The Machinist

Podcast: The Anti-Dystopians (LS 25 · TOP 10% what is this?)Episode: Who is Amazon?Pub date: 2022-01-30Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this episode of the Anti-Dystopians, Rowena Squires, an ancient historian, asks Alina Utrata everything you ever wanted to know about Amazon. How did Amazon go from online bookstore to commercial empire? Is Amazon Alexa really recording everything you say? How was AWS cloud computing invented? And why is the Library of Alexandria such a good origin story for the Amazon Alexa?You can follow Rowena Squires on Twitter @RowenaSquires, Alina Utrata @alinautrata and the Anti-Dystopians podcast on @AntiDystopians. Sign up for the Anti-Dystopians email newsletter at bit.ly/3kuGM5XAll episodes of the Anti-Dystopians are hosted and produced by Alina Utrata and are freely available to all listeners. To support the production to the show, visit: bit.ly/3AApPN4Articles mentioned in this episode:Business reporter Brad Stone's 2013 book “The Everything Store” and the 2020 follow-up “Amazon Unbound”Alec MacGillis’s book “Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America” The US House Judiciary Report on Monopolies Franklin Foer’s deep-dive into Jeff Bezos’s brain in the AtlanticCharles Duhigg’s “Is Amazon Unstoppable?” For the rest of the articles mentioned in this episode, visit bit.ly/3kuGM5XNowhere Land by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4148-nowhere-landLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Alina Utrata, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Podcast: DeepMacro: Future of FinanceEpisode: Crypto, The Uberization of Money, and Why Central Banks Want Digital CurrenciesPub date: 2022-02-01Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationJeff Young spoke with Eswar Prasad, Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy and Professor of Economics at Cornell University. He recently published the book The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance, where he looks at Bitcoin and the transformative potential of the blockchain, the pros and cons of central bank digital currencies, and the international nature of and adoption of cryptocurrencies.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from DeepMacro, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Podcast: New Books in Sociology (LS 40 · TOP 2% what is this?)Episode: Helga Nowotny, "In AI We Trust: Power, Illusion and Control of Predictive Algorithms" (Polity, 2021)Pub date: 2022-01-20Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationToday I talked to Helga Nowotny about her new book In AI We Trust: Power, Illusion and Control of Predictive Algorithms (Polity, 2021).One of the most persistent concerns about the future is whether it will be dominated by the predictive algorithms of AI - and, if so, what this will mean for our behaviour, for our institutions and for what it means to be human. AI changes our experience of time and the future and challenges our identities, yet we are blinded by its efficiency and fail to understand how it affects us.At the heart of our trust in AI lies a paradox: we leverage AI to increase our control over the future and uncertainty, while at the same time the performativity of AI, the power it has to make us act in the ways it predicts, reduces our agency over the future. This happens when we forget that that we humans have created the digital technologies to which we attribute agency. These developments also challenge the narrative of progress, which played such a central role in modernity and is based on the hubris of total control. We are now moving into an era where this control is limited as AI monitors our actions, posing the threat of surveillance, but also offering the opportunity to reappropriate control and transform it into care.As we try to adjust to a world in which algorithms, robots and avatars play an ever-increasing role, we need to understand better the limitations of AI and how their predictions affect our agency, while at the same time having the courage to embrace the uncertainty of the future.Galina Limorenko is a doctoral candidate in Neuroscience with a focus on biochemistry and molecular biology of neurodegenerative diseases at EPFL in Switzerland. To discuss and propose the book for an interview you can reach her at [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociologyThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New Books Network, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Podcast: Tech Won't Save Us (LS 58 · TOP 0.5% what is this?)Episode: Envisioning Platform Socialism w/ James MuldoonPub date: 2022-01-13Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationParis Marx is joined by James Muldoon to discuss his vision for platform socialism and the different ways we could reorganize platforms to serve the public good over corporate profit.James Muldoon is the author of Platform Socialism: How to Reclaim our Digital Future from Big Tech. He’s also a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter and the Head of Digital Research at Autonomy. Follow James on Twitter at @james_muldoon_.Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.Also mentioned in this episode: James wrote about why web3 won’t save the internet. Paris wrote about what’s wrong with discourses about decentralization and why we should nationalize Amazon. Francesca Bria was interviewed by Crypto Syllabus about web3, decentralization, and her experience with municipal tech projects. Facebook’s Project Amplify ensured users saw positive stories about the company. Antonio Negri and Dalla Costa were among the Italian Autonomist Marxists thinking about the social factory. Karl Marx wrote about the concept of surplus value. G.D.H. Cole wrote about guild socialism. James also mentions the work of Otto Neurath. Support the showThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Paris Marx, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.