Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Google emerged victorious in its antitrust suit, signaling a new era to come of Big Tech dominance of the economy, education, culture, and more.

The descent of Big Tech platforms into exploitative and unethical behavior prompted sci-fi author Cory Doctorow to coin a new term, something like “enfecalization.”

AI, robots, and other technologies are raising some thorny ethical questions.

Last month, the New York Times published a credulous story (link below) on the future of generative artificial intelligence in the videogame industry.

Billionaire techbros are planning to escape to Mars, upload their minds into an AI, and then colonize the galaxy.

Novelist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Ed Park returns to Techtonic to discuss his new short story collection, “An Oral History of Atlantis.”

Thanks to Big Tech, our dystopian moment grows darker by the day.

Threats to our privacy are everywhere and the law isn't keeping up.

Writer Duncan Moench argues that society today is dominated by “soylent screens,” the addictive digital devices that treat humans as a resource to be exploited.

Surveillance technologies are now becoming deeply woven into everyday life.

Today’s internet may be dominated by exploitative Big Tech sludge factories, but it doesn’t have to be that way in the future.

Exciting news: Kirk Pearson has created a new Techtonic theme song.

AI hype is everywhere today – from the workplace to popular culture to healthcare and beyond.

David Greenwood discusses his debut novel “The Cloud Intern” – a dystopian scifi novel featuring a tech billionaire, a dangerously unstable United States, and lots and lots of surveillance. • The Cloud Intern, by David Greenwood • WSJ article (gift link,…

Facebook/Meta has announced a new feature for its surveillance glasses, which look just like ordinary Ray-Ban glasses: they will soon use facial recognition to identify anyone standing nearby.

Sarah Wynn-Williams has written a blood-boiling memoir, “Careless People,” describing her time working for Facebook.

It’s easy to take infrastructure for granted.

For decades, dystopian movies have offered unsettling visions of AI, surveillance, robots, and societal upheaval.

This really happened

ChatGPT can create “writing-related simulations,” but it has no ability to write.

In a new podcast series called “Scam Inc,” Sue-Lin Wong covers the shocking stories of online scam operations as they spread across the world.

Recent surveillance news has taken on a new urgency.

Spotify is changing the music industry, and the culture at large, through its algorithms and surveillance.

A few years ago, planes outfitted with spy cameras flew over the city of Baltimore, recording citizens as they walked or drove around town.

Question: Is there anything Matt won't use AI for?

Question: How are you fighting the robots?

AI is now powering weapons systems like drones, robots, and the targeting algorithms they use.

Our social interactions, and our politics, are now moderated and manipulated by extractive Big Tech companies.

Writer and visual artist August Lamm discovered recently that her smartphone was “ruining her life” - so she quit.

Silicon Valley broligarchs are weirdly similar to super-villains in the comics.

The Big Tech oligarchs occupied center stage at the inauguration, heralding their ascent to the highest realm of political power, matched only by their enormous wealth.

Kirk Pearson’s new book, “Electronic Music From Scratch,” describes how to make “homegrown audio gizmos,” including the world’s simplest speaker and a fully functioning synthesizer.

Chris Pellettieri founded his Stone Carvers' Academy to teach people how to shape stone with hand tools rather than robotic systems.

Mark discusses the current state of AI with WFMU station manager Ken Freedman, playing AI-generated audio and reviewing the latest in online slop. • UCLA'S AI-based literature class ridiculed for incomprehensible AI-generated textbook (Futurism, Dec 11, 2…

Writer Andrew Smith decided to learn computer programming in his 50s.

Pokemon Go is spying on you.

AI isn't living up to its hype.

Here we are in the future and we still don't have flying cars.

Amidst all the headlines about predatory tech companies and misbehaving billionaires, we're taking a moment to remember that some tech is actually good.

Thousands of Elon Musk's SpaceX satellites will re-enter Earth's atmosphere in the next few years, adding huge amounts of metals and chemicals to our sky.

Instrument Of War is available via David Suisman's website

Chatbots are now running rampant, appearing in new-model cars, while we’re told to “be nice to chatbots.”

Joining Mark for a live in-studio interview are members of the Luddite Club, a group of Brooklyn teenagers who avoid social media – and use flip phones instead of smartphones.

In a quest to “make life feel a little more real,” tech lawyer Chris Brown started exploring the wilderness outside his house on the edge of Austin, Texas.

The war in Ukraine, begun in 2022 by Russia's invasion, has been defined in part by the use of digital technology: GPS, satellite internet, and especially drones.

Big Brother Watch, based in London, is working to “roll back the surveillance state.”

In his book “The Bill Gates Problem,” Tim Schwab takes a critical look at Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates.

The bubble of hype around AI is showing signs of impending collapse, even as the environmental costs of AI are skyrocketing.