critical infrastructure lab

bi- weekly tuesday session 16:00 – 17:00 cest (once every two weeks)
facilitated by niels@criticalinfralab.net

meet up here: https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/6365963924
take notes here: https://pad.criticalinfralab.net/unz6CPM9SpieqIlkXf-Oqg
sign up for the mailinglist here (don’t forget to click the link in the confirmation email):
https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/infrastructure-readinggroup

April 2 author discussion with Peters, Petrov, and Sun-Ha Hong
April 16 – May 14 break (suggestion: read The Smartness Mandate)
May 28 – News from Germany & Technology of Empire // Introduction + Chapter 1
June 11 – News from Germany & Technology of Empire // Chapter 2
June 25 – News from Germany & Technology of Empire // Chapter 3
July 9 – News from Germany & Technology of Empire // Chapter 4
July 23 – News from Germany & Technology of Empire // Chapter 5
August 6 – News from Germany & Technology of Empire // Chapter 6
August 20 – News from Germany & Technology of Empire // Chapter 7
September 3 – News from Germany & Technology of Empire // Chapter 8
September 17 – News from Germany & Technology of Empire // Chapter 9
October 1st – News from Germany & Technology of Empire // Chapter 10
October 15th – News from Germany & Technology of Empire // Conclusion
October 29th – Telegraphic Imperialism – Introduction + Chapter 1 // The Apple II Age – Introduction
November 12th – Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 2 // The Apple II Age – Chapter 1
November 26th – Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 3 // The Apple II Age – Chapter 2
December 10th – Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 4 // The Apple II Age – Chapter 3
December 24th – Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 5 // The Apple II Age – Chapter 4
January 7th, 2025- Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 6 // The Apple II Age – Chapter 5
January 21st – Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 7 // The Apple II Age – Chapter 6
February 4th – Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 8 + Conclusion // The Apple II Age – Chapter 7
February 18th – The Apple II Age – Inconclusions + Epilogue
March 4th – European Objects – Chapter 1 and 2
March 18th – European Objects – Chapter 3 and 4
April 1st – European Objects – Chapter 5 and 6
April 15th – European Objects – Chapter 7 and 8
April 29th – European Objects – Conclusion

previous books read in this reading group:

• balkan cyberia – viktor petrov
• how not to network a nation – benjamin peters
• technologies of speculation – sun-ha hong
• the closed world – paul edwards
• four internets – kieron o’hara & wendy hall
• what is wrong with rights – radha d’souza
• digital design and topological control – parisi
• golden age of analog – galloway
• countering the cloud – luke munn
• medium design – keller easterling
• reluctant power – rita zajác
• between truth and power – julie cohen
• the question concerning technology in china – yuk hui

bi- weekly tuesday session 16:00 – 17:00 cet (once every two weeks)
facilitated by fieke@criticalinfralab.net

meet up here: https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/5689070082 | sign up for the mailinglist here and add you reading suggestions here.

previous books and articles read in this reading group:
– pollution is colonialism by Max Liboiron
– myth of green capitalism by Katharina Pistor
– from moore’s law to the carbon law by Daniel Pargman, Aksel Biørn-Hansen, Elina Eriksson, Jarmo Laaksolaht, Markus Robèrt
– solarities; seeking energy justice by After Oil Collective
– the value of a whale by Adrienne Buller
– after geoengineering: climate tragedy, repair, and restoration by Holly Jean Buck
– against crisis epistemology by kyle whyte
– discard studies: wasting, systems, and power by Max Liboiron and Josh Lepawsky 
– An alternative planetary future? Digital sovereignty frameworks and the decolonial option by Sebastián Lehuedé
– ‘Socialism is not just Built for a Hundred Years’: Renewable Energy and Planetary Thought in the Early Soviet Union (1917–1945) by Daniela Russ
– Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador by Thea Riofrancos
– The Security–Sustainability Nexus: Lithium Onshoring in the Global North by Thea Riofrancos
– The Internet Shutdown and Revolutionary Politics: Defining the Infrastructural Power of the Internet by Michael Truscello
– The world wide web of carbon: Toward a relational footprinting of information and communications technology’s climate impacts by Anne Pasek, Hunter Vaughan, and Nicole Starosielski.
– Shifting from ‘sustainability’ to regeneration by Bill Reed
– A Digital Tech Deal: Digital Socialism, Decolonization, and Reparations for a Sustainable Global Economy by Michael Kwet
– We Need To Rewild The Internet by Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon
– Beyond Wiindigo Infrastructure by Winona LaDuke and Deborah Cowen

Artificial Intelligence relies on data. Currently, we see a “bigger is better” mentality in both AI research and AI business models. This leads to ever more complex AI systems and massive data sets. But are they sustainable? Currently, the ensuing environmental, social and economic harms are ignored both by established data governance regimes and regulatory approaches such as the DSA/DMA, Data Act or AI Act. We have yet to find data governance approaches that adequately respond to the unsustainability of extractivist AI data collection and data processing and their underlying technical infrastructures. In this panel, we will discuss the global harms of AI systems and shortcomings of established data governance approaches, as well as new ideas for regulations geared towards more sustainable data governance and AI policies in an age where Artificial Intelligence is becoming a general-purpose technology.

the global harms of powering ai – towards a sustainable future of data use and governance @computers, privacy, and data protection (cpdp). View the panel here.