This Machine Kills

We discuss the second half of Chapter 5 of Autonomous Technology: “Artifice and Order” — diving deeper into the social philosophy and political theory of technology. You can find a free pdf of the whole book here: https://www.ratical.org/ratville/AoS/AutonomousTechnology.pdf Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab your 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)

Further notes toward a ruthless criticism of digital capitalism — we lay out how the inherent contradictions of the “gig economy” are starting to slip into crisis, the need to recognize and reject the propaganda that has been embedded in our everyday way of thinking and talking about these companies, and the creative accounting practices they use to cover up the absence of value and instances of death. 200 years ago, the Luddites smashed the gig mills used by capital to rob them of autonomy. They did not set out to create a more humane version of machinic dispossession. Today, the task before us all is to do the same. Some stuff we reference: • The Motherboard Guide to the Gig Economy | Edward Ongweso Jr: https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkbk88/the-motherboard-guide-to-the-gig-economy • Digital Piecework | Veena Dubal: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/digital-piecework • Uber CEO Works on App for a Day, Barely Makes Minimum Wage | Josh Marcus: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/uber-ubereats-ceo-dara-khosrowshahi-b1873651.html • Food delivery driver's death wasn't recognised by Uber Eats and his family are still fighting for the insurance | Patrick Begley: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-25/background-briefing-uber-eats-delivery-drivers-death/100239920 • The Taming of Tech Criticism | Evgeny Morozov: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/taming-tech-criticism Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab your 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 the first half of Chapter 5 of Autonomous Technology: “Artifice and Order.” This is a really juicy chapter where Winner is really laying out fundamentals for his own theory of technological politics by asking the question of not just “Who governs?” but also “What governs?” So while we set out to get through the whole thing in one episode, to do the discussion and rumination of this analysis the justice it deserves, we decided to break it up into two episodes. We’re doing anti-efficiency praxis here by not giving into the temptations of speed – sometimes you should take it slow. In this half we lay out a series of key concepts for how to understand the immense accumulation of large-scale, complex, interconnected, and interdependent systems that define the conditions of modern society and life. The second half of Chapter 5 will be released on the premium feed next week! You can find a free pdf of the whole book here: https://www.ratical.org/ratville/AoS/AutonomousTechnology.pdf Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab your 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)

As an antidote to the constant glowing profiles of tech executives and venture capitalists, TMK is starting an ongoing, occasional series where we highlight the stories and experiences of radical tech workers: people who are disaffected by the industry, discontented with its broken promises, and committed to working towards different models of funding, building, and using technology for a truly better world. To kick us off we are very pleased to be joined by (returning champion) Wendy Liu and Jason Prado—both longtime tech workers—for an amazing discussion about their time working in Silicon Valley, their political journeys, and the alternative paths they took. Big shout out to the tech workers in the TMK Discord who have inspired this series! Follow Wendy: twitter.com/dellsystem Buy Abolish Silicon Valley: abolishsiliconvalley.com/ Follow Jason: twitter.com/jasonpjason Subscribe to Venture Commune: venturecommune.substack.com/ Check out the Drivers Cooperative: drivers.coop/about-us Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab your 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)

In an action packed episode continuing our updates on ongoing topics of TMK interest, we deconstruct the political economy of massive health data sharing in the US and UK as hospitals seek to capitalize on data and develop AI health applications by signing lucrative deals with tech companies. We then jump over to discuss the Cold War 2.0 that’s heating up between the US/EU and China, with tech policy as a major front in the battle over who will “prevail technologically in the geopolitical great power competition.” Some stuff we reference • Google Strikes Deal With Hospital Chain to Develop Healthcare Algorithms: wsj.com/articles/google-strikes-deal-with-hospital-chain-to-develop-healthcare-algorithms-11622030401 • NHS delays GP data scheme following backlash: ft.com/content/99f440d7-1622-452d-a7ad-b40d84ac50ec • AI prompts a scramble for healthcare data: ft.com/content/376a5494-7237-4ed6-a528-5e45712c148d • Draining the Risk Pool: reallifemag.com/draining-the-risk-pool/ • Dissecting racial bias in an algorithm used to manage the health of populations science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6464/447 • US Senate passes bill aimed at countering China’s tech sector: ft.com/content/2429f43f-f1bf-4131-aefa-0d20a64b9d17 • Will Europe sign up to Joe Biden’s plan to counter China?: ft.com/content/e4c7df1a-5048-4cf1-8a2d-c9a2d721ba92 • Exporting Chinese surveillance: the security risks of ‘smart cities’: ft.com/content/76fdac7c-7076-47a4-bcb0-7e75af0aadab Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab your 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)

