Podcast: Google and Elon Musk Want to Put Data Centers in Orbit. Will that Solve AI’s Contradictions?
On this episode of Chaos and Conviviality, Dip and Scooter discuss current proposals to put data centers in space, an idea which would seem to be a win-win for communities and data center developers. They analyze the push to adopt "artificial development," what it means for our communities, and how to fight back.
See time stamps below:
- 16:17: Are there any benefits of AI?
- 24:20: Indigeneity and space
- 27:38: Data centers in space: good for communities?
- 34:00: What might organizing in space look like?
- 55:35: AI bubble?
Show notes:
- Meet Project Suncatcher, Google’s plan to put AI data centers in space
- Ironwood: The first Google TPU for the age of inference
- Elon Musk merges SpaceX with xAI at $1.25tn valuation
- AI is guzzling gas - by Arielle Samuelson - HEATED
- East coast could soon get rolling blackouts during summer because data centers have pushed electric grid to the limit | The Independent
- AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring
- Fossil Fuels: The Dirty Facts
- Elon Musk’s New AI Data Center Raises Energy and Water Concerns in Memphis - Newsweek
- AI is a multi-billion dollar industry. It’s underpinned by an invisible and exploited workforce
- In Kenya’s slums, they’re doing our digital dirty work
- In Nairobi’s Silicon Savanna, African workers are taking on Big Tech - Coda Story
- Behind the AI boom, an army of overseas workers in ‘digital sweatshops’
- The Origin and Value of Disagreement Among Data Labelers: A Case Study of Individual Differences in Hate Speech Annotation | Springer Nature Link
- AI’s New Workforce: The Data-Labelling Industry Spreads Globally
- Legendary Kenyan lawyer takes on Meta and Chat GPT - Coda Story
- A Funeral For xAI? - Memphis Flyer
- AI Companies are encouraging users to believe Chatbots are people, and it’s insanely creepy
- Non-fungible token - Wikipedia
- AI vs. GenAI vs. ML: Key Differences
- New AI Video Generator Sparks Major Hollywood Backlash
- Torment Nexus - Wikipedia
- Society of the Spectacle
- Studio Ghibli and other Japanese publishers want OpenAI to stop training on their work | TechCrunch
- Cognitive ease at a cost: LLMs reduce mental effort but compromise depth in student scientific inquiry - ScienceDirect
- MARIO VS LUIGI.How Elon Musk’s Sci-Fi Hyperloop Failed
- Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072, by Eman Abdelhadi and M. E. O'Brien
- Feds are encouraging tribes to partner with data centers | Wyoming Public Media
- The Future of AI Runs Through Indian Country - Payne Institute for Public Policy
- Capitalism Storms the Heavens
- Oil industry has sought to block state backing for green tech since 1960s | Fossil fuels | The Guardian
- The Innovation Cult
- Data Colonialism Comes Home To The US: Resistance Must Too | TechPolicy.Press
- Welcome to the 'Great Freeze': Why companies aren't firing, workers can't grow, and the unemployed can't get jobs
- How an IIM-A man relaunched the East India Company - The Economic Times
- Becoming multiplanetary is critical to ensuring the long-term survival of humanity and all life as we know it
- How Elon Musk’s Sci-Fi Hyperloop Failed
- The Collapse of DOGE: Musk’s Failed Efficiency Crusade – CEPR
- X makes cuts to disinformation and election integrity team
- Billionaire space race - Wikipedia
- Jeff Bezos killed Washington Post endorsement of Kamala Harris, paper reports
- 9 Shocking Anecdotes That Reveal Jeff Bezos's Cutthroat Management Style
- The truth about Richard Branson's Virgin Rail profits | Aditya Chakrabortty | The Guardian
- Amazon, AI, and the New Company Towns
- Labor unions face hard road in Silicon Valley
- 5 Of Big Tech’s Grimiest Union-Busting Tactics — AJ+
- NLRB Relinquishes Jurisdiction Over SpaceX, Abandoning Yearslong Legal Battle | Labor Relations Update
- Building the Structure of the New Society Within the Shell of the Old | The Anarchist Library
- Protesters block US military ship allegedly carrying weapons for Israel | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera
- OpenAI CFO walks back remarks about federal loan guarantees • The Register
- OpenAI CFO walks back remarks about federal loan guarantees • The Register
- OpenAI’s Annual Recurring Revenue Tripled to $20 Billion in 2025 | PYMNTS.com
- Circular Vendor Financing in the AI Sector (includes graphic mentioned in conversation)
- President Trump, Tech Leaders Unite to Power American AI Dominance – The White House
- How conflict minerals make it into our phones
- System archetype - Wikipedia
