This Machine Kills

You’ve got questions; we’ve got answers! In our first Mail Bomb episode, we riff on some of the excellent questions submitted by subscribers and chat about which dead leftist figures we would bring to Davos, the best ways to make your coworkers into Luddites, and professional advice for being academics, journos, and techies in the TMK style, among other topics.

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Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We’re joined by Phil Neel, a communist economic geographer, to dig deep into different theories of crisis in capitalism. While theorizing crisis is a core part of the Marxist analysis of capitalism, we focus on understanding how major approaches in mainstream economics try (and fail) to explain the features, causes, and solutions for crisis. Bonus: we learn how economics is a disproven cosmology maintained by bourgeois ideology—like astrology for the ruling class. Double bonus: we end the episode with an explanation and critique of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).

Check out some of Phil’s work:

••• Global China, Global Crisis: Falling Profitability, Rising Capital Exports and the Formation of New Territorial Industrial Complexes | Phillip Neel https://drive.google.com/file/d/1krt15Qx0lPizv7SPR8b0GhsmGK61k1TP/view

••• Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict | Phil Neel https://www.akpress.org/hinterland.html

••• Phil Neel at Brooklyn Rail | https://brooklynrail.org/contributor/phil-a-neel

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

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

It’s time for chapter 2 – Wicked Liberty – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. We dig deep into the colonial origins of the Enlightenment, the hegemonic historical narrative of European superiority, the striking indigenous critique that Native Americans levied against European society, and the myths of progress that continue today and prevent us from imagining radically alternative ways of living.

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

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Continuing our radical tech worker occasional series, we’re pleased to be joined by Bjorn Westergard—senior software engineer at NPR and Marxist union organizer—for a wide-ranging discussion about his own journey into tech and politics, the influence of Occupy Wall Street, his experiences involved with unionization efforts, what the label “tech worker” even means, and the need for labor to go on the offensive against capital.

Info for Jathan’s open PhD position: https://supervisorconnect.it.monash.edu/projects/research/social-political-economic-studies-technology-and-fire-finance-insurance-real

Check out Bjorn’s blog: https://socialistplanning.org/

Organizing resources:

••• Collective Action in Tech https://collectiveaction.tech/

••• Tech Workers Coalition https://techworkerscoalition.org/

Some stuff we reference:

••• A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy | Jane McAlevey https://janemcalevey.com/book/a-collective-bargain-unions-organizing-and-the-fight-for-democracy/

••• Beyond Liberal Egalitarianism: Marx and Normative Social Theory in the Twenty-First Century | Tony Smith https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1190-beyond-liberal-egalitarianism

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

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We dig into the complete disaster that is the NFT ecosystem before zooming out to discuss how the real promise and purpose of NFTs is as an instrument for total financialization of everything. Turning every piece of data about any little thing into a commodity that can then be securitized, collateralized, and speculated with. Contained within this little dumb oddity is the seeds for a world designed and defined by fictitious capital – which firms like a16z are doing their damndest to make grow.

Some things we reference:

••• The NFT Ecosystem Is a Complete Disaster | Edward Ongweso Jr. https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgdvnd/the-nft-ecosystem-is-a-complete-disaster

••• The Internet Is Just Investment Banking Now | Ian Bogost https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/02/future-internet-blockchain-investment-banking/621480/

••• Why some Australians are paying real money for virtual land in the metaverse | James Purtill https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-02-04/metaverse-australians-paying-money-virtual-land-real-estate/100798106

••• Bored Ape start-up in investment talks with Andreessen Horowitz | FT https://www.ft.com/content/acc635d6-bb05-4af6-b4da-b8462c06466d

••• Mapping the celebrity NFT complex | Max Read https://maxread.substack.com/p/mapping-the-celebrity-nft-complex

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

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Because it was so damn good, we’re unlocking part two of our discussion with Nick Chavez, focusing on the possibilities and limitations of reengineering capitalist forces of production for communist social relations. We discuss the need for epistemic luddism—or breaking the way we understand and use technologies—and why militancy at points of production is absolutely crucial. What comes first? Which one gives us the other? Radical machines or radical society? The dialectical answer is, of course, why not both!

Some stuff we reference:

••• The Present and Future of Engineers | Nick Chavez | Brooklyn Rail https://brooklynrail.org/2021/10/field-notes/THINKING-ABOUT-COMMUNISM

••• Error | Endnotes 5 https://endnotes.org.uk/file_hosting/EN5_Error.pdf

••• How to Make a Pencil | Aaron Benanav https://logicmag.io/commons/how-to-make-a-pencil/

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

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We kick off the next installment of the TMK book club with The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Join us as we dig into this massive—and massively important—new book, discussing each chapter in-depth. We start with Chapter 1: Farewell to Humanity’s Childhood — and lay out the deceptive myths, championed by pop sci hucksters, that have perpetuated wrong, dull, and dire accounts of the origins of human civilization and modern society. New episodes drop every other week on the Patreon feed.

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

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Well it’s finally happened. We are joined by Evgeny Morozov—preeminent critic of digital capitalism and founder of The Syllabus—for a very long conversation. Among a great many things, we discuss: the origins and purpose of The (Crypto) Syllabus platform // the political economy of knowledge creation and curation // Evgeny’s intellectual evolution // why it's not all about the bullshitters and assholes // the immanent critique of web3 // what leftists should learn from engaging with web3 // why socialists must not avoid complexity // debates over if feudalism is resurgent and capitalism is dead.

••• The Syllabus: https://www.the-syllabus.com/

••• The Crypto Syllabus: https://the-crypto-syllabus.com/

••• Evgeny on twitter: https://twitter.com/evgenymorozov

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

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We pick up on part two of our discussion with Nick Chavez, focusing on the possibilities and limitations of reengineering capitalist forces of production for communist social relations. We discuss the need for epistemic luddism—or breaking the way we understand and use technologies—and why militancy at points of production is absolutely crucial. What comes first? Which one gives us the other? Radical machines or radical society? The dialectical answer is, of course, why not both!

Some stuff we reference:

••• The Present and Future of Engineers | Nick Chavez | Brooklyn Rail https://brooklynrail.org/2021/10/field-notes/THINKING-ABOUT-COMMUNISM

••• Error | Endnotes 5 https://endnotes.org.uk/file_hosting/EN5_Error.pdf

••• How to Make a Pencil | Aaron Benanav https://logicmag.io/commons/how-to-make-a-pencil/

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

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We are joined once again by Nick Chavez, a Marxist mechanical engineer, to discuss the political economy of automation – providing the groundwork for a better understanding of how automation actually operates in the market, the workplace, the interests of capital, and the lives of labor. What happens when the living are dominated by the dead? What happens when you work too much or not work enough? What happens when the bottom keeps falling out of a stagnated service economy? What happens when capital controls the forces of automation? We need only look at the world to find the answer to these questions.

Some stuff we reference:

••• The Present and Future of Engineers | Nick Chavez | Brooklyn Rail https://brooklynrail.org/2021/10/field-notes/THINKING-ABOUT-COMMUNISM

••• Smart Machines and Service Work: Automation in an Age of Stagnation | Jason E. Smith http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781789143188

••• Automation and the Future of Work | Aaron Benanav https://www.versobooks.com/books/3717-automation-and-the-future-of-work

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

Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)