This week we bring y’all some updates on ongoing topics of TMK interest: things we’ve done whole episodes on in the past but keep rearing the ugly heads in new and horrible ways. First we start by talking about the weird liberal trick of “limitarianism” and the latest bird-brained simping for billionaires. Then we get into a profile of the populist king of spacs, the memelord of investing, Chamath Palihipitiya—and the ongoing financial absurdism that distracts us from actual analysis of more pressing issues. We wrap up by talking about the latest bizarre debate over if BlackRock is bad or blameless for buying homes in bulk. Some stuff we reference: • Is it time to limit personal wealth? https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/12/is-it-time-limit-personal-wealth/ • Think twice before changing the tax rules to soak billionaires https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/09/think-twice-before-changing-tax-rules-soak-billionaires/ • The Pied Piper of SPACS https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/06/07/the-pied-piper-of-spacs • Wall Street isn’t to blame for the chaotic housing market https://www.vox.com/22524829/wall-street-housing-market-blackrock-bubble • Automated landlord: Digital technologies and post-crisis financial accumulation: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0308518X19846514 Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab your 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 Chapter 4 of Autonomous Technology: “Technocracy.” We get into different historical ideas of technocracy – from Francis Bacon to Thorstein Veblen – before digging into the political theory of technocracy – the form of its power, the source of its authority, the methods of its legitimation – and then finally relating it to the ascendant (wannabe) God-Engineers of today. You can find a free pdf of the whole book here: https://www.ratical.org/ratville/AoS/AutonomousTechnology.pdf Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: 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 how the failed promises of smart city megaprojects around the world – really honing in on Africa and a case study of Konza City in Kenya – perfectly encapsulate the brand of colonialism propagated by consultants like McKinsey. The “visions” and “strategies” they sell as ways of achieving prosperity, progress, and prestige are based on a dual ideology of technological and developmental determinism. While these smart cities never materialize in the way their marketing brochures and thought leaders proclaim, they aren’t failures—because they were never meant to actually succeed. Read this fantastic piece of reporting by Carey Baraka in Rest of World: https://restofworld.org/2021/the-failed-promise-of-kenyas-smart-city/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: 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)

(Jathan's mic is busted for this episode – sorry!) We hit y’all with a double header about what happens when the cop in our mind is allowed to thrive. First is the psychodrama and that led to a successful member of the liberal professoriate to become a cop just to sate her curiosity and stick it to her mom. Second is the entrepreneurs who prey on the social anxiety and paranoia to whip people into frenzy as a way to sell their technologies of private policing. Some stuff we reference: The Professor Who Became a Cop | Patrick Blanchfield: newrepublic.com/article/162245/rosa-brooks-professor-police-officer 'FIND THIS FUCK:' Inside Citizen’s Dangerous Effort to Cash In On Vigilantism | Joseph Cox and Jason Koebler: vice.com/en/article/y3dpyw/inside-crime-app-citizen-vigilante Who Runs the Streets of New Orleans? | David Amsden: nytimes.com/2015/08/02/magazine/who-runs-the-streets-of-new-orleans.html Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: 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)

In our mission to analyse capitalism and technology from the experiences of workers, we would be remiss if we ignored a crucial form of labor that people – across the political and social spectrum – too often pretend does not exists unless they want to condem it: sex work. We’re happy to be joined by Liara Roux – sex worker, activist, and author of the new book Whore of New York: Confessions of a Sinful Woman – to talk about her time working with clients in Silicon Valley and the broader politics, perceptions, and platforms of sex. • Pre-order Liara’s book: penguinrandomhouse.com/books/673854/whore-of-new-york-by-liara-roux/9781913462567/ • Follow Liara: twitter.com/LiaraRoux Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: 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 Chapter 3 of Autonomous Technology: “The Flaw and its Origins.” First, we dispel the metaphysical arguments based on assertions about how “human nature” relates to modern technology. As Winner says, “These theories pretend to have knowledge” that they could not possibly possess. Second, we deconstruct the grand attempts at “philosophical engineering,” which proclaim that all our socio-technical problems would be solved if we all agreed to adhere to some new ethical blueprint for life. You can find a free pdf of the whole book here: https://www.ratical.org/ratville/AoS/AutonomousTechnology.pdf Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: 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 look at two new books about Amazon—Fulfillment by Alec Macgillis and Amazon Unbound by Brad Stone—as an occasion to further consider the galactic expansion of this evil empire, the relentlessly sociopathic god-emperor at the top, and bad takes that revere Bezos as a quirky innovator and blame consumer choices in the market for the human misery Amazon causes. We’ve dug into Amazon a lot over the last couple months. But Amazon is big. It contains multitudes and contradictions. There’s always more to cover, to analyze, to track, to just try wrapping our minds around. Some stuff we reference: • Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America | Alec MacGillis: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374159276 • Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire | Brad Stone: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Amazon-Unbound/Brad-Stone/9781982132613 • To Understand Amazon, We Must Understand Jeff Bezos | Ben Smith: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/books/review/amazon-unbound-brad-stone.html • We know about Amazon’s sins. Do we care? | James Kwak: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/we-know-about-amazons-sins-do-we-care/2021/03/18/b7ff73ce-7acb-11eb-85cd-9b7fa90c8873_story.html Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: 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)

