This Machine Kills

We do a postmortem on 2022, the year of Web3, talking about the goofs and grifts, speed and scale, crashes and canaries, with our major takeaway and theme being that just as FTX is not anomalous for Web3, nor is Web3 anomalous for Silicon Valley. It is, instead, a product and paragon of the structural conditions and systemic imperatives that define how the political economy of technology operates within capitalism.

Stuff we reference

••• In 2022, web3 went just great https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/in-2022-web3-went-just-great

••• Web3 grift leaderboard https://web3isgoinggreat.com/charts/top

••• Imprinting the economy: The structural power of venture capital https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X221136559

••• MicroStrategy Hit Lowest Since 2020 After Bitcoin Sale https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-29/microstrategy-mstr-hits-lowest-since-2020-after-bitcoin-sale-announcement?srnd=technology-vp

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 give some personal updates, then get distracted talking about a new survey on consumer sentiments and insurance technology. It turns out that actually the vast majority of people *do not* want to use surveillance technology and exchange data for any insurance discounts. Remember this when insurance policies that require using devices and sharing data still proliferate. It's not because consumers want them, but because insurers demand them.

Stuff we reference:

••• Most Americans still refuse to install data-sharing devices for insurance discounts https://www.policygenius.com/auto-insurance/home-auto-technology-survey-2022/

••• Grim Findings for Insurers’ Digital Strategies https://www.ethicsandinsurance.info/grim-reading-for-insurers-digital-strategies/

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 breakdown ChatGPT, the conversational large language model created by OpenAI. How this system works. How it has been fetishized by consumers and reporters, critics and advocates. Why most of the hand wringing and claim making about the impacts of this technology has been wrongheaded. And why our analysis of the implications for such a system being integrated into everyday life—regardless of how well it does or does not work—must push past the bounds of bias and misinformation. We are talking here about the AI of Delphi. The perception of meaning via the production of reality. Yet another in a long line of interpretive systems for simultaneously constructing and understanding the world.

Stuff we reference:

••• How come GPT can seem so brilliant one minute and so breathtakingly dumb the next? https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/how-come-gpt-can-seem-so-brilliant

••• What to Expect When You’re Expecting… GPT-4 https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting

••• Every answer https://robhorning.substack.com/p/every-answer

••• The great Transformer: Examining the role of large language models in the political economy of AI https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20539517211047734

••• ChatGPT, Galactica, and the Progress Trap https://www.wired.com/story/large-language-models-critique/

••• Exclusive: ChatGPT owner OpenAI projects $1 billion in revenue by 2024 https://www.reuters.com/business/chatgpt-owner-openai-projects-1-billion-revenue-by-2024-sources-2022-12-15/

••• Did a Fourth Grader Write This? Or the New Chatbot? https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/12/26/upshot/chatgpt-child-essays.html?referringSource=articleShare

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)

If we want to understand the cloud, then we need to study real estate. We are joined by Dan Greene—from the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies—who has written the premier analysis of who owns the internet. We all know the cloud is a place, but many of us think that place is largely owned by familiar tech giants. Wrong. The actual owners of the bones and pipes of the internet are Real Estate Investment Trusts and, by extension, private equity firms. The stack of landlords goes deeper than we realize.

••• Dan’s twitter: https://twitter.com/Greene_DM

••• Dan’s website: http://dmgreene.net/

••• Dan’s article – Landlords of the internet: Big data and big real estate http://dmgreene.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/03063127221124943.pdf

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 give some personal updates, then get distracted talking about a new survey on consumer sentiments and insurance technology. It turns out that actually the vast majority of people *do not* want to use surveillance technology and exchange data for any insurance discounts. Remember this when insurance policies that require using devices and sharing data still proliferate. It's not because consumers want them, but because insurers demand them.

Stuff we reference:

••• Most Americans still refuse to install data-sharing devices for insurance discounts https://www.policygenius.com/auto-insurance/home-auto-technology-survey-2022/

••• Grim Findings for Insurers’ Digital Strategies https://www.ethicsandinsurance.info/grim-reading-for-insurers-digital-strategies/

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 take a look at the critical ecologies of the cloud with Mél Hogan – Director of the Environmental Media Lab at the University of Calgary – who researches the environmental politics of server farms and data centers. We unpack the ongoing domination of nature by machine and market logics — until there isn’t anything left to dominate.

