This Machine Kills

We dig into the a new investigation on the exponential growth of Starlink – Elon Musk’s satellite internet communication network – its geopolitical centrality to the war in Ukraine and international telecommunication policies, and the immense power this grants Musk as the man who has singular control over a private global infrastructure system that everyone from the Pentagon on down has grown depe...

We jump off the absurd twitter debate about degrowth and bananas in global communism to discuss much deeper issues about why any alternative to capitalism cannot simply be premised on being better managers of capitalist machines. Despite the arguments of ecomodernists—and the poverty of thought it engenders—there is not a linear development of progress and innovation which either moves forward (to...

We talk about the kayfabe of the green transition as the woke capitalists at Blackrock appoint Aramco to its board of directors, meanwhile the social justice warriors in the mining industry are doing land acknowledgements before ripping out rare earth minerals needed for renewable energy. These are the champions of a sustainable planet for human life. They are not the champions we deserve, nor are...

We are excited to be joined again by Evgeny Morozov, host of The Santiago Boys, a new narrative podcast series about the history of Cybersyn, the geopolitics of its creation in Cold War Latin America, and the legacy of Salvador Allende, Fernando Flores, and the man who looms largest of all: Stafford Beer. This podcast series is not like any story of Cybersyn you might have read before. Morozov has...

We start chatting about Jathan going on television to talk about AI – friend or foe? hype or hysteria? – then discuss SAG-AFTRA going on strike and the potential future divisions between artificial content vs organic products in the entertainment industry. Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sa...

[Unlocking this one from the paywall] We start by talking about Ed’s new sci-fi / cosmic horror story in the latest issue of Logic(s). We cruise by the aborted cage fight between Zuck and Musk. Then somehow make our way to a long discussion of behavioral insurance technologies and start sketching out a political theory of insurance and its institutional forms in society. Stuff we reference: ••• Th...

We start off with the very funny legal letter that Musk’s lawyers sent to Zuckerberg threatening legal action for Threads stealing IP from Twitter. Then we get into reporting on the rampant use of psychedelics in Silicon Valley. But they aren’t taking drugs for cool reasons, but rather to become more productive and creative with microdosing. This is yet another way to chemically create the most pr...

We look into a new startup – Inflection AI – that has raised $1.5 billion, was co-founded by tech elites, and just released an AI chatbot, Pi, that is meant to be your ultra friendly, personal companion, coach, creative partner and more. We place our bet that this won’t be the last time we hear about Inflection AI. Everything about this company — its funding partners, founders’ pedigrees, AI produ...

We start by talking about Ed’s new sci-fi / cosmic horror story in the latest issue of Logic(s). We cruise by the aborted cage fight between Zuck and Musk. Then somehow make our way to a long discussion of behavioral insurance technologies and start sketching out a political theory of insurance and its institutional forms in society. Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium ep...

We are joined by Alex Sammon – politics reporter at Slate – to discuss one of the best pieces of gonzo reporting in recent memory. Alex journeyed into the heart of darkness at the center of American capitalism: the National Automobile Dealers Association. We discuss why a critical analysis of car dealers is necessary for understanding the real composition of class power and wealth in society. The...

We get into Ed’s new column for The Nation, what he’s got planned, the long arc of arguments he’s building, and how the key to good tech criticism is to talk about technology by using it as a way to talk about other things. After a while discussing the hows and whys of good old historical materialist analysis, things then go off the rails in the best ways. Ed’s column: https://www.thenation.com/au...

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 sta...

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 ti...

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 c...

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...

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 ref...

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...

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...

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 ref...

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...

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 ref...

We get into Evgeny Morozov’s latest essay on the geopolitical interests and military neoliberalism that’s really driving the AI arms race. Morozov traces today’s developments back to the Cold War – not just as a metaphor, but by showing how many of the same people and institutions are still in positions of power. To understand the America vs China framing of technological competition, which is now...

We cruise into the drive-thru of Taco Bell’s Innovation Lab and discuss the strange sublime of food that has been industrially engineered to hit every pleasure center in your brain, while also profaning all this is holy and natural in this world. We are awe-struck by the productive capacity and scientific innovation of capital, while also in total horror of what it has produced and innovated. And...

We are very pleased to be joined by Sarah Myers West— managing director of AI Now Institute and former Senior Advisor on AI to the FTC—to discuss their excellent new report, 2023 Landscape: Confronting Tech Power. We lay out how the dominance of Big Tech is built on a triforce of advantages: data, compute, geopolitical. These advantages serve as both core pillars and core chokepoints for corporate...

Returning champion David A. Banks joins us for a supersized discussion about his new book, The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America. How do cities have to act like social media influencers to attract new flows of capital? How are fundamental dynamics of capitalist urban development — growth machines, rent gaps, spatial fixes, destructive renovation, entrepreneurial compet...