Tag: Team Human

Listened Mark Pesce | Team Human from shows.acast.com

Playing for Team Human today, futurist, inventor, and author of “Augmented Reality,” Mark Pesce.

Pesce augments our understanding of the many interfaces between ourselves and whatever it is that’s out there. Does cybernetics break the western conception of linear time, arrow-for-progress, colonial expansion thing?

In his opening monologue, Rushkoff discusses why elected officials should not be on social media platforms. “The minute we put banks and other real stuff on here is the minute it started to go wrong.” Further, he looks at how early-stage internet fan fiction crept into reality and ended up addicted to fractalnoia.

Mark Pesce talks about his new book on Augmented Reality. The conversation explores different senses of space and how companies like Niantic avoid legal precedence around ownership. He also explores the way in which our reality can be twisted. This touches on the topic of magic and the way in which a part of us can die when we change.
Bookmarked HUMAN AFTER ALL: FINDING THE OTHERS – 032c (032c.com)

What emerges through Team Human is not a revolutionary message of overturning the tables and violently taking to the streets. What Rushkoff suggests in terms of action is almost prosaic: being visible, engaging in protests, participating politically and developing new platforms, engaging purposely with the natural world, reforming corrupt institutions and building better ones. The core message seems to be that we just need to participate more. “It’s not an activist blueprint,” he admits. “It’s a call for something more fundamental than that. I would think activism, direct activism, social change and social justice work would be an obvious next step. But I’m asking that people retrieve these essential human values, and that then necessitates a whole lot of action. In some sense, it’s a pre-activist message. But if you don’t value humanity, if you don’t value yourself and these connections with others, then I don’t know if that will ever get there.”

Douglas Rushkoff is profiled in 032c by William Alderwick. This includes a discussion of his latest book, Team Human.
Listened Mark Stahlman from shows.acast.com

Playing for Team Human today, founder of the Center for the Study of Digital Life, Mark Stahlman.

Stahlman joins Team Human to discuss how artificial intelligence has become the new ground for human interaction, and why navigating it will require us to retrieve our uniquely human senses. “We will only become fully human if we learn to take responsibility for our actions.” Stahlman says. Further, he discusses the shift from a television environment to a digital environment and what that means for our collective sensibilities.

Mark Stahlman suggests that climate change is a distraction from the real problem, our need to push back on platform capitalism and embrace the digital. This is one of those episodes that requires multiple listens to take in all the ideas.
Replied to ABC Weekend Reads (view.mail-list.abc.net.au)

Putting aside the arguments about vaccination, I’m more interested in how we treat each other as humans, how we manage respectful debate and how we handle different opinions without resorting to bullying and isolation.

Surely there are ways to have healthy and inclusive discussions without being demeaning or dehumanising.

Maybe if we got off our high horses from time to time, we might find the opinions of others illuminating. We don’t need to share them, not at all, but we do need to let people have them.

So you can imagine my interest was piqued by this interesting article, which shows that if we actually took the time to look and listen, we’d find most non-vaccinating parents aren’t even who we think they are.

Tracey, this reminds me of a post from Douglas Rushkoff discussing the need to engage.
Replied to

David, my recommendation is Team Human by @rushkoff. There is something about having a book both written and read by the same person.
Listened Ep. 129 Clive Thompson from shows.pippa.io

Clive Thompson explains how the values of code become the norm, and how some coders are successfully avoiding the Lust for Scale.

Clive Thompson and Douglas Rushkoff reminisce about the early days of coding when it was more akin to origami. Thompson argues that scale and efficiency created by the venture capital model breaks the social system. This produces a focus on measurement and engagement, A/B testing, over humans and representation. It is interesting to consider this alongside Thompson’s previous book Smarter Than You Think. The challenge we have is to move away from the magic of coding and automation, the focus on coding as a career.
Bookmarked Ep. 119 Team Human Live: Douglas Rushkoff and Siobhan O’Connor “Just the Way You Are” by Douglas Rushkoff (Team Human)

In this special live episode of Team Human, Douglas sits in the hot seat, answering questions on what it means to reassert humanity in a digital age.

