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Your Undivided Attention Archiv

164 Episoden
35 Minuten
Social media was humanity’s ‘first contact’ moment with AI. If we’re going to create laws that are strong enough to prevent AI from destroying our societies, we could benefit from taking a look at the major lawsuits against social media platforms that are playing out in our courts right now.

In our last episode, we took a close look at Big Food and its dangerous “race to the bottom” that parallels AI. We continue that theme this week with an episode about litigating social media and the consequences of the race to engagement in order to inform how we can approach AI harms. 

Our guest, attorney Laura Marquez-Garrett, left her predominantly defense-oriented practice to join the Social Media Victims Law Center in February 2022. Laura is literally on the front lines of the battle to hold social media firms accountable for the harms they have created in young people’s lives for the past decade. 

Listener warning: there are distressing and potentially triggering details within the episode.

Correction: Tristan refers to the Social Media Victims Law Center as a nonprofit legal center. They are a for-profit law firm.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA 

1) If you're a parent whose child has been impacted by social media, Attorneys General in Colorado, New Hampshire, and Tennessee are asking to hear your story. Your testimonies can help ensure that social media platforms are designed safely for kids. For more information, please visit the respective state links.

Colorado

New Hampshire

Tennessee

2) Social Media Victims Law Center

A non-profit legal center that was founded in 2021 in response to the testimony of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen

3) Resources for Parents & Educators

Overwhelmed by our broken social media environment and wondering where to start? Check out our Youth Toolkit plus three actions you can take today

4) The Social Dilemma

Learn how the system works. Watch and share The Social Dilemma with people you care about

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES 

Transcending the Internet Hate Game with Dylan Marron

A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen

Behind the Curtain on The Social Dilemma with Jeff Orlowski-Yang and Larissa Rhodes

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

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35 Minuten
In the next two episodes of Your Undivided Attention, we take a close look at two respective industries: big food and social media, which represent dangerous “races to the bottom” and have big parallels with AI.  

And we are asking: what can our past mistakes and missed opportunities teach us about how we should approach AI harms? 

In this first episode, Tristan talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Michael Moss. His book Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us rocked the fast food industry when it came out in 2014. 

Tristan and Michael discuss how we can leverage the lessons learned from Big Food’s coordination failures, and whether it’s the responsibility of the consumer, the government, or the companies to regulate.

 

RECOMMENDED MEDIA 

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

Michael’s New York Times bestseller. You’ll never look at a nutrition label the same way again

Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions

Michael’s Pulitzer Prize-winning exposé of how the processed food industry exploits our evolutionary instincts, the emotions we associate with food, and legal loopholes in their pursuit of profit over public health

Control Your Tech Use

Center for Humane Technology’s recently updated Take Control Toolkit

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

AI Myths and Misconceptions

The AI Dilemma

How Might a long-term stock market transform tech? (ZigZag episode)

 

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

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30 Minuten
What happens when creators consider what lifelong human development looks like in terms of the tools we make? And what philosophies from Sesame Street can inform how to steward the power of AI and social media to influence minds in thoughtful, humane directions?

When the first episode of Sesame Street aired on PBS in 1969, it was unlike anything that had been on television before - a collaboration between educators, child psychologists, comedy writers and puppeteers - all working together to do something that had never been done before: create educational content for children on television. 

Fast-forward to the present: could we switch gears to reprogram today’s digital tools to   humanely educate the next generation? 

That’s the question Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin explore with Dr. Rosemarie Truglio, the Senior Vice President of Curriculum and Content for the Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind Sesame Street. 

RECOMMENDED MEDIA 

Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street

This documentary offers a rare window into the early days of Sesame Street, revealing the creators, artists, writers and educators who together established one of the most influential and enduring children’s programs in television history

Sesame Street: Ready for School!: A Parent's Guide to Playful Learning for Children Ages 2 to 5 by Dr. Rosemarie Truglio

Rosemarie shares all the research-based, curriculum-directed school readiness skills that have made Sesame Street the preeminent children's TV program

G Is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street co-edited by Shalom Fisch and Rosemarie Truglio

This volume serves as a marker of the significant role that Sesame Street plays in the education and socialization of young children

The Democratic Surround by Fred Turner

In this prequel to his celebrated book From Counterculture to Cyberculture, Turner rewrites the history of postwar America, showing how in the 1940s and 1950s American liberalism offered a far more radical social vision than we now remember

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

Neil Postman’s groundbreaking book about the damaging effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century

Sesame Workshop Identity Matters Study

Explore parents’ and educators’ perceptions of children’s social identity development

Effects of Sesame Street: A meta-analysis of children's learning in 15 countries

Commissioned by Sesame Workshop, the study was led by University of Wisconsin researchers Marie-Louise Mares and Zhongdang Pan

U.S. Parents & Teachers See an Unkind World for Their Children, New Sesame Survey Shows

According to the survey titled, “K is for Kind: A National Survey On Kindness and Kids,” parents and teachers in the United States worry that their children are living in an unkind world

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

Are the Kids Alright? With Jonathan Haidt

The Three Rules of Humane Tech

When Media Was for You and Me with Fred Turner

 

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

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23 Minuten
You’re likely familiar with the modern zombie trope: a zombie bites someone you care about and they’re transformed into a creature who wants your brain. Zombies are the perfect metaphor to explain something Tristan and Aza have been thinking about lately that they call zombie values.

