Stay ConnectedA podcast about technology and political economy /// Agitprop against innovation and capital /// Hosted by Jathan Sadowski and Edward Ongweso Jr., Produced by Jereme Brown /// Hello friends and enemies
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We are joined by Malcolm Harris—author of Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World—to discuss his magisterial book on how a hellmouth in Northern California has, for the last two hundred years, been a vortex of power for capital. We discuss some of the lesser known people and products of Palo Alto—like Herbet Hoover and William Shockley—that have had very important impacts (for worse and worse) on the direction of modern society, but have largely been looked back on in very myopic ways. We only scratch the surface of the amazingly detailed histories, social maps, and historical materialist analysis that Malcolm digs up in his book. Buy a copy right now! ••• Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World | Malcolm Harris: https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/malcolm-harris/palo-alto/9780316592031/ ••• Follow Malcolm: https://twitter.com/BigMeanInternet Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
We look at the latest way bosses are outsourcing the dirty work of owning capital and managing workers to techno-consultants. Then see why venture capitalists are loudly crying about a light touch rule that will require them to prove they actually did due diligence before spending billions of other people’s dollars. And we wrap things up by checking in on the plight of Amazon under its new CEO Andy Jassy – and wonder if the company’s troubles will lead to a second imperium of Bezos? Stuff we reference: ••• AI is starting to pick who gets laid off https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/20/layoff-algorithms/ ••• Venture World Watches As SEC Moves To Regulate Industry https://news.crunchbase.com/policy-regulation/venture-sec-regulations-web3-ftx/ ••• Can this man turn Amazon around? https://www.ft.com/content/a8cdfe3a-a445-476c-b4a7-367468ac1398 Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
We discuss the supermarkets for data – giant grocery chains like Kroger have created powerful capacities for data extraction and monetization. This forces us to expand our analysis of data surveillance beyond the usual suspects in big tech and reckon with the fact that data capital is not a thing that can be excised from the political economic system, but is now an essential component of that whole system’s operations. Stuff we reference: ••• Forget Milk and Eggs: Supermarkets Are Having a Fire Sale on Data About You https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/02/16/forget-milk-and-eggs-supermarkets-are-having-a-fire-sale-on-data-about-you ••• “Out Of Control”: Dozens of Telehealth Startups Sent Sensitive Health Information to Big Tech Companies https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2022/12/13/out-of-control-dozens-of-telehealth-startups-sent-sensitive-health-information-to-big-tech-companies ••• Now for sale: Data on your mental health https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/13/mental-health-data-brokers/ ••• Senators Launch Inquiry into Telehealth Companies for Tracking and Monetizing Personal Data https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2023/02/07/senators-launch-inquiry-into-telehealth-companies-for-tracking-and-monetizing-personal-data Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
In this installment of What the Fuck is Happening in America: floating “objects” keep getting shot down; a train carrying the toxic gas vinyl chloride has turned Ohio into a sacrifice zone; the Biden administration ramps up its investments in industrial policy, but in such a way that apparently the entire purpose of the economy is to try incentivizing private companies, with tax credits and subsidiaries, into directly competing with China. Sorry folks, the economy can’t do anything else for any other reason *shrug* Stuff we reference: ••• Derailed Ohio Train Carried Toxic Ingredient for “Worst” Kind of Plastic https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2023/02/derailment-east-palestine-ohio-train-carried-toxic-chemical-vinyl-chloride-plastic-pvc/ ••• America’s government is spending lavishly to revive manufacturing https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/02/02/americas-government-is-spending-lavishly-to-revive-manufacturing Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
