Cory Doctorow DESTROYS Enshitification (E338)
The man who coined the word “enshitification” graces the podcast to share his views on conspiracy theories, algorithmic management, AI, and reading the saucy passages in Leviticus at barmitzvahs. Cory Doctorow is a philosopher, polemicist, journalist and writer. He also has a long history of working with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and is currently a Professor-at-large at Cornell University.
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Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)
QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.
Comments (85)
Halfway through the audiobook now… this is staggering shit. It’s like someone showing you how all the magic tricks work and you can’t believe you didn’t see it before.
Oh I was so late to this one but worth it. Will get the audio book. Didn't know how the industry worked ..
Great ep I think it would be a very helpful episode for non subscribers to see, would love to share with my mom + partner. Just a thought
One of the best episodes of all time. Incredible convo
Great interview. This guy is spot on. Both left and right have plenty of points of agreement that should be focused on rather than mocking each other! But at the end did he say the scariest new thing to him and his org is that underage kids won’t be able to access hardcore porn??
I worry that song at the end is a sincere effort by some qtard
Oooof all good until 54min when he dismisses or hard-core diminished the role of racism involved in ignoring the genocide in Palestine.
This was an excellent episode 10/10
This was fantastic, one of my favorite episode in a while. Great guest. More of this type of stuff please
"Uber for nurses" it's so fucking over
Julien seems really butthurt that people support Ukraine. It's really easy: Ukraine was unjustifiably invaded by an imperial force. Gaza was invaded after a large-scale terrorist attack. Does this excuse the crimes Israel has committed before and after? Absolutely not. But to act like people support Ukraine because of some racist reason is so bs. 1/5 of Israeli's are Arabs. A majority of Israeli Jews are from the Middle East/North Africa.
Super important 7/8 mins at the end, I ended up with so much psychological trouble because of section 28 in the UK. I can see the age verification online restriction becoming this generation’s section 28, for similar people trying to figure out who they are in today’s online landscape.
fantastic episode. I spent much of it screamijg "yes! that's it! Exqctly!" Corey's analogiee have stuck with me for days too
This is such a good episode. I need to listen to it a second time I think. So much good stuff to think about. Not 100% sure I agree completely with all of his takes on AI particularly as it relates to AI scraping artists’ work, but I like hearing his thoughts and it gives me much to think about. Also, incredible news about Annie having a mini series next. Can’t wait
Interesting episode. Please bring Cory back 😁
What is the name of the song at the end? Google gave me nothing with multiple different lyrics configurations. I need it to torment my friends with.
It sounds like a song generated with Suno, hopefully by one of the members of the pod. It would be very cash money of them to share a link ;)
That end song fried me. Who listens to such slop!?
Holy shit this Cory guy is speaking my language, albeit infinitely more well spoken and educated. I've never heard of him, but he is by far the best speaker I've heard on QAA ever. Great stuff!! (At first I couldn't tell if Julian had gotten a cold that raised his IQ by several factors, their accents and voices are very similar) <3 u Julian, but I pay a monthly sub, so u gotta listen to my insults
I feel like Doctorow probably liked Matt Stoller's Goliath
The chune at the end sounds like a hit… 🗣️IS IT A LARP OR THE REAL DEAL PLAN😭😭😭
Just started the episode but I had to pause and proclaim on behalf of all French Canadians (ok maybe not all but at least like half a dozen I'm sure) : We need to hear Julian's Québécois character now. He can't just mention it once every few years and never offer a demo performance. C't'assez le niaisage, enwoèye montre-nous ça.
This episode was awesome. I’m Jewish and I have never agreed with Israel anything. I don’t even know why other than it seemed so hypocritical in the sense that anywhere that segregates people based on any individual trait (race, religion, ethnicity) and bases rights on it freaks me out and that has never been received well by literally anyone I know other than my mom. Secondly, I feel bad because I understand the tax code, but I am working on being good at other stuff too - for example I am learning basic mechanics for the ten speed bicycle. You know the one that is just your basic lever pully machinery. And I think after the apocalypse, that will be helpful and then I can help before the philosopher kings crawl out of the earth and then help regulate them when they enslave us. You know bc I do understand tax codes. That’s my best skill. But I am working on it.
Really enjoyed this episode.
Not sure where I am on the discussion about leeches ( if that's how you spell it!) I wouldn't say that I'm leeches - sceptic , more that I am just leeches - hesitant !
“What about Jake?” Fucking killed me 😂
"I like Jake!" - the most Jakey response possible
Real rich episode . A lot to unpack there. Need a re- listen or more. Great stuff, guys! And did Julian mention at the end about an Annie mini- series coming up next ?! 🙌 Fuck yeah ! ❤️
Fantastic ep!! Now time for Eurovision pls?❤️❤️❤️
Great ep!
Regarding the argument that conspiracy theorists might be convinced by the common things between them and the world (as in: you're afraid of CCTV? well, they're alrready used to control minorities) - this is in many cases naive. There's a huge overlap between racial prejudice and convervatism and convservatism and anti-minorities consprioacy theories. And the opression of minorities is what they WANT to feel safe. As in "there must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect".
Outstanding episode.
Liv agar
Ohbshit I did it twice where is the delete buton
Liv agar
This is an all time ‘epizode’ Well done all around
Has anyone figured out what the auto queue song was yet?
