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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

@melhogan.bsky.social

5.8K followers 2.6K following 1.6K posts

Critical media scholar interested in the meanings we make of perpetual tech promises. Bilingue. Focused on the environment. I typo a lot 😷🏳️‍🌈 🎙️ thedatafix.net 📝 heliotropejournal.net 📷 https://pixelfed.social/melhogan

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · May 24

A list of everything I’ve written/published: (enviro/tech/AI/planet/necropolitics/etc)

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Hogan publications (2015-2025)

Clouded Conveniences (2024) An archive of suffering: hunger stones and the (n)ec(r)opoetics of climate crisis (2024) The Fumes of AI (2024) Big Cloud Solastalgia (2024) Nothing left. Nothing right (20...

docs.google.com

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 1h

🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃 🙃

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1h

“In nursing homes, neonatal units, and ICU wards, researchers are racing to turn pain—medicine’s most subjective vital sign—into something a camera or sensor can score as reliably as blood pressure.”

AI is changing how we quantify pain

Artificial intelligence is helping health-care providers better assess their patients’ discomfort.

www.technologyreview.com

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Anne Pasek @apasek.bsky.social · 2h

This summer I got a bunch of smart academics together to think about anti-extractive Canadian AI futures. Our white paper, which parses good and bad AI policy directions for the federal government, is out now!
www.uottawa.ca/research-inn...

www.uottawa.ca

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Emily Johnston @enjohnston.bsky.social · 17h

Data centers are "shaping up to be the mother of all political issues...pretty much everyone pays electric rates, & under Trump they’re starting to skyrocket...he’s simultaneously accelerating demand w/ his support for data center buildout, & constricting supply by shutting down cheap solar & wind."

Hey Grok, What's a Waste of Energy?

AI amidst the climate emergency

billmckibben.substack.com

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 3h

"A group of non-revenue-generating energy companies have collectively ballooned in value to more than $45 billion in hopes that tech companies will one day pay for their yet-to-be-built power.The biggest of these is the OpenAI CEO Sam Altman-backed nuclear startup Oklo..."

The Frothiest AI Bubble Is in Energy Stocks

Concept stocks with no revenue have soaring valuations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has backed the biggest of these energy companies.

www.wsj.com

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 8h

To paraphrase an old hippie bumper sticker: if you’re not scared you’re not paying attention

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 15h

This is so significant: a new comprehensive report detailing the myriad modalities of Canadian university complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

static1.squarespace.com/static/68bf2...

Palestine at Canadian Universities: How institutional complicity in colonial genocide is maintained

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · Aug 28

Call for Papers:

Special Issue of Global Media and China

AI and its Environmental and Labour Implications: China and Beyond

journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/PD...

journals.sagepub.com

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Dan Rosen @danrosen.xyz · 18h

Treat tools like people so you can treat people like tools

The Verge @theverge.com · 21h

Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext with verified adults

ChatGPT is about to get flirty.

buff.ly

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 22h

1/Stop everything and read/watch/bookmark this massive investigation between @motherjones.com @lighthousereports.com Le Monde, Der Spiegel, Paper Trail Media a vast global surveillance empire used to target politicians, journalists, tech CEOs, and... Jared Leto.
ow.ly/2LUF50Xb7KE

The surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you

We uncovered a massive data trove. It revealed the hidden world of First Wap, whose untraceable tech has targeted politicians, journalists, celebrities, and activists around the globe.

ow.ly

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 18h

i don't have the words to emphasise how seriously bad things are gonna get

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 22h

First sentence says it all: "Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed legislation that would have required data centers to report how much water they use." Read the rest of the story though. from @ianjames.bsky.social: www.latimes.com/environment/...

California cracks down on water theft but spares data centers from disclosing how much they use

Gov. Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required data centers to report their projected water use when applying for a business license.

www.latimes.com

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Mark Hurst @markhurst.bsky.social · 19h

Big Tech is targeting vulnerable communities for its data centers. Residents incur a huge cost in water & power and airborne toxic chemicals. Town officials sign NDAs so citizens have no awareness of the threat.