Cold open: What is Democracy? Outro: Jeff Mangum and Guy Picciotto at the Rolling Jubilee telethon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztyj7kE9tNc Extremely excited to be joined by Astra Taylor – acclaimed author, activist, filmmaker, and dream TMK guest – for a wide-ranging discussion about engaging with big important things like democracy, debt, and technology, about putting politics into practice to improve people’s lives, about paying close attention to not just the operators of the machine, but those who are thrown into its gears, and about so much! Grab Astra’s latest book: haymarketbooks.org/books/1635-remake-the-world Follow Astra: twitter.com/astradisastra Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: 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're unlocking the first episode of our biweekly TMK book club series – only on Patreon! You can get the other episode, plus more premium content every week, by subscribing at patreon.com/thismachinekills We’re discussing the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought by Langdon Winner. Follow along with us as we take you on a guided tour of a foundational text in technological politics – one that has greatly influenced our own thinking about these issues and which has, for better and worse, remained extremely relevant today. You can find a free pdf of the whole book here: https://www.ratical.org/ratville/AoS/AutonomousTechnology.pdf TMK shirts are now available: bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We give y’all a primer on the debates about the “right to repair.” Corporations and conservative think tankers love spouting bad faith arguments that frame the right to repair as an issue of innovation, property, and nationalism. But their lobbying against it really boils down to running interference in favor of ongoing expansions of rentier capitalism and digital enclosure, all while trying to resolve the dual crises of overproduction and underconsumption. Some stuff we reference: • ‘Right to Repair’ Is Bad for Your Health | Tom Giovanetti: wsj.com/articles/right-to-repair-is-bad-for-your-health-11619986159 • Right to Repair Roundup: One Step Forward, One to the Side | Jerri-Lynn Scofield: nakedcapitalism.com/2020/02/right-to-repair-roundup-one-step-forward-one-to-the-side.html • Your Smartphone Should Be Built to Last | Damon Beres: nytimes.com/2021/04/25/opinion/iphone-apple-electronics-technology.html • Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware | Jason Koebler vice.com/en/article/xykkkd/why-american-farmers-are-hacking-their-tractors-with-ukrainian-firmware • Subscriber City | David A. Banks: reallifemag.com/subscriber-city Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: 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 give y’all an update on the state of antitrust politics in the US by riffing on two new books about antitrust that offer two different visions from two senators: Amy Klobuchar and Josh Hawley. It’s a knock-down drag-out match for the trustbuster title. In the center corner is Klobbering Klobuchar, offering a pretty good history, plenty of fire and fury, but with little weight behind her punches. In the far, far, far right corner is Howling Hawley, doing his damndest to confuse his foes into submission with revisionism, bullshit, and buffoonery. Our referee for this title fight is Matt “The Brawler” Stoller. You won’t wanna miss this pay-per-listen match! Some stuff we reference: • How the Senate’s antitrust chair would take on monopolies | Matt Stoller: washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-the-senates-antitrust-chair-would-take-on-monopolies/2021/04/29/abb7120a-a2a5-11eb-a774-7b47ceb36ee8_story.html • Amy Klobuchar on Breaking Up Giant Corporations | Liaquat Ahamed: nytimes.com/2021/04/26/books/review/antitrust-amy-klobuchar.html • Josh Hawley’s Virtual Reality | Gilad Edelman: wired.com/story/josh-hawley-virtual-reality-book-review/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ 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 Dan Greene, author of an excellent new book, The Promise of Access: Technology, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Hope. Dan’s work provides a deep analysis of how public institutions like libraries and schools are being transformed in the image of startups — pivoting away from the communities and missions they ought to serve — and the decades of punitive neoliberal reforms that brought us here. We deconstruct noxious policy slogans like “learn to code” and “digital divide,” and discuss why leftists must pay attention to the radical politics — both actual and potential — of libraries. Grab Dan’s book: mitpress.mit.edu/books/promise-access Follow Dan: twitter.com/Greene_DM Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

The TMK Book Club is now in session! We’re discussing the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought by Langdon Winner. Follow along with us as we take you on a guided tour of a foundational text in technological politics – one that has greatly influenced our own thinking about these issues and which has, for better and worse, remained extremely relevant today. You can find a free pdf of the whole book here: https://www.ratical.org/ratville/AoS/AutonomousTechnology.pdf Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Cold open: https://www.npr.org/2021/04/13/984994360/he-tried-to-organize-workers-in-chinas-gig-economy-now-he-faces-5-years-in-jail We dig deeper into our explorations of technological and financial capitalism in China by discussing an invaluable source for rigorous, ruthless analysis: Chuang, a collective and journal “analyzing the ongoing development of capitalism in China, its historical roots, and the revolts of those crushed beneath it.” We then start getting into a long, detailed, investigative report on the working conditions of platform labor in China. While some ghouls in Western countries might look at the horrors we discuss and say, “See, it could be worse.” We must instead assert, “No, it should be better.” Some stuff we reference: • Delivery Workers, Trapped in the System | Chuang: https://chuangcn.org/2020/11/delivery-renwu-translation/ • Social Contagion: Microbiological Class War in China | Chuang: https://chuangcn.org/2020/02/social-contagion/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

In part two of our analysis of Amazon, we focus on the labor processes and managerial practices within Amazon warehouses. “Factory work exhausts the nervous system to the uttermost,” Marx wrote in Capital Vol. 1, and through the despotic discipline of dead labour used to dominate living labour, capital “does away with the many-sided play of the muscles and confiscates every atom of freedom [from workers], both in bodily and intellectual activity.” Some stuff we reference: • Machinic dispossession and augmented despotism: Digital work in an Amazon warehouse | Alessandro Delfanti | New Media & Society: sci-hub.mksa.top/10.1177/1461444819891613 • Surviving Amazon | Sam Adler Bell | Logic Magazine: logicmag.io/bodies/surviving-amazon/ • Seasonal Associates | Heike Geissler | Semiotext(e): mitpress.mit.edu/books/seasonal-associate • Chapter 15: Machinery and Modern Industry | Karl Marx | Capital Vol. 1: marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch15.htm Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

