Disconnect Newsletter

2 days ago | disconnect.blog | Paris Marx

On Saturday night, the United States rained bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities half a world away, in violation of international law. As it was happening, I was safely at home in Canada rewatching the first season of Andor. In fact, I only saw the news while taking a break between episodes. The original trilogy of the franchise took inspiration from the Vietnam War, with the Empire modeled after the United States and the rebels on the Viet Cong.

5 days ago | disconnect.blog | Paris Marx

Last month I wrote a post about my intention to get off US tech platforms and services. I’d been considering it for a while, and even taking small steps in that direction, but the alliance between Silicon Valley and Donald Trump, paired with the growing threats from the United States, finally made me take the plunge. I’m planning to publish a longer list of alternatives for others who want to start shifting away from US tech companies in the near future.

1 week ago | disconnect.blog | Paris Marx

In 2022, my first book Road to Nowhere was published. It dug into the big ideas the tech industry had to solve transportation, and how poorly they actually delivered on the promises that accompanied their plans. But it also explored the deeper reasons so many people are stuck in traffic or can’t access adequate transportation, and why technology alone is so poorly equipped to solve those problems. The response to the book was great.

2 weeks ago | disconnect.blog | Paris Marx

The long-awaited divorce between Donald Trump and Elon Musk appears to have finally come. After a week of growing public tensions between the men, as Musk took his leave from the Department of Government Efficiency and began more vocally criticizing Trump’s budget bill, the relationship finally imploded on June 5 with a post war across Twitter/X and Truth Social.

3 weeks ago | disconnect.blog | Paris Marx

The stories about Elon Musk just keep coming. Recently exposés on his drug use and issues with Tesla’s Autopilot have been circulating, but over the past month we’ve seen many more on the Boring Company, SpaceX, his growing brood of children, and far more. Hopefully they don’t stop now that he claims to be leaving DOGE. In this month’s recap, find some of those stories, along deep dives on growing chatbot concerns, China’s electricity revolution, and the energy use of data centers.