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This Machine Kills: Daily Summaries Delivered
by This Machine Kills
A podcast about technology and political economy /// Agitprop against innovation and capital /// Hosted by Jathan Sadowski and Edward Ongweso Jr., Produced by Jereme Brown
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- Today5 min
Patreon Preview – 460. Mr. Worldspirit
It’s a news roundup! First, in a duo of stories designed to make Ed jealous, Australia has seized 20 million illegal vapes at the border since January 2024, while the Australian attorney general has announced a $1.4 billion lawsuit against 3M over the harmful effects of PFAS or “forever chemicals”. Second, Anthropic files a massive IPO, with OpenAI and SpaceX looking to do the same soon. We chat about the implications of $3-4 trillion worth of liquidity events happening in the tech sector at the same time. Third, the pope wrote an encyclical, the butlerian jihad is catholic (always has been), and the christian tech-right is crashing out. Fourth, congrats, dear listener, on being marked as an “anti-tech extremist”! ••• Australian Border Force seize 20 million illegal vapes since January 2024 as crackdown continues https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-29/border-force-seize-illegal-vapes-crackdown/106734164 ••• Australia Sues 3M for $1.4 Billion Over ‘Forever Chemicals’ https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/28/business/australia-lawsuit-3m-psas.html ••• Anthropic Files to Go Public, Setting Stage for Huge I.P.O. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/technology/anthropic-ipo.html ••• Magnifica Humanitas | Pope Leo XIV https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html ••• US Law Enforcement Warns of ‘Anti-Tech Extremism’ as AI Hatred Grows https://www.wired.com/story/us-law-enforcement-warns-of-anti-tech-extremism/ ••• Local Police Targeted Data Center Opponent, Law Firm Alleges https://heatmap.news/plus/the-fight/hotspots/alabama-nebius-data-center-police Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s 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)
- 6 days ago1h 12m
459. One Border After Another (ft. Gaby Del Valle)
We chat with Gaby Del Valle—policy reporter at the Verge—about her excursion to the Border Security Expo, the new hardware and software being sold to fight the endless battle at the border, and how the border has now expanded to encompass everywhere and everybody. Plus we discuss Gaby’s research into the white supremacist ideologies of eugenicist environmentalism that have motivated immigration politics for a very long time. ••• The Border is Everywhere https://www.theverge.com/report/928726/border-security-expo-cbp-ice-dhs-surveillance ••• Trump is Waging a Silent War on Legal Immigration https://www.theverge.com/policy/932865/trump-legal-immigration-denaturalizations-uscis Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s 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)
- 2 weeks ago4 min
Patreon Preview – 458. Seduced by the Slop Tsunami
We chat about how so many people keep getting seduced into thinking chatbots are conscious, or just keep hedging their bets in some kind of Cyber-Pascal’s Wage, or just keep lying to prop up an industry and culture they are invested in perpetuating. Then we argue why, rather than just be eroded into acquiescence by an overwhelming tsunami of AI, rather than being bowled over and washed out to sea, you should never give these systems and their booster the benefit of the doubt. Never accept that these forces of production are inevitable, undeniable, and actually already existing. You should first always say, “Prove it.” •••When Dawkins met Claude Could this AI be conscious? https://unherd.com/2026/05/is-ai-the-next-phase-of-evolution/ ••• When Claudia met Claudius https://unherd.com/2026/05/when-claudia-met-claudius/?edition=us ••• Why We Keep Tricking Ourselves Into Thinking A.I. Is Conscious https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/opinion/ai-consciousness.html ••• The Atheist and the Machine God https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/opinion/artificial-intelligence-consciousness-richard-dawkins.html ••• The Prehistory of A.I. Slop https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/05/25/the-prehistory-of-ai-slop ••• Too Much Is Happening Too Fast https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/05/too-much-happening-too-fast/687177/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s 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)
- 3 weeks ago1h 25m
457. DC3: The Terraforming
