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“Fügt sich die wortreiche Warnung vor der weltfremden Soziologie nicht allzu nahtlos in die Ressentimentkonjunktur unserer neoautoritären Zeiten?” 🔥 Alles gesagt. www.zeit.de/feuilleto…
Stefan Laser
Latest posts
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Zum Semesterende reicht die Energie nur für ein “nur kurz”: Für das SoWi-Seminar “Kontroverse KI” habe ich den englischen Controversy Mapping-Kurs auf KI-Themen übertragen und das Contropedia-Projekt erweitert . Die Contropedia ist ein cooler Sandkasten. Man gräbt sich kreativ durch Wikipedia-Edits
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“Stranded assets” names the prime fear of financialised capitalism. The contrast: high utilisation rates. New troubles arise. Or, as phrased by the FT, US oil refineries run at breakneck speeds as wars choke fuel supplies. Archive: archive.is/202607230… #fossilfuels #war #energy
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#Germany to buy direct stakes in #military tech startups. Offering ever more support for companies, the most questionable ones, while pressuring workers and holding back infrastructure investments. This policy #reform we are living though will work wonders, sure. Writing this while train-stranded
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I’ve had a good semester with cool teaching and events and publications and whatever, but I’m sick and glad a break is near. No inspirational post magic left. So, imagine me writing wise book recommendations, a witty AI post, a twisted project idea, and weave in an ironic em dash for the Zeitgeist
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At the #TdF, riders are hitting new records—in digesting carbs. Riders can stomach up to 180 g/h. One liter coke has 100. Glucose, fructose, and lactate gels. The #energy ideal of fossil fuels runs through bodies: constant power output, no downtime, minimum latency, like a #datacenter on a bicycle.
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Ich habe die Ringvorlesung Nachhaltigkeit an der #RUB besucht, Konsum und Digitalisierung mein Thema. Mit Blick auf die fossile Moderne, #Extraktivismus und #Elektroschrott habe ich einen Move gemacht: weg von individueller, hin zu industrieller Verantwortung & kollektivem Konsum. Students on🔥
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On the atomic level, etching #semiconductors is a violent, explosive process. I recommend this China Talk pod with an expert who explains chemical use in fabs. Also nuts: purity levels reaching “particles per trillion.” Clean room life. www.chinatalk.media/p/the-che…
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“Das System läuft weitgehend unbemerkt von der Öffentlichkeit.” Der Spiegel zu “Unglück made in Germany”, denn tausende junge Vietnamesen kommen jährlich nach Deutschland, um eine Ausbildung zu beginnen. Dabei geraten sie oft in die Hände dubioser Vermittler." #Migration
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Exploring the biggest construction site in Europe: ESMC Dresden, a Taiwanese-German #chip joint venture. More water diverted? There’s enough for all, we learn. More housing? That’s for the market to tackle. Energy needs? Complex. Workers on site? Many from eastern Europe. Fascinating
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Die Robotron-Kantine in #Dresden: offene Räume start Abriss. Einst Informationstechnologie, dann Klub, dann lange nuischt. Die heutige Kunstausstellung offenbart, wie die ostdeutsche Gesellschaft immer schon Alternativen gedacht hat
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Back with the Taiwanese colleagues to explore the #semiconductor industry, now in #Dresden. We started with vanished #chip histories, moved to promised silicon futures and will now venture out – a lovely explorative “walkshop.” I opened with a talk on lost futures in Magdeburg (#Intel).
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ngl, I read a research report of mine from a few years ago, my #train study , and I feel like a treasure hunter. It’s a mix of digital methods including code work (1 M tweets!), creative quali methods (podcast ethnography meets og interviews), and the prose has been smoothened by a proof write. 🫂
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Die #Bahn stoppt, weil der Zugfunk ausfällt. Zuletzt hat ein Vortrag beim CCC genau davor gewarnt. GSM ist nicht ganz die random person aus Nebraska (xkcd), aber es ist eine infrastrukturelle Abhängigkeit, die dank Unterfinanzierung der #DB links liegen bleibt. Heise: www.heise.de/news/37C3…
Playing with the Format of Predictions
The Elon Musks of the world abuse #sf, #AI companies push eerie next-word predictors into our lives, and prediction markets accelerate corruption. So…, how about reclaiming the format of predictions? As critical thinkers? Can it work? Welcome to our Predictions project: www.matteringpress.org/books/pre… We assembled a wonderful collective of writers, from STS scholars to poets. Read…
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Policy thriller im #Hanoi: to ban or not to ban fossil-fuel powered vehicles? The party of the people aggressively pushed a low-emission goal. Consumers were blamed for pollution. Suddenly, everything’s postponed. 🪄 vietnamnews.vn/society/1…
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Our #waste in motion research workshop in Bochum is finished, and I’m ready for the weekend after organizing this humble gathering. 1 digital humanities workshop, 2 post-mining excursions, 3 international guests, and relentless fun and appreciation. Waste lives on. Stay tuned. But for now, 😴
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Listen to in-depth investigation into the growing industry of green technologies and the environmental, social, and political consequences of the mining it requires. – Join us today, 6pm, at the German Mining Museum. Or virtually. This, again, will be a blast 👐 Link to the event: rustlab.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/lecture-b…
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Join us now at 5:30 pm at the RUSTlab (online) lecture, Pat Brodie will discuss the book “From Bog to Cloud”, aka why the heck are there so many #datacenters in #Ireland?? The event: rustlab.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/lecture-b…
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It’s waste week. As part of the campus mining walk I did during our DFG waste network meeting, we had a super lucky surprise meetup with a Fraunhofer project: next to the uni #datacenter, they are drilling into an abandoned mine to store heat from the nearby technical center (and data center), and the exploration was happening while we were they. We got a tour!!! Our Ruhr University campus…
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Die drittmeisten #Millionäre der Welt, 12% mehr als im Vorjahr, sie steigern ihr Vermögen, trotz Stagnation. Wie machen das die Millionäre nur?, fragt die FAZ. Und antwortet mit… Anlageempfehlungen. Nichts mit rechtlichen Tricks, Asset-Inflation, #Ungleichheit gar. Erfrischend ehrlicher Finanzteil
Semiconductor research in Taiwan and Vietnam
Happy to share that my article is live : enjoy some #semiconductor industry dynamics in #Vietnam and #Taiwan. I draw on ethnographic fieldwork at industry fairs in Taipei and Hanoi to make sense of a global frenzy. Follow me on a trip. This is just one contribution of my work in a data center research project , and it also hints at further research on the planetary entanglements of the…
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Farmers in Hung Yen #Vietnam received land as compensation for family members killed in the American war. #Trump parachutes in to build a golf course on these very premises. First act: clearing graves. Better comply, or tariffs are to hit. Graves, ffs., great-grantparents resting since 1967, dnd.
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28 Sondervermögen und kein Ende. Sebastian Huhnholz erklärt im Mittelweg 36-Podcast , wie die #Schuldenbremse zum Final Boss wurde. Spoiler: eine kleine Elite sichert ihren Wohlstand, Finanzpolitik wird der demokratischen Gestaltung entzogen. Plus: Nonaffektationsprinzip (epic info) und mehr.
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Die #AfD wittert Alleinregierung. Die Lage der Nation fürchtet zurecht, dass die Juristenbesetzung der frühen 90er bald in Rente geht und Auserwählte nachrücken. Well, “der Osten” kennt Übernahme: Wessis am Pult, Treuhand, private Windparks als Nachbarn… Siegmund verkauft Übernahme als Befreiung.