This Machine Kills

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)

We continue our deep dive into a provocative, radical blueprint for democratizing finance and taking control of the economy. We detail Omarova’s detailed proposal for turning the Federal Reserve into the People’s Ledger. On the liabilities side, we discuss the universalization of deposit services (aka FedAccounts) and the elimination of private deposit-taking by commercial banks. On the assets side, we discuss the creation of a National Investment Authority which would allocate capital to socially beneficial, large-scale projects. Together this reformed Fed would drastically reduce the complexity and volatility of the financial system, while democratizing access to financial services, while also distributing the flows of capital to worthwhile investments. ••• The People's Ledger: How to Democratize Money and Finance the Economy | Saule T. Omarova https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol74/iss5/1/ ••• Socialist Investment, Dynamic Planning, and the Politics of Human Need | Aaron Benanav https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08935696.2022.2051375 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 dive deep into a provocative, radical blueprint for democratizing finance and taking control of the economy. A recent paper by law professor – and a favorite thinker of TMK – Saule Omarova offers a detailed plan for how to reengineer the Federal Reserve, totally restructuring its balance sheet, and “redefining the role of a central bank as the ultimate public platform for generating, modulating, and allocating financial resources in a democratic economy—the People’s Ledger.” ••• The People's Ledger: How to Democratize Money and Finance the Economy | Saule T. Omarova https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol74/iss5/1/ 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’re pulling the ripcord on this book. After slogging through five chapters, we discuss why this book just isn’t working for our needs with the TMK Book Club and why we are abandoning it. Despite it being an influential book, which is squarely in our interests, its approach to describing the topic makes it difficult and, frankly, not very fun to talk about. So instead we talk about some other contenders for the next iteration of the TMK Book Club that show more promise and take us in some different directions. We also ask for your recommendations! Comment on this episode on Patreon or post them on Discord. 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)

