Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
Professor of Digital Futures at the University of Bristol and sustainability advisor at Meta Reality Labs. On loan from lutruwita/ Tasmania. https://melgregg.com
Political science
27%
Sociology
25%
Climate Change through the Lens of Increasing Hydroclimate Whiplash
YouTube video by Distinctive Voices
youtu.be
Concepts worth learning at this moment in time: hydroclimate whiplash and the atmospheric sponge. youtu.be/hLexkPPqo1E
Irony of watching a talk on energy use in silicon wafer production with so many AI generated illustrations of sustainable chip production
I mean this in the best possible way, but my hope is that conferences like these will soon be irrelevant, because the themes will be synonymous with mainstream engineering. How to accelerate this change is the focus of my talk
1st International Conference on Responsible Electronics (REACT)
The REACT 1st International Conference on Responsible Electronics and Circular Technologies will be held on 11-12 November, 2025 in Glasgow
www.react.ac.uk
Heading to Glasgow today for the first REACT conference focused on Responsible Electronics and Circular Technologies www.react.ac.uk/conference
Spotify and Netflix perfected the business of distraction — and now we’re paying the price
Music and film open us up to new ways of seeing the world — but the streaming giants offer lonely visions of culture
on.ft.com
This article really reminds me of doing fieldwork in China, where I became so much more aware of cultural norms about attention, and the corporate interests involved in being the “first” rather than “second” screen. on.ft.com/3WGv5f1
Zohran Mamdani elected as New York City’s first Muslim mayor in historic win
YouTube video by Al Jazeera English
youtu.be
Turn the volume up!! (Unless we’re talking fireworks on Guy Fawkes night 😩) youtu.be/zOlUtEz5-_Q?...
Green Capitalism? – Penn Press
At a time when the human impact on the environment is more devastating than ever, business initiatives frame the quest to "green" capitalism as the key to hu...
www.pennpress.org
Joseph A Pratt did not follow this advice with the excellent title: "Kill-a-Watt: The Greening of Consolidated Edison in the 1970s" www.pennpress.org/978081224901...
Home - Open Paws
Ensuring the future of AI benefits all sentient beings. We are a nonprofit creating anti-speciesist artificial intelligence, providing free technical training to animal rights activist groups and help...
www.openpaws.ai
Very happy to be discovering the world of anti-speciesist AI www.openpaws.ai
1920s DuPont advertisement equating chemical engineer with Prometheus
I was recently invited to present my thoughts on the role of universities in the #climate crisis
Several audience members asked that I share my slides, so I've decided to post them here too as an open resource
I'd love any feedback, & for you to share examples of projects & best practice.
Long 🧵😊
Several audience members asked that I share my slides, so I've decided to post them here too as an open resource
I'd love any feedback, & for you to share examples of projects & best practice.
Long 🧵😊
Part way through Roland Marchand’s sublime account of PR, Creating the Corporate Soul
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Oct 8
The Semiconductor Con: The Dark Side of the Chip
A one-day conference on the semiconductor industry's impact on the environment and workers and how we can organize so it benefits all of us.
www.eventbrite.com
The full program for today's event run by Chips Communities United, right in the middle of SemiCon West. Fascinating convergence of interests in AZ: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-semico...
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Oct 7
Remembering the Nez Perce Stories of Resilience and Heritage - A Dedication By Silas Whitman
YouTube video by Dirk Knudsen
www.youtube.com
Giving a talk today on the economic and ecological colonisation that continues to define Silicon Forest, inspired very much by the work of local Hillsboro archivists and historians who are trying to stave off environmental amnesia. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR_F...
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Oct 3
Walmart's removal of synthetic dyes could ripple through the food supply chain
Walmart says 90% of products from in-store brands are already free of these additives. But even a 10% change for a retailer as massive as Walmart can have a big effect on the industry
www.marketplace.org
If I were a female cochineal right now, I would be quite worried www.marketplace.org/story/2025/1...
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Sep 23
Agaton | AI-powered sales superiority
Agaton builds secure, domain-specific AI agents for sales teams introducing superhuman co-workers that help companies win.
www.agaton.ai
Even now that we can apparently have superhuman co-workers, they still have to be advertised with attractive women www.agaton.ai
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Sep 23
MCJ's Investment in Aalo
Extra-modular nuclear reactors for data centers
newsletter.mcj.vc
Another landmark in alienation as data eats the world: "Aalo’s approach reimagines the whole nuclear facility—reactors, turbine, containment, and balance-of-plant—as a single modular product built off-site." newsletter.mcj.vc/p/aalo-inves...
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Sep 12
Silicon Valley’s Doing Hard Things Again
YouTube video by Asianometry
youtu.be
The robots are still far too creepy youtu.be/cru2bkqwSYk?...
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Sep 2
I just re-read those opening pages as I move libraries again. It's so good. I still haven't figured out the way to write about my original home, it is going to be painful. Currently writing about the most recent one first (Oregon) since Silicon Forest could well be over
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Aug 27
Everyone Was FORCED to Leave - How This Oregon Town was ERASED for Internet Ground Zero
YouTube video by Stringer media
youtu.be
In Hillsboro OR data centres are demolishing the past and the future youtu.be/m3NeM0SELVA?...
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Aug 27
Monsoon and dust storm leaves thousands without power in Arizona
YouTube video by ABC News
www.youtube.com
Next time I'd like a time lapse video over the TSMC and Intel plants that are located in this region. Because that's where we're putting the infrastructure that runs the global economy www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCYu...
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Aug 26
10/ “Steve used to always tell the groups, ‘This will be the high point of your life,’ and I was thinking, God, I hope not, right? Because that’s really a sad way to think.” To this day, I still hear tech execs saying this to employees to encourage long hours and peak performance.
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Aug 26
9/ I did appreciate the comments by Jon Rubinstein from a CHM interview: “A lot of people got sick at Apple. The list goes on and on of people who got terminally ill or really ill…and I worried that if I stayed, I’d end up damaging myself, and my health was, frankly, more important.”
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Aug 26
8/ "At the end of each shift, men from the small, traditional Muslim community would park their vehicles outside and shine their high beams at the factory. It was an unnerving practice, meant to ensure the factory girls came home rather than stay out late camping around with the Californians."
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Aug 26
7/ "...with their small hands they would thread all the wires through the four metal parts of the gooseneck. It took eight to ten minutes per neck, a terribly inefficient process." 🙄
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Aug 26
6/ To create one desktop computer design inspired by the sunflowers planted by Laurene Powell Jobs, "extension metal components were assembled in a VCR factory on a palm oil plantation in Malaysia. Inside, young women would form three to four assembly lines, with around twenty people on each"
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Aug 26
5/ Beyond all the workaholic bravado (multiple "mystery" cancers, dedicated United flights to Hangzhou, 5am gym sessions with the boss, spousal trips to accompany endless 7 day work weeks, the need for 2 PAs per day to keep pace with maniacal execs) there are further awful workplace stories:
Melissa Gregg
@melgregg.bsky.social
· Aug 26
4/ "When Apple first hit the $3 trillion valuation in January 2022, it meant Apple’s market value had grown by more than $700 million a day from when Cook took over in August 2011."