Mark Hurst
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Mark Hurst
@markhurst.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Host of Techtonic on WFMU: https://techtonic.fm .. Projects and bio at https://creativegood.com .. anti-Big Tech, pro-everyone who's trying to make tech better.

[bridged from https://mastodon.social/@markhurst on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
On the new Techtonic I speak w/Noah McCormack from The Baffler about his essay "We used to read things in this country."

In the clip below Noah reveals one possible outcome of the AI bubble.

Full episode […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
December 9, 2025 at 3:25 PM
New from me - Ham radio could save your life.

Comparing ham radio (aka amateur radio) with the Big Tech AI sludge factories, featuring my conversation with @qrper -
https://buttondown.com/creativegood/archive/ham-radio-could-save-your-life/
December 5, 2025 at 6:43 PM
RE: https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/115661925947886522

A voice of sanity as yet another tech-bro scheme threatens us: glad to see @sundogplanets (and others) quoted here.
December 4, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Mark Hurst
Insane image. "Model of the distribution of space debris around Earth." Read the key: 2,000 billion objects under 0.1 mm.

(from the European Space Agency, in this report […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
October 22, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Amateur radio, aka ham radio, is like a superpower - especially during a disaster.

From the newest Techtonic, my interview with @qrper (K4SWL, or Thomas Witherspoon) and how he survived Hurricane Helene. Fascinating.

Full episode […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
December 2, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Mark Hurst
I was in Jersey City last night, where these stupid UberEats delivery/surveillance robots are seemingly everywhere. While walking down the street with a pal from @WFMU , I invoked @markhurst 's name and I swear the robot lumbering along in front of us suddenly […]

[Original post on c.im]
November 26, 2025 at 12:28 PM
"Canceling a late loved one’s cable account led to an outrageous and shocking interaction with an AI assistant."

I’m quoted in this piece about customer service in the age of AI:
https://www.nextavenue.org/were-sorry-for-your-loss-are-there-any-services-youd-like-to-add/
November 25, 2025 at 8:35 PM
New Techtonic: Citizens are being forced to pay for Big Tech data centers.

Full episode:
https://techtonic.fm/episodes/2025-11-24-citizens-are-being-forced-to-pay-for-big-tech-data-centers-feat-pat-garofalo/
November 25, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Mark Hurst
Everybody go read "Termination Shock" by Neal Stephenson, because apparently that whole scenario is actually about to start happening: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/11/21/stardust-geoengineering-janos-pasztor-regulations-00646414
November 24, 2025 at 5:36 PM
This seems fine.

By 2028, a projected 6.7% to 12.0% of ALL electricity in the U.S. will go to data centers.

Source: the 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/32d6m0d1
November 24, 2025 at 7:08 PM
RE: https://mastodon.social/@markhurst/115595618505809312

So if your goal is to get through 10 books a year - just try to read 10 measly pages a day - easy.

If you really dig in and build a habit of reading, say, 25 pages a day - that's 25 books a year! (Or more, if you're reading 7 days a week.)
Another suggestion to put down the screen and pick up a book.

The number of pages you read per day, most days a week, is roughly equivalent to how many books you'll read in a year.
November 22, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Another suggestion to put down the screen and pick up a book.

The number of pages you read per day, most days a week, is roughly equivalent to how many books you'll read in a year.
November 22, 2025 at 10:06 PM
“I’d be less concerned if Musk was just a crackpot billionaire off to the side somewhere, creating things that people could avoid, once they found out how creepy/offensive/lethal they were. But Musk – like the other oligarchs – has a different level of influence.”

New from me […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 21, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Ugh.

The Saudification of America is under way
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/18/saudi-arabia-america-jamal-khashoggi

And... UGH.

Tim Cook Among Attendees of Last Night’s Black-Tie White House Dinner Honoring Journalist-Murdering Tyrant Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 19, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Below: my comments on Techtonic about Tesla and its Grok chatbot that, as reported by the CBC, made sexual comments to a 12-year-old boy.

Episode page with links to the story:
https://techtonic.fm/episodes/2025-11-17-how-low-can-the-tech-oligarchs-go/
November 18, 2025 at 4:04 PM
So nice to read about my alma mater every week - "MIT adds new wing onto Torment Nexus"

https://futurism.com/health-medicine/mit-injectable-brain-chip
MIT Invents Injectable Brain Chips
"This technology is not just confined to the brain, but could also be extended to other parts of the body in future." The post MIT Invents Injectable Brain Chips appeared first on Futurism.
futurism.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:59 AM
"Doctorow has performed a valuable public service with 'Enshittification,'" writes @dmandl about @pluralistic's book. I agree, and would add that Dave Mandl has done a service by writing such a clear & cogent review. From the LA Review of Books […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 17, 2025 at 4:47 PM
One of the best pieces I've read in awhile. Emily Bressler in @mcsweeneys.net writes "I Work for an Evil Company, but Outside Work, I’m Actually a Really Good Person":

