The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

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.

n this episode, I have a truly delightful conversation about neural networks with Théo Lepage-Richer and Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal. We go through the many ways that the body gets ‘technologized’ and technology gets ‘biologized’ and how and why these conceptualization happen in specific historical and political contexts, and why they matter — and more than neural networks themselves, maybe? You’ll learn about neural media, parascientific media, and the various legacies of the brain-as-site and -model for various things. Recorded May 19, 2023. Released June 26, 2023.Neural Networks (by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal, Théo Lepage-Richer and Lucy Suchman)https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/neural-networksMind-reading technology has arrivedhttps://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2023/5/4/23708162/neurotechnology-mind-reading-brain-neuralink-brain-computer-interface Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Blair Attard-Frost and I discuss AI value & supply chains, AI policies and strategies in Canada and how queer and trans theories can help inform (and refuse) how we think and feel about AI governance. We also discuss the role of creative writing, as outlet and way to reach audiences that might be compelled by “AI”. Recorded May 9, 2023. Released June 12, 2023.The Ethics of AI Business Practices: A Review of 47 AI Ethics Guidelineshttps://montrealethics.ai/the-ethics-of-ai-business-practices-a-review-of-47-ai-ethics-guidelines/ Once a promising leader, Canada’s artificial-intelligence strategy is now a fragmented laggard https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-once-a-promising-leader-canadas-artificial-intelligence-strategy-is/ Object Type 3https://objecttype3.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A recent open letter by Future of Life Institute calling for a six-month ban on AI development has received widespread attention online. Fenwick McKelvey and I discuss the hyped-up ideas from tech leaders about “powerful digital minds” and how fear of AI functions as a marketing tool. We also go over regulation and policy initiatives in Canada. Recorded April 25, 2023. Released May 30, 2023.Let’s base AI debates on reality, not extreme fears about the futurehttps://theconversation.com/lets-base-ai-debates-on-reality-not-extreme-fears-about-the-future-203030 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I speak with some members of the ELIZANGEN project: David M. Berry, Peggy Weil, Arthur Schwarz, Mark Marino and Jeff Shrager. ELIZA is the first “chatterbots”, emerging in the 1960’s. Listen to our conversation to learn more about finding the code for ELIZA in the archives, building various iterations of the bot, and how it helps us think about AI like Chat-GPT, today. Recorded April 24, 2023. Released May 20, 2023.pr0c3ss1nghttps://www.reddit.com/r/pr0c3ss1ng/ Mr. Mind http://82.223.169.27/MrMind/index.htmlELIZAGENhttps://sites.google.com/view/elizagen-org/team-eliza?authuser=0 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever wonder what longtermism is and how it’s come to be such a big influence over the tech world? I speak with Émile P. Torres about all things connecting AI hype, ideologies about future humans, big tech’s concentration of power, the idea of human potential (or humanity’s potential) and the idea of moral consequence. Recorded Apr 17, 2023. Released May 10, 2023.Longtermism Hubhttps://www.longtermism-hub.com/critiques Against longtermism https://aeon.co/essays/why-longtermism-is-the-worlds-most-dangerous-secular-credo Understanding "longtermism": Why this suddenly influential philosophy is so toxichttps://www.salon.com/2022/08/20/understanding-longtermism-why-this-suddenly-influential-philosophy-is-so/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is nostalgia? A memory? A feeling? A weapon?? Tune in to my conversation with Grafton Tanner about the relationship between tech, nostalgia, retrobate and much more! Recorded Mar 31, 2023. Released April 30, 2023.Grafton Tannerhttps://graftontanner.com/ Yesterday Once Morehttps://reallifemag.com/yesterday-once-more/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.