Non-fictionThe hacker ethos helped solidify the idea that computers weren’t just utilitarian devices that performed tasks – they had expressive potential and could be used to facilitate new forms of art and activism in the right hands and under the right conditions. But this perpetuated a myth that anyone with access to computers could try their hand at being creative and participate in a new, digital culture. While the ethos achieved a great deal in the acculturation of utopian and countercultural values, a neoliberal core soon began to emerge – especially as early tech pioneers got rich. 

Non-fictionOur devices and data are more than extensions of our physical bodies. The so-called ‘human-centric’ approach to designing wearable and carriable devices means that they disrupt traditional divisions between work and leisure, production and consumption. It’s difficult not to feel the incursion of work-logics into leisure times and spaces as normal. Stretched for time, couples, families and friendship groups are starting to organise themselves using tools like Slack, Jira, Trello and Asana – that is, in the same way as workplaces.