To conduct a post-mortem investigation on the Amazon warehouse union vote in Bessemer, Alabama, we’re joined by Alex N. Press—staff writer for Jacobin and one of our favorite labor reporters. As Alex wrote recently, “In the United States, every step of the unionization process is stacked against workers. It is a miracle that anyone ever unionizes.” We discuss the militancy of capital, the organizing conditions of labor today, and the battle for building worker power. The deck was stacked. We lost this fight. But the class war wages on. Follow Alex: https://twitter.com/alexnpress Read Alex: https://www.jacobinmag.com/author/alex-press • Amazon Waged a Brutal Anti-Union Campaign. Unsurprisingly, They Won. | Jacobin | Alex N. Press: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/04/amazon-bessemer-union-drive-vote-nlrb • Sabotage: The Conscious Withdrawal of the Workers' Industrial Efficiency | Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: https://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/flynn/1917/sabotage.htm • How tech workers feel about China, AI and Big Tech’s tremendous power | Protocol | Emily Birnbaum, Issie Lapowsky: https://www.protocol.com/policy/tech-employee-survey/tech-employee-survey-2021 • Amazon's New Algorithm Will Set Workers' Schedules According to Muscle Use | Motherboard | Ed Ongweso: https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xeba/amazons-new-algorithm-will-set-workers-schedules-according-to-muscle-use Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available: bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Cold open: Ghost in the Shell There is a long list of services that purport to be powered by sophisticated software, but actually rely on humans acting like robots. We discuss a critical concept—whether we call it Potemkin AI, fauxtomation, or ghost work—for understanding how so much so-called artificial intelligence is just a spectacle, a simulation, designed to mystify the labor that really turns the crank of smart systems sold as advanced innovations. They are the humans hidden inside mechanical minds. Some stuff we reference: • Potemkin AI | Jathan Sadowski: https://reallifemag.com/potemkin-ai/ • The Automation Charade | Astra Taylor: https://logicmag.io/failure/the-automation-charade/ • Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass | Mary L. Gray Siddharth Suri: https://ghostwork.info/ • Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media | Sarah T. Roberts: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300235883/behind-screen • Difference and Dependence among Digital Workers: The Case of Amazon Mechanical Turk | Lilly Irani: https://read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlantic-quarterly/article-abstract/114/1/225/3763/Difference-and-Dependence-among-Digital-Workers Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available here: bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Cold open: Garden Glossary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBMRWwjGJHQ It’s time for theory chat! To analyse the techno-politics of smart systems, we need good theories at hand. And we’re joined by the great Liv Agar – philosopher, podcaster, streamer – to discuss the hyper-prescient work of Gilles Deleuze on societies of control and the transition away from disciplinary societies. We’re talking rhizomes, dividuals, passwords, capitalism, power, and smart technology as we break down a critical theory for understanding a society driven mad by control. Follow, listen, read, watch Liv: https://linktr.ee/livagar Some stuff we reference: • Postscript on the Societies of Control | Gilles Deleuze: cidadeinseguranca.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/deleuze_control.pdf • Control and Becoming | Gilles Deleuze, Antonio Negri: uib.no/sites/w3.uib.no/files/attachments/6._deleuze-control_and_becoming_0.pdf • Too Smart | Jathan Sadowski: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/too-smart Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available here: bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

This episode is from a guest appearance by Jathan on 4ZZZ Radio Reversal, a community radio show in Brisbane, hosted by great friends of TMK and critical scholars: Anna Carlson and Natalie Osbourne. We had a really fun conversation talking about the ramping up of workplace surveillance, labor organising in the tech sector, the political economy of academia, and luddism as liberation. Enjoy! Check out 4ZZZ (4zzzfm.org.au) and follow Radio Reversal (twitter.com/RadioRevers), Natalie Osborne (twitter.com/DrNatOsborne), and Anna Carlson (twitter.com/annajcarlson) Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available here: bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Okay, so the big boat is no longer blocking the Suez Canal. But that doesn’t mean we can go back to ignoring the global networks of capitalism and colonialism that make our world run. Laleh Khalili – author of the brilliant new book, Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula – joins us for a wide-ranging discussion of her rich, historical analysis of global shipping, imperialist infrastructure, and technological fantasy. Grab Laleh’s book: versobooks.com/books/3172-sinews-of-war-and-trade Follow Laleh: twitter.com/LalehKhalili Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available here: bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Premium – 57. The Arbiters of Asset Allocation We pick back up on our discussion of market indices and index providers, honing in on the close relationship they have with asset managers, how they exercise private authority by setting standards for corporate governance and evaluating the worthiness of “emerging markets,” and the need to reckon with the authority these kingmakers of finance—these arbiters of asset allocation—have in the world today. Who gave them this great power? Not me! Not you! And yet, here they are, with the ability to wave a wand, change a classification, and magically, instantly, automatically make billions of dollars move from one place to another. Article we discuss: • Steering capital: the growing private authority of index providers in the age of passive asset management | Johannes Petry, Jan Fichtner, Eelke Heemskerk | Review of International Political Economy: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09692290.2019.1699147 Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available here: https://www.bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

