Mark Hurst

Worse on Purpose

Your Dinner Got Worse On Purpose

Restaurant prices keep climbing. The food keeps getting worse. There's a reason for both.

buttondown.com

AI and the illegal war

“No stupid rules of engagement.” That was Pete Hegseth, the American war secretary, boasting during a press conference about the approach with which he and...

Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Starlink and Kessler Syndrome, feat. astronomer Samantha Lawler | Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Artemis II was a success, but risks are rising in low-earth orbit. Astronomer Samantha Lawler warns that too much space debris, from Elon Musk’s Starlink and others, could lead to the “runaway collisional cascade” of Kessler Syndrome.

Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Janet Vertesi, founder of the Opt Out Project | Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Techtonic’s signoff tells you to “get off Google,” and Janet Vertesi shows how it’s done. Janet founded the Opt Out Project to show people how to switch from Big Tech surveillance platforms to better, community-minded alternatives.

buttondown.com

A conversation with Gerry McGovern

In the late 1990s, Gerry McGovern’s internet startup was valued at $200 million dollars or more. Nua – the Irish word for “new” – was one of the best-known...

buttondown.com

Space junk and our mom-and-pop data center

Earth Day invites us to think about our planet, so consider this. According to the latest count, there are over 10,000 of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites in...

Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Gerry McGovern, author, "99th Day: A Warning About Technology" | Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

The “cloud” sounds lighter than air, but data centers have a huge environmental impact - starting with the wasteful mining of resources like lithium, copper, and water. Irish technologist and writer Gerry McGovern discusses his new book “99th Day: A Warning About Technology.”

Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Nicholas Smyth on Big Tech devices in schools | Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Chromebooks, iPads, and other Silicon Valley devices are infiltrating public school classrooms. Nicholas Smyth, professor of ethics and technology at Fordham University, interviewed 30 parents about their experience with school-issued devices from Big Tech. What he discovered was “deeply troubling.”

pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: Understaffing as a form of enshittification (23 Mar 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄) (@alice@lgbtqia.space)

The goal is to make corporate data less profitable. Even stuff as simple as setting your birthdate to 1970-01-01 everywhere, adding [TEST] or [DELETED] as your name or account notes anywhere you don't need them to know your name. Using plugins like AdNauseam to poison ad trackers (and cost them marketing dollars). Using VPNs set to different locations. Signing into data broker sites to "correct" outdated info (they'll often let you do that with little-to-no proof of identity, but will requir

My breakup with Amazon

JEFF BEZOS CAN KISS MY ASS

buttondown.com

Good news in the fight against Big Tech

I’ve been thinking about what’s at stake, and what we can lose, if the tech monopolies aren’t stopped. For example: Silicon Valley apps like Uber Eats and...

Gel 2026 Conference

Gel 2026 Conference

Gel is back! Now 10 years after our most recent event, Gel 2016, the event returns on October 2-3 with the theme: Rebirth.

Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

A visit to Repair Café El Barrio | Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Repair cafes, staffed by volunteer “repair coaches,” allow people to get free repairs for appliances and clothing items. Mark visited Repair Café El Barrio, in New York’s East Harlem neighborhood, and talked to coaches and guests.

Radio CORAX (@RadioCORAX@social.anoxinon.de)

Attached: 1 image Thank you @WFMU@c.im and @markhurst@mastodon.social for sending your tape to us! It's great to have your show on air in Halle, Germany. Greetings from Radio CORAX

404 Media

Snap's AI Specs: LOL

Snap's AR Specs glasses are indeed very heavy, very dorky.

Gel 2026 Conference

Gel 2026 Conference

Gel is back! Now 10 years after our most recent event, Gel 2016, the event returns on October 2-3 with the theme: Rebirth.

Exquisite.tube

Mark Hurst reads "San Francisco Killed New York Food Delivery," by Matthew Elefant

The essay "San Francisco Killed New York Food Delivery" was published in ILoveTheUpperWestSide.com on March 13, 2026. Mark Hurst reads the essay here - originally broadcast on WFMU Techtonic on Mar...

buttondown.com

Zuck lied under oath, says "Careless People"

Careless People, the bestselling memoir of ex-Facebook exec Sarah Wynn-Williams, includes an interesting anecdote. Mark Zuckerberg is testifying, under oath,...

Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Carissa Véliz, author, "Prophecy" | Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

In centuries past, predictions of the future came from oracles and seers. Today they come from tech oligarchs and their predictive AI systems, fed by mass surveillance. Carissa Véliz returns to Techtonic to discuss her book “Prophecy” about “prediction, power, and the fight for the future.”

buttondown.com

Good news in the fight against Big Tech

I’ve been thinking about what’s at stake, and what we can lose, if the tech monopolies aren’t stopped. For example: Silicon Valley apps like Uber Eats and...

Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Nicholas Smyth on Big Tech devices in schools | Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Chromebooks, iPads, and other Silicon Valley devices are infiltrating public school classrooms. Nicholas Smyth, professor of ethics and technology at Fordham University, interviewed 30 parents about their experience with school-issued devices from Big Tech. What he discovered was “deeply troubling.”

Circuits (@mlupica@c.im)

My teenage kid's interest in music is ratcheting up, and she recently asked if we could get a subscription to Apple Music. Neither my wife nor I use any streaming services, and I am skeptical of them for all the usual reasons. (They pay artists poorly while enriching the worst people on Earth, the algorithms encourage bland, predictable taste, they devalue art to the level of a budget car rental, etc.) All of that being said, I'm sympathetic to the needs and customs of her generation, and don't

WFMU (@WFMU@c.im)

Tonight on Techtonic, hosted by @markhurst@mastodon.social: Gerry McGovern, author of '99th Day: A Warning About Technology.' The "cloud" sounds lighter than air, but data centers have a huge environmental impact - starting with the wasteful mining of resources like lithium, copper, and water. Irish technologist and writer Gerry McGovern discusses his new book '99th Day: A Warning About Technology.' (6pm EDT) For more upcoming guests and special shows on #WFMU and our web-only streams please vi

buttondown.com

AI and the illegal war

“No stupid rules of engagement.” That was Pete Hegseth, the American war secretary, boasting during a press conference about the approach with which he and...

Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Evan Selinger and Albert Fox Cahn, authors, "Move Slow and Upgrade" | Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Now that the Silicon Valley approach of moving fast and breaking things has demonstrated its moral bankruptcy, it’s time for a different approach: Evan Selinger and Albert Fox Cahn discuss their new book “Move Slow and Upgrade: The Power of Incremental Innovation.”

buttondown.com

The forgotten superpower of listening to customers

This WSJ article (gift link, March 11, 2026) spotlights a startup promising to provide meaningful customer insight without ever talking to or interacting...

Pledge your Support to WFMU!

Keep WFMU Weird! Donate to our Year-End Hellraiser Fundraiser. Visit wfmu.org/pledge.

Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

Dystopia update: good news edition | Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU

As our surveillance dystopia continues to spread, good news keeps popping up. OpenAI shut down its video slop generator; Facebook was defeated in two separate court cases for harming kids; and people are starting to ridicule Zuck’s spy glasses.

New York Post

MTA blasts 75-decibel ads in subways in latest disruption for NYC commuters — and agency barely makes money off them

Sounds like another subway nuisance! Straphangers already struggling to hear service updates over the roar of the subway will soon have to put up with paid commercials blaring through the same spea…

Mark Hurst (@markhurst@mastodon.social)

Every day it becomes a little clearer what caused the Butlerian Jihad.

kepano (@kepano@mastodon.social)

Attached: 1 image Defuddle now has a website! This means you can use Defuddle anywhere to get the main content of a page in Markdown format. You can simply add "defuddle.md" before any URL, use it via curl, Skills, CLI, or add it to your app via NPM.

bookclubbar.com

Author Event: Judson Merrill's "Paranoid Storytelling" with Mark Hurst | Book Club Bar

Independent general bookstore and full service cocktail and espresso bar in the East Village of NYC, serving handcrafted drinks in a cozy community space.