Tech Won't Save Us

Paris Marx is joined by Ed Zitron for a wide-ranging discussion on the responsibility tech media has to its readers, the problems with crypto, and why bosses like Elon Musk are desperate to force workers back into the office.

Ed Zitron is the CEO of EZPR and writes the Where’s Your Ed At newsletter. Follow Ed on Twitter at @edzitron.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• New Tech Won’t Save Us merch is now available in our store (including tote bags!).
• Ed wrote about the problem with Kara Swisher’s aggressive response to a listener asking why Pivot had run an ad telling people to put their retirement savings into crypto. (Listen to the ad here.)
• Elon Musk wrote a set of emails telling workers they need to return to the office for a *minimum* of 40 hours a week, or they can “pretend to work elsewhere.”
• Ed has written many times about employers pushing their workers back to the office.
• In March, Kevin Roose wrote a Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto, and Ed was one of the critics that Molly White got to contribute to an edited version.
• Sam Harnett wrote an essay on how the early, uncritical coverage of the gig economy helped legitimize its exploitative business model.

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Paris Marx is joined by Émile P. Torres to discuss why longtermism isn’t just about long-term thinking, but provides a framework for Silicon Valley billionaires to justify ignoring the crises facing humanity so they can accumulate wealth and go after space colonization.

Émile P. Torres is a PhD candidate at Leibniz University Hannover and the author of the forthcoming book Human Extinction: A History of Thinking About the End of Humanity. Follow Phil on Twitter at @xriskology.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Émile wrote about the dangers presented by longtermism and its relationship to Elon Musk.
• Paris wrote about Jeff Bezos’ vision of life in space and why Elon Musk is planning for climate catastrophe.
• Elon Musk was tweeting about birth rates again (he has some odd views on who should be having kids) and retweeted someone praising a paper by longtermist Nick Bostrom.
• After moving to Texas, its governor said Elon Musk liked the state’s “social policies” (in reference to abortion limitations) to little pushback, then Musk forced California employees to move to Texas. 

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Paris Marx is joined by Bennett Tomlin to discuss last week’s crash of Terra and Luna, the problems with stablecoins, and whether this collapse will finally force regulators to take action on cryptocurrency.

Bennett Tomlin is a co-host of Crypto Critics’ Corner and writer of the FUD Letter. Follow Bennett on Twitter at @BennettTomlin.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paris wrote about the Terra/Luna collapse and why we can’t let those who promoted crypto scams escape blame for their actions.
• Bennett references George Soros’ attack on the British pound in 1992, also known as Black Wednesday.
• Do Kwan was behind the failed Basis Cash stablecoin.
• Vitalik Buterin backed a proposal for an FDIC-like response to rescue “small holders” who lost money in the Luna collapse.
• Investors recently pulled $7 billion out of Tether, which still won’t be open about its reserves. It was hacked in 2017.
• FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried described yield farming as a Ponzi scheme.
• Justin Sun has already launched a copycat of the failed Terra algorithmic stablecoin. The Verge did a deep dive on him in March.
• a16z says the crypto winter is here.

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Paris Marx is joined by Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese to discuss the environmental crises of climate change and mass extinction we face, and why taking them seriously while providing for everyone requires a radical change to how we structure society.

Drew Pendergrass is a PhD candidate in environmental engineering at Harvard University and Troy Vettese is an environmental historian and a Max Weber fellow at the European University Institute. They are the co-authors of Half-Earth Socialism: A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change and Pandemics. Follow them on Twitter at @pendergrassdrew and @TroyVettese.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Earth is currently undergoing its sixth major extinction, due to the actions of humans on the planet.
• The most recent IPCC report looked at demand-side solutions to the climate crisis.
• The meat industry is responsible for double the emissions of plant-based foods, as well as for an enormous amount of water and 80% of all agricultural land.
• Aaron Benanav is the author of Automation and the Future of Work.
• There is also a Half-Earth Socialism videogame on half.earth.

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Paris Marx is joined by ann haeyoung to discuss IBM worker organizing in the 1970s and 1980s against racism and apartheid, and how those stories are important to informing tech organizing in the present.

ann haeyoung is a media artist interested in technology and labor. She is also a former tech worker and organizer, and a graduate student at UCLA.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• ann wrote about IBM organizing for Wired, and put together a four-part series on her research for Tech Workers Coalition.
• Science for the People published an article about tech worker organizing in the 1960s and 1970s.
• Logic Magazine spoke to Joan Greenbaum about the early days of tech worker organizing.
• Tech Won’t Save Us is looking for a producer.

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Paris Marx is joined by Edward Ongweso Jr. to discuss Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition, how technology is enabling an extension of speculation and gambling, and why those pressures need to be opposed.

Edward Ongweso Jr. is a staff writer at Motherboard/Vice and a co-host of This Machine Kills. Follow Edward on Twitter at @bigblackjacobin.