This week’s episodes are part of our ongoing, irregular series where we dive into the deepest, darkest crevices of how financial and technological capital operates today. In a sequel to our episodes on index funds and asset managers — the big three of BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street — we examine the other side of this unholy marriage: market indices and index providers. If the index funds are like the treasury of global capitalism, holding and managing trillions in assets, then the index providers are like the executive branch: making decisions that directly and automatically cause mass movements in capital investment. We build on a fantastic new paper (ref below) investigating the private authority of this largely ignored industry to “steer capital.” As political economists, we are only just now starting to recognize, let alone reckon with, the power that index providers possess in contemporary financial capitalism — an industry that is weirdly coincidentally also concentrated in just just three firms: S&P Dow Jones, FTSE Russell, and MSCI. Article we discuss: • Steering capital: the growing private authority of index providers in the age of passive asset management | Johannes Petry, Jan Fichtner, Eelke Heemskerk | Review of International Political Economy: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09692290.2019.1699147 Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills TMK shirts are now available here: https://www.bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

cw: we discuss school shootings and sexual assault in the second half of this episode. Cold open: We need to talk about AI ethics (H&M): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0x0zsVlp30 Sometimes you just gotta confront the absurdity of it all head-on. We give y’all a news feed roundup as we discuss some of the most inane tech stories that crossed our desks this week. Which all hang together by the ridiculous notion that the most pressing problems in society will be solved through a commitment to engaging in endless debate and downloading the right app. Some stuff we reference: • Meet Linda Leapold, Head of AI Policy for H&M | https://hmgroup.com/news/meet-linda-leopold-head-of-ai-policy/ • ‘Enough is enough’: South Mississippi man creates desk to keep children safe during school shootings | https://www.fox8live.com/2021/02/15/enough-is-enough-south-mississippi-man-creates-desk-keep-children-safe-during-school-shootings/ • Cameras Watching Students, Especially in Biloxi | https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/24/nyregion/cameras-watching-students-especially-in-biloxi.html • NSW police commissioner admits his sex consent app proposal 'could be a terrible idea' | https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/18/critics-ridicule-nsw-police-commissioners-idea-for-sexual-consent-app Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

The great Aaron Thorpe — co-host of Trillbillies, host of A Time of Monsters, the poster formerly known as posadist_trapgd — joins us for an extremely fun episode as we riff about why aliens would be communists, the paranoid imagination of imperialism, the wonders of luxury surveillance, the spectacle of convenience, and the ways tech companies really do be manufacturing consent. • Follow Aaron on twitter: twitter.com/thotteusstevens • Listen to Trillbillies: patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty • Listen to A Time of Monsters: patreon.com/atompod Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

We go in on the dangerous obsession that billionaires like Bill Gates have with framing the most existential risks in society, from public health to climate catastrophe, as problems of market failure that can be solved through clever engineering, technological innovation, and property rights. All of which are best administered by who? You guessed it: “hundreds of Elon Musks.” They come preaching salvation, while in reality they are practicing necropolitics—or, the power to decide who may live, who must die, and in what ways for which reasons. Some stuff we reference: • How Does Bill Gates Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis? | by Bill McKibben https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/books/review/bill-gates-how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster.html • The Dark Side of Bill Gates’s Climate Techno-Optimism | by Kate Aronoff https://newrepublic.com/article/161533/bill-gates-climate-vaccines TMK shirts are now available here: https://www.bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills 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 a TMK fact check: coronavirus vaccine edition. We give five out of five pinocchios to the claim that Big Pharma won’t profit hand over fist from the production of vaccines. Five pinocchios to the claim that countries in the Global South will receive fair and cheap access to vaccines and treatments. And an unprecedented six out of five pinocchios to the claim that inequities in healthcare are actually market failures solved by stronger intellectual property rights for pharmaceutical corporations. Some stuff we reference: • Fact-check: Will poor countries miss out on COVID-19 vaccinations? | Deutsches Welles https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-will-poor-countries-miss-out-on-covid-19-vaccinations/a-55886334 • Canada's COVAX program use draws criticism for unequal vaccine distribution | Yahoo Canada https://news.yahoo.com/canada-covax-unequal-vaccines-205249650.html • Big Pharma Prepare to Profit from the Coronavirus | The Intercept https://theintercept.com/2020/03/13/big-pharma-drug-pricing-coronavirus-profits/ • Big Pharma’s Covid-19 Profiteers | Rolling Stone https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/big-pharma-covid-19-profits-1041185/ • The Remaking of Big Pharma in a Post-Pandemic World | Foreign Policy https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/17/big-pharma-post-pandemic-world-coronavirus-vaccine-cure-intellectual-property/ TMK shirts are now available here: https://www.bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Cold open: CNBC turns on Chamath and Clover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRWnxUsyVDg We pick back up on the story of Clover Health—which is sure to be a business school case study of investors beware—and talk through Hindenburg Research’s damning report that raises a number of very serious concerns about Clover Health’s business practices, undisclosed Department of Justice investigation, alleged conflicts of interests, and the CEO of Clover’s past experience busting out hospitals in New Jersey. The allegations against Clover are not just an exception, but rather a perfect encapsulation of the corporate chicanery that spreads, like a weed strangling the economy, when a thousand SPACs bloom. TMK shirts are now available here: https://www.bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Cold open: Chamath, Clover, CNBC https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/video/chamath-palihapitiya-addresses-some-concerns-surrounding-clover-health-spac/vp-BB19KRae SPACs are blowing up. Everywhere you turn, it’s SPAC this, SPAC that. What the frack is a SPAC? After an explainer on this cool new financial innovation, we dive into a juicy story of a SPAC in action – SPACtion, if you will – Clover Health. This hot new insurtech company is being taken public by a SPAC sponsored by Chamath Palihapitiya, famed venture capitalist, wannabe California governor, so-called King of SPACs. But as a long, in-depth report by Hindenburg Research details, could Clover Health be riddled with the kind of corporate malfeasance, deception, and fraud that might lead shrewd entrepreneurs to avoid the disclosures and scrutiny that come with going public the old fashioned way? Are things like "public disclosure" and "business fundamentals" actually socialist plots to destroy capitalism? We detail the allegations against Clover Health made by Hindenburg Research’s investigation. Some stuff we reference: • What Are SPACs, the Trend Blowing Up the Finance World? | Ed Ongweso Jr. https://www.vice.com/en/article/4ade7b/what-are-spacs-the-trend-blowing-up-the-finance-world • Clover Health: How the “King of SPACs” Lured Retail Investors Into a Broken Business Facing an Active, Undisclosed DOJ Investigation | Hindenburg Research https://hindenburgresearch.com/clover/ TMK shirts are now available here: https://www.bonfire.com/mech-luddite/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

