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The Anti-Dystopians

The Anti-Dystopians

By: Alina Utrata
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Is social media really destroying democracy? Should Facebook be considered a public utility? How does cryptocurrency affect state sovereignty? And what exactly is surveillance capitalism? For all your political questions about tech, this is The Anti-Dystopians.


The Anti-Dystopians is hosted and produced by Alina Utrata. All episodes are freely available, wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on Twitter @AntiDystopians.


To support the show, visit: bit.ly/3AApPN4


To subscribe to the email newsletter, visit: bit.ly/3kuGM5X

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alina Utrata
Political Science Politics & Government
Episodes
  • An Intellectual History of LLMs
    Jun 30 2025

    In this episode, Alina Utrata interviews Amira Moeding, a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Cambridge where they held fellowships with Cambridge Digital Humanities and the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity” at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. They talked all about Amira’s research on the intellectual history of Large Language Models, and other types of AI. They began by asking: why is it so shocking to begin with a history and philosophy of linguistics when talking about LLMs? Why did IBM want these natural language processors to be so energy intensive (hint: to make money)? What is machine empiricism, how does it relate to the invention of Big Data, and why does it limit the way we see and understand the world around us?


    Amira has worked on critical theory, philosophy of science, feminist philosophy, post-colonial theory and the history of law in settler colonial contexts before turning to data and Big Data, and their paper “Machine Empiricism” together with Professor Tobias Matzner is forthcoming. Until June they were employed as an Research Assistant at the Computer Science Department (Computerlab) at the University of Cambridge in this project.


    For a complete reading list from the episode, check out the Anti-Dystopians substack at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.


    You can follow Alina Utrata on Bluesky at @alinau27.bsky.social


    All episodes of the Anti-Dystopians are hosted and produced by Alina Utrata and are freely available to all listeners. To support the production of the show, subscribe to the newsletter at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.


    Nowhere Land by Kevin MacLeod

    Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4148-nowhere-land

    License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    1 hr and 21 mins
  • Abolish AI!!: Decomputing with Dan McQuillan
    May 12 2025

    On this episode of the Anti-Dystopians, Alina Utrata talks to Dan McQuillan, a senior lecturer in Critical AI at Goldsmiths University and the author of "Resisting AI: An Anti-Fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence.” They talk about the state of AI adoption in the UK since our last conversation (spoiler alert: it’s bad), why the Starmer government so obsessed with AI, how AI is harming the environment and the planet and papering over the degradation of public services, infrastructure and community. Most notably, they discuss Dan’s contempt of ‘decomputing’ and how communities can resist the adoption of AI to build communities of care — and why we should just abolish AI.


    For a complete reading list from the episode, check out the Anti-Dystopians substack at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.


    You can follow Alina Utrata on Bluesky at @alinau27.bsky.social


    All episodes of the Anti-Dystopians are hosted and produced by Alina Utrata and are freely available to all listeners. To support the production of the show, subscribe to the newsletter at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.


    Nowhere Land by Kevin MacLeod

    Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4148-nowhere-land

    License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 20 mins
  • Public, Private and DOGE - Hybrid Sovereignty with Swati Srivastava
    Feb 24 2025

    This week, Alina Utrata talks to Swati Srivastava, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Purdue University and a Faculty Associate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. They discussed Swati’s work on hybrid sovereignty, private actors in global governance — and, yes, of course, Elon Musk. Listen to hear about why the classic distinctions between public and private power is much messier than we think, what discussions of sovereignty can tell us about corporate power, and what might be new about these new technology companies and algorithmic governance.


    For a complete reading list from the episode, check out the Anti-Dystopians substack at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.


    You can follow Alina Utrata on Bluesky at @alinau27.bsky.social


    All episodes of the Anti-Dystopians are hosted and produced by Alina Utrata and are freely available to all listeners. To support the production of the show, subscribe to the newsletter at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.


    Nowhere Land by Kevin MacLeod

    Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4148-nowhere-land

    License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 19 mins
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