Lee Vinsel
@leev.bsky.social
I do technology studies, make the Peoples & Things podcast, co-founded The Maintainers, and profess Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech.
Periodic reposting of the secret seal of the American Historical Association.
Its image: a wet blanket.
One motto: "Historians - we are here to bum you out."
(Grainy because I risked my life to smuggle this out of a secret history ritual.)
Its image: a wet blanket.
One motto: "Historians - we are here to bum you out."
(Grainy because I risked my life to smuggle this out of a secret history ritual.)
November 10, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Periodic reposting of the secret seal of the American Historical Association.
Its image: a wet blanket.
One motto: "Historians - we are here to bum you out."
(Grainy because I risked my life to smuggle this out of a secret history ritual.)
Its image: a wet blanket.
One motto: "Historians - we are here to bum you out."
(Grainy because I risked my life to smuggle this out of a secret history ritual.)
Join us on Monday November 3 at 7pm ET for a Peoples & Things livestream featuring Cory Doctorow @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy on his book, _Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It_, with special guest host @zephoria.bsky.social!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFv...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFv...
October 30, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Join us on Monday November 3 at 7pm ET for a Peoples & Things livestream featuring Cory Doctorow @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy on his book, _Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It_, with special guest host @zephoria.bsky.social!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFv...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFv...
Hard for me to put into words how touched I was when the editors of Technology & Culture, which I've been reading for half my life, interviewed me about Peoples & Things, the technology studies podcast I make with a production team here at Virginia Tech.
doi.org/10.1353/tech...
doi.org/10.1353/tech...
October 16, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Hard for me to put into words how touched I was when the editors of Technology & Culture, which I've been reading for half my life, interviewed me about Peoples & Things, the technology studies podcast I make with a production team here at Virginia Tech.
doi.org/10.1353/tech...
doi.org/10.1353/tech...
A new post on The Conversation estimates that flushing the toilet equals the water used in 154 GPT-5 prompts and 1,714 GPT-4o prompts. I am wondering if anyone has seen analysis or pushback on the piece.
theconversation.com/ai-has-a-hid...
theconversation.com/ai-has-a-hid...
September 4, 2025 at 1:24 PM
A new post on The Conversation estimates that flushing the toilet equals the water used in 154 GPT-5 prompts and 1,714 GPT-4o prompts. I am wondering if anyone has seen analysis or pushback on the piece.
theconversation.com/ai-has-a-hid...
theconversation.com/ai-has-a-hid...
A bane of hosting a podcast about technology is that I get loads of press releases and such, including not one but four - FOUR! - emails relating to this supposedly AI-enabled . . . pen.
August 27, 2025 at 4:51 PM
A bane of hosting a podcast about technology is that I get loads of press releases and such, including not one but four - FOUR! - emails relating to this supposedly AI-enabled . . . pen.
Had fun working on this post most of the day. Should be up tomorrow morning.
August 19, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Had fun working on this post most of the day. Should be up tomorrow morning.
Headed to a departmental writing retreat in an old farmhouse here in Blacksburg. Really looking forward to it.
July 16, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Headed to a departmental writing retreat in an old farmhouse here in Blacksburg. Really looking forward to it.
Title/angle of this piece is absurd. Most examples come from medical imaging and sensing that people have been doing for *YEARS* before "AI." All kinds of ways we use technologies to look at humans in ways that we cannot look at ourselves. Peter Winch would have a field day.
June 18, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Title/angle of this piece is absurd. Most examples come from medical imaging and sensing that people have been doing for *YEARS* before "AI." All kinds of ways we use technologies to look at humans in ways that we cannot look at ourselves. Peter Winch would have a field day.
Who could possibly have foreseen it?
May 29, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Who could possibly have foreseen it?
If you are free this Friday afternoon (1:30pm ET) and want to hear about my current book project, A Good History of Shit Jobs, you can tune into my department's seminar YouTube stream. www.youtube.com/@VTDepartmen...
March 25, 2025 at 3:15 PM
If you are free this Friday afternoon (1:30pm ET) and want to hear about my current book project, A Good History of Shit Jobs, you can tune into my department's seminar YouTube stream. www.youtube.com/@VTDepartmen...
Productivity charts from @adamtooze.bsky.social's Chartbook. What stands out to me is that the 2010s were a period of several bubbles focused on overpromised digital technologies and Silicon Valley. That stuff just wasn't making organizations that much more effective.
March 9, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Productivity charts from @adamtooze.bsky.social's Chartbook. What stands out to me is that the 2010s were a period of several bubbles focused on overpromised digital technologies and Silicon Valley. That stuff just wasn't making organizations that much more effective.
Today, I'm interviewing historian of computing Thomas Haigh about his forthcoming book,_ Artificial Intelligence: The History of a Brand_, for a future Peoples & Things episode. It's really, really, really good. Best thing I've ever read on the history of "AI." Made me LOL lots.
March 7, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Today, I'm interviewing historian of computing Thomas Haigh about his forthcoming book,_ Artificial Intelligence: The History of a Brand_, for a future Peoples & Things episode. It's really, really, really good. Best thing I've ever read on the history of "AI." Made me LOL lots.
Dear @pseudoerasmus.bsky.social and others into related topics,
Have you seen anything from the last few decades regarding the Lynn White-ian thesis about the heavy plow re-ordering social relations during the Medieval period? Thinking about the kinds of claims in this paragraph.
Have you seen anything from the last few decades regarding the Lynn White-ian thesis about the heavy plow re-ordering social relations during the Medieval period? Thinking about the kinds of claims in this paragraph.
