Douglas Rushkoff's Blog, page 13

Team Human: New Episodes! The Big Bang, Patterns of Meaning, and Architectural Intelligence

Three great new episodes are posted at teamhuman.fm.

Grounding digital in the physical…

On Episode 83, Rushkoff opens with a monologue on the value of the humanities. Is education just job training, or should it be something more?

Rushkoff is then joined by designer, technology historian, and author of the new book Architectural Intelligence, Professor Molly Wright Steenson. Molly and Douglas share a wide-ranging conversation that begins by looking at the “weirdness” of AI. How do design metaphors such as “awesome mouth feel” and “uncanny valley” provoke deeper questions of human imagination, play, and meaning. Molly’s background in architecture and history offers listeners a unique grounding of digital in the physical.

How did this all begin? Listening to the noise of the cosmos…

“Everyone wants to be a cowboy, but no one wants to ride the range.” A dream of unraveling the mystery of the birth of universe led astrophysicist and author Brian Keating to “saddle up” and head to a frozen ocean of snow at the bottom of the world. Keating joins Rushkoff to talk about science, religion, questions that lead to more questions, and the “background noise” of the cosmos that may just be the key to a greater understanding of how this all began.

Rushkoff begins the show commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Are we suffering the effects of HAL computer-like programming on Facebook? “I know everything hasn’t been quite right with me, but I can assure you now, very confidently, that it’s going to be all right again. I feel much better now. I really do.” HAL 9000 or Mark Zuckerberg?

And finding the patterns, making meaning…

And finally, playing for Team Human is Jeremy Lent, author of The Patterning Instinct.

Lent’s expansive research looks at the variety of ways cultures throughout history have patterned meaning into the cosmos. In excavating these patterns, Lent shares how humans might retrieve those metaphors that amplify altruism and shared intentionality. Together, Rushkoff and Lent explore the question of what makes humans unique and how we might leverage our patterning instinct to foster a future characterized by deeper connection rather than alienation.

Douglas begins this show with a monologue on cultural immunity. He questions the impulse to solve the problems of democracy by simply building better tech. How might we build resilience in people rather than just in our gadgets and algorithms?

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Cannabis: Stealth Goddess

I’ve gotten a few requests lately for access to an essay I wrote, gosh, maybe 20 years ago for Julie Holland’s book on marijuana, The Pot Book: The Complete Guide to Cannabis.

It’s called Cannabis: Stealth Goddess, and it argues that:

Like a girlfriend or boyfriend who sees the “real” you, marijuana desperately wants you to shed the artifacts of the Western European colonialists among whom you live, and just stop where you are. Every action has a reaction. Assess the impact. What happens when you throw that plastic bottle in the trash? Where and under what conditions was this videogame cartridge assembled? Which side of what equations am I on?

…

After a few hundred conversations on precisely this subject with pot users and ex-users alike, I’ve come to a conclusion about the mechanism behind pot’s ability to raise and question conscience—particularly in older, more experienced users. To put it most simply, pot stops time. Or at least it creates the illusion that time has ceased to move forward. When you are stoned, you are no longer in motion. Even if you are moving, you are no longer moving towardsomething—but simply moving.

The lean-forward of your directed, intentional life ceases. You are still doing what you are doing, but the goal no longer exists. The simplest effect of this time-stoppage is to bring focus to the task at hand. There is no goal; there is only process. The stoned farmer isn’t growing pumpkins; he is planting a seed—or, better, clearing dirt with his finger, placing the seed in the impression left behind, and covering it with fresh soil. Then doing it again, with Zenlike attention to detail, texture, and grace. The act in this moment is all there is.

Likewise, however, once time is removed from the equation, goals can no longer be used to rationalize your tactics. Without ends, no “means” can be justified. They must be judged on their own merit. So what are you doing?”

The whole piece is here.

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Team Human: A Sourdough, Solar-Powered Baker b/w An Artificial Intelligence Artist

Team Human covers a wide range of topics. In the past two weeks we’ve posted two unique shows.