As the tech economy faces a massive turn down, we dig deeper into a market segment that experienced meteoric overcapitalized growth, a huge pandemic boost, and an immediate collapse: instant delivery // dark stores // ghost kitchens. To help us analyze the consequences of this sector’s rise, demise, and aftermath we are joined by Aaron Shapiro – author of Design, Control, Predict: Logistical Governance in the Smart City. ••• Aaron’s twitter: https://twitter.com/BricolageYumYum ••• Aaron’s book: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/design-control-predict ••• Aaron’s article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14695405211069983 ••• The Fantasy of Instant Delivery Is Imploding https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-10-24/gopuff-layoffs-signal-instant-delivery-s-demise?leadSource=uverify+wall 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 riff on the artisanal race science of Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, the crypto hedge fund linked to FTX. Then we introduce you to the Harman Ready Care system, yet another of the wonderful innovations on the market contributing, in its own incremental way, to improving the world today. ••• Introducing HARMAN Ready Care: Detects Driver Behaviors and Assists via Context-Aware Interventions for Safer and Smarter Drives https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220914005609/en/Introducing-HARMAN-Ready-Care-Detects-Driver-Behaviors-and-Assists-via-Context-Aware-Interventions-for-Safer-and-Smarter-Drives ••• Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691175300/data-driven 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 dig into the details of FTX’s collapse. FTX is not an isolated event. FTX is not a bad apple. FTX is not uniquely mismanaged. FTX is not a cautionary tale. FTX is not a stunning surprise. FTX is a systemic problem, a vehicle for structural levels of fraud, another in a long line of liquidity crunches for crypto, a litmus test for credible due diligence, a fork in the road for the crypto economy, institutional investors, and government regulators. ••• It Was All a Game for Sam Bankman-Fried https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/11/it-was-all-a-game-for-sam-bankman-fried.html ••• FTX’s Balance Sheet Was Bad https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-11-14/ftx-s-balance-sheet-was-bad ••• FTX held less than $1bn in liquid assets against $9bn in liabilities https://www.ft.com/content/f05fe9f8-ca0a-48d5-8ef2-7a4d813af558 ••• Sam Bankman-Fried Was Supposed to Be Different. He Wasn't. https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7epm/sam-bankman-fried-was-supposed-to-be-different-he-wasnt ••• Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Crypto Empire Is Officially Bankrupt https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjkmvw/sam-bankman-frieds-ftx-crypto-empire-is-officially-bankrupt 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 dig into Chapter 3 – Theory and Practice – and look at how, in the 1960s and 1970s, theories of finance like random-walk hypothesis and efficient market hypothesis, started leaking out of the university and having real world effects in professional financial practice. Combined with market restructuring caused by the rapid growth of institutional investors in the American economy, these financial theories directly influence the creation of things like index funds, which go on to set financial markets on a totally new pathway. Here’s a free pdf of the book: https://uberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/MacKenzie-An-Engine-Not-a-Camera.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 discuss a recent investigation by ProPublica into the convergence of real estate, private equity, and algorithmic pricing as they profile a particularly odious company (RealPage) that is selling a technology (YieldStar) to property management companies, which directly leading to severe upward pressures on rental pricing and vacancy rates. Troubled by real estate companies extracting higher margins out of renters in a tight market in ways that raise red flags of collusion? Well, just blame a guy named Bob. Stuff we reference: ••• Rent Going Up? One Company’s Algorithm Could Be Why. https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-realpage-rent ••• Senator Seeks Antitrust Review of Apartment Price-Setting Software https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-senate-antitrust-apartment ••• Company That Makes Rent-Setting Software for Apartments Accused of Collusion, Lawsuit Says https://www.propublica.org/article/realpage-accused-of-collusion-in-new-lawsuit ••• RealPage Accused Of Price-Fixing In Student Housing Market https://www.law360.com/real-estate-authority/articles/1546168/realpage-accused-of-price-fixing-in-student-housing-market ••• JP Morgan Wants to Make Tenant Data Available to Every Landlord https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7bkyn/jp-morgan-wants-to-make-tenant-data-available-to-every-landlord 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 talk about the chaos at Twitter as Elon drives the company into the ground, merging classic techniques of a private equity takeover with his patented impulsive incompetence. Stuff we reference: ••• Musk’s Trump-style management rattles Twitter workers awaiting layoffs https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/03/elon-musk-twitter-layoffs-silence-blind/ ••• Twitter job cuts begin as Musk warns of ‘massive’ revenue drop https://www.ft.com/content/b9a2a0ec-d3fe-422d-bc62-fa9ddfd3f06c ••• A Layoff Guide for Twitter Workers https://news.techworkerscoalition.org/2022/11/03/issue-16/ ••• Exclusive: Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims https://www.reuters.com/legal/exclusive-tesla-faces-us-criminal-probe-over-self-driving-claims-sources-2022-10-26/ ••• American Gentry https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/trump-american-gentry-wyman-elites/620151/ 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)

We are joined by Jacob Silverman – contributing editor at The New Republic – to discuss his profile of David Sacks, a venture capitalist and right-wing media personality who has been on the vanguard of reactionary culture wars and political influence in Silicon Valley. Follow Jacob: https://twitter.com/SilvermanJacob Stuff we reference ••• The Quiet Political Rise of David Sacks, Silicon Valley’s Prophet of Urban Doom https://newrepublic.com/article/168125/david-sacks-elon-musk-peter-thiel ••• The Neocons and the Woke Left Are Joining Hands and Leading Us to Woke War III | Opinion https://www.newsweek.com/neocons-woke-left-are-joining-hands-leading-us-woke-war-iii-opinion-1748947 ••• The Shadow Crew Who Encouraged Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-shadow-crew-who-encouraged-elon-musks-twitter-takeover-tesla-jack-dorsey-11651260119 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)

We dig into Chapter 2 – Transforming Finance – and look at how, in the 1950s and 1960s, the economic study of finance started shifting from merely descriptive approaches to engaging in more analytical theories and mathematical models of how finance does (and should) operate. Here’s a free pdf of the book: https://uberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/MacKenzie-An-Engine-Not-a-Camera.pdf 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)

We are joined by reporter Avi Asher-Schapiro who, along with his colleague Fabio Teixeira, has published an investigation into the crypto carbon credits markets. This collision between green finance and crypto economics reveals many of the worst tendencies of both sectors as financiers take advantage of highly profitable opportunities for price arbitrage. Such as bundling low quality “zombie credits” with high quality carbon credits, labeling these subprime assets as premium, and selling the tokens at the highest price. All in the name of making the markets more efficient at saving the planet, of course. ••• Follow Avi: https://twitter.com/AASchapiro ••• Fears of 'subprime' carbon assets stall crypto rainforest mission https://www.context.news/net-zero/long-read/fears-of-subprime-carbon-assets-stall-crypto-rainforest-mission 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)

