We are now occupying the labs in Appleton Tower. Well, we never stopped, but the time has come to let the world know what we are actually doing here. Also, for the first time in a year, we all actually agree on something. Most of you won’t be aware of this, but there are tough times ahead for informatics-students at some universities. Schools of informatics, all over the country, are being forced to implement a policy that will drastically affect the well-being of informatics-students.

We are currently in the middle of the most aggressive attack on informaticians since the release of Duke Nukem Forever, a terrible trauma from which most of us have yet to fully recover. The proposed measures by the government have made almost half of us pause our games of Skyrim out of utter shock and disbelief. The plans outlined are technologically illiterate, and will have a disastrous effect on everyone.

The UK government has recently made a move which can only be described as totalitarian and brutal. Three months ago a homeless person by accident walked into the office of someone with actual power and randomly started praising a piece of software commonly known by many names. As our mothers may be reading this blog we will refer to it by its polite name, “Emacs”. Unfortunately this guy, reported to be a man with a grey beard, claimed that Emacs is the only real editor in existence and that the problems of the country would be solved if everyone were to start using it. Mistaking the homeless person for a brilliant computer scientist, the government employee made it his priority to put this into policy. The government is now running a trail forcing all informatics-students to use Emacs. Only Emacs. Nothing but Emacs. If we wish to defend ourselves and move beyond the technological equivalent of editing text on stone tablets – we must make a stand now.

We aim to persuade staff and students that editing text can be done in a way which doesn’t result in psychological breakdowns three times a minute. There are other free text-editors out there, text-editors that allow the user to perform such tasks as copying and pasting text before having actually completed a Computer Science degree. The government needs to understand that plain text can be edited in a number of ways, most of which are completely free, and that forcing students to use Emacs is wrong. Just wrong.

Next week us informatics-students will be on strike as part of the largest coordinated action, and indeed the greatest amount of movement, any of us have undertaken since Tesco offered “4 for the price of 1” 2 litre bottles of coke. Along with the informatics departments in universities all over the country we will be standing up from our computers and not interacting with any piece of technology for about five minutes.

We call on students outside of informatics to support us on this, to refuse to use technology, and instead use a pencil or pen. Or actually speak to people. This strike is not just for show; they are not symbolic nor is it just another way to express our unhappiness. It is a weapon – the only weapon geeks have to remind ourselves that the machines belong to us, and that they are not the masters of us quite yet. We CAN manage without them. We think. If you support our aims you must refuse to use technology.

We invite all students and staff at Edinburgh University to visit our occupation and to join us. Note that in order to enter the labs you will need the ability to breathe without the presence of oxygen.

Details of the technology-strike will be outlined later.