March 3, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Dear @pseudoerasmus.bsky.social and others into related topics,
Have you seen anything from the last few decades regarding the Lynn White-ian thesis about the heavy plow re-ordering social relations during the Medieval period? Thinking about the kinds of claims in this paragraph.
Have you seen anything from the last few decades regarding the Lynn White-ian thesis about the heavy plow re-ordering social relations during the Medieval period? Thinking about the kinds of claims in this paragraph.
This week's Peoples & Things episode features @aschrock.bsky.social talking about their interesting book, _Politics Recoded: The Infrastructural Organizing of Code for America_. The book is a testament to the power of interpretation aimed first at understanding.
newbooksnetwork.com/politics-rec...
newbooksnetwork.com/politics-rec...
February 24, 2025 at 4:48 PM
This week's Peoples & Things episode features @aschrock.bsky.social talking about their interesting book, _Politics Recoded: The Infrastructural Organizing of Code for America_. The book is a testament to the power of interpretation aimed first at understanding.
newbooksnetwork.com/politics-rec...
newbooksnetwork.com/politics-rec...
ICYMI: Thinking a lot about this Peoples & Things episode on hacker cultures (plural!) with guest @biella.bsky.social and guest host @bialski.bsky.social . Sadly, our conversation about the "Dark Enlightenment" and other strands has become even more relevant.
newbooksnetwork.com/hacker-hoaxe...
newbooksnetwork.com/hacker-hoaxe...
February 21, 2025 at 3:35 PM
ICYMI: Thinking a lot about this Peoples & Things episode on hacker cultures (plural!) with guest @biella.bsky.social and guest host @bialski.bsky.social . Sadly, our conversation about the "Dark Enlightenment" and other strands has become even more relevant.
newbooksnetwork.com/hacker-hoaxe...
newbooksnetwork.com/hacker-hoaxe...
My daughter is doing a presentation about what her mom and dad do for work.
January 26, 2025 at 10:36 PM
My daughter is doing a presentation about what her mom and dad do for work.
Funny post on Reddit's r/vegan about how folks are complaining about the water usage of "AI" when more mundane products use far more water. I continue to think that critics are really overplaying their cards wrt the environmental impacts of "AI."
www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comm...
www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comm...
January 21, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Funny post on Reddit's r/vegan about how folks are complaining about the water usage of "AI" when more mundane products use far more water. I continue to think that critics are really overplaying their cards wrt the environmental impacts of "AI."
www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comm...
www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comm...
Going to pull this on my entire contact list in three days.
December 22, 2024 at 8:17 PM
Going to pull this on my entire contact list in three days.
A dear old colleague of mine has helped put together this 4S Open Panel, Grassroot STS methodologies that reverberate social change. More deets here: 4sonline.org/accepted_ope...
December 22, 2024 at 5:44 PM
A dear old colleague of mine has helped put together this 4S Open Panel, Grassroot STS methodologies that reverberate social change. More deets here: 4sonline.org/accepted_ope...
Wow. This Wall Street Journal profile of Deepak Chopra is basically pornographic material for cultural pessimist technology critics. They must be SO excited and having a field day with it!
www.wsj.com/style/deepak...
www.wsj.com/style/deepak...
November 22, 2024 at 8:04 PM
Wow. This Wall Street Journal profile of Deepak Chopra is basically pornographic material for cultural pessimist technology critics. They must be SO excited and having a field day with it!
www.wsj.com/style/deepak...
www.wsj.com/style/deepak...
New, neat article from Arunabh Ghosh, "The Significance of Small Things: Small Hydropower in the People’s Republic of China, 1949–1983."
I confess that I like it mostly because I am a nerd for small hydropower and spend my time hanging out in creeks.
doi.org/10.1017/S001...
I confess that I like it mostly because I am a nerd for small hydropower and spend my time hanging out in creeks.
doi.org/10.1017/S001...
November 22, 2024 at 1:26 PM
New, neat article from Arunabh Ghosh, "The Significance of Small Things: Small Hydropower in the People’s Republic of China, 1949–1983."
I confess that I like it mostly because I am a nerd for small hydropower and spend my time hanging out in creeks.
doi.org/10.1017/S001...
I confess that I like it mostly because I am a nerd for small hydropower and spend my time hanging out in creeks.
doi.org/10.1017/S001...
The Places Journal asked me and, more importantly, a bunch of great folks to write reflections on repair, and I wrote about tensions between metaphors of building and repair in climate policy.
November 21, 2024 at 4:21 PM
The Places Journal asked me and, more importantly, a bunch of great folks to write reflections on repair, and I wrote about tensions between metaphors of building and repair in climate policy.
November 20, 2024 at 3:36 PM
hahahahahahahahaha. Technology rules.
I would like a social media platform that was only professional news and professional shit posting (but less corporate oriented than LinkedIn, though I think that place has gotten better and more interesting in recent months).
I would like a social media platform that was only professional news and professional shit posting (but less corporate oriented than LinkedIn, though I think that place has gotten better and more interesting in recent months).
November 19, 2024 at 3:32 PM
hahahahahahahahaha. Technology rules.
I would like a social media platform that was only professional news and professional shit posting (but less corporate oriented than LinkedIn, though I think that place has gotten better and more interesting in recent months).
I would like a social media platform that was only professional news and professional shit posting (but less corporate oriented than LinkedIn, though I think that place has gotten better and more interesting in recent months).
Our little - actually quite big and corpulent - toad buddy, who lives near the front walkway of our house.
November 15, 2024 at 11:03 PM
Our little - actually quite big and corpulent - toad buddy, who lives near the front walkway of our house.