Unauthorized Bread
author of Enshittification Cory Doctorow presents Unauthorized Bread—a near-future dystopian graphic novel about how we use our technology...and how it uses us. Salima’s new high-tech apartment building seems ideal, until she and her neighbors discover it’s designed to enforce inequality. Elevators discriminate by income, appliances extract revenue. The fridge won't chill unauthorized groceries. The toaster won't toast unauthorized bread. When the company that makes these electronic "conveniences" goes under, they stop working altogether. Salima must lead a dangerous jailbreaking effort, training a child army who liberate the building's appliances, even those hated elevators. But this group of disenfranchised young immigrants will have to risk everything. Cory Doctorow is one of our most incisive and imaginative thinkers about technology, and Unauthorized Bread is both propulsive dystopian adventure and a chilling warning about the cost of surrendering control to technology. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Stats for nerds
19recommend
46mentions
42people
2019–2026years
41% recommend54% neutral4% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Absolutely insane how people could have bought a bicycle that will become (partially) useless if they don't connect it with a mobile app. Even if this bike have the build quality of a spaceship I wouldn't even touch it with a stick.
Kudos to Seth for cracking the control on the bike, just so we can reclaim control of an appliance that we paid for with our own money, one that won't work because the maker can't be arsed enough to make it work without a mobile app.
Related: Cory Doctorow's [Unauthorized Bread](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-...)
- Obligatory link to Doctorow’s Unauthorized Bread (2019), a DRM-themed, uh… thriller? polemic?… of a novella. Deals with the themes you discuss: large appliance manufacturer malfeasance, intrusive exploitation beyond the scope of the product’s purpose, renters’ relative helplessness for the appliances to service their daily needs.
https://craphound.com/unauthorized-bread/
Discussion here (2020, 123 comments):
- Required reading: Unauthorized Bread by Cory Doctorow (excerpt: [0]; part of his book Radicalized [1])
[0]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-...
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radicalized_%28Doctorow_book%2...
- Worth reading: Unauthorized Bread. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-...
- Unauthorized Bread by Cory Doctorow is a relevant read here.
- Relevant (and worth reading, if you haven't seen it):
"Unauthorized Bread" by Cory Doctorow
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