This was a strange listen as Rushkoff is critical of so many elements of ‘social media’, yet somehow Medium exists outside of that? Although I like Medium’s attempt to pay authors, it is still funded by venture capitalism which makes it susceptible.
Listened Ep. 117 Book Launch: A Live Team Human Conversation with Douglas Rushkoff and Seth Godin | Team Human from shows.pippa.io

In a role reversal, Douglas Rushkoff is interviewed by Seth Godin on the release of the Team Human manifesto. Douglas reveals the dynamics of this antihuman machinery and invites us to remake these aspects of society in ways that foster our humanity.

Seth Godin and Douglas Rushkoff discuss why ‘team human’. They address how we got to now, the challenges that we face in being human, the hope for the future and whether it matters that ‘NPR’ does not care.

I purchased the book and corresponding audiobook. I loved Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus and Programming or be Programmed. I have also enjoyed the podcast. I also enjoy listening to Rushkoff read his own work.

Watched Team Human: The TED Talk is posted – Rushkoff from Rushkoff

I got to do a real TED talk and they just posted it. Check out the Team Human manifesto, presented in ten minutes!   Want more? Catch up on over 100 episodes of the Team Human Podcast at teamhuman.fm And order  the new book, Team Human here.

Listened Ep. 107 Fred Turner “Beyond the Master Plan” – Team Human by Douglas Rushkoff from Team Human

In this conversation, Fred and Douglas use these works as a jumping off point to a wide range of topics including a provocative discussion on the ways those early utopian visions of technology were subsumed into an ideology of individualism and ultimately, consumerism.

Fred Turner covers a range of topics in this conversation. Some of the points that stood out was the sense of awe provided by place and the importance of the past in appreciating the present. For Brand this comes through the work of Stuart Brand and the connections with the theorists from the 40’s.
Listened Ep. 110 Enspiral: “Better Work Together” – Team Human from teamhuman.fm

Playing for Team Human today: Susan Basterfield and Anthony Cabraal. Susan and Anthony share the open secrets of bottom-up collaboration as we celebrate the publication of Enspiral’s book, Better Work Together. It’s a conversation about the power of working together, building on ideas “good enough to try,” and creating a space where it’s “safe to fail.”

Looking for collaborative and participatory ways to create social change? Enspiral has collected and opened up its learnings for all to replicate.

Douglas Rushkoff talks with Susan Basterfield and Anthony Cabraal about the challenge and experience of working cooperatively. The key to such a change is consciously opting in and taking radical responsibility. This is an interesting listen in regards to entrepreneurship. I am reminded of the work at Templestowe College and wonder if their structure is that of a cooperative?
Listened Ep. 106 Nora Bateson “Warm Data” from teamhuman.fm

Playing for Team Human today is systems thinker, writer, and filmmaker Nora Bateson. Nora will be telling us how to stop looking at things as objects and begin seeing the spaces and connections between

In a discussion with Douglas Rushkoff, Nora Bateson discusses the concept of ‘Warm Data’ and the interconnected nature of everything.

“Warm Data” is information about the interrelationships that integrate elements of a complex system. It has found the qualitative dynamics and offers another dimension of understanding to what is learned through quantitative data, (cold data).(source)

For Bateson, it is the relationships which bring the data alive.

This stems from the notion of ‘warm ideas’, as idea that leads you into another idea of relations. In this circumstance it is about going beyond departments and instead focusing on context.

The underlying premise of the IBI is to address and experiment with how we perceive. Our mandate is to look in other ways so that we might find other species of information and new patterns of connection not visible though current methodologies. We call this information “Warm Data”.(Mission Statement)

I was not exactly sure what this all looks like in practice, but did take away that it was about working together.

Listened Ep. 102 danah boyd “Seeing New Worlds” from Team Human

Playing for Team Human today, technology and social media scholar, founder of Data & Society Research Institute, and author of It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, danah boyd.

In a conversation between danah boyd and Doug Rushkoff, she explains that at the heart of our current problems with media, facts and trust is capitalism. By design capitalism gives you what you want. The problem though is that capitalism and democracy are no longer constrained within nation states as they may have been in the past. There is neither the opportunity for nationalistic paternalism to moderate wants nor a means of managing different groups. Media in a multi-national environment has become confusing. We are now in a world of networks and graphs. All media companies are in the business for amplification, the problem has therefore become what is amplified, which as so many have pointed out is often at the extremes. danah boyd says that we need an intervention, but to achieve that we firstly need to be appreciate all the micro-decisions that got us to here. How do we deal with these well intended decisions when they have negative implications? One of the challenges is filling the data voids, rather than blocking various search terms we need to develop the content that maybe missing. This is particularly important for today’s young people, for

if we don’t support young people in building out a strategically rich graph, they will reinforce the worst segments of our society (1.10)

For those who may not have kept up with boyd’s work since It’s Complicated, this is a really good introduction.