In this Spotlight episode of Your Undivided Attention, we talk through some examples of how zombie values limit our thinking around tech harms. Our hope is that by the end of this episode, you'll be able to recognize the zombie values that walk amongst us, and think through how to upgrade these values to meet the realities of our modern world. 

RECOMMENDED MEDIA 

Is the First Amendment Obsolete?

This essay explores free expression challenges

The Wisdom Gap

This blog post from the Center for Humane Technology describes the gap between the rising interconnected complexity of our problems and our ability to make sense of them

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES 

A Problem Well-Stated is Half Solved with Daniel Schmachtenberger

How To Free Our Minds with Cult Deprogramming Expert Steve Hassan

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

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56 Minuten
There’s really no one better than veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher at challenging people to articulate their thinking. Tristan Harrris recently sat down with her for a wide ranging interview on AI risk. She even pressed Tristan on whether he is a doomsday prepper. It was so great, we wanted to share it with you here. 

The interview was originally on Kara’s podcast ON with Kara Swisher. If you like it and want to hear more of Kara’s interviews with folks like Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman and others, you can find more episodes of ON with Kara Swisher here: https://link.chtbl.com/_XTWwg3k

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES 

AI Myths and Misconceptions

The AI Dilemma

The Three Rules of Humane Tech

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
39 Minuten
Democracy in action has looked the same for generations. Constituents might go to a library or school every one or two years and cast their vote for people who don't actually represent everything that they care about. Our technology is rapidly increasing in sophistication, yet our forms of democracy have largely remained unchanged. What would an upgrade look like - not just for democracy, but for all the different places that democratic decision-making happens?

On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, we’re joined by political economist and social technologist Divya Siddarth, one of the world's leading experts in collective intelligence. Together we explore how new kinds of governance can be supported through better technology, and how collective decision-making is key to unlocking everything from more effective elections to better ways of responding to global problems like climate change.

Correction:

Tristan mentions Elon Musk’s attempt to manufacture ventilators early on in the COVID-19 pandemic. Musk ended up buying over 1,200 ventilators that were delivered to California.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA

Against Democracy by Jason Brennan

A provocative challenge to one of our most cherished institutions

Ledger of Harms

Technology platforms have created a race for human attention that’s unleashed invisible harms to society. Here are some of the costs that aren't showing up on their balance sheets

The Wisdom Gap

This blog post from the Center for Humane Technology describes the gap between the rising interconnected complexity of our problems and our ability to make sense of them

DemocracyNext

DemocracyNext is working to design and establish new institutions for government and transform the governance of organizations that influence public life

CIP.org

An incubator for new governance models for transformative technology

Ethelo

Transform community engagement through consensus

Kazm’s Living Room Conversations

Living Room Conversations works to heal society by connecting people across divides through guided conversations proven to build understanding and transform communities

The Citizens Dialogue

A model for citizen participation in Ostbelgien, which was brought to life by the parliament of the German-speaking community

Asamblea Ciudadana Para El Clima

Spain’s national citizens’ assembly on climate change

Climate Assembly UK

The UK’s national citizens’ assembly on climate change

Citizens’ Convention for the Climate

France’s national citizens’ assembly on climate change

Polis

Polis is a real-time system for gathering, analyzing and understanding what large groups of people think in their own words, enabled by advanced statistics and machine learning

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang 

They Don’t Represent Us with Larry Lessig

A Renegade Solution to Extractive Economics with Kate Raworth

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

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27 Minuten
A few episodes back, we presented Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin’s talk The AI Dilemma. People inside the companies that are building generative artificial intelligence came to us with their concerns about the rapid pace of deployment and the problems that are emerging as a result. We felt called to lay out the catastrophic risks that AI poses to society and sound the alarm on the need to upgrade our institutions for a post-AI world.

The talk resonated - over 1.6 million people have viewed it on YouTube as of this episode’s release date. The positive reception gives us hope that leaders will be willing to come to the table for a difficult but necessary conversation about AI.

However, now that so many people have watched or listened to the talk, we’ve found that there are some AI myths getting in the way of making progress. On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, we debunk five of those misconceptions. 

RECOMMENDED MEDIA 

Opinion | Yuval Harari, Tristan Harris, and Aza Raskin on Threats to Humanity Posed by AI - The New York Times

In this New York Times piece, Yuval Harari, Tristan Harris, and Aza Raskin call upon world leaders to respond to this moment at the level of challenge it presents.