Cory Doctorow joins us again for an excellent, wide-ranging discussion about his critique of surveillance capitalism, the mind control fallacy that captures critics, how monopoly jurisprudence is trapped in the 80s, sectarian schisms in science fiction, the difficulty of imagining revolutionary moments, and much more. Links to Cory’s work: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/doctorow • Books: https://craphound.com/ • Blog: https://pluralistic.net/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

Cold open: excerpt from UBIK by Philip K. Dick Outro: amazing new track by Jereme, "End of Time" We’re joined by Cory Doctorow — prolific author, longtime activist, friend of the show — to learn about a critical issue that much of his advocacy work centers on: adversarial interoperability, a.k.a competitive compatibility. Cory explains why this approach to designing and governing technological systems is crucial for knocking down the walled gardens that keep us captive and for breaking up the highly concentrated corporate oligopoly. For ensuring the business of innovation serves people’s needs and for empowering us all with greater self-determination and agency over the things that mediate our lives. To put it simply: for being users, not just used. Cory also joined us for a blockbuster doubleheader — so stick around for the premium episode where we discuss surveillance capitalism, science fiction, and much more. Links to Cory’s work: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/doctorow • Books: https://craphound.com/ • Blog: https://pluralistic.net/ • Adversarial interoperability: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

Picking back up on the fight between Big Media and Big Tech, we dig deeper into the type of power of platforms wield, how their political influence operates, the prioritization of consumership over citizenship, and their threats to return us to the state of nature — where life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short — if we don’t pledge allegiance to the platform. Some stuff we reference: • Are We All Amazon Primed? Consumers and the Politics of Platform Power by Pepper D. Culpepper and Kathleen Thelen | Comparative Political Studies: https://scihub.wikicn.top/10.1177/0010414019852687 • Joel Kaplan's Policy Team Sways Big Facebook Decisions Like Alex Jones Ban by Ryan Mac and Craig Silverman | Buzzfeed: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/mark-zuckerberg-joel-kaplan-facebook-alex-jones • There’s a Smarter Way to Make Tech Pay for News by Will Oremus | OneZero: https://onezero.medium.com/a-smarter-way-to-make-tech-pay-for-news-9255e3b8dccb Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

After months of threats, Facebook finally hit the big red off button on the server labeled Australia and Google is making big backroom deals with media barons like Rupert Murdoch. To help us parse through the policy debates and online discourse about the Australian news media bargaining code, we’re joined by J.R. Hennessy (http://twitter.com/jrhennessy), editor of Business Insider Australia. Henno gives us a bigger picture of how the Internet has long left behind those heady days of a free and open utopia as we discuss the changing relationship between Big Tech and Big Media and the role of government regulation. Read Henno’s great piece on his substack: http://jrhennessy.substack.com/p/zucked Some other stuff we reference: • The trouble with the media bargaining code, by Lizzie O'Shea: http://overland.org.au/2020/12/the-trouble-with-the-media-bargaining-code/ • A pox on Facebook, but also on the media bargaining code, by Samantha Floreani: http://www.smh.com.au/national/a-pox-on-facebook-but-also-on-the-media-bargaining-code-20210218-p573qb.html • Big Tech versus journalism: publishers watch Australia fight with bated breath, by Richard Waters et al.: http://www.ft.com/content/2fed6b2a-01ba-4c7e-8e95-d50f74c316bf Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! http://patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

