This Machine Kills

After jumping into the abyss of indexation, we’re now smacking directly into BlackRock bottom. The world’s largest asset, which oversees $8.67 trillion, has grown at an unimaginable scale and pace—thanks in no small part to their fintech platform Aladdin on which sits at least $21.6 trillion from major clients. Those are astronomical numbers, but this episode brings their impacts down to earth. We discuss this monstrosity of finance, how BlackRock’s big black box is consuming the world’s wealth, and the plans of its CEO, Larry Fink, to solve climate change while making a hefty profit in the process. Some stuff we reference: • Is BlackRock the New Vampire Squid? by Kate Aronoff https://newrepublic.com/article/158263/blackrock-climate-change-fossil-fuel-investments • BlackRock’s Black Box: The Technology Hub of Modern Finance by Richard Henderson and Owen Walker https://www.ft.com/content/5ba6f40e-4e4d-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5 • Larry Fink Letter to CEOs 2021 https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/larry-fink-ceo-letter Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

{The first 15 minutes or so of this episode is a little glitchy, but it gets better} We could have done a full episode about the GameStop affair, but there’s already so many good (and bad) explainers and analysis of that, so let’s talk about the real winners in an economy where the line just keeps going up forever: index funds and passive investment. We talk through the operations of indexation, one of the most important – and hugely overlooked – trends in the modern financial system, and discuss what John C. Coates calls the Problem of Twelve: “The likelihood that in the near future roughly twelve individuals will have practical power over the majority of U.S. public companies.” This meeting of the board of global corporate capitalism is called to order. Some stuff we reference: • The Future of Corporate Governance: The Problem of Twelve by John C. Coates https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3247337 • Investment Firms Are the Big Winners of the GameStop Stock Revolution So Far by Edward Ongweso Jr. https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3gepx/investment-firms-are-the-big-winners-of-the-gamestop-stock-revolution-so-far Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

Continuing the story of the Lucas Plan, we lay out how this radical blueprint for socially useful production faced opposition at every turn by entrenched interests who saw it as a threat to their power – and rightfully so! We then explore how the philosophy of social useful production confronts the contradictions of industrial / informational capitalism, revealing this system to be anti-human in every regard, while also providing a concrete alternative that actualizes the real potential of all people to create better technologies for a better society. When the cynical pragmatists meet your demands for radical change with that old boilerplate bullshit: “Okay, so what’s your plan then?” You can now say, “Hey buddy, first of all, fuck you. And second, we’ve got a plan – the Lucas Plan!” Some stuff we reference: • The Lucas Plan–An Idea Whose Time has Come? by Dave King: https://magazine.scienceforthepeople.org/vol22-2/the-new-lucas-plan/ • The Lucas Plan and Socially Useful Production by Adrian Smith: https://steps-centre.org/blog/new-paper-lucas-plan-socially-useful-production/ • A Practical Utopian’s Guide to the Coming Collapse by David Graeber: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/a-practical-utopians-guide-to-the-coming-collapse • We Keep You Alive by Lizzie O’Shea: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/we-keep-you-alive-oshea Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

We take a deep dive into another example of a real utopian project from the 1970s, this time from the UK, which provided detailed concrete plans for how to actually do radical techno-politics. The militant labor union at Lucas Aerospace sought to democratize the means of production, giving workers autonomy over the management and purpose of industrial capacity. To achieve that goal, they created an amazing proposal – the Lucas Plan – for how to run factories based on the principles of socially useful production. The story of the Lucas Plan is inspiring and infuriating – and immensely important. Some stuff we reference: • Lucas Alternative Corporate Plan (Summary): http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/lucas-aerospace-combine-shop-steward-committee-corporate-plan-contingency-strategy-positive- • The Lucas Plan and Socially Useful Production by Adrian Smith: https://steps-centre.org/blog/new-paper-lucas-plan-socially-useful-production/ • The Lucas Plan: What can it tell us about democratising technology today? by Adrian Smith: https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2014/jan/22/remembering-the-lucas-plan-what-can-it-tell-us-about-democratising-technology-today • Lucas Plan documentary (1978): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pgQqfpub-c&feature=emb_title • Socially Useful Production by Pam Linn: https://scihub.wikicn.top/10.1080/09505438709526191 Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

We’re joined once again by co-host of TrashFuture, Riley Quinn, as we conduct further investigations into the mind of the Thought Leader. We start with a journey back to some of the Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 progenitors of the modern day big ideas bozo. From the counterculture libertarians and (allegedly) coke-addled entrepreneurs to the meme hustlers and corporate grifters. Weird how so many of them ended up flying on the Lolita Express? Anyways… nothing to see here, move along. We then consider how the Thought Leaders’ jobs at the consent factory have now been automated by capital – just another unfortunate victim of disruption. Follow Riley (https://twitter.com/raaleh) and listen to TrashFuture (https://trashfuturepodcast.podbean.com/). Of course you’re already doing both, right? Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