Jumping off an FT op-ed on venture capital and tech hype – which aligns great with TMK thought – we discuss the value and risk models of venture capitalism, then get into the emerging market structures and dynamics for generative AI. It’s not just a web3 redux. We end with Ted Chiang’s fantastic article on lossy compression as an analogy for large-language models. Some stuff we reference: ••• The new Current Thing for VCs mourning the implosion of Web3 https://www.ft.com/content/83807cad-5f2c-4c35-a4ff-e9df5cbd3505 ••• Generative AI: A Creative New World | report by Sequoia Capital https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/generative-ai-a-creative-new-world/ ••• ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/chatgpt-is-a-blurry-jpeg-of-the-web Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
We get some Parisian updates and stories from Ed. Then we enter the mind palace of a libertarian who, with all the annoying pretension of a philosophy major, tried to make ChatGPT say the word. We wrap up with a discussion of the “year of efficiency” in Silicon Valley as the biggest four tech companies are rewarded with over $800 billion in market cap for making massive job cuts, massive stock buybacks, and massive investments in AI. Some stuff we reference ••• Big Tech groups disclose $10bn in charges from job culls and cost cutting https://www.ft.com/content/9daf27f6-dde7-40d8-b01d-33b70844aa69 ••• Tech’s Biggest Companies Discover Austerity, to the Relief of Investors https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/technology/big-tech-earnings-austerity.html ••• Tech's Elite Hates Labor https://ez.substack.com/p/techs-elite-hates-labor ••• Big Tech companies use cloud computing arms to pursue alliances with AI groups https://www.ft.com/content/5b17d011-8e0b-4ba1-bdca-4fbfdba10363 ••• Google reveals plans for Bard chatbot as AI tech race heats up https://www.ft.com/content/66fad3e0-f530-48c1-984c-82578274ce7a ••• Microsoft Throws a Coming-Out Party for A.I. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/technology/microsoft-ai-chatgpt-bing.html Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
Part 1 –– We welcome returning champ Nick Chavez – mechanical engineer, marxist political economist – for a long conversation about his new essay examining the real nitty-gritty aspects of production and labor, knowledge and management. Time to step down from the ivory tower and onto the shop floor. We talk extensively about different modes of manufacturing and the stratification of technical expertise within capitalist production – and what needs to be kept, changed, and abolished in a transition to communist production. ••• Nick’s essay: https://brooklynrail.org/2023/12/field-notes/Technical-Expertise-and-Communist-Production ••• Nick’s new blog: https://designformanufracture.wordpress.com/ ••• Nick’s new twitter: https://twitter.com/DFManufracture Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
We dip into the a16z omnibus of predictions for the tech industry in 2023. Time to learn what the thought masters of the universe are trying to wishcast into existence because they have a material interest in making them happen. Stuff we reference: ••• Big Ideas in Tech for 2023: An a16z Omnibus https://a16z.com/2022/12/15/big-ideas-in-tech-2023/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
Ed takes us on a guided tour of Odin Intelligence, SweepWizard, CloudFactory and other tech bullshit that sounds like embarrassing nonsense while also contributing in their own way to monetizing, mobilizing, and heightening the eschaton. Stuff we reference: ••• Police Contractor That Promised to Track Homeless People Hacked https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgyjnq/odin-intelligence-hacked ••• Crime App ‘Citizen’ Fires Overseas $2 an Hour Workers https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkg5nk/citizen-fires-overseas-kenya-nepal-workers-cloudfactory ••• CNET pauses publishing AI-written stories after disclosure controversy https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/20/23564311/cnet-pausing-ai-articles-bot-red-ventures Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
It’s been a while since we’ve done a real reading series. So we spend time with a group of rogue entrepreneurs who are taking it upon themselves to save the planet by geoengineering the atmosphere. Stuff we reference ••• A startup says it’s begun releasing particles into the atmosphere, in an effort to tweak the climate https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/24/1066041/a-startup-says-its-begun-releasing-particles-into-the-atmosphere-in-an-effort-to-tweak-the-climate/ ••• Saudi Aramco bets on being the last oil major standing https://www.ft.com/content/513b770b-836b-472b-a058-3e4a95437c69 Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
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