Patreon Preview – 426. The Road to Hell is Paved with Advertisements
We play another game of Where in the World is Edward Ongweso — and you’ll never guess. We pull together a few stories. First, further evidence of the AI productivity paradox and the fact that nearly every company is excited about AI, but none of them can figure out how exactly it is beneficial or profitable. Second, this includes the companies making AI, which is why they have fallen back on the one thing they know how to do: surveillance for targeted advertisement. Third, a nasty down-stream effect of the advert data ecosystem and platform economy is that it’s also powering an exterminationist techno-politics being carried out by fascist agencies and their corporate collaborators. Oops!
••• America’s top companies keep talking about AI — but can’t explain the upsides https://www.ft.com/content/e93e56df-dd9b-40c1-b77a-dba1ca01e473
••• Meta to mine AI interactions to help target advertising https://www.ft.com/content/22f7afc3-8ac0-4ca1-9877-fd3f8ddcc986
••• ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day https://www.404media.co/ice-to-buy-tool-that-tracks-locations-of-hundreds-of-millions-of-phones-every-day/
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
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425. The Oxymorons of Green Capitalism (ft. Thea Riofrancos)
We are joined by Thea Riofrancos — author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism — to chat about the many frontiers, tensions, and futures of green capitalism. How do we understand a system that is oxymoronic in its contradictory nature? How do we trace the political economies, material infrastructures, and extractive industries that are in the process of defining a planetary path dependency? Why do we need to spend a lot more time thinking about lithium? With the help of Thea’s sharp analysis, we answer these questions and more.
••• Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism | Thea Riofrancos https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324036760/about-the-book
••• Thea’s work at Climate + Community Institute https://climateandcommunity.org/bio/thea-riofrancos/
••• Thea’s recent op-eds at the FT https://www.ft.com/stream/32daf017-8140-454c-8735-9c9947edc301
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
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Patreon Preview – 424. Me and My AI
We chat about the growing genre of personal literary essays about AI where the literati at places like the New Yorker pen long essays laying out their thoughts, worries, and ultimate embrace of AI. But as with most personal essays, we end up learning more about the foibles and anxieties of the authors than anything material about the thing they are writing about. Big shout out to the excellent piece in N+1 we discuss in this episode, which turns the sights of literary criticism on this genre of “AI-and-I” essays.
••• What’s Up With Peter Thiel’s Obsession With the Antichrist? https://newrepublic.com/article/200471/peter-thiel-obsession-antichrist-religion
••• Large Language Muddle https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the-intellectual-situation/large-language-muddle/#rf3-55362
••• Two Days Talking to People Looking for Jobs at ICE https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/politics/yanis-two-days-talking-to-people-looking-for-jobs-at-ice-2/
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
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423. Violence, Fast and Slow
We discuss the assassination of Charlie Kirk and its potential role as a catalyst of further violence and blowback by right-wing forces who want to avenge a martyr, by left-wing groups who want to kick off years of lead, or perhaps as simply another immense yet ephemeral moment in a strange world where “our whole life is surrounded by an immense accumulation of spectacles.” Then we segue expertly to talking about a new essay on “the weaponized world economy,” which adds great detail and depth to our analysis of the geoeconomic dynamics and conflicts that drive global politics, markets, finance and technology.
••• What We Know About the Hyundai-LG Plant Immigration Raid in Georgia https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/us/politics/hyundai-plant-immigration-raid-georgia.html
••• The Weaponized World Economy https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/weaponized-world-economy-farrell-newman
••• BRICS in 2025 https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/brics-in-2025/
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
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Patreon Preview – 422. Demon Valley
Join us as we dive into the life and mind of Nicole Shanahan, a tech billionaire who is now the self-anointed demon hunter of Silicon Valley and Burning Man. There is soul-corrupting psycho-politics everywhere for those with eyes to see.
••• ‘Demonic’: Silicon Valley Billionaire Blasts Burning Man https://www.thenerdreich.com/demonic-silicon-valley-billionaire-blasts-burning-man/
••• The Baby Died. Whose Fault Is It? https://www.wired.com/story/the-baby-died-whose-fault-is-it-surrogate-pregnancy/
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
A podcast about technology and political economy /// Agitprop against innovation and capital /// Hosted by Jathan Sadowski and Edward Ongweso Jr., Produced by Jereme Brown /// Hello friends and enemies
Listen anywhere that fine podcasts are distributed. Subscribe at patreon.com/thismachinekills to get premium episodes every week.
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