This Machine Kills

••• Jathan is doing an intensive residency program so we're unlocking an older patreon episode that many comrades in the TMK Discord said was one of their favorites. Enjoy! ••• Rather than our usual doompilled analysis, we take a big dose of dumbpill as we spend the whole episode on a reading series of the stupidest article we have come across in a long time. Malcolm Gladwell – a man whose career is built on being an insanely incurious idiot – got to ride in a Waymo autonomous vehicle. He then wrote about it for Facebook’s newsletter Bulletin. Sorry in advance. Have we misunderstood the future of the automobile? | Malcolm Gladwell | Facebook Bulletin: https://malcolmgladwell.bulletin.com/489595605629557 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)

It’s a good old TMK where we get mad talking about two stories. First, the increasingly influential “state-as-a-platform” model of governance that France is leaning super hard into, which goes beyond neoliberalism by taking seriously the premise: “What if instead of a government, we had AWS.” Second, schools in the UK are rolling-out facial recognition in secondary school cafeterias. Teaching kids that access to anything in life, even just lunch, must be mediated by intrusive systems of surveillance and control – oh, I mean, speed and convenience. Some stuff we reference: ••• France finds growth prescription with health app Doctolib https://www.ft.com/content/ca41f61e-2513-41d2-9adf-d94b5af302a1 ••• Facial recognition cameras arrive in UK school canteens https://www.ft.com/content/af08fe55-39f3-4894-9b2f-4115732395b9 ••• Marc Benioff: We Need a New Capitalism https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/opinion/benioff-salesforce-capitalism.html 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)

Outro: Eva B - Mukhtasir Baatein https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T--NV__iJA We’re joined by two excellent scholars — Noopur Raval, research fellow in the AI Now Institute at NYU, and Rida Qadri, PhD candidate in Urban Information Systems at MIT — to talk about their important research on platform workers and economies in the Global South. We discuss practices of agency and social support amongst workers in places like Jakarta and Bangalore; the North-South divide in how these platforms are understood; contextualizing these systems as an antidote against universalizing them; the trope of “finding” invisible tech workers in exotic lands; the need for a “decolonial cosmopolitan ethic,” and much more. Find Noopur here: noopur.xyz /// twitter.com/tetisheri Find Rida here: ridaqadri.net /// twitter.com/qadrida Their work we discuss: • Mutual Aid Stations | Rida Qadri, Noopur Raval: https://logicmag.io/distribution/mutual-aid-stations/ • Delivery Drivers Are Using Grey Market Apps to Make Their Jobs Suck Less | Rida Qadri: https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kvpng/delivery-drivers-are-using-grey-market-apps-to-make-their-jobs-suck-less • Platform Workers as Infrastructures of Global Technologies | Rida Qadri: https://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/july-august-2021/platform-workers-as-infrastructures-of-global-technologies • Interrupting Invisibility in a Global World | Noopur Raval: https://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/july-august-2021/interrupting-invisibility-in-a-global-world • An Agenda for Decolonizing Data Science | Noopur Raval: https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/14422/spheres_5_0202_Raval_Agenda-for-Decolonizing-Data-Science.pdf?sequence=1 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 1, “Why Cyberspace?” of Wendy H.K. Chun’s book and dive into the origins, politics, and ideology behind this weird metaphor for the Internet. In the process we trace an evolution of different phases in the Internet's political economy, from the Web 1.0 endless electronic frontier of freedom to the Web 2.0 archipelago of platforms and rentiers, and circling back to many ideological desires born anew in the Web 3.0 vision of a decentralized metaverse. All this and more as we talk through Chun’s richly detailed cultural / material analysis of the Internet. You can grab a pdf of Chun’s book here: https://au1lib.org/book/2074091/cc12a3 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 are very pleased to be joined by returning guest Danielle Carr, anthropologist and historian of science who is finishing her PhD at Columbia, to chat about her excellent new essay on the (anti-)political epistemology of the pop sci style as represented by the work of the genre’s golden boy, Carl Zimmer. We discuss science as both an institution and ideology that, like other such things with authority and power in society, must be subjected to ruthless critical analysis. And yet, nearly all critique of science has been forfeited to the most extreme right-wing denialism. No longer! It’s time to reclaim ground for a leftist, materialist examination of science. Follow Danielle: twitter.com/_danielle_carr Read her article: https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/carl-zimmer-virus/ Some other stuff we reference • Against Method | Paul Feyerabend: https://www.versobooks.com/books/442-against-method • How to Defend Society Against Science | Paul Feyerabend: https://www.radicalphilosophyarchive.com/issue-files/rp11_article1_defendsocietyagainstscience_feyerabend.pdf •The Eighteenth Brumaire of Bruno Latour | Simon Schaffer: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11622708/ • Neoliberalism for Polite Company: Bruno Latour’s Pseudo-Materialist Coup | R.H. Lossin: https://salvage.zone/articles/neoliberalism-for-polite-company-bruno-latours-pseudo-materialist-coup/ 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)

