Ever wonder about the microchips in your car? MC Forelle and I talk about the “chipification” process of cars, since the 70s and 80s, and how these processes and logics see to increased corporate control and surveillance, while making opting out and DIY tinkering more difficult. We briefly touch on subscription model for automotive features — like BMW did for its heated seats not long ago — remember that? Recorded Oct 5, 2023. Released Nov 27, 2023.The material consequences of “chipification”: The case of software-embedded carshttps://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/doi/full/10.1177/20539517221095429 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this delightful hour, anthropologist Steven Gonzalez Monserrate discusses ethnographic research in data centers and post-climate disaster sites. Topics include the empathy and feeling in his writing, the staggering ecological impacts of computation and the cloud, settler acoustics, and emerging technologies for future information storage.

While efforts to make “AI” more “open” have gained momentum lately, it seems like both concepts are worth scrutinizing and historicizing so that we can better understand how these marketing terms become a focus (and distraction), as material conditions are downplayed. With David Gray Widder, we discuss where “ethics” are located and how “AI” workers of all kinds imagine responsibility to be someone else’s problem, or somewhere else down the chain. Recorded Sept 12, 2023. Released Oct 23, 2023.The Myth of ‘Open Source’ AIhttps://www.wired.com/story/the-myth-of-open-source-ai/ Open (For Business): Big Tech, Concentrated Power, and the Political Economy of Open AIhttps://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4543807 Limits and Possibilities for “Ethical AI” in Open Source: A Study of Deepfakeshttps://davidwidder.me/deepfakes.pdf Dislocated accountabilities in the “AI supply chain”: Modularity and developers’ notions of responsibilityhttps://davidwidder.me/supply-chain.pdf Computer scientists designing the future can’t agree on what privacy meanshttps://www.technologyreview.com/2023/04/03/1070665/cmu-university-privacy-battle-smart-building-sensors-mites/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Josh Lepawsky, an expert in e-waste and global waste industries, discusses the misconceptions of e-waste, the complexities of recycling, the impact of chemicals in manufacturing, and the power of collective action to address electronic waste and pollution.

A truly delightful conversation with creative technologist and artist, Mirabelle Jones. Their work uses generative AI – early iterations of it – to make compelling observations about intimacy. Jone’s work is iterative, where reactions to projects invite new forms of self-reflection, and makes us wonder if we even have a ‘true’ self, if continuity is real, and what quantum alternatives might be out there. Recorded Aug 2, 2023. Released Sept 25, 2023.Translating Traumahttps://www.instagram.com/p/CvF3Nkqrc_H/ Mirabelle Joneshttps://www.mirabellejones.com/ It’s time We Talked https://www.mirabellejones.com/digital-alchemy-its-time-we-talked/ Artificial Intimacyhttps://www.mirabellejones.com/artificial-intimacy/ Embodying the Algorithmhttps://aiperformance.space/mirabelle-jones-ill-be-very-nervous/ Zoom Reads Youhttps://www.mirabellejones.com/zoom-reads-you/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a fun conversation with scholar-poet Gregory Betts about communicating with aliens! How are humans on earth communicating with aliens? What technology does it require? Why? What void does it fill? And do aliens want to be in contact with us? What relationships are made possible by thinking poetically about aliens? On the episode we ponder the cultural contexts for thinking about alien life in a hostile [to human life] universe. Recorded Jul 21, 2023. Released Sept 11, 2023.A Sign in Spacehttps://asignin.space/listening-to-space/ Extraterrestrial Signal Test (NYT)https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/science/extraterrestrial-signal-test.html Aliens in the Void: Writing Beyond the Limits of Language in bpNichol’s The Martyrology (and (Luigi Serafini’s ((Code)x Seriphian(us))))https://www.academia.edu/99536790/ Here’s the Discord Channel:https://discord.com/channels/1066055437457297469/1110258553689739276/1111325509993898096WRETI workshop:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9LLwepou8Q&list=LLDkmzBShjBSqUTvnlWaaKlQ&ab_channel=SETIInstitute  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ana Valdivia walks me through her research on the connections between data centers, AI, and mining. We discuss what it means to be a researcher looking at controversial, problematic, and difficult to access sites, and what resistance to the AI industry — which gobbles up water, minerals, land, and electricity at incredible rates — can look like. Recorded Jul 28, 2023. Released Aug 28, 2023.Rural Spain could end up hosting infrastructure hubs for AI – here’s what the environmental cost could behttps://theconversation.com/rural-spain-could-end-up-hosting-infrastructure-hubs-for-ai-heres-what-the-environmental-cost-could-be-205504 Machines in Flames [Full Documentary]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGVMu5OPu7E&ab_channel=DestructionistInternational Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melissa Gregg and I discuss what it means to think ecologically, in, through, and with technology, at a time of perpetually new things compelling us into a sense of urgency about the climate crisis. Together we untangle the affective investments and contradictions embedded in moment of reckoning with out place in the world and on this planet. Recorded Jul 12, 2023. Released Aug 14, 2023.Keynote: The Ecological Impact of an Automated Society (2022 ADM+S Symposium)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWaBkHsUsqMCircularity conference reporthttps://melgregg.com/2023/06/14/talking-in-circles-about-e-waste/Where to donate your computer (US)https://digitunity.org/get-involved/give-equipment/donate-your-computer/Right to repair associationhttps://www.repair.org/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Tega Brain — who, after many recommendations – I finally got to meet over Zoom, we discuss using bots to distort clicks related to climate and how the concept of ecology both informs and distorts our ideas about human-nature relationships. Art, addressing these concerns, requires a lot of nuance. Recorded May 23, 2023. Released July 24, 2023.The Battle to Control the Carbon Media Cycle, Ding Magazine.https://dingdingding.org/issue-4/the-battle-to-control-the-carbon-media-cycle/ Synthetic Messengerhttps://syntheticmessenger.labr.io/#about (on YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlFW1gL6AGU&ab_channel=SyntheticMessenger The Environment Is Not A System https://aprja.net/article/view/116062 The viral false claim that nearly 200 arsonists are behind the Australia fires, explainedhttps://www.vox.com/2020/1/9/21058332/australia-fires-arson-lightning-explained Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Resurrecting” means bringing back to life, raising from the dead, restoring to vibrancy, bringing into public view, reanimating… Tonia Sutherland does just this for the concept of the black body in the digital afterlife, through a critique of the archive, the HeLa cells legacy, holograms of entertainers, and emergent AI. An absolute honour to host this episode on an early read of Sutherland’s new book. Recorded May 22, 2023. Released July 10, 2023.Resurrecting the Black Body: Race and the Digital Afterlifehttps://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520383876/resurrecting-the-black-body Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.