First up is the return of “Real People Doing Real Things,” a segment where Douglas finds people not just talking about the platform, the app, or the idea but really getting their hands dirty. Suzanne Slomin runs the solar powered bakery, Green Rabbit in the Mad River Valley in Vermont.

Slomin bakes delicious naturally leavened breads using ancient, slow, hands-on techniques. In this episode, we meet Suzanne having just “fed” her sourdough starter, a living culture of yeast and bacteria that is the essential element for her business. Instantly, the conversation is grounded to the hands-on daily work that makes Green Rabbit so special. Is it possible for the small farmer and local baker to maintain integrity and stewardship of the community in an increasingly extractive economy? Find out how Suzanne does it…

Today we posted a fascinating conversation with Kenric McDowell, leader of the Artists and Machine Intelligence program at Google. What can artists, musicians, magical thinkers and “weirdos” bring to machine learning and neural networks? What do we need to make the right kind of AI? Kenric explains how his unique role at Google enables him to bring the artistic spirit into the very heart of technology development. Moving beyond the hype of AI, Kenric shares strategies for leading technology with human imagination rather than the other way around.

Both shows open with acute and timely Rushkoff interventions. Bitcoin may have begun as an idealistic enterprise, but once all the coin is mined, will it be just another instrument of the financial services industry?  

On Episode 80, Rushkoff addresses the Cambridge Analytica / Facebook controversy. Is privacy really the problem here? Do you really think social media platforms care about you? Tune in, stream, download, or subscribe to find out!

Stay tuned for Team Human Live events, coming soon! Patrons on Patreon will receive VIP access to shows every third Thursday of the month, hosted by Evolver in NYC.

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Team Human: Live at Gray Area Night Two: Erik Davis, Josette Melchor, and Lauren McCarthy

Team Human Live at Gray Area Foundation For the Arts: Night Two (in two parts)

Playing for Team Human today is interactive artist Lauren McCarthy. Lauren’s thought provoking work brings a unique and creative perspective on social interaction and the intersection of humans and technology.

Check out her most recent project Lauren: A Human Smart Home Intelligence, What if Alexa were a real person? McCarthy lived the part, and shares her experience as a human AI on Team Human this week:

Part 2 concludes our series of live shows recorded at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts :

Picking up where we left off last week and joining Douglas on stage are teammates Erik Davis and Josette Melchor. Erik Davis is the author of Techgnosis, Nomad Codes and host of The Expanding Mind podcast. Erik and Douglas start with the big question, “What the fuck is going on here?” What begins with a few laughs quickly digs into a mind-expanding conversation about those gray areas between religion, technology, and psychedelics. Erik and Douglas look for coherence and connection in these fractious times.

Making this message concrete is Gray Area’s founder Josette Melchor. Josette resurrects our show segment “Real People Doing Real Things.” She offers both practical and profound lessons on building a safe space for community, creativity, and artistic exploration.

Patrons on Patreon have access to the complete, uncut audio. Patrons also received free entrance to these live events. Support and sustain the show at patreon.com/teamhuman.

As we conclude this series, we’d like to thank our teammates at Gray Area; Josette Melchor, Seabrook Gubbins, Alric Burns, our guests for both nights Annalee Newitz, Howard Rheingold, Lauren McCarthy, Erik Davis, and (again!) Josette Melchor. Thank you to the San Francisco community who came out to support and participate in the show. And sincere gratitude to our Patreon members who’s sustaining subscriptions made travel and recording possible.

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Team Human: Live at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts Parts 1 & 2

Check out these first two installments of a series of fascinating Team Human conversations recorded before a live audience at the Grand Theater in San Francisco’s Mission District, home to Gray Area Foundation for the Arts.

Rushkoff kicks off this live series with an excerpt from his forthcoming Team Human Manifesto, an excellent primer on the motivation driving this podcast and the connections being forged through its members.

Playing first for Team Human on episode 75 is Annalee Newitz, author of the mind blowing sci-fi novel Autonomous, as well as prior work Scatter Adapt and Remember: How Humans will Survive a Mass Extinction, founder of I09, and journalist for outlets such as Ars Technica among many others.