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)

We are joined by Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Artie Vierkant — co-hosts of Death Panel — to discuss their truly excellent new book, Health Communism, which offers a searing analysis of how our conceptions and systems of health are critical to the maintenance of capitalism. Under capitalism we are all human waste: the sick and surplus that are drains on productive society. If you don’t think you are, then just wait long enough and hopefully you’ll live long enough to meet that fate. Health communism is both the reason for tearing down this system and an alternative that reclaims health for all people—not just the bosses and workers, but for those great many subjected to the extractive abandonment of being marked as surplus. ••• Health Communism: https://www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism ••• Death Panel: https://www.deathpanel.net/ ••• Beatrice: https://twitter.com/realLandsEnd ••• Artie: https://twitter.com/avierkant 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)

After an extended riff, we kick off the new TMK Book Club on An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets by Donald MacKenzie. In the first chapter we get an intro to some of the big themes, methods, and theories that we’ll get deeper into throughout the book’s sociological analysis of financial economics and market dynamics. This is a foundational book in the social studies of finance. Being an academic text, it is also dense and heady. Read along with us if you have the time and ability. But don’t stress if you can’t. We will, as always, do our best to break things down and add our own discussion of each chapter. Episodes come out biweekly. Here’s a free pdf of the book: https://uberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/MacKenzie-An-Engine-Not-a-Camera.pdf 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)

We check in on our old friends/enemies at the New York Time, then get to some listener mail about effective altruism, all before offering a smart, nuanced, and critical defense of the CIA. You see, it’s not that we are angry, we are just disappointed at the CIA’s continual failure to live up to its own potential for greatness. Stuff we reference: ••• Has the C.I.A. Done More Harm Than Good? https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/10/has-the-cia-done-more-harm-than-good ••• The Responsibility of Intellectuals https://chomsky.info/19670223/ ••• It's Lonely in the Metaverse: Decentraland’s 38 Daily Active Users in a $1.3B Ecosystem https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2022/10/07/its-lonely-in-the-metaverse-decentralands-38-daily-active-users-in-a-13b-ecosystem/ ••• ‘The Cash Monster Was Insatiable’: How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/upshot/medicare-advantage-fraud-allegations.html 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)

We take a hard look at the White House’s new AI Bill of Rights and discover that the Eye of Sauron is actually ethical according to its principles. We then go in on academia and journalism for, in their own ways, laundering the interests and influence of the tech sector. Also, the new TMK book club starts next week in the patreon feed! Starting with Chapter 1, we will be going through An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets | Donald MacKenzie https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262633673/an-engine-not-a-camera/ Some references: ••• Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/ ••• Biden’s AI Bill of Rights Is Toothless Against Big Tech https://www.wired.com/story/bidens-ai-bill-of-rights-is-toothless-against-big-tech/ ••• AI Data Laundering: How Academic and Nonprofit Researchers Shield Tech Companies from Accountability https://waxy.org/2022/09/ai-data-laundering-how-academic-and-nonprofit-researchers-shield-tech-companies-from-accountability/ ••• Eighteen pitfalls to beware of in AI journalism https://aisnakeoil.substack.com/p/eighteen-pitfalls-to-beware-of-in ••• On NYT Magazine on AI: Resist the Urge to be Impressed https://medium.com/@emilymenonbender/on-nyt-magazine-on-ai-resist-the-urge-to-be-impressed-3d92fd9a0edd 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)

We discuss recent events of a report by Tech Inquiry about big tech’s military contracts was pulled by its funders — a major union and a major social democratic party — over Tech Inquiry’s refusal to censor its criticism of Microsoft. We offer our own critical analysis of organizations focused on building short-term, self-interested alliances with capital instead of ones focused on building long-term, worker power that is antagonistic to capital. Some references: ••• On the censorship of our report on government purchasing from Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet https://techinquiry.org/?about=UNI-censorship&guard= ••• Labor union censored report criticizing Microsoft’s military contracts https://theintercept.com/2022/09/07/microsoft-military-union-cwa/ ••• German SPD politician justifies murder of Rosa Luxemburg https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/01/18/thie-j18.html 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)