We’re going in for a threepeat – it’s Data Centers 3, as we continue with our analysis of the data center industry, the opposition to these hyperscale projects, and the real impacts on social communities and natural ecosystems. We get into the industry playbook of using “counterinsurgency tactics” to undermine opposition to these data centers and the ideological playbook of effective altruists treating these projects like they are just 4X strategy games. Plus how Mr. Wonderful is terraforming Utah by building a massive natural gas power plant to fuel a hyperscale data center right on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. ••• ‘So much worse than I even thought’: Utah’s ‘hyperscale’ data center could create massive heat island near Great Salt Lake https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2026/05/07/utahs-data-center-could-create/ ••• The fight against AI datacenters isn’t just about tech – it’s about democracy https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/08/ai-datacenters-democracy ••• Rolling the DICE on Data Center Development https://www.earthcharterindiana.org/climate-chronicles/dice ••• Google developers significantly misstate carbon emissions of proposed UK datacentres https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/09/google-developers-significantly-misstate-carbon-emissions-of-proposed-uk-datacentres Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s 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)
- 4 weeks ago7 min
Patreon Preview – 456. Do Not Question Project Cannoli
We go in for a second helping on analysing the opposition to data centers. After further deconstructing the arguments against opposition, we do what none of them actually do: pay attention to the actual material conditions on the ground. We discuss reporting on why real communities are opposed to these infrastructure projects and how these projects are being pushed through in black-boxed, stonewalled, fast tracked ways that are designed to ignore, dismiss, and override anybody who isn’t immediately and blindly onboard. ••• ‘The Most Bipartisan Issue Since Beer’: Opposition to Data Centers https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/us/politics/liberals-conservatives-data-centers.html ••• In Indiana, an anatomy of data center opposition https://www.latitudemedia.com/news/in-indiana-an-anatomy-of-data-center-opposition/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s 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)
- Apr 29, 20261h 29m
455. The Anti-Anti-Anti-Data-Centers Social Club
We deconstruct the confused arguments – from the left – against moratoriums for data centres. These positions set up a false dichotomy between either pausing or governing technology, they start from the assumption that a politics of refusal or opposition is an illegitimate position to hold, and they depend on rhetorical leaps and pretzel logic to make arguments that end up ceding more ground to corporate power than they gain for leftist goals. ••• Democratic Governance of AI Is the Real Solution https://jacobin.com/2026/04/ai-data-center-moratorium-democracy ••• What Will It Take to Get A.I. Out of Schools? https://www.newyorker.com/culture/progress-report/what-will-it-take-to-get-ai-out-of-schools Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s 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)
- Apr 23, 20268 min
Patreon Preview – 454. The Shocks Keep Coming
We dig into two shocks in international political economy that are each on their way to being complex, interrelated crises. First, the unsustainable system of export-led “bottomless competition" in China that is dominating — and disrupting — global markets for advanced manufacturing and high-tech goods thanks to hyper-competitive pressure, diminishing returns, vertical integration, hefty subsidies, and other industrial / policy dynamics. Second, a surprising-to-many effect of the war on Iran: Gulf states are major producers and distributors of synthetic fertilizers which are used for agriculture in large parts of Africa and Southeast Asia. Those supply chains are now disrupted which is causing hunger and coming famines in large parts of the world. ••• China shock 2.0: the flood of high-tech goods that will change the world https://www.ft.com/content/7d51a630-a3de-4cc7-9f5f-0f3e7f0d305a?syn-25a6b1a6=1 ••• The coming global food crisis https://www.ft.com/content/7d51a630-a3de-4cc7-9f5f-0f3e7f0d305a?syn-25a6b1a6=1 Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s 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)
- Apr 15, 20261h 40m
453. Super “Intelligent” Industrial Policy
We do a deep dive into OpenAI’s new report “Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First” and pick apart their extensive set of proposals for building an “Open Economy” and "Resilient Society” all against the backdrop of surviving the “transition toward superintelligence”. There are some moments of insidiously clever thinking, which stand out against a laundry list of boring ideas that repackage existing things as exciting innovations. ••• OpenAI | Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/561e7512-253e-424b-9734-ef4098440601/Industrial%20Policy%20for%20the%20Intelligence%20Age.pdf Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s 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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About This Machine Kills
A podcast about technology and political economy /// Agitprop against innovation and capital /// Hosted by Jathan Sadowski and Edward Ongweso Jr., Produced by Jereme Brown
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