This Machine Kills

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).