New from me: data centers and their effects.
buttondown.com/creativegood...

Don't let the data center come to town

In southwest Memphis sits the Colossus, a giant AI slop factory owned by Elon Musk. Gas-powered turbines at the facility foul the air with “nitrogen oxides...

buttondown.com

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 19h

You wrote a beautiful book, @dustinedwards.bsky.social Thank you for letting me be part of the process!!

Dustin Edwards @dustinedwards.bsky.social · 19h

Grateful for the opportunities + people who have helped get the early word out about the book. I am indebted to @melhogan.bsky.social's critical work on data centers. Mél kindly blurbed the book and we get to chat about some of the priorities on the Data Fix. shows.acast.com/the-data-fix...

Damage, with Dustin Edwards | The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

shows.acast.com

Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Kate Clancy @kateclancy.bsky.social · 1d

I am being asked to tell my department which pieces of lab equipment should be supported with backup power because they expect rolling blackouts and brownouts in 2026 due to increased energy demands from AI. In case you're wondering how my day is going.

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 1d

"The Great Lakes can be thought of as "a giant pitcher of water with straws going into it" from water utilities, business and power plants in 8 states and two Canadian provinces, Scanlan says. The question is, how much more water can the lakes provide for data centers.."

www.npr.org/2025/10/14/n...

Data centers are booming. But there are big energy and environmental risks

How tech companies and government officials handle local impacts will shape the industry's future in the U.S.

www.npr.org

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 1d

A typical AI data center uses as much electricity as 100,000 households, while the largest under development will consume as much power as 2,000,000 homes — according to @npr.org.

Data centers are booming. But there are big energy and environmental risks

How tech companies and government officials handle local impacts will shape the industry's future in the U.S.

www.npr.org

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 1d

We've extended the deadline to Nov 15 -- please consider submitting an article or shorter commentary!!

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · Aug 28

Call for Papers:

Special Issue of Global Media and China

AI and its Environmental and Labour Implications: China and Beyond

journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/PD...

journals.sagepub.com

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 1d

Abiopolitics of the Archive: DNA as Data Storage and Other Evolutions
A SLATER - Philosophy Today, 2025

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

(PDF) Abiopolitics of the Archive in advance: DNA as Data Storage and Other Evolutions

PDF | On Sep 1, 2025, Avery Slater published Abiopolitics of the Archive in advance: DNA as Data Storage and Other Evolutions | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 1d

"This provocative book exposes the colonial roots of tech-driven climate policies and highlights global resistance to resource extraction through Ireland’s land-based struggles."

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 1d

From the Bog to the Cloud
Dependency and Eco-Modernity in Ireland
Patrick Bresnihan & Patrick Brodie

bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/monobook/boo...

bristoluniversitypressdigital.com

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 1d

www.bbc.com/news/article...

A tangled web of deals stokes AI bubble fears in Silicon Valley

Some are worried that the rapid rise in the value of AI tech companies may be a bubble waiting to burst.

www.bbc.com

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 1d

www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

What Would an AI Crash Look Like?

Plus: A prediction market recap, AI forecasters, drone walls and more.

www.bloomberg.com

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 1d

pca.st/podcast/4881...

Shell Game

A podcast (and newsletter) about things that are not what they seem, hosted by journalist Evan Ratliff. In Season One, that thing was Evan’s voice. By creating a voice clone and hooking it up to an AI...

pca.st

Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 3d

These modern day takes on Cyrano really suck.

‘I realised I’d been ChatGPT-ed into bed’: how ‘Chatfishing’ made finding love on dating apps even weirder

Where once people were duped by soft-focus photos and borrowed chat-up lines, now they have to watch out for computer-generated charm. But it’s one thing to use a witty phrase – another thing entirely...

www.theguardian.com

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 3d

While these data infrastructures shape global economies and politics, they truly do far more by profoundly impacting local communities, ecosystems, and labor conditions—realms so often rooted in (neo)colonial structures of exploitation. …”