This Machine Kills

We dive into chapter 3 – Unfreezing the Ice Age – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. We travel back to prehistoric times to learn how the actual archaeological evidence flies in the face of persistent, ubiquitous interpretations of human nature as unchangeable and human society as one-dimensional. Instead, we see how social fluidity and political experimentation has long been the no...

Rather than try to hit you with hot takes and quick analysis on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we take a step back and round up of the most craven people in crypto who saw this crisis as a problem in need of web3 solutions. Brace yourself for the most harebrained schemes and opportunistic scams. The great thing about the blockchain is that it promotes peace and profits at the same time. Some stu...

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. Subscribe to hear more analysis and...

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 m...

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 w...

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 t...

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 design...

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? Whi...

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 wr...

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 ass...

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? Radi...

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?...

We talk more about (digital) sabotage, the different scales and intensities these actions can take, and the risks of inconvenience or worse, which sabotage as a form of self-sacrifice might require. We then get into the politics of the “slow computing” movement, the failings of “humane technology” philosophies, and why the tech press is a sucker for a redemption story. Some stuff we reference: •••...

We dig into the different visions that tech billionaires have for space – whether it’s Elon Musk’s ambitions for lording over Mars colonies or Jeff Bezos’s schemes to monopolize logistics for orbital settlements. At the end of the day, we can see the same imperialist imperative inherent to capitalism expressing itself through the search for a new frontier, the final frontier to conquer: space. The...

We discuss recent work Andreas Malm – Marxist historian, ecologists, and radical climate activist – as analysed through a large synthetic review essay by Adam Tooze. We get into capitalism’s climate catastrophe, the politics and praxis of direct action, the ahistorical positions and principles of large liberal climate change activism movements, and the urgent need for moral arguments backed up by...

Kicking off the new year, we are joined by returning champion Wendy Liu – author of Abolish Silicon Valley – to look back on all the very dumb things the tech sector has forced us take seriously in 2021. We talk about how free flowing capital has both created and accelerated a world built on sand. Where all the vaporware, bullshit, and grifts of things like NFTs, DAOs, and web3 seemingly come from...

We're back next week with fresh episodes! Until then, here's part 2 of our in-depth discussion on Aadhaar. We pick up with part two of our deep dive into Aadhaar, looking at the social issues, political implications, and street-level implementation. Building on the work of Ranjit Singh and Steven Jackson, we first lay out an analysis of what it means to “see like an infrastructure.” Then we dwell...

We're taking a break from recording for the holidays. Enjoy this unlocked Patreon episode. As the Federal Trade Commission files suit to block the merger between Nvidia and Arm, we take the opportunity to revisit the excellent and necessary work of the FTC’s Chair, Lina Khan. We discuss a recent profile of Khan in the New Yorker. Then dig deeper into a very long, very important paper by Khan makin...

In part two of our discussion with hosts of Left Reckoning, Matt Lech and David Griscom, we pick right back up where we left off. We get into the environmental racism of where Amazon builds its warehouses and the ways that Black, Hispanic, and/or low-income communities are treated as sacrifice zones for the unending expansion of capitalism and technology. We then talk about the predatory model of...

Opening song: Venceremos – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11MlvWKfL7s We’re very excited to be joined by the hosts of Left Reckoning, Matt Lech and David Griscom, for an action packed double header of episodes to keep you busy during the holiday season! We have a very energetic discussion about the project of leftism before getting into a critical political economy analysis of the sudden rise of...

We wrap up with the last chapter of Wendy H.K. Chun’s book, Control and Freedom. We discuss: the book’s value as a lens for analyzing current developments and discourses about “web3” — conceptions of the internet as both a public and private space — the general cultural affect of paranoia and its relation to techno-power — a self-crit session on the utility of “emerging technologies” as a term — C...

We do a close reading of a new article in Foreign Policy by futurist Parag Khanna and venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan, which stands as a monument to how “web3” is like a brain worm that destroys people’s ability to think. The articles’ ten theses are a testament to the poverty of thought pervasive in the upper echelons of wealth, influence, and technology. Outro: https://soundcloud.com/braune...

As the Federal Trade Commission files suit to block the merger between Nvidia and Arm, we take the opportunity to revisit the excellent and necessary work of the FTC’s Chair, Lina Khan. We discuss a recent profile of Khan in the New Yorker. Then dig deeper into a very long, very important paper by Khan making the legal case for reviving the antitrust doctrine of structural separation and applying...

We kept ignoring DAOs and web3 hoping it would go away, but sadly it hasn’t. So we pick apart each part of the acronym—decentralized, autonomous, organization—and discuss the techno-politics of their promise and practice. We get into blockchain, smart contracts, and corporate governance. Some stuff we reference: ••• Book-Smart, Not Street-Smart: Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts and The Social Work...

Continuing sci-fi week at TMK, we dig into Chapter 4, “Orienting the Future,” of Wendy H.K. Chun’s book. Grounded in Chun’s in-depth analysis of cyberpunk via two paradigmatic examples—the novel Neuromancer and the anime Ghost in the Shell—we lay out a critical take on the cyberpunk genre. We then discuss Chun’s incisive arguments about “high-tech Orientalism” and the colonial politics encoded int...