FTP093, 094: Douglas Rushkoff – Why Humans Matter in a Future With Transhumanism

Our guest in the next two episodes is Douglas Rushkoff, a media theorist, lecturer, and author of Team Human, as well as a dozen other books on media, technology, and culture. In recent years, he has become a critic of technology for separating us from what makes us human.

In Part 1 of this interview we discuss the still untapped possibilities of digital technology, the causes and potential solutions to dystopian visions of the future, as well as transhumanism and its assumptions about human nature.

In Part 2 we continue our conversation on transhumanism, on the distrust in the corporate-run digital environment, and discuss who can challenge the existing structures and create a new, truly intersectional culture.

I like the development of new technologies, because each one is another opportunity to wake up from the dream, or to go further in. - @rushkoff Click To Tweet

In This Episode of Future Thinkers:

• The possibilities of digital technology that people and organizations are still unaware of
• Dystopian visions of the future come from a lack of imagination
• The sources of power, money and propaganda in digital environment
• How humanity started losing touch with our evolved nature by domesticating ourselves
• Every new technology is a new opportunity to collaborate, and why we are missing those opportunities
• The dangers of surrendering human nature to abstractions like economy or technology
• The origins and development of transhumanism, and its problematic assumptions
• Transhumanism – does amplifying one human ability necessarily decrease another?
• Self-centered western spirituality as just another example of consumerism
• A linear idea of progress as opposed to a circular experience of reality
• How technological platforms keep building on top of each other without challenging the underlying system
• Who are some people who are challenging the dominant structures of our world?
• How digital environment treats history, and self-censoring for fear of something being offensive in the future
• Intersectionality – a uniting or dividing force?
• How young generations build resistance to addictive technologies

We took this yuppie, utilitarian, capitalist thing and digitized that, rather than exploring the possibilities of digital to open up a new way of being, so I feel like digital still hasn't happened. - @rushkoff Click To Tweet

Links And Resources:

• Douglas Rushkoff’s website
• How to be “Team Human” in the Digital Future – TED Talk by Douglas Rushkoff
• Survival of the Richest – Douglas Rushkoff Medium post

There's a surrender to digital categorization of people and using intersectionalism to isolate and alienate, rather than to find common ground to reunite human species.- @rushkoff Click To Tweet

Recommended Books:

• Team Human by Douglas Rushkoff
• Other books by Douglas Rushkoff

The beauty of neuroplasticity is not just that human brain conforms to the media system, but also that it develops adaptive strategies for the media environment that it's in. - @rushkoff Click To Tweet

More From Future Thinkers:

• FTP084, 085: Kevin Kelly – What Technology Wants and Why We Need Humans in the Future
• FTP045: Amber Case – Calm Technology and Human-Machine Interactions
• FTP030: Robin Hanson – The Age of Em: 1 Year After We Upload Ourselves to Internet
• FTP025: James Hughes – Cyborg Buddha, Transhuman Enlightenment and Basic Income