For the first time in ten years, I’m heading into final preparations for the Gel conference, which takes place this Friday and Saturday, Oct 2-3. I’m excited to bring Gel back at Skate Time, a roller skating rink in Accord, NY about two hours north of New York City.

Leah Habib wrote a fabulous story in Blue Stone Press (Aug 21, 2026), “Gel conference returns in Accord,” about the rebirth of the event. See the full-page PDF for the entire story. The article includes a photo from a past Gel, showing a young-looking host holding a bag of my favorite popcorn, BjornQorn:

It was a prescient moment. Our venue this week, Skate Time, is also the production facility for BjornQorn. Little did I know in 2015 that I was, in a way, holding the future of Gel in my hands.

A roller skating rink, popcorn factory, and conference venue – all rolled into one – is a perfect home for Gel this year, as we celebrate the good news of people and projects that are charting a way forward despite the predations of the growth-at-any-cost AI economy.

My Techtonic episode this week delved into predatory AI, playing audio samples of people ridiculing the AI companies. Here’s the episode page with links, and here’s a podcast version.

One item in particular stood out: a letter in the MIT Faculty Newsletter, written by five co-authors, about the recent installation of hundreds of surveillance cameras in academic buildings on the MIT campus. These cameras, as the letter points out, are feeding video footage to an AI system that can identify and track individuals:

This could make searching for any particular person a snap. You could just type in: “Show me all footage of the curly-haired chemistry colleague going to the bathroom.” In the May 2026 Institute Faculty Meeting, the MIT administration acknowledged that they have already tested AI capacities on our campus without our knowledge or consent.

What can you do in the face of revelations like this, except ridicule them? I had some fun recording a dramatic reading of the letter. (Click here or here to listen to the reading.)

This week’s Gel conference, by contrast, spotlights people and projects that are building a future outside of the AI-and-surveillance hegemony.

Looking forward to telling you how it all went.

Until next time,

-mark

Mark Hurst, founder, Creative Good
Founder and host, Gel conference

Email: [email protected]
Podcast/radio show: techtonic.fm
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