Team Human

What is a robot? Are robots our friends? Does the term “friend” even apply? So begins this week’s episode of Team Human with cyborg anthropologist Amber Case. Amber and Douglas look at how algorithmically programmed systems of automation and control might just be turning us into the robots. Case’s recent book, Calm Technology Design For the Next Generation of Devices proposes another way. How might we flip the script on systems that compress and atomize our every move? How might we use our technology to slow down rather than speed up – to resolve to sharper human detail rather than a pixelated blur. And finally, how might we use technology, including this podcast, to advance a slow-motion, empathetic, and deep state of calm? Rushkoff begins with a monologue on the Jewish high holidays. Is prayer a distraction to the real world work of justice that must be done, or is there something deeper and more communal to retrieve?Learn more about Amber Case here: http://caseorganic.com/Our intro theme is Foreman’s Dog by Fugazi. Thanks to Discord records for sharing. In the middle you heard Growth Trap by Joshua Sitron and his Team Human Band. And closing the show is a soundscape mix thanks to Our Fox and noise by Mal Madrigal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Playing for Team Human today is Post Carbon Institute fellow Richard Heinberg. Richard is the co-author of Our Renewable Future and most recently, the manifesto, There’s No App For That. On today’s show Richard and Douglas challenge the idea that technological “progress” is a panacea for solving systems-level crises like climate change. Richard’s work calls on us to look at the fundamental ethical problems underlying climate issues such as overshoot, unsustainable growth, and inequality. Heinberg then challenges us to step out from hiding behind our technologies and acknowledge the deliberate moral intervention that is urgently needed if we are to foster a more resilient and more just community and ecosystem.Check out Richard’s manifesto, There’s No App For That at http://noapp4that.org and you can begin with this video primer, “Hello Humanity, It’s me, technology. We need to Talk”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALugeRQbXAMRead why Richard thinks Climate Change isn’t our Biggest Environmental Problem herehttp://www.postcarbon.org/why-climate-change-isnt-our-biggest-environmental-problem-and-why-technology-wont-save-us/Learn about Post Carbon Institute and their efforts to mobilize strategies centered on “Community Resilience” : http://www.postcarbon.org/program/resilience/Today’s show begins with a monologue on the Trump distraction machine recently manifested in the NFL National Anthem “controversy.”And a huge thank you to all of our listeners who helped us achieve our first Patreon funding goal. Your support makes this show possible!Please remember to review us on iTunes and help spread the word about Team Human.Our music today is thanks to Dischord Records and Fugazi as well as a Team Human original.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today's episode of Team Human, Douglas is joined by Professor Steve Fuller. Fuller teaches Sociology at the University of Warwick. In his recent book, Humanity 2.0, Fuller embraces a future vision in which technological and medical advancement will enable humans to evolve beyond our current physical and mental limitations. Steve will use this concept to teach us what distinguishes transhumanist from posthumanist projects, and why such thinking should be taken seriously. While Rushkoff and Fuller may come from very different perspectives, they share common ground in questioning whether living as gods – longer, faster, stronger, smarter – will serve humanity or merely further existing inequality, injustice, and environmental catastrophe.To open this show, Rushkoff looks at the ways being human is a team sport. It's a future vision that recognizes collaboration, not competition, as the cornerstone of evolution. We'll explore how this squares with the transhumanist project and more.If you enjoy this conversation, Rushkoff shared the stage with Steve Fuller in 2015 at a conference held at IBM Watson, featured in Team Human Episode 53. An extended video version is available exclusively to Patreon subscribersSpecial thanks to Luke Robert Mason of Virtual Futures Podcast for coordinating this interview and recording Professor Fuller's side of the conversation from the UK.A huge thank you to our Patreon supporters. Minutes ago we reached our first funding goal! Your subscriptions keep this weekly podcast alive, so thank you! Please take a minute to review Team Human on iTunes. Your reviews help others discover this show.Today's show features music thanks to Mike Watt, Stephen Bartolomei, and Fugazi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this week's Team Human, Douglas is out on the road in Austin, Texas where he caught up with longtime friend and cyberculture pioneer, Jon Lebkowsky. Jon and Douglas first look back on the promise of the early