Jathan debriefs on the insurtech conference. Then we discuss Elon Musk’s texts and emails that were made public during discovery for his litigation with Twitter, which show just how idiotic, pathetic, and sycophantic these billionaires truly are. There’s no secret genius masterplan or devious conspiracy. It’s just powerful people sucking off the guy above them and ripping off everybody below them. Stuff we reference: ••• Elon Musk’s Texts Shatter the Myth of the Tech Genius https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/09/elon-musk-texts-twitter-trial-jack-dorsey/671619/ 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)

We are unlocking a recent episode about a topic that remains very relevant. We dig deep into Effective Altruism and Longtermism, laying out the origins, beliefs, and actions of this ideological moral system and the networks of influence and wealth that it’s plugged into. Along the way we critique the extreme logical conclusions it leads to, the extremely simpleminded fairy tales it’s based on, and the extremist group of moral zealots, useful idiots, and cynical bullshiters that rule this rationalist religion. Some stuff we reference: ••• The Case for Longtermism https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/opinion/the-case-for-longtermism.html ••• The Reluctant Prophet of Effective Altruism https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/the-reluctant-prophet-of-effective-altruism ••• Stop the Robot Apocalypse https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n18/amia-srinivasan/stop-the-robot-apocalypse 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 (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

It’s TMK Live in Vegas! Well, in real life recording live to tape in the same room for the first time ever. We talk about our adventures in Las Vegas. A city that is constituted by many forms of totally controlled, perfectly designed prisons. A city that is representative of the many forms of surplus in capitalism: of luxury and money, of misery and people. Some stuff we reference ••• Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691160887/addiction-by-design ••• A Nation of the Walking Dead https://www.truthdig.com/articles/a-nation-of-the-walking-dead/ 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)

We are joined by Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin – authors of the excellent new book Chokepoint Capitalism – to discuss how creative labor markets are tightly squeezed on all sides by massive monopolies / monopsonies that create chokepoints to trap suppliers, trap consumers, and trap all the profits in markets for books, music, movies, and every other artistic endeavour. Cory and Rebecca then detail a long list of tactics and solutions for breaking the capitalist stranglehold over cultural production. ••• Follow Cory: https://twitter.com/doctorow ••• Follow Rebecca: https://twitter.com/rgibli ••• Buy the book: http://www.beacon.org/Chokepoint-Capitalism-P1856.aspx ••• Support the kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/chokepoint-capitalism-an-audiobook-amazon-wont-sell 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)