Listened Ep. 87 Jason Louv “A World of Gods and Monsters” from teamhuman.fm

Playing for team human today is author, occult scholar, and wizard Jason Louv.

Jason will be helping us see how the intentions we bring into the world of artificial intelligence could set something in motion from which it is hard to return. Jason’s latest book John Dee and the Empire of Angels: Enochian Magick and the Occult Roots of Empire digs deep into the untold and often ignored occult history of Western thinking and empire. On today’s show Jason and Douglas bridge the gap from the Elizabethan esoteric imaginary to the modern day alchemical thinking driving our technologies.

It is often suggested that one of the important things that you can do is take in a breadth of ideas. Douglas Rushkoff and the Team Human podcast never seems to disappoint in giving voice to different people. This episode explores the history associated with magic and the role of experiences and storytelling in relation to all elements of life. As always, I am left wondering about the world in new ways.
Listened Ep. 79 Suzanne Slomin “Feeding A Living Culture” from teamhuman.fm

Playing for Team Human today is Suzanne Slomin, founder of Green Rabbit a small solar powered bakery located in the Mad River Valley of Vermont specializing in naturally leavened breads.Suzanne wi

In the introduction, Douglas Rushkoff reflections on the blockchain. This is in contrast to the usual hype. Rushkoff questions what happens when the incentive of mining bitcoin has gone? We are then back to the traditional banking structure where we are dependent on some sort entity to provide a subscription service.

For the feature, Rushkoff talks with Suzanne Slomin about baking bread. This is an insightful conversation. It reminds me of a similar conversation on the Eat This podcast. One of the aspects that stood out was the Slomin’s discussion of her use of living culture as opposed to industrial yeast. She describes how she has to regularly feed it or else it turns in on itself. This is a fantastic metaphor for change.

Listened Ep. 76 Live From Gray Area Foundation for the Arts Pt.2: Howard Rheingold by Douglas Rushkoff from teamhuman.fm

This week we continue with 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.

Howard Rheingold and Douglas Rushkoff discuss the evolution of technology from a collision between military and psychedelic culture. Rheingold discusses his optimism and belief in technology to amplify possibilities. In particular, he shares his interest in Patreon to develop shared publics. Rheingold’s ethos is captured by the following quote:

The secret to happiness is having appropriate expectations.

We still have some painful contradictions that we need to work out. The question is not about how good the technology is, but how it is distributed.

Listened Ep. 75 Live From San Francisco at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts Pt.1: Annalee Newitz | Team Human by Douglas Rushkoff from Team Human

If you have slavery in any part of your culture, the entire culture is infected by it.

In this conversation between Annalee Newitz and Douglas Rushkoff, they talk about robots, ethics, autonomy, slavery, gender and cats.
Listened Ep. 74 Damien Williams from shows.pippa.io

Technology philosopher Damien Williams on how the algorithms running society are embedded with the same biases as the people who program them.

Douglas Rushkoff and Damien Williams discuss the biases that we build into our technology through their design and the problems that this creates for machine learning. In some respects, this touches on the work of Cathy O’Neil.

Rushkoff also begins with a reflection on the use of social media by schools. He wonders why is it so easy for people to losesight of the design and purpose behind these platforms? He argues that other than teaching media, social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc) should never be used by schools. Use blogs or a space you manage yourself and your story – something that I have touched upon in the past – but to feed the ad algorithms is the wrong approach.

Listened Ep. 71 Merrelyn Emery “Having a Role in Your World” from teamhuman.fm

Playing for Team Human today is 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 manage

Merrelyn Emery discusses systems thinking with Douglas Rushkoff. In particular, she unpacks the difference between managed and self-managed systems, explaining how larger companies can break the heirachical model by spitting the decisions up. As Emery explains:

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’.

This reminds me in part of heutagogy.