All Hail The Women of QAA
Liv fast die Annie
Love this!
You all are beating around the bush of one of the concepts defined in the 2016 BBC documentary HyperNormalization.
which is???
This Doctorow guy talks so fucking much without appearing to take a breath, but damnit I’m hanging on every word. Bought the audio book. Have I been hypnotized?
Antony! The way he said, “Oh Wow” gave me life
MAY YOUR HOLE BE DEEP AND DISHY
Jesus Christ I was not ready for that musical stinger at the end
Good episode, guys.
Someone I was talking to yesterday said that furries and gooners are the only two legitimate counter-cultures left. What do you think about this?
Sounds like you were talking to a furry gooner
I’m a nurse and I worked on an inpatient unit where we used leeches. We used special leeches that were grown in a medical lab. They secrete a chemical from their mouth that stimulates angiogenesis; that is, they induce blood vessels to grow, increasing the blood flow to where they are attached. We would do things like attach them to an ear that had been severed off and sewn back on, in order to increase the vasculature in the reattached ear reestablishing blood vessel connections to the main body. It works. We would attach their mouths with a hemostat to the ear and leave it until it engorged itself fell off and then replace it. We would try to keep one or two attached at all times for several days. They can be a bit unruly to wrangle and they like to move around to other areas. Leeches have a suction cup at their tail end to anchor themselves so they can detach their mouths and move to another area, but usually once they are attached to a good spot for a while they remain for several hours until they are plump and fall off. Then we would drop them in a jar of alcohol and keep close count of all the leeches.
thx for weighing in professionally bc I was yelling, “leeches have BEEN back” at my phone
One of my big takeaways from this terrific ep is that the whole “you’re in a cult” meme allows people like me to downplay the social forces that make the cult appealing to so many.
28:00 another week, another accidental Nick Land revelation in my leftist podcast
What is that song at the end??
What’s the song at the end?
Cory rules and his blog rules, I'm stoked for this episode!
Also Snow Crash 4 Lyfe
The thing with AI as someone in the tech industry in a company really pushing it, is right now we are in the stage where they are offering bonuses and incentives to adopt it and develop it so it can help “optimize” our jobs at many companies. Even telling us how it will make our jobs “easier”. Which sound great on paper but we all know that means it’s going to cost us or someone else their job. It’s late stage capitalism woes. If we make our jobs easier and more efficient that just means they will fire us or find more work for us. There is no utopia where this makes everyone’s work easier and humans get more free time.
Same thing happened in my company and we all knew many of us would get the boot once our departments had heard the good word and accepted LLMs as their lord and savior. I am anticipating a cleanup phase where tech people are re-hired to deshittify the miasma (mAIsma?) sooner or later so I'm not too worried, I think there's going to be plenty of work.
Best guest in a long time
Erm... NATO *didn't* put Ukrainian civilians in the line of fire? Just Russia? That's not very materialist is it?
Lol vatnik
Great episode, absolutely cursed song at the end.
What about Jake? Do you like Jake?
C’mon guys, the women are amazing, but Jake’s the heart of the podcast.
Performative Male, Labubu Jake
Purchased the audiobook through the kickstarter. Very excited to hear the book.
Fantastic episode. Doctorow is a great guest, very engaging. Too bad everything he’s telling me is terrible. At least he’s funny about it.
the thing is 3 labels don't control all of music anymore, you cannot convince me that it isn't stealing from musicians.
Spotify is stealing from musicians. SoundCloud is stealing. Any streaming service. They were always the enemy, and I'm sure they love platforms like Udio and Suno taking the heat right now.
Cory has some really bad takes, especially misrepresenting Zuboff and that huge AI apology that doesn't make sense
If you didn't understand it, it stands to reason that it wouldn't make sense to you. Why people proudly admit they didn't try to understand the topic, I will not ever get. I worry about y'all. Seriously. It didn't immediately confirm your fear and bias and you immediately dismiss it without trying to understand. I'm not misframing this. You said yourself it didn't make sense. Weirdos, man.
Leaches did work for a few conditions. They secrete an anticoagulant in their bite, so they could improve blood flow.
Leaches are still used sometimes (they are lab-grown, sterile, safe for use). But it’s kind of like how a version of bloodletting is used too for polycythemia. Kind of a stopped clock more than ancient wisdom.
May your hole be deep and dishy.
Great epsiode... though it was, for reasons I'll never understand, peppered with "this is not that" interjections by my inner Jake. Just an FYI: Going in next week to receive quarterly hirudotherapy (med procedure using leeches to improve blood flow and promote healing). Yes, it's a thing. No, I am not actually doing this. Yes I would pay to see Julian do this on a live stream. Who else wants this for Julian? (Cue Ferris Bueller audio: "Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?")
Cory showed up to my middle school and signed a book for me and I'm so glad that he's still based/woke after so many idols have fallen.
No drm? Hell yeah I can use it on kobo then? Or am I to odumbto understand this?
Great guest. Thanks team
Julien can't make it one episode without suggesting someone is a fed/government asset 😂
can you go one episode without pointing it out, Justin "definitely not a fed" S?
Cory Doctorow
Little Brother is one of my favorite books. Cory rules.
Liv Agar DESTROYS the comment section
Taco Bell DESTROYS my butthole