I would devour biographical literature of non-cis-men in tech. I crave a certain kind of perspective. I build my object of desire, this hypothetical book, from bits and pieces of already-existing literature. I also take certain things as references for what I don't want to ever read more of.
If you have any suggestions for me, please slide them into my DMs on Mastodon or send me an e-mail (using the address & PGP key in the about section).
The exquisite corpse of the kind of tech biography I would love to read is assembled from other books, articles, fragments, videos:
- README.txt (Chelsea Manning's memoir)
- Quinn Norton's Everything is Broken
- Meredith Whittaker's Origin Stories: Plantations, Computers, and Industrial Control
- Julia Evans' blog
- Charity Heartscape Porpentine's Hot Allostatic Load
- Philosophy Tube's Here's What Ethical AI Really Means
- Women, Whistleblowing, WikiLeaks: A Conversation
- emma best's blog (hoping for an alternative-reality biography based on the 123 things emma did "while working for the CIA")
If I get more recommendations, I promise to update this list..
I don't care if the biographies are books, essays, videos, zines, blogs, threads in the fediverse or comics. I would just love to read about non-cis men making sense of technology, bodies, politics, what it means to exist and where it's all heading.
It's not that I don't think cis-men can say relevant things on these subjects. It's just that their words are easy to find. I don't spend any time craving and imagining a hypothetical opinion from a cis-man because they are well-represented in all mediums that I consume.
The anti-wish list, the list of things I would rather never read again, includes:
- corporate-feminism, stories of "female CEOs breaking the glass ceiling" or any other depictions of free-market capitalism co-opting the struggles of feminism
- tutorials or textbooks "aimed" at non-cis men (why?)