Can Afghanistan’s underground “sneakernet” survive the Taliban?

What's missing from the push to diversify tech

The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Afghanistan's secret content market 11.26.21 Good morning! Today: meet Afghanistan's secret digital content dealers—and learn about the threat the Taliban poses to their livelihoods. Also: why we need to focus more on pathways than pipelines to address the lack of diversity in tech. I hope you have a lovely weekend—see you on Monday! And in the meantime, don't forget to get your friends and colleagues to sign up here to get The Download every day. Can Afghanistan’s underground “sneakernet” survive the Taliban?   Afghanistan is a country of 39 million people, yet fewer than 9 million have access to the internet. That’s where “computer kars” come in: people who sell digital content by hand. They sell pretty much everything, from movies, music, mobile applications, to iOS updates—and porn.   Although they sometimes download their information from the internet when they’re able to get a connection, they physically transport much of it on hard drives from neighboring countries—what is known as the “sneakernet.” Like virtually every other industry in Afghanistan, their work has been rocked by the Taliban takeover. Mohammad Yasin, a 21-year-old “kar”, had to erase some of the sensitive data on his computer and move the rest onto two of his largest hard drives, which he then wrapped in a layer of plastic and buried underground at an undisclosed location. The Taliban takeover has been bad for business, pushing his average daily earnings down by 90%. He says he’s not worried about being found. But he admits that if he ever was, he’d probably be executed. Read the full story. —Ruchi Kumar What’s missing from the push to diversify tech We often hear the path to a technology career described as a pipeline. Most diversity efforts in our field have focused on getting more people from diverse backgrounds into this pipeline. And yet representation remains stubbornly low. Between 2014 and 2020, the proportion of Black and Hispanic tech professionals at Facebook increased by less than two percentage points. Why? The pipeline metaphor ignores the realities of racism, classism, and sexism faced by those historically excluded from technology careers. Individuals who leak out are often deemed deficient. This kind of thinking screams: “‘Fix’ the people and not the system.”  Enter the “pathway” model, an alternative to the pipeline metaphor. Read the full story. —Fay Cobb Payton, Lynette Yarger, and Victor Mbarika This story is from our latest magazine issue, which is dedicated to the topic of computing. Subscribe to read the full thing! We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + Want to see a giant, looming baby yoda? Macy’s Thanksgiving parade has got you covered.   + A great shot of Manhattan in all its fall glory. Thanks Stefan!    + Meet the man who fixes Mexico City’s accordions.    + Prepare to be inspired by these women who changed the world of astronomy.    + Of course Squid Game has been brought to life (thankfully minus all the killing.)   + So impressed with this woman’s sweat-inducing climb up a slab of rock in Devon, England.    + Frankly, I can't help but admire the persistence of this man in Georgia who’s still standing by the giant topiary chicken that got him ousted as mayor.    + Something so compelling about power plant demolition videos. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The WHO is meeting today to discuss the B.1.1.529 variant  The meeting will determine if it should be designated a variant of “interest” or of “concern.” (The Guardian)   + Researchers are racing to determine whether it poses a threat to the vaccines’ effectiveness. (Nature)   + Here’s what we know about the variant so far. (The Guardian)   + England has banned travel from southern Africa, where it originated. (BBC)  2 Most cryptocurrency trades may be people buying from themselves “Wash trading”, a form of market manipulation, is rife on unregulated crypto exchanges. (New Scientist $)   + A Chinese Communist Party-backed newspaper has taken aim at NFTs. (South China Morning Post)  3 How to avoid wasting money on Black Friday Surprisingly few of those offers are actually marked down from the usual price. (The Guardian)   + Or you can just enjoy the smug satisfaction of shunning the whole thing. (The Guardian)  4 Germany’s new government wants to stop using coal by 2030 That’s eight years earlier than previously planned. (Engadget)   + A coal mine blast in Russia has killed at least 52 people. (Axios)   + How early warning systems help us deal with extreme weather. (Wired $)  5 A lack of trust is dragging down the American economy It’s hard to quantify the impact of the “trust recession”, but it’s definitely there. (The Atlantic $)   + Is society coming apart? (The Guardian)   6 What even is the metaverse anyway? Something something virtual something. (Wired $)   7 Meet Nigeria’s unlikely cybercriminals A covid-related economic crunch pushed many university students into the dark world of scamming people in richer countries. (The Record)   8 The UK governments wants to sequence every baby’s genome 🧬👶 Eek. (Wired $)   9 Apple has halted sales in Turkey The country is going through one of its worst-ever economic upheavals. (Quartz)   10 Everyone’s buying e-bikes 🚲 The pandemic has pushed them firmly into the mainstream. (IEEE Spectrum) Free event: TR35 Festival Join visionaries, trailblazers, entrepreneurs, and game changes from around the world as the Innovators under 35 share the personal stories behind their big ideas and bold innovation. Register now... Quote of the day “This is not the end of the world. The sky is not falling in. There’s this idea that we’re just waiting for the next variant and I don’t want people to spend their lives worrying about that every day.” —Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, says people should not panic about the new B.1.1.529 covid variant. Top image credit: AP PHOTO | FELIPE DANA Please send giant topiary chickens to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. 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