cyber revolution, and then look forward to the ways in which those quirky fringe elements might be folded back into the work of promoting justice, solidarity, and even a bit of ambiguity... Whether manifested in platform cooperatives, consensus building tools like Loomio, or in the spirit of Occupy, Lebkowsky and Rushkoff retrieve the thread of radical potential as it has evolved from those early days of the internet.Douglas begins today's show discussing his recent meeting with a group of billionaires whose fears of future social unrest have left them scrambling for apocalypse strategies to protect their wealth and lifestyle. Find out what the "insulation equation" is as Douglas challenges these executives to forgo the Walking Dead scenarios and join team human!Today's episode features intro music thanks to Mike Watt. At the top of the interview is a song from Mondo 2000 creator (and Episode 31 guest) R.U. Sirius, and the closing credits feature a track from Fugazi, thanks to Dischord Records.Team Human is entirely listener supported. Check you patreon.com/teamhuman to subscribe to the show.Please review Team Human on iTunes. Your review helps us "find the others." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When was the last time you found yourself truly bored? Have you forfeit those nooks and crannies in the day when you used to let your mind wander aimlessly in a daydream?On today's episode of Team Human, Douglas is joined by Manoush Zomorodi, host of the popular WNYC Studios podcast, Note to Self. On Note to Self, Manoush initiated a series of listener experiments aimed at breaking the influence of our digital devices and networks on our lives. Those social experiments led her to uncover the creative power of boredom, detailed in her brand new book Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self .On today's show, Douglas and Manoush wander together, as they interrogate the always-on media environment. In an era of constant entertainment, constant emergency, and constant distraction, must we fight for the mental space to just be bored? We'll learn why boredom matters and more...This episode begins with a monologue on the news media's recent reporting on natural disaster and catastrophe. Has our appetite for spectacle confused our perception of disaster? As we watch a calamity like Hurricane Harvey or Irma across our screens, what lessons about might we learn from the darker side of our initial response?Team Human is the product of listener support. Please consider signing up via Patreon to support the show.Please review Team Human on iTunes. Your review helps us find the others.This week's show featured: Mike Watt: beak-holding-letter-man , R.U. Sirius: President Mussolini Makes The Planes Run On Time, Fugazi: Foreman’s DogSpecial thanks to Manoush, Jen Poyant, and all the producers and engineers who welcomed us at WNYC to record this episode.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week is a special episode of Team Human. We are sharing an excerpt of a panel discussion recorded on location at IBM Watson in New York from August 2015, hosted by Douglas Rushkoff and produced by our friends at Virtual Futures in London. Douglas was joined by philosopher-sociologist Steve Fuller, tech entrepreneur and ethicist Martine Rothblatt, IBM Watson researcher Michael Karasick, and philosopher of technology, Dan O'Hara.Patreon subscribers have exclusive access to the full, unedited video with an engaging question and answer session at https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman. Start your monthly subscription today to support the show and get access to the Team Human Slack Channel as well as other subscriber rewards. July and August rewards are shipping this week!Enjoy this discussion and please review Team Human on iTunes or your preferred podcast platform and help spread the word about the show!Thanks Luke Robert Mason for sharing the audio! Music on today's show is Mike Watt, Stephen Bartolomei, and Fugazi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Consider a text message in which you are deciding where to meet for dinner with a friend. As you go back and forth in that stream of abbreviated communication, you suggest, “Let’s eat Italian,” to which your friend responds “Fine.” The one-word text sends you into a state of alarm. Did they mean “fine” as in “great,” or “fine” as in “Fine, you win, we can eat where you’d like”? Somewhere in this chain of communication trust, has been lost. Playing for Team Human today are William Softky and Criscillia Benford, a husband and wife team who are looking deep into the biophysical and mathematical underpinnings of establishing trust in communications. They’ve just published a paper titled “Sensory Metrics of Neuromechanical Trust” in the journal, Neural Computation. In this conversation, Softky and Benford join Douglas Rushkoff to dive deep into experiences of digital disorientation and even screen addiction. What’s really going on in our brains as we consume more and more digital stimuli? Have our nervous systems been recalibrated to these flattened, two-dimensional interactions? Are we "out of tune" when it comes to trust? Opening today’s show, Rushkoff looks at the recent Mayweather vs. McGregor boxing match. Did this spectacle represent a surrogate Trump vs. Obama battle? And while that fight is over, the victor declared, what does it mean when governance itself becomes a prolonged spectacle?   