new things.
We are devoted to being good citizens: we’re here to help support individual and organizational development, to connect developers with the events going on in Philadelphia, and to provide a safe space for people to try new things. We want to empower everyone who joins us to build the best things they can build; we want to help make instant friends amongst the developers who call Philadelphia home.
We’re happy for you to join us.

📡 Virtual Meshtastic Meetup
2023-07-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Jitsi Meet (iffybooks.club), 19107
We’re hosting a virtual meetup on Thursday, July 27th at 7 p.m. to help Meshtastic users get connected. Our goal is to make a wireless chat network across the PHL area using low-power LoRa radios.
To join the network, you’ll need a LoRa radio such as a Heltec LoRa32, LILYGO LoRa32, or LILYGO T-Beam. Here’s a full list of compatible devices.
➡️ Meetup link
Here’s a link to our updated zine on LoRa + Meshtastic.

⚡️ Open Soldering Session
2023-07-27 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Thursday, July 27th from 6–8 p.m. we’re hosting an open soldering session. If you’ve been meaning to get a soldering project done, now’s your chance! We’ll have soldering irons and solder to share for free, as well as DIY electronics kits for sale.
If you’re looking for a step-by-step introduction to soldering, we’re hosting a beginner class on August 10th.
Register:

📚 Speculative Futures Reading Group: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
2023-07-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Wednesday, July 26th at 7:oo p.m. we’ll meet to discuss The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin. See you there!
Get the audiobook on Libro.fm.

⚙️ Neo-Luddite Reading Group: 'Resisting AI' by Dan McQuillan
2023-07-25 18:30 - 20:30 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Time and Place:
2nd & 4th Tuesday each month
6:30–8:30 p.m. @ Iffy Books
➡️ Virtual Meetup Link
Contact:
neoluddite@victorgom.es
@notnaughtknot
Discord:
Email neoluddite@victorgom.es for an invite!
You may have played around with chatGPT, or perhaps even used DALL-e to generate images from text. Though Large Language Models have been around since 2018, they’re currently dominating the news thanks to the public release of these newer, even larger models. While impressive, like many technologies, they come at a cost and introduce new risks. However, there are specific issues related to the sheer scale of these models and they highlight the dangers of machines which allow for the consolidation of labor.
These issues 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 will begin with “Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence” by Dan McQuillan, with additional optional readings. If you’d like to learn more about me, you can visit victorgom.es for a bio.
Schedule
The only expectation is that you read the chapter(s) of the book that’s listed for that meeting. I tried keeping it around 30 pages on average. Even if you don’t read the assigned chapters, you’re still welcome to participate as long as you are mindful.
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! Optional readings are by no means required, but they may add to and deepen our conversation. They’re a mix of news articles, essays, and journal articles, so you can pick from type of text is most engaging to you. They pull from a range of disciplines and schools of thought, which I hope serves to highlight and survey how many different people conceptualize issues with AI, though it is by no means exhaustive. If you ever find yourself struggling, reach out! Either directly or over discord to the group.
I’d suggest you read this before anything else for some historical context: What the Luddites Really Fought Against by Richard Conniff. The Luddites will also comes up in Chapter 6.
Meeting 3 (July 25th): Resisting AI

Chapter 4. Necropolitics

The Values Encoded in Machine Learning Research by Abeba Birhane et al.
Machine Bias: Risk Assessments in Criminal Sentencing by Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu, & Lauren Kirchner
How We Analyzed the COMPAS Recidivism Algorithm by Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu, & Lauren Kirchner
Homeland Security Uses AI Tool to Analyze Social Media of U.S. Citizens and Refugees by Joseph Cox
Algorithmic Colonization of Africa by Abeba Birhane

➡️ Complete reading schedule
Register (optional):

📊 Python Data Visualization for Beginners
2023-07-23 15:30 - 17:30 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Sunday, July 23rd at 3:30 p.m. we’re hosting a workshop on creating charts and graphs with the Python programming language. We’ll use the modules matplotlib and seaborn to create a range of common plots: histogram, pie chart, bar graph, line graph, and scatter plot. We’ll use Jupyter Notebook to keep our code organized.
This workshop is designed with beginners in mind, including people who don’t have programming experience. More experienced programmers are welcome too!
We’ll have a computer available for everyone who signs up.
Registration:

💾🌾 Iffy Books Permacomputing Meetup
2023-07-23 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Our next permacomputing meetup is on Sunday, July 23rd at 1:00 PM EDT. You can join us in person at Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St. #2I, 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)

🎂 Iffy Books 2nd Birthday Party!
2023-07-21 18:00 - 22:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Come out on Friday, July 21st and celebrate Iffy Books’s 2nd birthday! We’ll have music and drinks from 6–10 p.m.
Hope to see you there!
Photo by JanetMcK | CC BY 2.0

🎥 Hackers' Assembly Movie Night 0x0
2023-07-20 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Details:

It’s hot so come to China town, grab your favorite drink then meet us at Iffy Books for a hacker themed movie night.
Details & registration on Meetup