We’re joined by co-host of TrashFuture – and friend of TMK from the start – Riley Quinn as we examine the brain of the Thought Leader. Forged in the fires of the financial crash, driven mad by Internet induced techno-optimism, brains smoothly polished by the infinite growth of a zero interest rate world – the modern day Thought Leader is the charlatan in the court of tech capital. They spend their days promoting Big Ideas Books that contain remarkably little thinking, while asserting all the solutions to complex societal problems. But that’s okay because they aren’t really meant to be read by anybody anyways. Unless, of course, you’re Riley. Follow Riley (https://twitter.com/raaleh) and listen to TrashFuture (https://trashfuturepodcast.podbean.com/). Of course you’re already doing both, right? Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

How is a neoliberal economy planned? How should a socialist economy be planned? We parse through the “socialist calculation debate.” First laying out the critiques of socialist state planning—and the supposed superiority of the price system and spontaneous order under the market—posed by the original theorists of neoliberal thought: Ludwig Von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. Then knocking them down one-by-one as we consider what a successor of Project Cybersyn might look like. Some stuff we reference: • The Return of Social Government: From ‘Socialist Calculation’ to ‘Social Analytics’ by Will Davies https://scihub.wikicn.top/10.1177/1368431015578044 • The Use of Knowledge in Society by Friedrich Hayek: https://learn.canvas.net/courses/1446/files/549519 • How to Make a Pencil by Aaron Benanav: https://logicmag.io/commons/ • The Singular Pursuit of Comrade Bezos by Malcolm Harris: https://medium.com/s/story/the-singular-pursuit-of-comrade-bezos-3e280baa045c Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

cold open: Interview with Eden Medina on Project Cybersyn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSmQCvfT4pU We dig into one of the most interesting and exciting experiments in socialist innovation ever attempted: Project Cybersyn in 1970s Chile. There’s much to be learned from the history of how a ragtag group of revolutionaries sought to create a cybernetic system to organize and manage a democratic socialist economy. As well as from its ultimate demise at the hands of a CIA-backed military coup. While this prototype of cybernetic democratic socialism was smothered in its cradle by authoritarian neoliberalism, the lessons gleaned from this real utopian endeavor must live on today. Cybersyn is dead, long live Cybersyn! Some stuff we reference: • Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile by Eden Medina https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/cybernetic-revolutionaries • The Anti-Socialist Origins of Big Data by Greg Gandin: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/anti-socialist-origins-big-data/ • Chomsky interviewed by Denis Staunton: https://chomsky.info/2009____/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

Continuing the TMK conceptual hit list, we set our sights on more key concepts that have been, to varying degrees, corrupted by capital’s foul influence and weaponized to achieve its ideological and material goals. We pass judgement on the concepts of inclusion, tech company, smart, and artificial intelligence. Some stuff we reference: • Terms of inclusion: Data, Discourse, Violence by Anna Lauren Hoffmann: https://scihub.wikicn.top/10.1177/1461444820958725 • On the Moral Collapse of AI Ethics by J. Khadijah Abdurahman: https://upfromthecracks.medium.com/on-the-moral-collapse-of-ai-ethics-791cbc7df872 • Potemkin AI by Jathan: https://reallifemag.com/potemkin-ai/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).

We’re kicking off 2021 with a different spin on the standard new year resolutions by drafting the official TMK conceptual hit list. We go through some foundational ideas in digital capitalism that we resolve to destroy. In this episode we lay out our case against innovation, disruption, entrepreneurship, and flexibility. Now is a good time to be clear about the techno-political concepts that must be put up against the wall of ruthless criticism. Consider this the first draft of a conceptual hit list that has room to grow as we confront enemies, both old and new, in 2021 and beyond. Some stuff we reference: • The Fetish of Technology: Causes and Consequences by David Harvey: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1411&context=macintl • Technology: The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept by Leo Marx: http://www.f.waseda.jp/sidoli/Marx_2010_Concept_Of_Technology.pdf • Why Chinese youngsters are embracing a philosophy of “slacking-off” by Jane Li: https://qz.com/1938809/why-chinese-youngsters-are-embracing-a-culture-of-slacking-off/ • Despotism on Demand: How Power Operates in the Flexible Workplace by Alex Wood: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501748899/despotism-on-demand Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).