The Absurd Spiral of Technology

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"I like Corey, Dr. O'Hare but I hate how he's popularized that term in shitification," the author says of his friend and fellow tech writer James Carville. "It captures ... what happens when you let these companies do whatever they want." Twitter is a great example, right? Because you know, we're all kind of witnessing what happens to people who don't have control over their own information or access to it at all", she adds. The Stranger by Camus would be a great book about this technological moment: "The existential pointlessness and dread of this technological moment"

Paris Marx is joined by David Moscrop to discuss Canada’s plan to make Google and Meta pay news publishers, and what might happened now that they’re threatening to pull Canadian news from their platforms.

David Moscrop is a freelance writer and the author of Too Dumb for Democracy?: Why We Make Bad Political Decisions and How We Can Make Better Ones. Follow David on Twitter at @David_Moscrop.

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.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

Also mentioned in this episode:

David Moscrop wrote about the larger context of the Online News Bill in his Substack newsletter.
Paris also wrote about Google and Meta threatening to pull news in Canada and why Canada should take a hard line with them.
Sandy Garossino wrote about how much money Google and Meta extract from Canada.
Media conglomerates Postmedia and Nordstar are in talks to merge.
California is also looking at a similar process to force Google and Meta to pay media in that state.
On Wednesday, the Canadian government pulled advertising from Facebook and Instagram, but said Google was still talking to find a way forward. The government said it won’t back down, and two opposition parties — the New Democratic Party and Bloc Quebecois — voiced their support.

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