One problem with having a non-comic-book alter ego is that one doesn’t also have superpowers to genuinely multitask. (Genuine multitasking is when one does N things at once and each gets done as quickly and as well as if one were fully focused on just it. This is unlike pretend multitaking where one thinks one is doing N things at once, but none of them well.) That is to say, the Jester can explain his long absence by noting that for over a year, his schizophrenic other has been feverishly working to finish a book. The Jester is happy to report that the manuscript has been submitted, and the Jester has gotten the use of his brain back!
Alas, it takes some time for the neural cobwebs to clear, so in lieu of a proper post, the Jester will serve his doppelganger’s marketing manager’s bidding and proceed with several shameless plugs.
To begin, Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology will be released May 26, 2015 in the United States. (The title is one the Jester wishes he had come up with himself — thanks go to fellow jester Tom Paulson at Humanosphere.) Unfortunate souls in other countries will have to ask US-based friends to ship them their copies. It’s possible to pre-order copies of the book through the monopolistic, tech-enabled, couch-potato-breeding, mom-and-pop-shop-killing Amazon, but the Jester strongly urges potential readers to pre-order the book at their friendly local bookstore, where not only will readers be greeted with the warm smile of bibliophilic staff, there is a greater opportunity to contribute to the count of various book-sales-tallying services. Non-Americans are encouraged to make a trip to the United States specifically to purchase the book at one of the country’s fine retail establishments. Yes, it is that good!
The Jester’s virtual twin has also recently just published a book review of Bill Easterly’s recent tome, The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor. The review is available free at the open-access journal, Information Technologies and International Development. (Full disclosure: The Jester shares gray matter with co-editor-in-chief of the journal. As the Jester warned, this post is just one long shameless plug!)
Finally, just this morning, the Jester’s spirit was channeled at the Atlantic online, where an article picks up where the Jester last left off… It not only takes on Internet.org, but also Time Magazine journalist Lev Grossman, for going too easy on Zuckerberg. Here are some teasers: “Much of the public sphere on both the political left and right [is] unable to resist the grand ambitions of Silicon Valley late capitalists,” and “Freedom is the basis by which corporations seduce unsuspecting consumers so long as it isn’t causing them biological harm.” The Jester would have written those words if he had had his wits about him!
The ICT4D Jester 