Bleeding Control Basics
2023-07-18 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
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:

🎤 Audio Recording Basics
2023-07-16 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Sunday, July 16th at 1 p.m. we’re running a free workshop on the basics of recording audio. We’ll discuss mic technique, audio hardware, recording conditions, and software options. Everyone will get a chance to make a recording with Audacity and start editing with Reaper.
We’ll have a computer available for everyone who signs up.
Register:

📄 Open Zine Printing Session
2023-07-15 13:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
We’re hosting an open zine printing session on Saturday, July 15th at 1:00 p.m.! We’ll help you turn your zine design into a print-imposed PDF and print ~200 sheets for free.
Printing supplies are provided by a grant from the Lang Center for Civic & Social Responsibility at Swarthmore College, arranged by recent graduate Pixel Stone.
Register:

Photo CC-BY Jake

🚂 Model Internet Club
2023-07-14 18:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
The Model Internet Club meets again on Friday, July 14th, 6–9 p.m. Our goal is to build an offline network for fun and learning.
At our last meeting we settled on a design for our network (below). We’re just getting started on building it, so newcomers are welcome!

⚡️ Beginner Soldering Workshop
2023-07-13 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Thursday, July 13th 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:

⚙️ Neo-Luddite Reading Group: 'Resisting AI' by Dan McQuillan
2023-07-11 18:30 - 20:30 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Time and Place:
2nd & 4th Tuesday each month
6:30–8:30 p.m. @ Iffy Books
Beginning Tuesday, June 27th
➡️ Virtual Meetup Link
Contact:
neoluddite@victorgom.es
@notnaughtknot
Discord:
Email neoluddite@victorgom.es for an invite!
You may have played around with chatGPT, or perhaps even used DALL-e to generate images from text. Though Large Language Models have been around since 2018, they’re currently dominating the news thanks to the public release of these newer, even larger models. While impressive, like many technologies, they come at a cost and introduce new risks. However, there are specific issues related to the sheer scale of these models and they highlight the dangers of machines which allow for the consolidation of labor.
These issues 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 will begin with “Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence” by Dan McQuillan, with additional optional readings. If you’d like to learn more about me, you can visit victorgom.es for a bio.
Schedule
The only expectation is that you read the chapter(s) of the book that’s listed for that meeting. I tried keeping it around 30 pages on average. Even if you don’t read the assigned chapters, you’re still welcome to participate as long as you are mindful.
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! Optional readings are by no means required, but they may add to and deepen our conversation. They’re a mix of news articles, essays, and journal articles, so you can pick from type of text is most engaging to you. They pull from a range of disciplines and schools of thought, which I hope serves to highlight and survey how many different people conceptualize issues with AI, though it is by no means exhaustive. If you ever find yourself struggling, reach out! Either directly or over discord to the group.
I’d suggest you read this before anything else for some historical context: What the Luddites Really Fought Against by Richard Conniff. The Luddites will also comes up in Chapter 6.
Meeting 2 (July 11th): Resisting AI:

Chapter 2. Collateral Damage

Ethical and social risks of harm from Language Models by Laura Weidinger et al.
OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour by Billy Perigo
Weizenbaum examines computers and society by Diana ben-Aaron

Chapter 3. AI Violence

Physiognomy’s New Clothes by Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Margaret Mitchell, & Alexander Todorov
Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey? by Ted Chiang
Large Datasets, A Pyrrhic Win for Computer Vision? by Vinay Uday Prabhu & Abeba Birhane
Autism and the making of emotion AI: Disability as resource for surveillance capitalism by Jeff Nagy

➡️ Complete reading schedule
Register (optional):

📡 Meshtastic 101
2023-07-09 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Sunday, July 9th at 1:00 p.m. we’re hosting an introduction to Meshtastic, an application that lets you send private text messages over the air using pocket-sized LoRa radios.
Here’s a link to our updated zine on LoRa + Meshtastic. (Print-imposed PDF coming soon!)
If you have a LoRa radio (or reserve one below), we’ll show you how to flash the latest Meshtastic firmware to the device and customize the settings. If you don’t have a LoRa radio, you’re still welcome to attend!
Register:

🔓 First Friday TOOOL Meetup
2023-07-07 18:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Friday, July 7th at 6 p.m. we’re hosting a meetup run by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Open Organization of Lockpickers.
> Come join us for our monthly First Friday 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.

📡 Virtual Meshtastic Meetup
2023-07-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
We’re hosting a virtual meetup on Thursday, July 6th at 7 p.m. to help Meshtastic users get connected. Our goal is to make a wireless chat network across the PHL area using low-power LoRa radios.
To join the network, you’ll need a LoRa radio such as a Heltec LoRa32, LILYGO LoRa32, or LILYGO T-Beam. Here’s a full list of compatible devices.
We recommend updating your Meshtastic firmware before the meetup. Here’s a link to the latest release.
➡️ Meetup link