We riff on the archetype of the tech guy who can’t bear his California dream being soured by the existence of other people struggling to get by in a city his industry has immiserated. Then dive into the formation of Facebook’s Oversight Board—their very own so-called Supreme Court—and how their cosplaying as Founding Fathers reveals larger lessons for shifts underway in corporate vs. state sovereignty. Some stuff we reference: • California Exit Interview: Fleeing $17 Salads and 'General Lawlessness' by Joe Garofoli: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-Exit-Interview-Fleeing-17-salads-and-15947926.php • Inside the Making of Facebook’s Supreme Court by Kate Klonick: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/inside-the-making-of-facebooks-supreme-court • Liberalism is Dead by Vicky Osterweil: https://thenewinquiry.com/liberalism-is-dead/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

We discuss the limitations of existing approaches – and democratic alternatives – to data governance in informational capitalism with Salomé Viljoen (https://twitter.com/salome_viljoen_), a legal scholar in the NYU School of Law and Cornell Tech Digital Life Initiative, who is doing some of the most exciting and cutting-edge work in this area. Salomé explains how we need to make data collection work for socially beneficial uses and why surveillance of powerful people / important institutions is good, actually. Read her excellent work: • Democratic Data: A Relational Theory For Data Governance: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3727562 • Data as Property? https://phenomenalworld.org/analysis/data-as-property • Find more of Salomé’s work here: https://www.salomeviljoen.com Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

It’s part two of us ripping into David Friedman’s anarcho-capitalist fever dream, The Machinery of Freedom. And we get real nutty with it as we detail his libertarian transitional program where school vouchers and surge pricing for streets lead us directly into a new frontier of freedom filled with private protection agencies and free market competition for laws. Are Friedman’s proposals radically dumb and dangerous? Yes. Are they now uncomfortably close to mainstream right-wing ideology? Also yes. The book we discuss: The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to Radical Capitalism by David Friedman http://www.daviddfriedman.com/The_Machinery_of_Freedom_.pdf Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

Cold open: excerpt from Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=6021&v=ZypJn0PgAHA Have you ever considered that the most important human right is property rights? Are your thoughts preoccupied with kissing the feet of capitalists? Do you dream of abolishing society and clearing the way for the market god to deliver us into salvation? If so, you might just be the one of the all time greatest failsons of our age: David Friedman – whose life is consumed by trying to live up to the legacy of his father, Milton. In a blockbuster reading series, we liquefied our brains with David Friedman’s handbook for anarcho-capitalism. In this episode we lay out the philosophical foundations for why it’s actually good for everybody to act like children who don’t want to share their toys. I’m sorry in advance. The book we discuss: The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to Radical Capitalism by David Friedman http://www.daviddfriedman.com/The_Machinery_of_Freedom_.pdf Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

After jumping into the abyss of indexation, we’re now smacking directly into BlackRock bottom. The world’s largest asset, which oversees $8.67 trillion, has grown at an unimaginable scale and pace—thanks in no small part to their fintech platform Aladdin on which sits at least $21.6 trillion from major clients. Those are astronomical numbers, but this episode brings their impacts down to earth. We discuss this monstrosity of finance, how BlackRock’s big black box is consuming the world’s wealth, and the plans of its CEO, Larry Fink, to solve climate change while making a hefty profit in the process. Some stuff we reference: • Is BlackRock the New Vampire Squid? by Kate Aronoff https://newrepublic.com/article/158263/blackrock-climate-change-fossil-fuel-investments • BlackRock’s Black Box: The Technology Hub of Modern Finance by Richard Henderson and Owen Walker https://www.ft.com/content/5ba6f40e-4e4d-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5 • Larry Fink Letter to CEOs 2021 https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/larry-fink-ceo-letter Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

{The first 15 minutes or so of this episode is a little glitchy, but it gets better} We could have done a full episode about the GameStop affair, but there’s already so many good (and bad) explainers and analysis of that, so let’s talk about the real winners in an economy where the line just keeps going up forever: index funds and passive investment. We talk through the operations of indexation, one of the most important – and hugely overlooked – trends in the modern financial system, and discuss what John C. Coates calls the Problem of Twelve: “The likelihood that in the near future roughly twelve individuals will have practical power over the majority of U.S. public companies.” This meeting of the board of global corporate capitalism is called to order. Some stuff we reference: • The Future of Corporate Governance: The Problem of Twelve by John C. Coates https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3247337 • Investment Firms Are the Big Winners of the GameStop Stock Revolution So Far by Edward Ongweso Jr. https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3gepx/investment-firms-are-the-big-winners-of-the-gamestop-stock-revolution-so-far Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

Continuing the story of the Lucas Plan, we lay out how this radical blueprint for socially useful production faced opposition at every turn by entrenched interests who saw it as a threat to their power – and rightfully so! We then explore how the philosophy of social useful production confronts the contradictions of industrial / informational capitalism, revealing this system to be anti-human in every regard, while also providing a concrete alternative that actualizes the real potential of all people to create better technologies for a better society. When the cynical pragmatists meet your demands for radical change with that old boilerplate bullshit: “Okay, so what’s your plan then?” You can now say, “Hey buddy, first of all, fuck you. And second, we’ve got a plan – the Lucas Plan!” Some stuff we reference: • The Lucas Plan–An Idea Whose Time has Come? by Dave King: https://magazine.scienceforthepeople.org/vol22-2/the-new-lucas-plan/ • The Lucas Plan and Socially Useful Production by Adrian Smith: https://steps-centre.org/blog/new-paper-lucas-plan-socially-useful-production/ • A Practical Utopian’s Guide to the Coming Collapse by David Graeber: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/a-practical-utopians-guide-to-the-coming-collapse • We Keep You Alive by Lizzie O’Shea: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/we-keep-you-alive-oshea Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

