The Physical Politics of the Internet with Britt Paris
5/18/202638 min
This week, I’m delighted to be joined by Britt Paris. Britt is a critical informatics scholar and Associate Professor of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University’s School of Communication & Information. Her work focuses on Internet infrastructure, artificial intelligence-generated information objects, digital labor, civic data, and social epistemology. She’s also a fellow with AI Now. Her book Radical Infrastructure: Imagining the Internet from the Ground Up just came out in February. Britt tells us about how her great-great-great uncle started a telecommunications cooperative in rural Missouri before the city even had connection, how examples like NEMR show us an alternative to monopolies that provide internet access and let people decide how they want their internet to work for them, and what’s giving her hope as she helps bargain for educators’ rights at Rutgers. Radical Infrastructure: Imagining the Internet from the Ground Up The American Association of University Professors on AI University Professors Disturbed to Find Their Lectures Chopped Up and Turned Into AI Slop Community Votes to Deny Water to Nuclear Weapons Data Center YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/5twr0EUo2YE Go to surfshark.com/404Media to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, plus there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee—or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
No one goes to Hank's for his spreadsheets. They go for a darn good pizza. Lately though, the shop's been quiet, so Hank decides to bring back the $1 slice. He asks Copilot in Microsoft Excel to look at his sales and costs to help him see if he can afford it. Copilot shows Hank where the money's going and which little extras make the dollar slice work. Now Hank's has a line out the door. Hank makes the pizza, Copilot handles the spreadsheets. Learn more at M365Copilot.com/work.
Sam Cole· Host0:29
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to the 4/4 Media Podcast. 4/4 Media is a journalist-founded company and needs your support. To subscribe, go to 44media.co. As well as bonus content every single week, subscribers also get access to additional episodes where we respond to their best comments. Gain access to that content at 44media.co. This week, I am delighted to be joined by Britt Paris. Britt is a critical informatics scholar and associate professor of library and information science at Rutgers University's School of Communication and Information. Her work focuses on internet infrastructure, artificial intelligence-generated information objects, we'll get into what that means, digital labor, civic data, and social epistemology. She's also a fellow with AI Now. Her book, Radical Infrastructure: Imagining the Internet from the Ground Up, it just came out in February. I have my copy. It's heavily highlighted, heavily marked up at this point. When you sent me the book, you sent me the cute little comic, which YouTube w- watchers