Natasha: Technology and slot machine systems are discovering internal facts about human nature. She says we don't have agency over, we're trapped inside the functioning of our nervous system. Azaraskan: Some people find this paternalistic; I say this is happening all around us.
In part two of our interview with cultural anthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll, author of Addiction by Design, we learn what gamblers are really after a lot of the time — it’s not money. And it’s the same thing we’re looking for when we mindlessly open up Facebook or Twitter. How can we design products so that we’re not taking advantage of these universal urges and vulnerabilities but using them to help us? Tristan, Aza and Natasha explore ways we could shift our thinking about making and using technology.