🎉 This month is the show’s second birthday. To celebrate, we want to get 100 new supporters at $5/month or above to bring on a producer to help make the show.  Help us hit our goal by joining on Patreon. You can also follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Edward wrote about Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition and the casino economy we increasingly find ourselves in.
• Paris wrote about Elon’s Twitter purchase for Jacobin before it was confirmed, and Tribune afterward.
• Max Read also wrote about the acquisition and what it might mean.
• CNN spoke to meme stock traders who made a lot of money and the difficulty of what came after.
• TrueAnon did a recently episode on mobile gambling.
• Tim Hwang wrote “Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet.”

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Paris Marx is joined by Molly Taft to discuss why we need to act now to reduce emissions, what role carbon removal technologies can play, and how Silicon Valley is trying to shift our focus to future technologies rather than taking drastic action today.

Molly Taft is a staff writer at Earther. Follow Molly on Twitter at @mollytaft.

🎉 This month is the show’s second birthday. To celebrate, we want to get 100 new supporters at $5/month or above to bring on a producer to help make the show.  Help us hit our goal by joining on Patreon. You can also follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Molly wrote about the dire warnings in the most recent IPCC report and why we need to be paying attention to carbon removal technologies.
• UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, “Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals.  But, the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels.”
• Groups are urging the United States and European Union not to invest in new fossil fuel infrastructure and production.
• Canada approved Bay du Nord, a new deep-sea oil project in Newfoundland and Labrador.
• Major tech companies, especially Amazon, have been helping oil companies extract more oil. Microsoft has also been helping them oppressively manage their workforces.
• Kate Aronoff explained part of the problem with Bill Gates’ approach to climate change.

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Paris Marx is joined by Lauren Smiley to discuss what we’ve learned about the Uber crash since in happened in March 2018, what that’s meant for the vehicle operator who’s been charged, and whether the justice system made the right call in blaming her instead of Uber.

Lauren Smiley is a WIRED contributor and freelance journalist based in San Francisco. Follow Laren on Twitter at @laurensmiley.

🎉 This month is the show’s second birthday. To celebrate, we want to get 100 new supporters at $5/month or above to bring on a producer to help make the show.  Help us hit our goal by joining on Patreon. You can also follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Lauren interviewed Rafaela Vasquez and dug into the substance of the past four years of information on the Uber crash for WIRED.
• Last summer, Vasquez’ legal team argued the grand jury hadn’t heard to full version of events before indicting her.
• In 2019, the NTSB’s final report placed primary blame on the operator, but secondary blame on Uber, the pedestrian, and the state.
• In 2015, Lauren wrote about the “shut-in economy” and social divides being entrenched by on-demand services.

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Paris Marx is joined by Justine Medina and Karen Ponce to discuss how the Amazon Labor Union succeeded in unionizing Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, what it’s like working for Amazon, and where the movement to unionize Amazon goes next.

Justine Medina is a packer at the JFK8 warehouse and is on the organizing committee of the Amazon Labor Union. Karen Ponce is a stower at JFK8 and the interim secretary of Amazon Labor Union. Follow Justine on Twitter at @jnmedina8989 and Karen at @Karennn_928.

🎉 This month is the show’s second birthday. To celebrate, we want to get 100 new supporters at $5/month or above to bring on a producer to help make the show.  Help us hit our goal by joining on Patreon. You can also follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• You can support the Amazon Labor Union by donating to its Solidarity Fund.
• Justine spoke to Labor Notes and wrote about why the ALU won.
• The ALU is making 8 immediate demands of Amazon.
• Chair of the ALU’s Worker Committee Angelika Maldonado spoke to Jacobin about the union win.
• Lauren Kaori Gurley wrote about the Amazon Labor Union’s successful union vote at JFK8.
• In early 2020, Amazon fired Chris Smalls and tried to smear him as “not smart or articulate,” but their internal memos leaked.
• Jacobin and Briarpatch published articles on the need to salt at Amazon.
• Chris Smalls says workers from 50 facilities have contacted the ALU.
• The ALU is demanding to meet with Amazon in early May to begin bargaining.
• Amazon is planning to ban a ton of words in its chat app.
• Amazon forcing people to work in warehouses without air conditioning was a scandal in 2011.

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Paris Marx is joined by Molly White to discuss the big Axie Infinity hack, what’s wrong with the New York Times’ Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto, and what Molly’s years as a Wikipedia editor have taught her about the problem with web3’s vision of total commercialization.

Molly White is a software engineer and the creator of web3 is going just great. Follow Molly on Twitter at @molly0xFFF.

🎉 This month is the show’s second birthday. To celebrate, we want to get 100 new supporters at $5/month or above to bring on a producer to help make the show.  Help us hit our goal by joining on Patreon. You can also follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Molly and a bunch of other crypto critics put together an (Edited) Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto.
• You can read Kevin Roose’s original Latecomer’s Guide here.
• Molly wrote about the $625 million Axie Infinity hack and harassment on the blockchain.
• Interest in NFTs and their values have plummeted in recent months.
• Tech Won’t Save Us has a new website. Check it out at techwontsave.us.

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