#techfutures — Public Fediverse posts

#CitationsNeeded pod

'In this episode, we break down the popular "inevitability" argument #AI companies are using to bulldoze over democracy and how the "inevitability" line has been used to sell everything from Manifest Destiny to poverty-creating "free trade deals".'

guest: historian Amy Woodson Bolton

https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/ep-241-the-disempowering-politics-of-inevitability-part-1-data-centers-and-llm-as-the-future
#tech #artificialIntelligence #dataCenters #BigData #techFutures #techCriticism #mediaCriticism #media

What Was the #Internet?

As #AI overtakes the web, five writers reflect on how far it’s fallen and what comes next.

Siva Vaidhyanathan, Avery Dame-Griff, Joanna Walsh, Chad Wellmon, Cory Doctorow, Matt Lord

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/what-was-the-internet/
#artificialIntelligence #WorldWideWeb #tech #BigTech #techFutures #techCriticism #media

#SpeakingOutOfPlace welcomes #QuinnSlobodian & #BenTarnoff to talk about their book #Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed.

'We see a mind that is profoundly troubled by any contagion spreading into seemingly closed systems—it can take the form of racial others, transpeople, “woke” populations, or most generally and dismissively, “Non-Player-Characters.” '

https://speakingoutofplace.buzzsprout.com/2084729/episodes/19188391-muskism-its-roots-nature-and-how-to-fight-it-a-conversation-with-quinn-slobodian-and-ben-tarnoff

#Musk #ElonMusk #tech #BigTech #SiliconValleyRight #techFutures #techCriticism #techOligarchs #books @bookstodon

Fighting Fascism pod welcomes Sarah Myers West, "who lays out why #AI, as it's currently structured, is all about the consolidation of power among a handful of #oligarchs, but also how that's not how it needs to be."

https://www.redcircle.com/shows/de5dbe33-63b3-4d3e-a545-07791baa168c/ep/ff3fc067-f081-427b-82f7-9e635533c95d

(v. her co-authored piece, "The Great AI Grift": https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/ai-crony-capitalism-grift/)
#tech #artificialIntelligence #BigTech #techFutures #techCriticism #techOligarchs

"We have come to this cultural agreement that convenience is so important that it trumps everything else, forgetting that anything that matters in life is inconvenient [...] I think we should re-value difficulty, overcoming difficulty, and take pleasure in gaining mastery, because it is a form of empowerment"

#SpeakingOutOfPlace welcomes #CarissaVéliz, author of #Prophecy

https://speakingoutofplace.buzzsprout.com/2084729/episodes/18709720-bullshit-and-infinity-why-ai-cannot-predict-anything-a-conversation-with-carissa-veliz

#AI #tech #artificialIntelligence #techCriticism #techFutures #BigTech #books @bookstodon

Doug Henwood welcomes #QuinnSlobodian and #BenTarnoff, authors of #Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, to discuss "Elon’s world and what he wants to do to ours."

https://kpfa.org/episode/behind-the-news-april-23-2026/
#Musk #ElonMusk #AI #tech #BigTech #SiliconValleyRight #techOligarchs #techFutures #Tesla #Neuralink #books @bookstodon

"Acclaimed journalist and '#EmpireOfAI' author #KarenHao sat down with award-winning writer #NaomiKlein for a conversation on the precarious #AI moment we find ourselves in."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1B__Efqacc

#artificialIntelligence #AGI #SamAltman #tech #BigTech #OpenAI #SiliconValley #surveillance #techFutures #technosolutionism #techWorkers #labour #books @bookstodon

"#Tech companies are racing to build thousands of huge #dataCenters to power the #artificialIntelligence revolution. To find the land they need, they are barreling into rural communities across the United States with the promise of good jobs. But not everyone is buying that pitch.

"Karen Weise, a technology correspondent for The New York Times, tells the story of one county pushing back against #BigTech."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4rcpcX06kc
#AI #techFutures #SiliconValley #dataCentres

Two firefighters suffered chemical burns in a #BoringCo. tunnel. Then the #Nevada Governor’s office got involved, and the penalties disappeared

https://fortune.com/2025/11/12/elon-musk-boring-company-tunnels-injuries-osha-citations-fines-rescinded-nevada-governor-office-documents-altered/
https://archive.ph/JUevh
#BoringCompany #tech #Musk #USpol #USpolitics #OSHA #cronyism #copinage #techfutures #techBros #techOligarchs #corruption

"Our cognitive disaster is unfolding as if it’s the way of the world, like sun-up over the horizon and the light that blankets the land — inevitable, irreversible, the nature of things. This may be so, given that bowing before the #tech god is inherent in industrial civilization, an expression of the fanatical worship of innovation that goes unquestioned in our society."

The internet made us stupid. #AI promises to make it worse

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-09-21/ai-artificial-intelligence-internet-e-bike-brain
#artificialIntelligence #techfutures

#LARB Radio Hour | The Shit Show

"[H]ow #BigTech dreams – from iPhones to #socialMedia to #AI – have become nightmares.

"How did these decade-defining innovations end up making modern life feel sadder, lonelier, and scarier?"

#books discussed
⦁ @pluralistic's #Enshittification
⦁ Paul Kingsnorth’s #AgainstTheMachine

https://lareviewofbooks.org/av/the-shit-show/

#tech #technology #techFutures @bookstodon

"Because conservative Christianity is so tightly woven into the state’s political culture, #Musk and his fellow California exiles find themselves confronting a new ideological fusion, a blend of neoliberal economic policies and Christian-nationalist cultural ambition, rooted in the state’s long history of resource extraction and at ease with racism and misogyny."

