SpaceX IPOs, Bezos Brains, Anti-Vax Dating Wars
June 8, 2026
SpaceX's trillion-dollar IPO and Bezos's $500 million hunt for a brain algorithm signal a consolidation of material and biological power by tech oligarchs, while RFK Jr.'s misinformation campaigns and anti-vax dating apps are fracturing public health and social intimacy into ideological battlegrounds. Meanwhile, the TikTok ban and Meta's hidden-camera glasses extend platform surveillance into geopolitical friction and daily reporting, even as Anthropic warns of runaway AI and corvid tool-use offers a glimpse of distributed intelligence outside proprietary capture.
-
BRIEF
Contemplating 'Muskism' and the Age of Trillionaires
On June 12, SpaceX will reportedly offer 555,555,555 shares at $135 apiece in an initial public offering. The IPO is expected to give SpaceX a market value of $1.77 trillion, instantly making it one of the most valuable companies in the world. When combined with his holdings in Tesla, the IPO may al…
- AI governance
- media and technology
- structural power
-
BRIEF
Study: RFK Jr., Joe Rogan’s Misinformation Campaigns Led To A 38% Increase In Vitamin A Poisoning Last Year
Early last year, when America’s measles outbreaks were still being counted in three-digit numbers, we talked about how RFK Jr. and his misinformation campaign were making things worse. A lot of focus has been on Kennedy’s anti-vaxxer views, and for good reason. If people would just get the MMR vacci…
-
BRIEF
The TikTok Ban Was Never About TikTok
A new documentary chronicles how the app became a stand-in for American anxieties about social media, China, and political power.
-
BRIEF
Always On
News influencers are using Meta glasses as hidden-camera reporting tools.
- media and technology
- structural power
-
BRIEF
Statement: Anthropic warns of AI self-improvement risks, considers a pause
"We are approaching a runaway to superintelligence that could threaten our shared human future."
- AI governance
-
BRIEF
Jeff Bezos Is Funding a Wild Hunt for the Brain’s ‘Core Algorithm’
With $500 million in funding and a reported $2.5 billion valuation, Flourish wants to reinvent AI by putting real neurons under the microscope.
-
BRIEF
Who’s the Smartest Corvid?
Crows, magpies and ravens have displayed everything from prey trickery to tool use to potential self-medication. An excerpt from a new book.
-
BRIEF
Anti-Vax Dating Apps Are Going IRL. People Are Mad as Hell About It
Unjected and PureBlood.Dating are hosting in-person meetups—and have transformed the dating landscape into a political battleground over bodily autonomy.