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-work-for-an-evil-company-but-outside-work-im-actually-a-really-good-person
I Work For an Evil Company, but Outside Work, I’m Actually a Really Good Person
I love my job. I make a great salary, there’s a clear path to promotion, and a never-ending supply of cold brew in the office. And even though my job requires me to commit sociopathic acts of evil that directly contribute to making the world a measurably worse place from Monday through Friday, five days a week, from morning to night, outside work, I’m actually a really good person. Let me give you an example. Last quarter, I led a team of engineers on an initiative to grow my company’s artificial intelligence data centers, which use millions of gallons of water per day. My work with AI is exponentially accelerating the destruction of the planet, but once a month, I go camping to reconnect with my own humanity through nature. I also bike to and from the office, which definitely offsets all the other environmental destruction I work tirelessly to enact from sunup to sundown for an exorbitant salary. Check out this social media post of me biking up a mountain. See? This is who I really am. Does the leadership at my company promote a xenophobic agenda and use the wealth I help them acquire to donate directly to bigoted causes and politicians I find despicable? Yeah, sure. Did I celebrate my last birthday at Drag Brunch? Also yes. I even tipped with five-dollar bills. I contain multitudes, and would appreciate it if you focused on the brunch one. Mathematically, it might seem like I spend a disproportionate amount of my time making the world a significantly less safe and less empathetic place, but are you counting all the hours I spend sleeping? You should. And when you do, you’ll find that my ratio of evil hours to not evil hours is much more even, numerically. I just don’t think working at an evil company should define me. I’ve only worked here for seven years. What about the twenty-five years before, when I didn’t work here? In fact, I wasn’t working at all for the first eighteen years of my life. And for some of those early years, I didn’t even have object permanence, which is oddly similar to the sociopathic detachment with which I now think about other humans. And besides, I don’t plan to stay at this job forever, just for my prime working years, until I can install a new state-of-the-art infinity pool in my country home. The problem is that whenever I think I’m going to leave, there’s always the potential for a promotion, and also a new upgrade for the pool, like underwater disco lights. Time really flies when you’re not thinking about the effect you have on others. But I absolutely intend to leave at some point. And when I do, you should define me by whatever I do next, unless it’s also evil, in which case, define me by how I ultimately spend my retirement. Because here’s the thing: It’s not me committing these acts of evil. I’m just following orders (until I get promoted; then I’ll get to give them). But until then, I do whatever my supervisor tells me to do, and that’s just how work works. Sure, I chose to be here, and yes, I could almost certainly find a job elsewhere, but redoing my résumé would take time. Also, I don’t feel like it. Besides, once a year, my company mandates all employees to help clean up a local beach, and I almost always go. Speaking of the good we do at work, sometimes I wear a cool Hawaiian shirt on Fridays, and it’s commonly accepted that bad people don’t wear shirts with flowers on them. That’s just a fact. There’s something so silly about discussing opportunities to increase profits for international arms dealers while wearing a purple button-down covered in bright hibiscus blossoms. And when it comes to making things even, I put my money where my mouth is. I might make more than 99 percent of all Americans, but I also make sure to donate almost 1 percent of my salary to nonprofits. This way, I can wear their company tote bag to my local food coop. Did I mention I shop at a local food coop? It’s quite literally the least I could do. Of course, I don’t love everything the company does, but true love means loving something because of its flaws, not despite them. And more importantly, I’ve completely detached myself from reality and real suffering and intend to continue to do so as long as I work here and after I leave.
www.mcsweeneys.net
November 15, 2025 at 8:19 PM
New from me: AI and people drinking sewage.

"We have to evaluate the systems by their real-world effects: not what the companies *claim* is happening, not what their government sponsors *hope* will happen, but what people on the ground are actually experiencing." […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 14, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Really enjoyed speaking with @paulmozur, global tech correspondent for the NYT, about the water & power draw of data centers worldwide.

Full episode:
https://techtonic.fm/episodes/2025-11-10-paul-mozur-on-the-spread-of-data-centers/
November 11, 2025 at 6:37 PM
"El Presidente — in every dictatorship — follows the same playbook. It is a grotesque _opera buffa_. No encomium is too outrageous. No bribe too small. No violation of civil liberties too extreme. No stupidity too absurd. All dissent, no matter how tepid, is treason."

"America is a Banana […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 10, 2025 at 2:05 PM
The true scope of Big Tech’s surveillance, and its harms, is kept secret. That’s why I appreciate “The Secret Life of Data” by @aram & Jesse Gilbert - and why I’m trying to raise awareness in my on work.

New from me– What data does in secret […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 6, 2025 at 8:12 PM
From my interview with @aram - a bit of good news in the techno-surveillance state.

Full episode: https://techtonic.fm/episodes/2025-11-03-aram-sinnreich-co-author-the-secret-life-of-data
November 4, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Whether it’s Disney World, or a hospital system gobbled up by private equity, or the Big Tech monopoly that controls the surveillance devices in your home, the story is the same: tech-fueled extraction is creating feudal America.

New from me […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
October 30, 2025 at 3:23 PM