Tech Won't Save Us

Paris Marx is joined by Will Tavlin to discuss the history of the film industry, how the digital revolution was promised to democratize film, and how it actually helped cement the power of Hollywood and Silicon Valley.

Will Tavlin is a writer and fact checker based in New York City. Follow Will on Twitter at @wtavlin.

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:

• Will wrote about how Hollywood killed celluloid film to empower itself for n+1.
• Paris wrote about the repeal of the Paramount Decrees and what tech companies are doing to cinema.
• Marvel films’ heavy reliance on CGI has downsides, and Disney is increasingly looking to making whole sets virtual, if not even the actors on them.
• David Noble wrote about ideas of technological progress in Progress Without People: New Technology, Unemployment, and the Message of Resistance.

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Paris Marx is joined by Grace Blakeley to discuss how low interest rates and quantitative easing fueled the tech economy’s post-recession growth, why raising them won’t fix the problems that’s created, and whether higher interest rates are the solution to rising inflation.

Grace Blakeley is a staff writer at Tribune Magazine and host of A World to Win. She’s also the author of Stolen: How to Save the World from Financialisation and The Corona Crash: How the Pandemic Will Change Capitalism. Follow Grace on Twitter at @graceblakeley.

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:

• Grace wrote about how interest rate hikes are used against workers, what we should learn from the Gamestop short squeeze, and how the pandemic has produced closer links between the state and major corporations.
• Benjamin Braun and Adrienne Buller explained the concept of asset manager capitalism.
• In the face of rising inflation, NFT values are down 48% since November.
• High energy prices tend to drive inflation, and Russia and Ukraine are major wheat exporters.
• In the UK, wages are falling at the fastest rate since 2014. In the US, wages are falling when accounting for inflation, after decades of wage stagnation.

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Paris Marx is joined by Moira Weigel to discuss Peter Thiel’s history, how the network he cultivated has influenced Silicon Valley, and his recent move into funding Republican candidates.

Moira Weigel is an assistant professor at Northeastern University, a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard Law School, and a founding editor of Logic magazine. She also co-edited Voices from the Valley: Tech Workers Talk about What They Do--And How They Do It. Follow Moira on Twitter at @moiragweigel.

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:

• Moira wrote about Peter Thiel and the importance of his network in The New Republic.
• Paris wrote about why Peter Thiel isn’t an outlier in Silicon Valley.
• Reason Magazine asked “wasn’t Peter Thiel supposed to be a libertarian?”
• In February 2020, Peter Thiel stepped down from Facebook’s board.
• Books mentioned: The Contrarian by Max Chafkin, From Counterculture to Cyberculture by Fred Turner, Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters, The PayPal Wars by Eric Jackson, Predict and Surveil by Sarah Brayne.

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Paris Marx is joined by Ryan Broderick and Hussein Kesvani to discuss how war gets filtered through social media and the content economy, and what that means for how we make sense of it.

Ryan Broderick writes the Garbage Day newsletter and hosts Content Mines. Hussein Kesvani is a writer and the co-host of Trashfuture and Ten Thousand Posts. Follow Ryan on Twitter at @broderick and Hussein at @HKesvani.

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:

• Ryan has written two issues of Garbage Day trying to make sense of what’s happening in the war.
• Hussein wrote a very good tweet.
• Sam Biddle wrote about how Facebook is allowing users to praise the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.
• Taylor Lorenz wrote about Instagram meme pages capitalizing on the conflict.
• Journalists have been saying some pretty racist things about why the war in Ukraine is different than those in the Middle East.
• Chris Stokel-Walker wrote about how TikTok is designed for war.
• Jonah Peretti wrote an article called “Capitalism and Schizophrenia.”
• NBC’s Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel wondered aloud on Twitter whether NATO should start World War III.
• Hillary Clinton neglected the consequences of the US arming Afghan “insurgents” against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
• The media isn’t applying the right level of scrutiny to Ukrainian war stories, like Snake Island.
• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could have consequences for semiconductors.

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Paris Marx is joined by Edward Niedermeyer to discuss how Elon Musk got involved in Tesla, promised things he couldn’t deliver to raise funds, and where it goes next now that he’s becoming a more controversial figure.

Edward Niedermeyer is the author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors and a co-host of The Autonocast. Follow Ed on Twitter at @Tweetermeyer.

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:

• California is suing Tesla over “rampant racism” at its Fremont factory, with another Black worker suing the company earlier this week.
• Tesla vehicles are continually found to have very poor build quality, and customers report the service experience can be frustrating too.
• Tesla allowed people to play games on vehicle touchscreens while driving in December 2021 before being pushed to remove the feature.
• Tesla tried to automate parts of the production process that other companies had already tried to automate — and it failed too.
• The number of people being killed by cars in the United States is increasing — particularly among pedestrians.
• US auto safety regulators haven’t kept up with changes in vehicle dangers.
• The New Yorker reported on the problems in the early years of Google’s self-driving project.
• Last year a customer in China protested at the Shanghai auto show over her Tesla’s brake failure, forcing regulators to take a closer look at the company.