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-texan-ideology-turner
#tech #BigTech #USpol #SiliconValleyRight #Texas #techMigration #techFutures

"A willingness to be conned as long as the illusion flatters our sense of self and our image of the future is a defining characteristic of our time. [...] In a country run by scam artists, all that’s left is the illusion of autonomy and control. Why wouldn’t people gravitate toward a car that similarly promises, however falsely, to make them powerful and free?"

Maya Vinokour's acerbic account of meeting the #Cybertruck

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/cybertruck-elon-musk-fail/
#cars #EVs #Tesla #Musk #tech #techFutures

"The danger of #AI is not that it will achieve consciousness and hit the big red button. The end is much less flashy, far more stupid: The resource-intensive advertisement tools of AI will increasingly overtax the grid, leaving us to cook alive in sweltering darkness. The AI hype is part of a larger, false narrative justifying fossil fuel expansion. Let’s not get fooled."

https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/ai-data-centers-climate-change/
#ArtificialIntelligence #tech #techFutures #BigTech #dataCentres #energy #climateChange

I had a lovely time, #TechFutures. Met some wonderful people, made a room laugh at my AI jokes, and helped a small room of folks deploy a genAI bot into their slack. It's been a pretty good time.

"Where Trump’s first administration was defined by a generally symbiotic but tenuous relationship with #BigTech, the second would be, from the jump, a rancid union of #SiliconValley ideology and fascist impulse. [...]

"In many ways, the shameless about-face comes as the culmination of the #tech world’s open embrace of self-advancing cynicism in recent years."

https://thebaffler.com/latest/e-pluribus-uh-oh-kim
#USpol #AI #SiliconValleyRight #technoauthoritarianism #techFutures

#LettersAndPolitics welcomes #KarenHao (@karenhao), author of #EmpireOfAI: Dreams and Nightmares in #SamAltman’s #OpenAI

https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-august-11-2025/

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #tech #BigTech #SiliconValley #techFutures #books @bookstodon

🚀 What if your AI could predict the future like a quantum oracle?

Quantum AI isn’t just faster—it’s rewriting the laws of intelligence.
From 12x forecasting accuracy to decoding proteins in seconds, this changes everything.
Discover 7 breakthroughs set to reshape life by 2030.
⚛️ Don’t blink. This is the new OS of civilization.

🔍 Read now:
👉 https://medium.com/@rogt.x1997/7-quantum-ai-breakthroughs-that-could-redefine-humanity-by-2030-ee4ec4d2a193

#QuantumAI #AI2025 #TechFutures #Qiskit
https://medium.com/@rogt.x1997/7-quantum-ai-breakthroughs-that-could-redefine-humanity-by-2030-ee4ec4d2a193

"In this special episode of ‘Unshocked,’ #NaomiKlein is joined by #tech analyst, journalist, and author, @parismarx to break down the dangers behind #SiliconValley’s push for an #AI-centered world, including for the environment, education, and democracy."

https://youtu.be/adHOG1nJ8js?list=PLhHpnycGpC8S_A87y6MjfrzKzkWoNPAjO
#ArtificialIntelligence #techFutures #technosolutionism

🔨The Hammer of #AI: The belief that AI alone can solve every societal issue risks overshadowing the essential process of #datafication. Let's shift focus to how data is created and governed, ensuring a more comprehensive understanding of our digital futures #TechFutures #AI4SI

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/19/8638#metrics

"The choices #tech titans make in their personal lives [..] show that a segregated, shrouded life is their ideal. But they profit off technologies which, while encouraging our own social withdrawal, are focused on capturing as much information about us as possible."

#RebeccaSolnit reads her powerful LRB essay, "Losing #SanFrancisco"

https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/in-the-shadow-of-silicon-valley
#SiliconValley #cities #gentrification #inequality #BigTech #plutocracy #TechFutures #TechBros #TechCulture #SiliconValleyRight

Overthink has me wondering what we would all be working on and thinking about right now if we weren’t so pulled in by AI tech?

#techfutures #philosophy #podacademics

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/overthink/id1538249280?i=1000651902661

"Master Plans"

https://thenib.com/author/jen-sorensen/

#TechBros #TechFutures #TechnoSolutionnisme

#TheNib

"The world we have is ugly enough, but #TechCapitalists desire an even uglier one. The logical conclusion of having a society run by #tech capitalists interested in elite rule, eugenics, and social control is ecological ruin and a world dominated by surveillance and apartheid."

#EdwardOngwesoJr

#SiliconValley’s Quest to Build God and Control Humanity

https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/silicon-valley-artificial-intelligence/

#BigTech #TechOligarchs #oligarchy #TechFutures #NewRight

DAIR's First Anniversary - Dylan Baker, Nobody Owns Our Technological Future

https://peertube.dair-institute.org/w/iRTqFhJHvcf5JXFTPGsNs5

"EXCLUSIVE: SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE OF TESLA CRASH ON SF’S BAY BRIDGE HOURS AFTER #ElonMusk ANNOUNCES 'SELF-DRIVING' FEATURE

"#Musk has said #Tesla’s problematic #autopilot features are 'really the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money or worth basically zero.' "

#TechFutures #technosolutionism #SelfDrivingVehicles #transport

https://theintercept.com/2023/01/10/tesla-crash-footage-autopilot/