Annalee joins Douglas on stage to talk about artificial intelligence, autonomy, tech ethics, robot sex, saving the planet and more. It’s a lively discussion, energized by the presence of a wonderful and welcoming audience.

In part two of our special live recording of Team Human at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts in San Fransisco. Joining Douglas on stage is cyberculture pioneer, educator, artist, author, visionary, and shoe painter, Howard Rheingold.

“Mind amplifiers,” “psychedelic signifiers,” and “the instrumental vs. the sacred” are just the tip of the iceberg in a conversation that explores how we got to this moment in technology and society; and ultimately where we hope to go. Following Rushkoff and Rheingold’s conversation, Annalee Newitz (hear Newitz’s conversation in part 1) rejoins the team for a roundtable discussion and audience Q & A.

Support Team Human at Patreon. Patreon supporters have access to the complete uncut interview at patreon.com/teamhuman.

Also check out our new, fan created trading cards. Many more to come!

 

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Team Human: Automated, Embedded, and… Objective?

Did you know parole and sentencing algorithms are just as racist as the people who program them? Gives a whole new meaning to “machine learning”:

Playing for Team Human this week, interdisciplinary thinker and emerging philosopher of technology Damien Williams. Williams and Rushkoff look at the embedded biases of technology and the values programed into our mediated lives. How has a conception of technology as “objective” blurred our vision to the biases normalized within these systems? What ethical interrogation might we apply to such technology? And finally, how might alternative modes of thinking, such as magick, the occult, and the spiritual help us to bracket off these systems for pause and critical reflection? This conversation serves as a call to vigilance against runaway systems and the prejudices they amplify.

Learn more about Damien’s work at http://www.afutureworththinkingabout.com/

Rushkoff begins today’s show with a story from home. A well-meaning school administrator begins using social media to promote his school, posting pictures of students and classroom activities. As parents become upset, the question arises: Why is it so easy to lose sight of the design and purpose behind these platforms?

Subscribe and sustain Team Human via Patreon

Become a Patron!

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Team Human: Music for Aliens and Live in San Francisco!

Come hear Douglas host live Team Human conversations this week in San Francisco!  Join us on February 16 and 17 at Gray Area Foundation located at the historic Grand Theater in the Mission District.

Find out what, if anything, makes people different than machines, and how we can fight back against the stultifying effects of digital capitalism run amok. This is the first live gathering of Team Human, our last, best hope for peeps.

Ticket Info:

Please purchase the ticket for the date you wish to attend. Tickets are $20 per night or $30 for both nights. Ages 18+ to enter and 21+ to drink.

Schedule:

Friday, February 16th, 6pm – 9pm

Howard Rheingold: amplifying minds and pioneering the net

Annalee Newitz: author of Autonomous, founder if i09

Saturday, February 17th, 6pm – 9pm

Erik Davis: author of Techgnosis, scholar of esoteric mysticism

Lauren McCarthy: artist exploring social and interactive systems

Josette Melchor: Founder and Executive Director of Gray Area

Music for Aliens

Check out this week’s episode of Team Human; an inspiring conversation with friend and 2018 Grammy Award winner David Pescovitz about music, art, science, and hope for the future:

Show Notes:

Playing for Team Human today is journalist, Boing Boing editor, Institute for the Future research director and recent Grammy Award Winning record producer David Pescovitz. Douglas spoke to David just days before he won the Grammy, with collaborators Tim Daly and Lawrence Azerrad, for best boxed or special limited-edition package for The Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition. The Voyager vinyl is an incredible artifact to hold and hear. The original Voyager Golden Records were launched on board the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft in 1977. Today these phonograph records are floating in interstellar space on Voyager 1 and at the edge of our solar system on Voyager 2. The records contain greetings, messages of peace, recordings of the “Sounds of Earth,” as well as an arresting collection of music from across the globe. The Voyager project continues to resonate as both a time capsule and a beacon of hope. Pescovitz, Daly, and Azerrad’s meticulously sourced and documented 40th Anniversary vinyl release pays homage to the wonder and hopeful spirit that animates this space project. On today’s show, Pescovitz and Rushkoff talk about the creation of these incredible artifacts.

