We Refuse, We Want, We Commit: Volume 1

‘No & ...’ : A Forum on Technological Refusal - Home

This forum begins from the idea that refusal is, among other things, a rejection of one’s current relationship to technology (as an individual and/or as part of a collective) and a simultaneous commitment to another way of being in the world. The ‘no’ is accompanied by a ‘yes’ to another path. In this sense, refusal demands a careful articulation of what needs to change as well as a vision for a future that can (and should) be worked towards.

The Perfect Commit

For the last few years I’ve been trying to center my work around creating what I consider to be the Perfect Commit. This is a single commit that contains all …

The Conversation Is the Commit - The Phoenix Architecture

Escape-X - Let's take back control of our digital spaces!

With Elon Musk, X became an opinion manipulation machine. Let's refuse to be accomplices.Let's take back control by leaving X collectively for alternatives that respect freedom of expression.

Resisting Cognitive Surrender

This particular note is around exploring cognitive surrender: uncritically accepting whatever agents output without actually thinking, exploring or considering alternatives. Working this way is extremely fast, not particularly taxing, and unsurprisingly seductive.

The Mind in the Wheel – Prologue: Everybody Wants a Rock

We who have nothing to “wind string around” are lost in the wilderness. But those who deny this need are “burning our playhouse down.” If you put quotes around certain words it sounds more like a m…

What we want is a hunter gatherer lifestyle with space age tools

Those who are convinced that there is more to things spend their time chasing it and not finding it often as not, and those who are convinced there isn't find themselves frustrated at the abyss.

Three Quotes from Early GitHubbers

Written pieces, talks, and other bits by Zach Holman.

Submissions to Profectus Creation Jam 2023

Technoskepticism: Between Possibility and Refusal

Between Possibility and Refusal

Copyleft Has No Posse

war is over, want it or not

Intention, control, and the feeling of commitment

In this paper we propose that rational control of action, agentive stability over time, and coordinated social behavior, are assisted by a form of metacognitive monitoring, leading to an aspect of conscious experience: a feeling of commitment. This feeling of commitment is attached to the formation, retrieval, and execution of intentions. The metacognitive monitoring that produces it is sensitive to the importance of intentions. And the feeling of commitment facilitates the stability and effectiveness of intentions across individual and social contexts, strengthens goal shielding, biases intention retrieval, and thus structures prospective deliberation, expression of intention, and execution of intention. In section two, we discuss control, which is a central aspect of agency and action. In section three, we discuss a crucial part of control: intention. We also discuss a crucial part of intention: commitment. In section four we relate the commitment involved in intention with definitions of commitment in the literature. In section five we offer and elucidate our hypothesis.