We cruise through recent stories about how our surveillance society continues developing. We’ve got biometric fingerprint scanners to enter the bathrooms at a high school ••• police have decided the heat on facial recognition has finally died down and have begun lifting moratoriums and expanding its usage ••• an insurance company and tech company buy large stakes in a home security company, in the prologue to every anarcho-capitalist sci-fi story ••• and powerful, price, geolocation trackers have become cheap, plentiful, and small, much to the totally predictable detriment of stalking and abuse victims. Some stuff we reference: ••• Sydney high school uses fingerprint technology to stop vandalism in toilets https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-06/moorebank-high-school-fingerprints-students-going-to-toilet/101410544 ••• First, they banned facial recognition. Now they're not so sure https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/05/tech/facial-recognition-bans-reversed/index.html ••• Ring the Alarm https://www.coverager.com/ring-the-alarm-2022 ••• ‘I was just really scared’: Apple AirTags lead to stalking complaints https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/20/apple-airtags-stalking-complaints-technology ••• ‘I didn’t want it anywhere near me’: how the Apple AirTag became a gift to stalkers https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/sep/05/i-didnt-want-it-anywhere-near-me-how-the-apple-airtag-became-a-gift-to-stalkers Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: 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 joined by Justin Roczniak—of the excellent engineering disasters podcast, Well There’s Your Problem—to talk about the potential freight rail strike that has been brewing for a long time and near-future scenarios for the supply chain. We discuss the horrid labor conditions in the industry and the scourge of Precision Scheduled Railroading, a system of management that has transformed the entire railroad sector so it serves one god: The Operating Ratio. follow Justin: https://twitter.com/who_shot_jgr Well There’s Your Problem: https://linktr.ee/wtyppod Some stuff we reference: ••• SMART-TD, BLET joint statement on rail embargo https://smart-union.org/smart-td-blet-joint-statement-on-rail-embargo/ ••• A Nationwide Freight Railroad Shutdown Could Cost $2 Billion a Day https://www.aar.org/economic-impact-of-railroad-shutdown# ••• ‘It’s Going to End Up Like Boeing’: How Freight Rail Is Courting Catastrophe https://www.vice.com/en/article/3angy3/freight-rail-train-disaster-avoidable-boeing ••• Rail Strike Threatens to Slow US Supply-Chain Recovery https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-09-12/supply-chain-latest-us-railroad-strike-threatens-supply-chain-recovery ••• Rail Unions Are Bargaining Over a Good Job Made Miserable https://www.labornotes.org/2022/02/rail-negotiations-are-about-good-job-made-miserable Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: 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 discuss a powerful new essay on the multiple violences – domestic, data, administrative, racial – wrought by the state family police, aka “child protective services,” which uses an array of tools to terrorize and tear apart families, particularly targeting those that are Black and Brown. But first, we pour one out for Real Life Magazine and reflect on its importance – and the huge loss – for the tech media landscape. Some stuff we reference: ••• Birthing Predictions of Premature Death | J. Khadijah Abdurahman https://logicmag.io/home/birthing-predictions-of-premature-death/ ••• The Time Tax https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/07/how-government-learned-waste-your-time-tax/619568/ ••• I Have Studied Child Protective Services for Decades. It Needs to Be Abolished. https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2022/04/abolish-child-protective-services-torn-apart-dorothy-roberts-book-excerpt/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: 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 get an update on Jathan’s journey into the heart of darkness as he returns to suburban America after a four years absence – a stranger in a strange homeland. Riffs and distractions ensue until we end by talking about Mark Zuckerberg going on the Joe Rogan Experience, Meta’s pivot to Alpha Male Mindset, and the rise of Dark Zuck. Some stuff we reference: ••• Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Pitch Is Falling Flat https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-31/mark-zuckerberg-s-metaverse-flails-on-joe-rogan-podcast ••• The Continued Unraveling of Mark Zuckerberg’s Malicious Metaverse https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/09/02/the-continued-unraveling-of-mark-zuckerbergs-malicious-metaverse/ 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 (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We discuss a great new essay from Noah Kulwin that situates the modern crypto grift economy as a reincarnation of the Savings and Loans Crisis of the 80s – as a way of arguing for a longer view of the historical materialist context of these larger dynamics. New body, old engine. Some stuff we reference: ••• Tales from the Thrifts https://thebaffler.com/salvos/tales-from-the-thrifts-kulwin ••• Would You Take Out a Loan to Buy This Week’s Groceries? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/dining/buy-now-pay-later-loans-groceries.html 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 (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We discuss a new startup doing the rounds called Sanas that uses AI “accent translation” to make "non-white" call center workers speak English with a white American accent. This is some real retro throwback tech solutionism / startup utopianism with a very quotable founder at the helm. While Sanas claims it's all about worker empowerment and global equity, we here at TMKonsulting show how Sanas is likely to be used as a tool of exploitation. Plus contribute to broader shifts in the role of large language models for the political economy of AI. We then end with a shout out to FN Meka. Some stuff we reference: ••• Sansa https://www.sanas.ai/ ••• Sanas, the buzzy Bay Area startup that wants to make the world sound whiter https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/sanas-startup-creates-american-voice-17382771.php ••• This Startup Is Selling Tech to Make Call Center Workers Sound Like White Americans https://www.vice.com/en/article/akek7g/this-startup-is-selling-tech-to-make-call-center-workers-sound-like-white-americans ••• Virtual rapper FN Meka underscores how AI perpetuates racial stereotyping https://mashable.com/article/fn-meka-record-deal-racial-stereotyping 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 (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We talk about the booming market for – and community organizing against – landlord technologies that use invasive surveillance to terrorize tenants and automate evictions. In addition to discussing the broader political economy and social toxicity of this shit, we also introduce a new psycho into the canon. Some stuff we reference: ••• Automating gentrification: Landlord technologies and housing justice organizing in New York City homes https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/02637758221088868 ••• Automated landlord: Digital technologies and post-crisis financial accumulation https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0308518X19846514 ••• Electronic Fortification in Phoenix: Surveillance Technologies and Social Regulation in Residential Communities https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1078087406292845 Grab 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 by Dan McQuillan to discuss his great new book Resisting AI. As Jathan wrote in a blurb for the book: “With analytical and moral clarity, McQuillan makes the case for recognising the radical politics of AI and meeting its goose step march head-on.” We get deep into an excellent discussion spanning the political economy and political epistemology of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Ed is trapped in Pittsburgh where he is now forced to live as a worker in a defunct steel factory. ••• Follow Dan on Twitter https://twitter.com/danmcquillan ••• Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/resisting-ai ••• Data Science as Machinic Neoplatonism https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-017-0273-3 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 (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We dig deep into Effective Altruism and Longtermism, laying out the origins, beliefs, and actions of this ideological moral system and the networks of influence and wealth that it’s plugged into. Along the way we critique the extreme logical conclusions it leads to, the extremely simpleminded fairy tales it’s based on, and the extremist group of moral zealots, useful idiots, and cynical bullshiters that rule this rationalist religion. Some stuff we reference: ••• The Case for Longtermism https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/opinion/the-case-for-longtermism.html ••• The Reluctant Prophet of Effective Altruism https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/the-reluctant-prophet-of-effective-altruism ••• Stop the Robot Apocalypse https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n18/amia-srinivasan/stop-the-robot-apocalypse 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 (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