Outro: And We Thought That Nation-States Were a Bad Idea by Propagandhi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNWZ6THAUPo We give you our raw reactions to a mind-numbing Bloomberg Opinion piece that “argues” for granting mega-corporations like Facebook and Amazon statehood and giving them a seat at the United Nations. Never have we seen somebody survey an issue as wildly important as “corporate sovereignty” and reach the dumbest, worst conclusions at every turn—all while thinking they are actually making a very smart, nuanced, complex analysis. Some stuff we reference: • Give Amazon and Facebook a Seat at the United Nations | Ben Shcott: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-10-03/give-amazon-and-facebook-a-seat-at-the-united-nations • Beyond Public and Private: Toward a Political Theory of the Corporation | David Cieply https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2484826 • Corporate sovereignty: Negotiating permissive power for profit in Southern Africa | Tessa Diphoorn, Nikkie Wiegink: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14634996211037124 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.

For this week's free episode, we are unlocking the first episode of our new TMK Book Club Patreon series, which will be running biweekly for the next few months. If you want to hear more – and check out our large back catalogue of premium episodes – please subscribe on Patreon! We dive into our next instalment of the TMK Book Club – “Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics” by Wendy H.K. Chun. This is a foundational piece of critical theory and new media studies, and a necessary addition in the TMK pantheon. Published in the heady days of 2005, we provide some context about the state of the Internet, culture and politics at the time. Then we discuss the Preface and Introduction. You can grab a pdf of Chun’s book here: https://au1lib.org/book/2074091/cc12a3 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 dive into our next instalment of the TMK Book Club – “Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics” by Wendy H.K. Chun. This is a foundational piece of critical theory and new media studies, and a necessary addition in the TMK pantheon. Published in the heady days of 2005, we provide some context about the state of the Internet, culture and politics at the time. Then we discuss the Preface and Introduction. You can grab a pdf of Chun’s book here: https://au1lib.org/book/2074091/cc12a3 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 take a hard look at Netradyne, the latest piece of shitty surveillance tech already forced on Amazon delivery drivers—and perhaps coming soon to your car. First we look at Lauren Kaori Gurley’s reporting on how these AI cameras are extremely error prone—but weirdly never in ways that benefit, rather than punish, workers—and then take a deeper dive into how Netradyne is pitching its product to insurance companies. Some stuff we reference: • Amazon Delivery Drivers Forced to Sign ‘Biometric Consent’ Form or Lose Job | Lauren Kaori Gurley https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy8n3j/amazon-delivery-drivers-forced-to-sign-biometric-consent-form-or-lose-job • Amazon’s AI Cameras Are Punishing Drivers for Mistakes They Didn’t Make | Lauren Kaori Gurley https://www.vice.com/en/article/88npjv/amazons-ai-cameras-are-punishing-drivers-for-mistakes-they-didnt-make • How Insurers Are Adopting Transportation Safety Technology | Netradyne https://www.netradyne.com/how-insurers-are-adopting-transportation-safety-technology/ 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)

To quote the headline for Ed’s article, “Ok, what the fuck is Evergrande and is it going to blow up the global economy?” First question: Evergrande is the second largest real estate developer in China. Its business model is premised on infinite growth, it’s massively indebted to everybody, and it is finally collapsing. Second question: Maybe! We lay out the dynamics leading up to, and unfolding now during, Evergrande’s collapse and discuss the potential consequences of yet another “too big to fail” financial institution doing what they do best: failing. Some stuff we reference: • OK, WTF Is Evergrande and Is It Going to Blow Up the Global Economy? | https://www.vice.com/en/article/wx5mqm/ok-wtf-is-evergrande-and-is-it-going-to-blow-up-the-global-economy • Citron Research / Andrew Left 2012 short seller report on Evergrande | https://www.slideshare.net/dingli8888/citron-research • Evergrande Gave Workers a Choice: Loan Us Cash or Lose Your Bonus | https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/19/business/china-evergrande-debt-protests.html • Evergrande used retail financial investments to plug funding gaps | https://www.ft.com/content/0b03d4de-1662-4d30-bcfd-c9bae24fa9cc • China’s Nightmare Evergrande Scenario Is an Uncontrolled Crash | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-16/china-s-nightmare-evergrande-scenario-is-an-uncontrolled-crash • The Asset Economy: Property Ownership and the New Logic of Inequality | Lisa Adkins, Melinda Cooper, Martijn Konings https://au1lib.org/book/14728397/9acae0 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)