I caught Douglas Rushkoff on Sam Harris’ Making Sense podcast the other day and it really resonated with me. I look forward to reading his new book, Team Human.
A few nuggets I gleaned from the podcast:
Rushkoff, speaking about his book Media Virus: Hidden Agendas In Popular Culture, “It was celebrating this new stuff called viral media – which seemed like a good idea at the time…”
“…algorithms are taking all of these painstakingly evolved social mechanisms and using them against us…we are no longer the users of this technology, but the used….”
“Team Human is a manifesto—a fiery distillation of preeminent digital theorist Douglas Rushkoff’s most urgent thoughts on civilization and human nature. In one hundred lean and incisive statements, he argues that we are essentially social creatures, and that we achieve our greatest aspirations when we work together—not as individuals. Yet today society is threatened by a vast antihuman infrastructure that undermines our ability to connect. Money, once a means of exchange, is now a means of exploitation; education, conceived as way to elevate the working class, has become another assembly line; and the internet has only further divided us into increasingly atomized and radicalized groups.” – Norton Publishing