[We are unlocking this episode to share the interview with the main feed. Apologies for the feedback from Noah's audio causing a slight digital buzz when he talks, Jereme cleaned it up as best he could.] Ed is joined by reporter Noah Lanard to talk about his recent profile of Peter Thiel’s apostle: Blake Masters. We track the origins and development of his ideology: from his childhood flirtation with liberalism(?) to his college libertarianism and deeper integration into Thiel’s network of fascists eager to seize control of the GOP and Silicon Valley. Read the article: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/07/blake-masters-peter-thiel-donald-trump-arizona-senate-mark-kelly/ Follow Noah: https://twitter.com/nlanard 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 (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We melt our brains discussing two reality tv shows that are taking copaganda to the next level. First up is Ring Nation, a new show produced by Amazon-owned MGM Studios that’s like America’s Funniest Home Videos for a ubiquitous surveillance society. Next is Hunted, a new Australian show based on a UK series that’s like a mix of The Amazing Race + Live PD + 24. I wish this was all fake. I wish this was all a bit. But it’s more than real: it’s reality tv, baby! Some stuff we reference: ••• 'Ring Nation' Is Amazon's Reality Show for Our Surveillance Dystopia https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k8x49/ring-nation-is-amazons-reality-show-for-our-surveillance-dystopia ••• Ready, set, dough: The hide-and-seek game with $100k up for grabs https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/ready-set-dough-the-hide-and-seek-game-with-100k-up-for-grabs-20220705-p5aza5.html ••• No matter who wins Hunted, Channel 10’s new surveillance game, we all lose https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/07/25/hunted-channel-10-surveillance-show-we-all-lose/ ••• Facial recognition smartwatches to be used to monitor foreign offenders in UK https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/05/facial-recognition-smartwatches-to-be-used-to-monitor-foreign-offenders-in-uk ••• SoftBank Reports Record $23.4 Billion Loss as Holdings Fall https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-08/softbank-reports-record-23-4-billion-loss-as-holdings-tumble 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 (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Based on Amazon’s recent acquisitions of One Medical and iRobot—just the latest in a shopping spree of vertical integration—we analyze how these seemingly disparate things all plug into Amazon’s broader strategy for “ambient computing.” In which data from a vast variety of sources and streams are combined and integrated into a range of different services. In which we are always plugged into Amazon’s ever-expanding network through protocols like Sidewalk. In which we are constantly connected to the eternal and ubiquitous market. Some stuff we reference: ••• Amazon agrees to buy Roomba maker iRobot for $1.7bn www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/05/amazon-buy-roomba-maker-irobot-vaccum ••• Amazon’s Roomba Deal Is Really About Mapping Your Home https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-05/amazon-s-irobot-deal-is-about-roomba-s-data-collection ••• Dave Limp: Amazon’s focus is on the real world, not the metaverse https://www.ft.com/content/3d5bdfa8-d85e-41e8-b2d5-fadf8948cbba 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 (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Ed is joined by reporter Noah Lanard to talk about his recent profile of Peter Thiel’s apostle: Blake Masters. We track the origins and development of his ideology: from his childhood flirtation with liberalism(?) to his college libertarianism and deeper integration into Thiel’s network of fascists eager to seize control of the GOP and Silicon Valley. Read the article: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/07/blake-masters-peter-thiel-donald-trump-arizona-senate-mark-kelly/ Follow Noah: https://twitter.com/nlanard 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 (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We dig into a convoluted and confused scheme for people selling shares in their future to venture capitalists, which pushes logics of hyper-financialization in even more perverse directions—all proposed by two brothers who are the epitome of a dumb guy’s idea of smart guys. Article we discuss: ••• Is Selling Shares in Yourself the Way of the Future? https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/01/is-selling-shares-in-yourself-the-way-of-the-future 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)

