The Complexity of the Internet

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We live in an era of impressing the salvation of complexity and scale right and scales the word. I think it's just we just have far more of these systems and just far larger populations of people than 20 or 30 years ago. We can't say how complicated it is right you can't understand it like if a certain data center in kobanate goes out Literally container ships can't load into ports so that's literally the situation. So it's been fascinating to see people kind of interact with this stuff in between the black Wow, it's always the same but you know when we everybody started talking about surveillance capitalists and people I just just capitalism.

Paris Marx is joined by Tim Maughan to discuss the exploitative infrastructures that make the modern world possible, how complex technological systems rob us of our power to control our collective destiny, and why predicting trends isn’t hard when you understand capitalism.

Tim Maughan is the author of “Infinite Detail” and “Ghost Hardware.” He’s also written for BBC Future, New Scientist, and Motherboard, and is writing a new column for OneZero. Follow Tim on Twitter as @timmaughan.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Read about the trip Tim took with Unknown Fields on a container ship, at manufacturing sites in China, and near a toxic lake in Inner Mongolia that’s the product of mining rare-earth minerals.
Read the first article in Tim’s new column, No One’s Driving.
Kim Stanley Robinson says billionaire space visions are “just a fantasy of our culture right now.”
Media mentioned by Tim: Judge Dredd comics, The Running Man, RoboCop, Rollerball, and Ad Astra.

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