For Tech’s Sake

This bonus episode from For Tech’s Sake features our complete interview with Dr Caroline West a sex educator and host of the Glow West podcast. Caroline has a master’s in sexuality studies and a PhD in feminism and pornography, and is the sex and relationship expert for Bumble Ireland and the UK. In our main episode, we talked about modern dating, cyberpsychology and sex education. In this expanded discussion you can hear about her experience with sex in virtual reality, the kind of goodie bags you get at a sex festival, and diversity in porn (which includes zombie porn… yep, that exists).

If you’ve already heard what she had to say in our sex-tech episode, skip to just over 19 minutes in to pick up the conversation where we left off.

For obvious reasons, this isn’t an episode we would recommend for young, innocent ears, and we also discuss issues such as sexual violence online and offline.

Caroline has a website, IAmCarolineWest.com, and her own podcast, Glow West, where you can find more discussions on sex, sexuality, and the body, through a sexual wellness perspective.

You can follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice or let us know what you think via [email protected].

And tune in next week for an all-new episode!

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If you ever wanted to hear two nerds talk to an expert about sex, you’re in luck! In this episode, we speak to Dr Caroline West, a sex educator with a master’s in sexuality studies and a PhD in feminism and pornography, and she teaches us a thing or two about sex and dating in the digital age, from digital intimacy to dick pics.

For obvious reasons, this isn’t an episode we would recommend for young, innocent ears, and we also discuss issues such as sexual violence online and offline.

You can find out more about Caroline at IAmCarolineWest.com and be sure to check out her podcast, Glow West, for discussions on sex, sexuality, and the body, through a sexual wellness perspective.

Dr Nicola Fox Hamilton’s work can be found here, and Dr Kate Dawson’s research on porn literacy is here.

Coco's Law – otherwise known as The Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act – is explained here, and if you need to report intimate image abuse, go to Hotline.ie.

Some more links you might find interesting:

— An interview with Caroline on Silicon Republic

— A recent article on sex-tech by Elaine, also featuring Caroline

— Some further information on Hotline.ie

— How educators are tackling the problems of bringing sex ed online

— Some background on Replika AI and its ban in Italy

— The long-distance kissing machine

— Support your local Irish sex toy supplier at SexSiopa.ie

We’ll release Caroline’s interview in its entirety in our bonus feed next week, and we’ll be back in a fortnight with an all-new episode.

And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice.

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It’s the last bonus episode of the season and we are letting you in on an exclusive chat on what we have in mind for season two of For Tech’s Sake, including our dream guest list (Pedro Pascal, hello!) and tech topics not yet tackled. We also reflect on the first 10 episodes and what we learned from the experience so far.

For Tech’s Sake also wants to hear from you, the listener, about what you’d like to hear in season two. Be sure to let us know via [email protected] or find us @fortechssakepod on your preferred social network. We’ll be back!

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Do you realise how much of the tech we rely on is maintained by volunteer coders? This isn't just Wikipedia. A plethora of everyday tech would collapse if not for the noble commitment of open source developers. And they are beginning to show their force in the form of protest, sabotaging their own code to send a message to the Big Tech corporations that profit from it.

We brought in Dr Colin Keogh to tell us about about open source in both software and hardware, as he helped to build out a team to design and develop open-source ventilators during Covid-19. He is also the co-founder of the consultancy Sapien Innovation and co-founder of the Rapid Foundation, a social enterprise which aims to disperse 3D printing technology to third world locations.

You can follow Colin @ColinJ_Keog on Twitter and you can also read more about open source on Silicon Republic. Here are some links to get you started:

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/topics/open-source/](https://www.siliconrepublic.com/topics/open-source/

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/start-ups/open-source-ventilator-project-coronavirus]

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/nearform-cian-o-maidin-open-source]

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/github-marak-squires-colors-faker-npm-corrupt-open-source]

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/log4shell-flaw-ncsc-advice-cybersecurity]

And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice.

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We follow up our For Tech’s Sake episode on tech waste with a closer look at what sustainability really means to tech companies, from explaining what a B Corp is to having a rant about the planned obsolescence of devices, which are designed to break down so that we just keep buying!

You can also read more about B Corps here: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/what-is-a-b-corp-company-benefits

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 In this episode of For Tech’s Sake, we dive into the landfill of digital waste to turn up some nuggets of information we hope you’ll re-use. Tech waste involves more than just devices getting dumped, too. We also lose the precious and finite materials these devices contain. And, though it’s not apparent to us, our digital detritus of messages, selfies and endless streams of data has a physical footprint.

To understand more, we spoke to Gerry McGovern, author of World Wide Waste and host of the podcast of the same name.

You can follow Gerry on Mastodon at @[email protected]. We’ve also included a link his previous interview with Jenny on SiliconRepublic.com, as well as some other links listeners might find useful.

https://gerrymcgovern.com/

Silicon Republic interview: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/gerry-mcgovern-digital-pollution-e-waste

World Wide Waste podcast episode with Josh Lepawsky: https://www.thisishcd.com/episode/josh-lepawsky-pernicious-myth-of-digital-as-ethereal

Dublin’s Tog Hackerspace, which sometimes hosts a Repair Café: https://www.tog.ie/

Ireland’s repair and reuse directory: http://www.repairmystuff.ie/

And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice.

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‘Dark patterns’ are design techniques used to weaponise user behaviour and manipulate us into delivering on a company’s goals. They have become so common that they are even namechecked in the EU’s new legislation to clamp down on nefarious user design in tech. Even though understanding them won’t make you impervious to their influence, we certainly think it’s best to know when your taking action for your sake, or for tech’s sake.

In this episode, we also spoke to Prof Owen Conlan, a research lead at Adapt, the Science Foundation Ireland research centre for AI-driven digital content technology. He told us what he thinks about dark patterns, as well as how they might be amped up with AI.

You can follow Owen @oconlan on Twitter and the Adapt centre at @AdaptCentre. You can also read more about Empushy on SiliconRepublic.com: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/empushy-notifications-productivity

All of Silicon Republic’s fascinating AI coverage can be found here:

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/topics/ai/

And you can learn a lot more about the EUs Digital Services Act here:

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/eu-digital-services-act-illegal-content-moderation

And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We have an energy crisis, and it's not the one you think. To move to a more sustainable future we need to figure out how to power mass electrification, and source and store energy responsibly.

Scientists around the world are working on fascinating battery technologies to help, and Ireland is no exception. For example, Dr Valeria Nico is a postdoctoral research fellow in the area of energy harvesting at the Bernal Institute, University of Limerick, and she told us all about her work developing tech that can generate energy for small devices from vibrations in their environment.

It's powerful stuff, so get ready to strap yourself in and feel the Gs! 

Read more about Valeria's work, the EU's new battery rules, and Codema's project to heat homes with waste energy from data centres on SiliconRepublic.com:

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/good-vibrations-developing-new-tech-for-energy-harvesting

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/eu-batteries-sustainable-european-green-deal

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/codema-equinix-waste-data-centre-heat-project-dublin

And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice.

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