At long last, we dive into the last chapter of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. We reflect on this odyssey of a book, pulling out its major themes, discussing the baseline freedoms that are essential for society, considering the nihilistic contradictions inherent to the Enlightenment view of humanity, looking back on how we got stuck in static social relations and dead end political developments, plus more! 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 by Jörg Tittel, creator of the new video game The Last Worker, which is part social satire, part interactive narrative, part adventure game. We discuss the ideas, story, design, and production behind the game where players take on the role of the last human worker in an otherwise fully automated fulfillment center the size of Manhattan that is operated by Jüngle—a near future version of Amazon. The Last Worker is coming out on most platforms, including VR, later this year. ••• The Last Worker: thelastworker.com ••• Jorg on Twitter: https://twitter.com/newjorg ••• 15 minute demo playthrough of the game: https://youtu.be/Bgp7nLOKlM8 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)

Now it’s time to get into the real analysis of fintech as laid out by Saule Omarova’s work. We walk through the dominant regulatory approach to financial markets that came from the New Deal; how the 1980s is the true origin of the fintech revolution; how the secondary financial markets have taken over the whole system; how new technologies focused on making micro-level transactions faster, easier, cheaper have led to making macro-level systems more unstable, unrestrained, and untethered from reality. The paper we discuss: ••• New Tech v. New Deal: Fintech as a Systemic Phenomenon | Saule T. Omarova https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2800&context=facpub 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 (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We set up and begin discussing a paper that can be described as a Rosetta Stone for how to analyze the development, logics, mechanics, and impacts of fintech innovations from the 1980s onward — and the regulatory regime for financial markets that traces back to the New Deal. This paper is dense in the best way, so it demands (and deserves) a lot of focused time/attention. This episode establishes the bones of the analysis; the next one on the premium feed will flesh out the analysis. The paper we discuss: ••• New Tech v. New Deal: Fintech as a Systemic Phenomenon | Saule T. Omarova https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2800&context=facpub 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 (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We dive back into chapter 11 – Full Circle – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. We revisit the Indigenous critique of how human civilization develops and where the political values underlying modern human societies originate. First outlined in the beginning of the book, we now further flesh out the Indigenous critique and drive home its key conclusions. 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)

{For this week we're unlocking a classic episode} We talk about the absurdities of proptech – or the real estate technology sector – which is jam packed with out-of-control purchasing by house-flipping algorithms powered by automated valuation models that lead to balance sheets filled with liabilities and it’s all fuelled by way too much free-flowing capital. In other words, a classic recipe for disaster. The article we discuss: ••• House-flipping algorithms are coming to your neighborhood | Matthew Ponsford https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/13/1049227/house-flipping-algorithms-are-coming-to-your-neighborhood/ 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)

Paris Marx is back for part two of our discussion about their new book Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong About the Future of Transportation. This time we dig deeper into the winding history of the electric vehicle and why today’s model of electrification without collectivization is not going to solve our problems—just cause new ones. ••• Road to Nowhere | Paris Marx: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3995-road-to-nowhere ••• Follow Paris: https://twitter.com/parismarx ••• Listen to Tech Won’t Save Us: https://twitter.com/techwontsaveus 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)

Dear friend of the show, Paris Marx, has an excellent new book just out from Verso called Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong About the Future of Transportation. Paris is back on the show to dive into the book’s historical, grounded, critical analysis with us. This is part 1, with part 2 coming out on the patreon feed later this week. ••• Road to Nowhere | Paris Marx: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3995-road-to-nowhere ••• Follow Paris: https://twitter.com/parismarx ••• Listen to Tech Won’t Save Us: https://twitter.com/techwontsaveus 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)