Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 1d

New https://techtonic.fm episode: AI and surveillance infrastructure keeps spreading. Stories about data centers, chatbots having dumb conversations, and the "Friend" surveillance device.

Podcast […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]

Reposted by Mark Hurst

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 6d

GenAI is the new plastic. We’re likely about to see what happens when you remove the capacity to discern truth and meaning from a population, at scale.

New from me:
https://buttondown.com/creativegood/archive/generative-ai-is-the-new-plastic/

2

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 6d

GenAI is the new plastic. We’re likely about to see what happens when you remove the capacity to discern truth and meaning from a population, at scale.

New from me:
https://buttondown.com/creativegood/archive/generative-ai-is-the-new-plastic/

2

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 7d

RE: https://mastodon.social/@noirlover/115296348968071095

Queued up for this Monday's https://techtonic.fm episode. Thanks.

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 8d

I interviewed Megan Greenwell on the new https://techtonic.fm about her book "Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream."

"Private equity is everybody's problem now," Green writes.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW (click "pop-up player") […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11d

Haven't we learned that companies can't regulate themselves - *especially* Boeing?

I guess not:

"Boeing is regaining authority from the Federal Aviation Administration to perform final safety checks on its 737 MAX jets starting next week."

Gift link […]

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12d

Predatory Big Tech monopolies like Google are ruining the online experience. And there's no constraint from antitrust, as @Julia writes.

Gift link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/opinion/google-judge-mehta-remedy-monopoly.html?unlocked_article_code=1.o08.TFMg.MmEEk_r8gQUz&smid=url-share

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12d

RE: https://mastodon.social/@markhurst/115266737778371360

Peter Thiel keeps talking about the Antichrist. Here's an explanation, incl. a quote from @pluralistic 's excellent "The billionaires aren't OK":

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13d

NEW: My view of the future vs. Peter Thiel's.

Thiel seems to believe we're in the Last Days, that people who work for a more just society are somehow allied with the Antichrist.

I see the oligarchs and their power - from surveillance, from monopoly - as the problem […]

1 2

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13d

NEW: My view of the future vs. Peter Thiel's.

Thiel seems to believe we're in the Last Days, that people who work for a more just society are somehow allied with the Antichrist.

I see the oligarchs and their power - from surveillance, from monopoly - as the problem […]

2 1

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13d

Me: why is Thiel always talking about the antichrist

WSJ: "Fearing or regulating [AI], or opposing technological progress, would hasten the coming of the Antichrist, Thiel said."

Ah I see - the antichrist is anyone who opposes Thiel and Big Tech. GOT IT

Gift link […]

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14d

This should be on a billboard in Silicon Valley.

"We are not computers, not a mechanical being run by algorithms, but a spiritual being aligned towards the good."

by Chris Arnade:
https://walkingtheworld.substack.com/p/small-acts-of-good-us-as-third-world

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14d

@0xabad1dea this is a limerick version of an old Chinese folk tale. guy accidentally drops his sword in the water. he puts a notch in the boat where the sword dropped, saying, "this is so I can come back and find the sword later." (a bit like the story of the drunk searching for his lost keys […]

Reposted by Mark Hurst

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15d

It is WILD that we now live in a time where my job as an astrophysics professor has gone from "learn cool things about space" to "try to get someone to hold billionaires accountable for dropping shit on us from orbit"

6 220 80

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15d

@sundogplanets so glad they simplified it

which simplifies to, [complicated equation]

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15d

New techtonic.fm interview with Glenn Adamson, author of “A Century of Tomorrows: How Imagining the Future Shapes the Present.”

Good reminder that the future didn't always look so depressing.

To listen, click "Pop-up player":
https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/156259

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15d

Chatbots are coming for you, too.
https://buttondown.com/creativegood/archive/ai-chatbots-are-not-your-friend/

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16d

@sundogplanets glad you're fighting for us, and our sky

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16d

@tante yes that's fair. the Musk support in the tech press (and plenty still remains) is just egregious

I Thought I Knew Silicon Valley. I Was Wrong

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16d

I like Steven Levy and admire his work. But his essay about his recent disillusionment about Silicon Valley - I mean, I've been warning for over 8 years on Techtonic about the lack of ethics in Big Tech leadership

https://www.wired.com/story/silicon-valley-politics-shift/

Tech got what it wanted by electing Trump. A year later, it looks more like a suicide pact.

www.wired.com

1 1

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19d

"This will be the new normal, if Silicon Valley has its way: people relating to AIs first, and only secondarily to their friends, partners, and family. This isn’t just a new product, it’s the inauguration of a new era of loneliness and isolation."

New from me […]

Mark Hurst @markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19d

It's hard to fully express my loathing of internet-connected cameras in the lobbies of residential buildings - surveilling residents whenever they leave or come home.

These creepy, hackable, insecure, probably illegal surveillance systems are far inferior to the old buzzer system, as @dmandl […]