This Machine Kills

We are joined by Antony Loewenstein — author of The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World — to discuss his extensive reporting on the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the policing tactics and surveillance technologies that are tested on Palestinians before sold as part of lucrative global export industry, and how the dynamics of occupation never stay within their cordoned zones but always expand to capture increasingly more people and places.

••• Antony’s book: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2684-the-palestine-laboratory

••• Antony’s twitter: https://twitter.com/antloewenstein

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)

The tech asset bubble is now so massive that its reality distortion field is affecting the major indices like the S&P 500, warping their ability to serve as useful signals and indicators about the economy, and causing passive investors that peg trillions of dollars to these indices to become mechanically over-exposed to a handful of tech companies. All our fates are increasingly and intricately tied to the volatile financials of a few corporations. Very cool!

Stuff we reference

••• Rise of the tech giants exposes the problem of index distortions https://www.ft.com/content/e0176208-fa3e-453c-8a9d-0bca61af9cdf

••• Nvidia races towards $1tn club as AI frenzy drives chip stocks higher https://www.ft.com/content/b074781a-683f-4b20-8c70-33bb71399d94

••• What is the real point of all these letters warning about AI? https://www.fastcompany.com/90902786/what-is-the-real-point-of-all-these-letters-warning-about-ai

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 are joined by Auni Ahsan and Stephen McMurtry – organizers with the Alphabet Workers Union – to talk about the nuts and bolts of organizing at a major tech company, the development of AWU and its relationship with Communications Workers of America, what it means to be a tech worker today, the conditions and issues for labor in the sector, the purpose of organized labor power more broadly, the challenges and opportunities for AWU as they continue to grow.

••• AWU https://alphabetworkersunion.org/

••• CODE-CWA Trainings https://code-cwa.org/upcoming-trainings

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 take a deeper look at the political ecology of the “forever chemicals” that are integral to the existing microchip manufacturing process, the very serious damage they are wreaking on human health and the environment, the industrial interests that are aggressively pushing back against any attempt to regulate these chemicals, and the CEO of Chemours who has come forth as an ardent defender of the polymers in our blood.

Stuff we reference

••• The crackdown on risky chemicals that could derail the chip industry https://www.ft.com/content/76979768-59c0-436f-b731-40ba329a7544

••• EU ban on forever chemicals would hit bloc’s green transition, warns top industry boss https://www.ft.com/content/197ca0c8-0a4d-4794-bc46-796139821f3d

••• The dystopian lake filled by the world’s tech lust https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth

••• Mark E. Newman https://www.chemours.com/en/about-chemours/leadership/mark-e-newman-leadership-bio

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 dig into the technological theology that has been taking hold in Silicon Valley and its orbital communities – in various ways, different degrees, and over time. The components of this theology are nicely compiled into an acronym coined by Timnit Gebru and Émile Torres: Tescreal – transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, longtermism.

Stuff we reference:

••• We need to examine the beliefs of today’s tech luminaries https://www.ft.com/content/edc30352-05fb-4fd8-a503-20b50ce014ab

••• Technology and Its Discontents: On the Verge of the Posthuman https://www.jstor.org/stable/40068384

••• Why We are Called Hammer and Hope https://hammerandhope.org/article/issue-1-article-4

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 into the Writers Guild of America strike, why this is an important labor action to watch, the terrible conditions they are striking again, the mindset of the professional class of capital managers that control “content” production, and how the potential use of AI in tv/movies follows from already existing practices like “mini-rooms,” which brought gig economy dynamics to the work of writing.

Stuff we reference:

••• ​​As the Writers’ Strike Enters Its Third Week, the Studios Aren’t Budging https://jacobin.com/2023/05/writers-guild-of-america-strike-tv-shows-film-artificial-intelligence-studios

••• TV Writers Say They’re Striking to Stop the Destruction of Their Profession https://jacobin.com/2023/05/writers-strike-wga-amptp-streaming-pay

••• Is This the End of the TV Writers’ Room as We Know It? https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/08/the-end-of-the-tv-writers-room-as-we-know-it-mini-rooms

••• Your Boss Wants AI to Replace You. The Writer’s Strike Shows How to Fight Back https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-05-11/column-the-writers-strike-is-only-the-beginning-a-rebellion-against-ai-is-underway

••• Will a Chatbot Write the Next ‘Succession’? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/business/media/writers-guild-hollywood-ai-chatgpt.html

••• ‘Disrespectful to the Craft:’ Actors Say They’re Being Asked to Sign Away Their Voice to AI https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d37za/voice-actors-sign-away-rights-to-artificial-intelligence

••• Writers vs. robots: Hollywood moved toward automation long before AI https://www.fastcompany.com/90893629/hollywood-started-leaning-toward-automation-long-before-ai

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)

Cory Doctorow — returning champion, friend of the show, and author of the new novel Red Team Blues — joins us to chat about fiction (science), finance (crypto), forensics (accounting), and much more. You never knew forensic accounting could be so radical and thrilling, but Red Team Blues is an immanent critique of techno-financial capitalism in the guise of a page ripping novel. We cover a lot of ground, all of it fascinating, as we always do when Cory comes on TMK.

••• Buy Red Team Blues: https://craphound.com/shop/

••• Follow Cory: https://twitter.com/doctorow

••• Cory’s blog: https://pluralistic.net/

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 dig into the technological theology that has been taking hold in Silicon Valley and its orbital communities – in various ways, different degrees, and over time. The components of this theology are nicely compiled into an acronym coined by Timnit Gebru and Émile Torres: Tescreal – transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, longtermism.

Stuff we reference:

••• We need to examine the beliefs of today’s tech luminaries https://www.ft.com/content/edc30352-05fb-4fd8-a503-20b50ce014ab

••• Technology and Its Discontents: On the Verge of the Posthuman https://www.jstor.org/stable/40068384

••• Why We are Called Hammer and Hope https://hammerandhope.org/article/issue-1-article-4

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 are joined by Jonathan Guyer – senior foreign policy writer at Vox – to discuss his reporting on how the intimate relationship between Silicon Valley and Saudi Arabia is getting even deeper and weirder. We get into the geopolitics, the soft power, and the reputation laundering of Saudi Arabia – and its intersections with the cynical values and capital flows in Silicon Valley.

Jonathan’s twitter: https://twitter.com/mideastXmidwest

Jonathan’s articles:

••• How Saudi money returned to Silicon Valley https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/5/1/23702451/silicon-valley-saudi-money-khashoggi

••• How the Saudi crown prince erased the stigma of a murder https://www.vox.com/world/2022/10/3/23380680/global-elite-have-forgotten-jamal-khashoggis-murder-mbs-new-york-investment-conference

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 spike our blood pressure with a discussion about recent reporting on the systems used by health insurers to automate rejecting claims. It’s one of those classic situations we all know and love: human doctors rubber stamping algorithmic decisions in a system created by a private equity ghoul to save major insurers a few dollars by making the lives of real people significantly worse.

Stuff we reference

••• How Cigna Saves Millions by Having Its Doctors Reject Claims Without Reading Them https://www.propublica.org/article/cigna-pxdx-medical-health-insurance-rejection-claims

••• Lina Khan: We Must Regulate A.I. Here’s How. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/opinion/ai-lina-khan-ftc-technology.html

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)