Find the Voyager Golden Record 40th Anniversary Edition at Pescovitz’s Ozmarecords. You can also learn more about the Voyager project here.

Check out these amazing photos of the making of this 40th Anniversary Edition:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ozmarecords/voyager-golden-record-40th-anniversary-edition/posts/1755549

Team Human is entirely listener supported. Thanks to our new January supporters who have subscribed to this show via Patreon.

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Team Human: New Episodes and Live Shows

Team Human is coming to a theater near you! We’re starting to schedule live Team Human events, that then become Team Human podcasts.

The first one is:

Team Human at Gray Area Arts, Grand Theater, San Francisco

Feb 16, 7p: Annalee Newitz & Howard Rheingold, guests.

Feb 17, 7p: Lauren McCarthy, Erik Davis, Josette Melchor, guests.

Info and tickets: https://grayarea.org/event/team-human-douglas-rushkoff-guests/

Team Human Patreon Supporters have access to free VIP guest tickets.

This week on the podcast, Douglas is joined by world renowned social scientist and systems thinker, Merrelyn Emery. Emery, with her partner the late Fred Emery, advanced Open Systems Theory and applied it to management of organizations and government. Open Systems Theory, or OST is the idea that autocracies make for bad governments, companies, and organizations. In this conversation, Merrelyn and Douglas discuss the power of community and collective organizing. They also discuss the social environments conducive to true grassroots, systemic change. As Merrelyn explains it, “By working together with collective responsibility, people can regain control over their own affairs, in their own communities and organizations, by cooperating to meet shared goals rather than competing or peeling off as individuals to do ‘their own thing’.”

Listen here:

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Team Human: “It Starts With Listening”

Playing for Team Human today is Danielle Butin, founder of the Afya Foundation. Afya collects and sends surplus medical supplies from the US to those who need them around the world. In today’s conversation with Douglas, Danielle shares not only stories of the good accomplished through Afya, but also a broader strategy for human intervention. How did Danielle, an occupational therapist and geriatric care provider, come to launch an organization that has shipped more than six million pounds of medical and humanitarian supplies into areas of crisis? Danielle describes the change that can come by the simple act of listening and then responding to need. She shares her zeal for deep human encounters and teaches that great ideas are “dancing among us” if we choose to be awake and aware enough to take notice.

Douglas begins today’s episode with a monologue about the “might makes right” mentality that may just be the key to deconstructing the underpinnings of the racist rhetoric and policy so prominent under this administration.

 

Team Human is supported entirely by listeners. Visit patreon.com/teamhuman to sustain the show. You can also help by sharing a review on iTunes.

Today’s music is thanks to Fugazi and Dischord Records, RU Sirius, and Stacco Troncoso of the P2P foundation.

Stay tuned for info on Team Human Live events and meet ups this Spring.

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Team Human: “Full Immersion”

Today on the Team Human podcast, we host a conversation with immersion experience artist and pioneer Ghislaine Boddington. Ghislaine joins Douglas to talk about how we might bring our bodies with us into the digital realm. Rather than diminish the role of the physical body, Ghislaine’s work celebrates the body as an integral part of enhanced immersive experience. As Creative Director at body>data>space Ghislaine explores experiences that amplify connection, collectivity, and togetherness. In the course of their conversation, Ghislaine and Douglas discuss the virtues of such body-positive, community-minded use of tech while simultaneously questioning how we might we explore digital immersion in a way that avoids paving the way for those who would exploit us. Thus emerges the question, in the process of embedding digital devices within our physical selves, do we risk becoming the raw materials for the next frontier of technology-driven extractive capitalism? How might we steer this ship toward team human values?

Douglas begins today’s show with a monologue about the threat of technology usurping human agency. It’s a personal story about his neighborhood UPS driver who refused to conform to the GPS route, opting instead to become part of the local community rather than be a mere delivery “robot.” Take a listen below:

Team Human is supported by listeners. Sign up on Patreon to be come a sustaining member of the team!

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