The Loved One presents Hyperscale by Paris Marx / LA Book Launch

Join journalist & podcast host Paris Marx as he reads from his new book, followed by a conversation with novelist and critic Joanne McNeil.
About this Event

About the Book:

An eye-opening account of how the data center boom is pushing our planet past its breaking point
Underlying our seamless access to AI, cryptocurrency, and unlimited cloud storage is a hulking, costly physical infrastructure. Massive data centers full of energy-hungry chips and processors power everything we do online. Scrambling to meet dubious market demand, the tech giants have leveraged our planet in pursuit of a market monopoly.
In Hyperscale, journalist Paris Marx uncovers the excesses of hyperscale data processing. He exposes the deceptive, exploitative ways tech companies are siphoning energy and resources from vulnerable communities in their pursuit of digital power, abandoning the pretense of social responsibility.
Amid energy shortages and tech-induced battles over drinking water, Marx makes a powerful case for technology that promotes the social good over the bottom lines of tech billionaires. He joins the incredible efforts of people and movements pushing back against the profit-driven interests of Big Tech, illuminating a path toward the sustainable future we all deserve.
The AI boom and its infrastructural demands have accelerated our many modern catastrophes. With razor-sharp reporting and incisive analysis, Marx shows us that the greatest threat is not the specter of AI overlords but a global environmental disaster already in the making.

About the Authors:

Paris Marx is a journalist, host of the acclaimed podcast Tech Won’t Save Us, and author of Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation. He lives in Newfoundland, Canada.

Joanne McNeil is the author of the novel WRONG WAY (2023) and LURKING (2020). She was the inaugural winner of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation's Arts Writing Award for an emerging writer. She has been a resident at Eyebeam, a Logan Nonfiction Program fellow, recipient of the Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, and an instructor at the School for Poetic Computation. She grew up in Brockton, MA and is currently based in Los Angeles.