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Paris Marx is joined by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai to discuss the arrest of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan for trying to launder the $5 billion in Bitcoin stolen in the 2016 Bitfinex hack, how they were moving the money, how the authorities found them, and what lessons the case might hold.

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai is senior staff writer at Motherboard. Follow Lorenzo on Twitter at @lorenzofb.

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:

• Lorenzo wrote about the arrest of the couple and Heather Morgan’s cringe raps as Razzlekhan. Along with Motherboard colleagues, he also dug deep into the couple’s history and online presence.
• The Bitcoin they held and tried to launder came from the 2016 hack of Bitfinex.
• People who knew Morgan told the New York Times her social media presence was “part of an elaborate act to confront social pressures.”
• In 2014, Mt. Gox was hacked and shut down. It was an exchange handling 70% of Bitcoin transactions.
• Criminals laundered $8.6 billion in cryptocurrency in 2021, up 30% from the year before.
• AlphaBay was a darkweb crypto marketplace that was seized by authorities in 2017.
• On Feb 14, Heather Morgan was released on bail, but Ilya Lichtenstein remained in detention.

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Paris Marx is joined by Phil Jones to discuss the hidden microworkers behind supposedly AI-powered automation from major tech companies, how it differs in the Global North and South, and what it means for how we think about the future.

Phil Jones is the author of Work Without the Worker: Labour in the Age of Platform Capitalism and a researcher at Autonomy. Follow Phil on Twitter at @philjones7771.

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:

• Phil wrote about digital piecework for The Guardian and had an excerpt about refugee labor in Rest of World.
• Turkopticon helps workers on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk gain some information on the contractors offering tasks on the platform.
• In 2020, Gizmodo did surveys to find out about workers’ experiences on Mechanical Turk. There were a lot of horror stories.
• In 2014, workers on the platform sent emails to Jeff Bezos to ask for better conditions.

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As the podcast celebrates episode 100, Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss the huge drop in crypto prices, the coming threat (to crypto) of interest rate hikes and regulation, the human impact of crypto schemes, and where things may be going next.

Jacob Silverman is a staff writer at The New Republic and writes about crypto with the actor Ben McKenzie. Follow Jacob on Twitter at @SilvermanJacob.

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:

• Jacob and Ben McKenzie wrote about Tether. Zeke Faux also wrote an essential article on the stablecoin, and Jacob recommends Crypto Critics Corner.
• Crypto prices have plunged, and that’s hurt regular people.
• New York’s Attorney General reached a settlement with Tether last year.
• VC firm Andreessen Horowitz is making a big lobbying push in Washington, DC to get favorable crypto regulations.
• Matt Damon and Spike Lee are among the celebrities to take crypto money and help pump the industry.
• US regulators are looking at crypto regulations, and Biden administration is planning an executive order to move it forward.
• China banned crypto mining, Russia proposed a ban on crypto, and many countries have suffered power outages due to crypto mining.
• Stephen Diehl wrote explained how crypto is about arbitraging securities regulation.
• Diane Jeantet wrote about a massive series of Bitcoin pyramid schemes in Brazil.

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Paris Marx is joined by Rob Zacny to discuss the potential consequences of Xbox’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and what subscriptions and consolidation might mean for the future of games and the industry.

Rob Zacny is a senior editor at Waypoint and co-host of Waypoint Radio. Follow Rob on Twitter at @RobZacny.

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:

• Rob discussed the consequences of the proposed acquisition with his colleague Patrick Klepek.
• Microsoft plans to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.
• In November, Phil Spencer said he was troubled by the harassment and abuse at Activision Blizzard.
• QA workers at Activision’s Raven Software are seeking to unionize. The company said it won’t recognize the union, and is reorganizing the division.
• A new Game Developers Conference found 55% think the industry should unionize.
• On January 18, the US Federal Trade Commission began a process to rewrite its merger guidelines.
• Google shut down its Stadia game studios at least in part due to Microsoft’s acquisition of Zenimax.
• At GDC in 2005, a developer rant session featuring Warren Spector, Jason Della Rocca, Greg Costikyan, Brenda Laurel, and Chris Hecke presented a grim picture of where the industry was going.

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Paris Marx is joined by Corrina Laughlin to discuss how evangelical Christians have adapted to modern technologies, how churches have emulated startups, the growth of the faith tech sector, and whether there’s anything that can be learned from their tech experiments.

Corrina Laughlin is the author of Redeem All: How Digital Life Is Changing Evangelical Culture. She’s also an instructor of media studies at Loyola Marymount University. Follow Corrina on Twitter at @CKLaughlin.

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:

• Corrina wrote an article about why evangelicals are early adopters for The Atlantic.
• Pew estimates about 24% of US adults identify as born again or evangelical Protestants.
• The 1925 Scopes Trial was over the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools.
• Life.Church makes a ton of high production value resources available to churches looking to start up and expand what they’re doing.
• The prosperity gospel is a pro-capitalist theological tradition preached by some very wealth pastors, including Kenneth Copeland.

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