ICE’s DNA Collection Increases, SpaceX’s Rocket Crashes Into the Moon, and the AI Backlash Grows

Leah Feiger: I mean, look, there's already so much space trash around. The fact that there's space trash everywhere. Where is this debris going? No, it's just all going to remain in Earth's orbit, and we're going to have to have our descendants deal with this in years to come.

Zoë Schiffer: I have been talking to the astronomer community. I really have to always say, "Zoë, don't say astrologer," because I'm from California and it's just very close to me.

Brian Barrett: And you are talking to both.

Zoë Schiffer: And I'm talking to both at all times. Astronomers are very up in arms precisely because of what you just said, Leah. They feel like there is so much junk up in space now. And SpaceX's plan is to launch a whole bunch more stuff up in space. Makes it really hard to see the night sky. Their telescopes aren't working like they used to. And now we're seeing remains of rockets actually crash into the moon. So yeah, I think they have a point.

Brian Barrett: There's one element to this. Speaking of future generations, NASA does want to build a base on the moon, at least one base. There is a plan. It's why Project Artemis happened. It's why we sent astronauts up around the dark side of it. It's already been a concern that, look, if you build a moon base, how are you going to protect it from various space objects slamming into the moon's surface? The more we send rockets up, the more likely it is that we're just adding new threats. Again, the moon's a big place. The odds that it would hit a specific moon base location, pretty small, but it's something you have to think about. If you really think that that's an achievable mission and a viable path for humanity, how are we going to not get hit on the head with a SpaceX rocket?

Zoë Schiffer: You don't want our big space data center to be taken out by a random piece of SpaceX trash.

Brian Barrett: No.

Zoë Schiffer: Geez.

Brian Barrett: God, that would be poetic though, if a Grok database were taken out by a SpaceX Falcon 9.

Leah Feiger: A reminder that this weekend, like all weekends, is a good time to watch the movie Don't Look Up. If you're looking for recommendations, here's one.

Zoë Schiffer: I really feel like people didn't appreciate that as much as they should've. I thought it was really good.

Leah Feiger: It's really good. I'm forever a big fan. Brian?

Brian Barrett: I did not see it.

Leah Feiger: What?

Brian Barrett: And I don't think I'm going to.

Zoë Schiffer: Coming up after the break, we'll be getting into how data centers broke US politics. Stay with us.

Leah Feiger: Data centers have become one of the only things that pretty much everyone agrees on, including Democrats and Republicans. Over the past year, we've seen moratoriums pass in blue states and deep red counties alike, with attack on pro-data center city councilmen, protestors getting arrested at public meetings from New Jersey to Wisconsin, and so much more. But this movement against data centers holds some really strange origins. WIRED’s Molly Taft spent the last few months investigating some of the different factions within the coalition and their motivations. Molly followed a Steve Bannon–affiliated tech correspondent around Georgia, heard data centers being compared to neurons of the Antichrist, and spoke with Democrats who have been linking arms with right-wing speakers to push against these AI build-outs. Molly, thank you so much for joining us today.