••• Mel’s twitter: https://twitter.com/mel_hogan

••• Mél’s work: https://www.melhogan.com/

••• Project on art and the cloud https://www.criticalstudiesofthe.cloud/

••• Critical Data Center Studies bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bnbDNTXlpddbfuShMgRKWvWLFIKUKBchUkluMMOVRkw/edit#heading=h.2bmuylggugur

Stuff we reference:

••• Big data ecologies: Landscapes of political action http://www.ephemerajournal.org/contribution/big-data-ecologies

••• The Nature of Data Centers | special issue of Culture Machine https://culturemachine.net/vol-18-the-nature-of-data-centers/

••• Power, Pollution and the Internet https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/technology/data-centers-waste-vast-amounts-of-energy-belying-industry-image.html?pagewanted=all

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 continue our analysis of all things green by looking deeper at the operations of a core mechanism directing cash flows into sustainable investments: ESG. What is ESG? How does it work? You think you know? You assume you understand it? Does the acronym stand for environmental and social governance? Or does it actually stand for environment, social, and governance? Would you believe that the placement of “and” makes all the difference? If there is confusion about the very acronym, then what other things are not what they seem with these ESG metrics, ratings, and indexes? You’ve confronted cynicism? Not like this you haven’t.

Stuff we reference:

••• The ESG Mirage https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-what-is-esg-investing-msci-ratings-focus-on-corporate-bottom-line/

••• The Wall Street Consensus at COP27 | Daniela Gabor https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the-wall-street-consensus-at-cop27/

••• Neoliberalizing Space | Jamie Peck, Adam Tickell http://overgaardtonnesen.dk/TEKSTERNE/03-Peck-Tickell-Neoliberalizing-Space.pdf

••• Fossilised Capital: Price and Profit in the Energy Transition | Brett Christophers https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563467.2021.1926957

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)

With the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) recently happening, we dig into the political economy of green policy, green investing, green finance, green technology, green capitalism. What is driving the transition necessary to sustain the billions of lives – and trillions in profits – on Earth? Who are the vanguards of sustainability lighting our way into the future?

Stuff we reference:

••• The Wall Street Consensus at COP27 | Daniela Gabor https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the-wall-street-consensus-at-cop27/

••• Money and the Climate Crisis https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/money-and-the-climate-crisis/

••• The ESG Mirage https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-what-is-esg-investing-msci-ratings-focus-on-corporate-bottom-line/

••• Neoliberalizing Space | Jamie Peck, Adam Tickell http://overgaardtonnesen.dk/TEKSTERNE/03-Peck-Tickell-Neoliberalizing-Space.pdf

••• Fossilised Capital: Price and Profit in the Energy Transition | Brett Christophers https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563467.2021.1926957

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)

While Jathan is busy with his day job, Ed and Jereme are joined by Ed Zitron and Aaron Thorpe for a shitposters party. Topics include: dystopias, cat ownership as praxis, conspiracy theories about Covid and JFK, and how Las Vegas isn’t doing the crypto bullshit. Also: talking shit about all the usual suspects.

Ed’s twitter: https://twitter.com/edzitron

Ed’s substack: https://ez.substack.com/

Aaron’s twitter: https://twitter.com/borgposting

Aaron’s podcast 1: https://twitter.com/thetrillbillies

Aaron’s podcast 2: https://twitter.com/elcpod

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 are taking a break to catch up on stuff. Enjoy this classic (and infuriating) premium episode.

Take beta blockers before this episode. In a companion piece for our episode on Health Communism, we dig into a concrete case that exemplifies everything we talked about with the production of surplus populations for the purpose of extractive abandonment. The ongoing story we discuss in this episode takes all those dynamics and pushes them to their most horrific logical conclusions.

Some references:

••• How a Hospital Chain Used a Poor Neighborhood to Turn Huge Profits https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/health/bon-secours-mercy-health-profit-poor-neighborhood.html

••• They Were Entitled to Free Care. Hospitals Hounded Them to Pay. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/business/nonprofit-hospitals-poor-patients.html

••• Deaths Linked to Neglect, Error Raise Concerns About Quality of Care at This Safety Net Hospital https://www.propublica.org/article/chicago-roseland-community-hospital-covid-deaths

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills

Grab TMK gear: 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)