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elizabeth Stewart, founding executive director of Civic Hall Labs, empowers technologists who put people first, amplifying the “civic” of civic tech. On today’s show, Stewart joins Douglas Rushkoff for a conversation about technology innovations whose value is measured in their contribution to the public good. It’s a type of thinking that asserts the means of tech innovation to be just as important as its ends. We’ll learn about Elizabeth's work and how Civic Hall labs is fostering participatory, human-centered collaborations to solve difficult societal challenges.Throughout this conversation Elizabeth highlights a number of tremendous resources for Team Human listeners engaged in building technology for public good. Start at CivicHallLabs.org for more info. One project you’ll find is Pro Bono Tech which connects local New York City area digital professionals to public sector organizations needing help. The program provides a useful model for starting a pro bono tech program in your own town or city. Also mentioned on the show is a project called https://www.justfix.nyc/. Here NewYork tenants can implement everyday technology to empower themselves against abusive landlords.Other resources mentioned in this episode include:Civic Tech Field Guide:at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FzmvVAKOOFdixCs7oz88cz9g1fFPHDlg0AHgHCwhf4A/edit#gid=963594345https://openideo.com/ - global collaborative community problem-solvinghttp://acumen.org/ - invests “patient capital” in social impact projects committed to improving the lives of the poor.https://www.invisionapp.com/ - a prototyping and collaborative design tool.Opening today’s show is a monologue about the urge to react to the constant churn of attention-grabbing media. Should we have a “reaction” ready for every crisis? Or is there value in slowing down enough to really "respond" to the complicated events unfolding in a frenetic world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Playing for Team Human today is Alexandra Juhasz. Juhasz brings her extensive and diverse work as a filmmaker, media critic, and feminist activist to the Team Human round table.On today's show, Douglas and Alexandra explore the dangers of a media landscape that amplifies the grotesque and sensational. They also look at how human agency and autonomy are threatened on our hypercommercialized media platforms.Drawing on her commitment to feminist values, Alex encourages an embrace of the "situatedness of our humanity" and the vitality of difference. Such is the "tiny magic" necessary to build real world change while widening our embrace of a full-spectrum of humanity.Juhasz recently joined the CUNY faculty at Brooklyn College as professor of film and department chairperson. Visit http://alexandrajuhasz.com/ to learn more about her media-making and pedagogy.The Femtechnet manifesto and whitepaper are also great places to learn more about feminist technology as we consider its power to animate the mission of Team Human.Thank you for listening and sharing this episode. If you like what you hear, you can support Team Human by subscribing via Patreon at patreon.com/teamhuman.Music thanks to: Mike Watt, R.U. Sirius, and show closer thanks to Dischord records and Fugazi Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Think back to the last time your eyes were opened wide, your mouth agape, and the hairs on the back of your neck stood on end as you took in a profound or inspiring sight… On today's episode of Team Human, Douglas is joined by Michael Frederickson, lead technical director at Pixar Animation, to talk about this deeply human experience of awe.It's a conversation that spans the “awful” to the "awesome" and all those ambiguous spaces in-between. Rushkoff and Frederickson dig into questions of technology and storytelling, the narrative arc, and the evolutionary, even empathetic value of having our minds blown.Rushkoff tees off this episode with a monologue inspired by the unresolved and sometimes unsettling world of David Lynch and his new Twin Peaks series. Is art meant to solve our riddles or pose new ones? Join Team Human this week, as we revel in life's liminal spaces and surrender to the power of awe.Music in today's show thanks to: Mike Watt, R.U. Sirius, Ambiguous Midroll by Stephen Bartolomei, and show closer thanks to Dischord records and FugaziTeam Human is supported entirely by listeners. Join the team at patreon.com/teamhuman. Members receive access to the Team Human Slack Team where we discuss topics on the show, suggest guests, and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.