The Complexity of the World

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I think what you describe is that Technology is really helping to make that possible in a way that it wasn't in the past. So we look at financial markets and like so many of these trades are done by algorithms And I spoke to team Wong who described how like the digital ad markets work in a very similar way to those financial markets which have been Modeled off of them. All of these trades that you know determine which ads that we see are done by algorithm in like milliseconds or nanoseconds or whatever while the page loads. Even beyond that like what you described on that trip you did with unknown fields how the people who are driving the boats don't necessarily always know what's even

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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