Of Dawkins and Data Centers

In this week's episode we begin to go into the philosophy around consciousness and AI as New Atheist relic Richard Dawkins recently claimed "Claudia" was conscious. What are the merits and issues of thinking about consciousness in the context of AI? Later we discuss a recent piece in Jacobin arguing against data center resistance. Further Reading Richard Dawkins in Unherd, https://unherd.com/2026/05/when-claudia-met-claudius Holly Buck in Jacobin, https://jacobin.com/2026/04/ai-data-center-moratorium-democracy  Émile in Salon, https://www.salon.com/2017/07/29/from-the-enlightenment-to-the-dark-ages-how-new-atheism-slid-into-the-alt-right/ Taylor Lorenz podcast episode, https://sites.libsyn.com/566555/site/big-tech-is-watching-you-with-taylor-lorenz  Brian Merchant on Substack, https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-data-center-rebellion-is-only