I have been writing Tech for War and Peace for almost a year now. Tech for War and Peace is a newsletter that is intended to observe, not comment on, technology in conflict and peace contexts.

I feel that there is room to share my thoughts and reflections on what I experience, read, and observe around other topics that are important to me, such as global cultures, sustainability, and how tech influences us and our future.

I will share these reflections, thoughts, and observations in a monthly note at the end of each month. It will cover conferences I have attended, conversations I have had, books I have read, podcasts I have listened to, news, and cultural phenomena.

Most of you who receive this are also subscribers of Tech for War and Peace. If you wish to keep receiving only that newsletter, just reply to this email and let me know.

“They don’t want change. They want power,” says Dag Hammarskjöld in the Swedish movie from last year.

Hammarskjöld was Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 until he died in 1961, and was dealing with the decolonisation of Africa, particularly the crisis in Congo when he said those words.

In 2022, 62 million tons of e-waste were disregarded globally. With a 2.6 million tonnes increase a year, it is projected that it could reach 82 million tons by 2030. At the same time, the recycling rate is expected to drop from 22.3% to 20%.

When I teach or give a talk on emerging technologies, I often find a huge gap in the understanding of the full production chain of hardware and software. It is as if the smartphone is just magically in our hands, solving all our problems and making the world a better place; the AI prompts magically make lives so much easier, speeding up our tasks, admin, and thought processes.