We take a deep dive into another example of a real utopian project from the 1970s, this time from the UK, which provided detailed concrete plans for how to actually do radical techno-politics. The militant labor union at Lucas Aerospace sought to democratize the means of production, giving workers autonomy over the management and purpose of industrial capacity. To achieve that goal, they created an amazing proposal – the Lucas Plan – for how to run factories based on the principles of socially useful production. The story of the Lucas Plan is inspiring and infuriating – and immensely important. Some stuff we reference: • Lucas Alternative Corporate Plan (Summary): http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/lucas-aerospace-combine-shop-steward-committee-corporate-plan-contingency-strategy-positive- • The Lucas Plan and Socially Useful Production by Adrian Smith: https://steps-centre.org/blog/new-paper-lucas-plan-socially-useful-production/ • The Lucas Plan: What can it tell us about democratising technology today? by Adrian Smith: https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2014/jan/22/remembering-the-lucas-plan-what-can-it-tell-us-about-democratising-technology-today • Lucas Plan documentary (1978): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pgQqfpub-c&feature=emb_title • Socially Useful Production by Pam Linn: https://scihub.wikicn.top/10.1080/09505438709526191 Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills 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 once again by co-host of TrashFuture, Riley Quinn, as we conduct further investigations into the mind of the Thought Leader. We start with a journey back to some of the Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 progenitors of the modern day big ideas bozo. From the counterculture libertarians and (allegedly) coke-addled entrepreneurs to the meme hustlers and corporate grifters. Weird how so many of them ended up flying on the Lolita Express? Anyways… nothing to see here, move along. We then consider how the Thought Leaders’ jobs at the consent factory have now been automated by capital – just another unfortunate victim of disruption. Follow Riley (https://twitter.com/raaleh) and listen to TrashFuture (https://trashfuturepodcast.podbean.com/). Of course you’re already doing both, right? Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills 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 co-host of TrashFuture – and friend of TMK from the start – Riley Quinn as we examine the brain of the Thought Leader. Forged in the fires of the financial crash, driven mad by Internet induced techno-optimism, brains smoothly polished by the infinite growth of a zero interest rate world – the modern day Thought Leader is the charlatan in the court of tech capital. They spend their days promoting Big Ideas Books that contain remarkably little thinking, while asserting all the solutions to complex societal problems. But that’s okay because they aren’t really meant to be read by anybody anyways. Unless, of course, you’re Riley. Follow Riley (https://twitter.com/raaleh) and listen to TrashFuture (https://trashfuturepodcast.podbean.com/). Of course you’re already doing both, right? Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

How is a neoliberal economy planned? How should a socialist economy be planned? We parse through the “socialist calculation debate.” First laying out the critiques of socialist state planning—and the supposed superiority of the price system and spontaneous order under the market—posed by the original theorists of neoliberal thought: Ludwig Von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. Then knocking them down one-by-one as we consider what a successor of Project Cybersyn might look like. Some stuff we reference: • The Return of Social Government: From ‘Socialist Calculation’ to ‘Social Analytics’ by Will Davies https://scihub.wikicn.top/10.1177/1368431015578044 • The Use of Knowledge in Society by Friedrich Hayek: https://learn.canvas.net/courses/1446/files/549519 • How to Make a Pencil by Aaron Benanav: https://logicmag.io/commons/ • The Singular Pursuit of Comrade Bezos by Malcolm Harris: https://medium.com/s/story/the-singular-pursuit-of-comrade-bezos-3e280baa045c Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

cold open: Interview with Eden Medina on Project Cybersyn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSmQCvfT4pU We dig into one of the most interesting and exciting experiments in socialist innovation ever attempted: Project Cybersyn in 1970s Chile. There’s much to be learned from the history of how a ragtag group of revolutionaries sought to create a cybernetic system to organize and manage a democratic socialist economy. As well as from its ultimate demise at the hands of a CIA-backed military coup. While this prototype of cybernetic democratic socialism was smothered in its cradle by authoritarian neoliberalism, the lessons gleaned from this real utopian endeavor must live on today. Cybersyn is dead, long live Cybersyn! Some stuff we reference: • Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile by Eden Medina https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/cybernetic-revolutionaries • The Anti-Socialist Origins of Big Data by Greg Gandin: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/anti-socialist-origins-big-data/ • Chomsky interviewed by Denis Staunton: https://chomsky.info/2009____/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

Continuing the TMK conceptual hit list, we set our sights on more key concepts that have been, to varying degrees, corrupted by capital’s foul influence and weaponized to achieve its ideological and material goals. We pass judgement on the concepts of inclusion, tech company, smart, and artificial intelligence. Some stuff we reference: • Terms of inclusion: Data, Discourse, Violence by Anna Lauren Hoffmann: https://scihub.wikicn.top/10.1177/1461444820958725 • On the Moral Collapse of AI Ethics by J. Khadijah Abdurahman: https://upfromthecracks.medium.com/on-the-moral-collapse-of-ai-ethics-791cbc7df872 • Potemkin AI by Jathan: https://reallifemag.com/potemkin-ai/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).