Long Now Kate Crawford: Mapping Empires
51 snips
Dec 11, 2025 In this engaging discussion, Kate Crawford, a leading AI scholar and artist, delves into the historical connections between technology and imperial power. She explores how AI shifts representational authority from humans to machines and reveals the ecological consequences of our tech-driven economies. A fascinating highlight is her 'Calculating Empires' project, which maps 500 years of exploitation. Crawford also addresses the urgent need for responsible AI practices that inspire democratic and regenerative approaches to technology.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Enclosure Extended To Embodied Data
- World models will demand surveillance-scale visual and sensor data, expanding extraction into private, embodied spaces.
- Crawford compares this to the Enclosure Acts: digital enclosure captures previously informal commons like bedrooms and gestures.
AI's Mineral Rush Causes Harm
- AI's mineral demands (lithium, cobalt, rare earths) create a new scramble and ecological harm as mines expand globally.
- Crawford calls this another metabolic rift: billion-year-formed minerals extracted for chips with very short lifespans.
AI Could Consume National Resources
- Generative AI substantially increases electricity and water demand; projections show data centers could use a large share of national power and billions of cubic meters of water.
- Crawford warns efficiency gains may be overtaken by growing overall consumption.
