Why tech resistance needs to be collective

The Brick and its limits

Jay Caspian Kang uses a device called the Brick to block social media at noon, six thirty pm, and ten pm. He must physically retrieve his phone to restore access. His screen time hasn't decreased.

Personal fixes aren't working

After COVID-19 glued people to phones, many tried individual solutions like buying a Brick or muting notifications. Most efforts stopped there. Most people have settled into passive discontent.

Signs of a tech backlash

The American public has formed a super-majority against data centers, according to election forecaster Nate Silver. There have been more than three hundred protests against data centers in the U.S. this year.

Politicians respond to pressure

Democratic Presidential hopeful Ruben Gallego announced a tax plan that would shift the construction and energy costs of data centers away from the public and onto the tech companies that benefit from them.

Courts take action too

The courts have handed down billion-dollar rulings against tech giants. In a recent case in New Mexico, Meta was found guilty of forty-three million violations of the state's laws.

The problem with individual choice

Resistance to tech is typically framed as individual choices: buy the Brick, limit children's screen time, delete apps, stop doomscrolling. Freedom becomes a question of willpower, not systemic change.

Nurses lead collective action

Since spring 2024, nurses have protested AI's incursion into their profession. In March, more than two thousand mental-health professionals at Kaiser Permanente went on a one-day strike over replacement concerns.

AI surveillance of nurses

A story in CalMatters detailed new surveillance layers placed on nurses at Kaiser, including an AI program that allegedly assessed their empathy and the tone of their voices when they answered patient calls.

Palantir's Timpani program

HCA Healthcare, one of the largest hospital providers in the country, released a joint program with Palantir called Timpani, which promised to streamline the scheduling of nurses by using AI to spot inefficiencies.

Nationwide demonstrations

The National Nurses United union led a day of nationwide demonstrations against Palantir in August. Americans like nurses and distrust AI companies and Palantir to make potentially life-saving decisions.

The union's actual demand

The National Nurses United is not demanding full removal of AI from workplaces. Rather, the union is drawing a line at AI supremacy in staffing, decision-making, and clinical assessments.

How AI infiltrates nursing

Schedules are now run entirely by AI, which according to Puneet Maharaj, the executive director of the National Nurses United, will always understaff nurses' posts.

AI makes dangerous mistakes

AI programs have been known to make mistakes in automated assessments. A patient mentioning pine needles in yardwork might be mislabeled as having an opioid problem. Listening machines raise real questions about patient privacy.

The core concern

The ultimate concern is that AI will replace the relationship between nurse and patient and turn medical professionals into meat puppets who do the machine's bidding. Efficiency matters for widgets, not for patient care.

“Maybe you can look at efficiency when you're looking at widgets. But when you're talking about patients, and you're talking about the relationship between a nurse and her patient, that is extremely important, and that is reserved for the judgment of the nurse, and not some technology that is going to override their judgment.”

Why Palantir is the target

Palantir was chosen as a protest target not just for health-care incursion but for its role in surveillance and military technology.

“A corporation that is invested in killing people should have no space in health care, where the goal is to keep people healthy and alive.”

Building broader coalitions

Palantir's work across many industries presents a great opportunity for allies, labor and non-labor alike. Solidarity is easier when there's a common enemy. Few are better than Palantir, whose name causes many Americans to recoil.

Collective action versus personal limits

Rallying together against a powerful villain to address material and workplace harms offers clarity and social support that individual efforts cannot. But organized labor may not satisfy those seeking separation from digital life entirely.

The personal nature of screens

The dissatisfaction with screen lives is uniquely personal because we mostly look at devices alone.Kang's phone camera scans his features a hundred times a day without comment.Next week he will write about modern narcissism.