Tech Won't Save Us Decomputing For a Better Future w/ Dan McQuillan
40 snips
Jul 24, 2025 
Dan McQuillan, a lecturer at Goldsmiths College and author of Resisting AI, discusses the urgent need to rethink our relationship with artificial intelligence. He critiques the UK government's corporate-driven AI policies and highlights the environmental concerns related to data centers. McQuillan advocates for 'decomputing' as a means to reclaim agency and foster technologies that serve the public good. He also shares inspiring examples of collective action for sustainability, emphasizing the importance of community engagement in resisting oppressive systems.
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UK AI Push as Growth Strategy
- UK Labour government aggressively pursues AI and data center expansion as core growth strategy.
- Treats tech giants as diplomatic equals and prioritizes infrastructure over local concerns.
Total Mobilization Explained
- Total mobilization describes the authoritarian, nihilistic pursuit of ultimate societal transformation.
- It aligns with extreme accelerationism seeking a new civilization epoch driven by technological total war.
AI's Scale and Energy Obsession
- AI's push emphasizes relentless scale and energy consumption, revealing extractive economic patterns.
- Hyperscale data centers embody extractive capitalism's resistance to ecological transition.
