240. Anthropology of Algorithms, Ethnography of Engineers, Theory of Traps (ft. Nick Seaver)

We’re joined by Nik Suresh, director of Hermit Tech and excellent blogger on the software industry. You might know Nik for an incredible essay he wrote a couple years ago about piledriving anybody who...

6 Aug 1h 39min

First we get into a very circular (the strongest shape in nature) deal between Nvidia, OpenAI, and Softbank to finance a $250 billion 10-gigawatt data center complex, powered by a natural gas plant bu...

30 Jul 9min

We chat with Matt Haugen and Jesse Goldstein from the Climate + Community Institute about a new report they co-authored laying out how the US is engaging in industrial policy for AI development in way...

24 Jul 1h 25min

We first open a door by talking about the great new ‘right to repair’ ruling from the FTC, which is the result of a long fight against rentier monopolies and digital enclosure, and should be precedent...

18 Jul 10min

We chat all about the growing market for humanoid robots. What are the financial incentives and social ideologies driving the creation of technologies designed to directly mimic (and replace) humans—e...

10 Jul 1h 25min

Miracle cures! Get your miracle cures! What the hell are peptides? Why is this class of black/gray market drugs on everyone’s lips and being injected into everybody’s veins? Where did this multi-billi...

2 Jul 7min

(Sorry we’re a little late; blame producer pneumonia) We open the nightmare world folder and go through a series of stories about technology, surveillance, and policing. Cops using AI to generate “evi...

26 Jun 1h 33min

If every billionaire is a policy failure, then the world’s first trillionaire is a far more serious omen of collapse. We spend this episode talking about Muskism, reflecting on an economy that is raci...

19 Jun 7min