Misalignment, AI & Moloch

A deep dive into the game theory and exponential growth underlying our modern economic system, and how recent advancements in AI are poised to turn up the pressure on that system, and its wider environment, in ways we have never seen before

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

The AI Dilemma

The Three Rules of Humane Tech

Can We Govern AI? with Marietje Schaake

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

 

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24 Minuten
Despite our serious concerns about the pace of deployment of generative artificial intelligence, we are not anti-AI. There are uses that can help us better understand ourselves and the world around us. Your Undivided Attention co-host Aza Raskin is also co-founder of Earth Species Project, a nonprofit dedicated to using AI to decode non-human communication. ESP is developing this technology both to shift the way that we relate to the rest of nature, and to accelerate conservation research.

Significant recent breakthroughs in machine learning have opened ways to encode both human languages and map out patterns of animal communication. The research, while slow and incredibly complex, is very exciting. Picture being able to tell a whale to dive to avoid ship strikes, or to forge cooperation in conservation areas. 

These advances come with their own complex ethical issues. But understanding non-human languages could transform our relationship with the rest of nature and promote a duty of care for the natural world.

In a time of such deep division, it’s comforting to know that hidden underlying languages may potentially unite us. When we study the patterns of the universe, we’ll see that humanity isn’t at the center of it.

 

Corrections:

Aza refers to the founding of Earth Species Project (ESP) in 2017. The organization was established in 2018.

When offering examples of self-awareness in animals, Aza mentions lemurs that get high on centipedes. They actually get high on millipedes. 

 

RECOMMENDED MEDIA 

Using AI to Listen to All of Earth’s Species

An interactive panel discussion hosted at the World Economic Forum in San Francisco on October 25, 2022. Featuring ESP President and Cofounder Aza Raskin; Dr. Karen Bakker, Professor at UBC and Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow; and Dr. Ari Friedlaender, Professor at UC Santa Cruz

What A Chatty Monkey May Tell Us About Learning to Talk

The gelada monkey makes a gurgling sound that scientists say is close to human speech

Lemurs May Be Making Medicine Out of Millipedes

Red-fronted lemurs appear to use plants and other animals to treat their afflictions

Fathom on AppleTV+

Two biologists set out on an undertaking as colossal as their subjects – deciphering the complex communication of whales 

Earth Species Project is Hiring a Director of Research

ESP is looking for a thought leader in artificial intelligence with a track record of managing a team of researchers

 

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES 

The Three Rules of Humane Tech

The AI Dilemma

Synthetic Humanity: AI & What’s At Stake

 

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

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40 Minuten
When it comes to AI, what kind of regulations might we need to address this rapidly developing new class of technologies? What makes regulating AI and runaway tech in general different from regulating airplanes, pharmaceuticals, or food? And how can we ensure that issues like national security don't become a justification for sacrificing civil rights?

Answers to these questions are playing out in real time. If we wait for more AI harms to emerge before proper regulations are put in place, it may be too late. 

Our guest Marietje Schaake was at the forefront of crafting tech regulations for the EU. In spite of AI’s complexity, she argues there is a path forward for the U.S. and other governing bodies to rein in companies that continue to release these products into the world without oversight. 

Correction: Marietje said antitrust laws in the US were a century ahead of those in the EU. Competition law in the EU was enacted as part of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, almost 70 years after the US.

 

RECOMMENDED MEDIA 

The AI Dilemma 

Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin’s presentation on existing AI capabilities and the catastrophic risks they pose to a functional society. Also available in the podcast format (linked below)

The Wisdom Gap

This blog post from the Center for Humane Technology describes the gap between the rising interconnected complexity of our problems and our ability to make sense of them

The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) & Digital Markets Act (DMA)

The two pieces of legislation aim to create safer and more open digital spaces for individuals and businesses alike

 

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang

The AI Dilemma

The Three Rules of Humane Tech

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
22 Minuten
In our previous episode, we shared a presentation Tristan and Aza recently delivered to a group of influential technologists about the race happening in AI. In that talk, they introduced the Three Rules of Humane Technology. In this Spotlight episode, we’re taking a moment to explore these three rules more deeply in order to clarify what it means to be a responsible technologist in the age of AI.

Correction: Aza mentions infinite scroll being in the pockets of 5 billion people, implying that there are 5 billion smartphone users worldwide. The number of smartphone users worldwide is actually 6.8 billion now.

 

RECOMMENDED MEDIA 

We Think in 3D. Social Media Should, Too

Tristan Harris writes about a simple visual experiment that demonstrates the power of one’s point of view

Let’s Think About Slowing Down AI

Katja Grace’s piece about how to avert doom by not building the doom machine

If We Don’t Master AI, It Will Master Us

Yuval Harari, Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin call upon world leaders to respond to this moment at the level of challenge it presents in this New York Times opinion piece

 

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES 

The AI Dilemma

Synthetic humanity: AI & What’s At Stake

 

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

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The AI Dilemma

42 Minuten
You may have heard about the arrival of GPT-4, OpenAI’s latest large language model (LLM) release. GPT-4 surpasses its predecessor in terms of reliability, creativity, and ability to process intricate instructions. It can handle more nuanced prompts compared to previous releases, and is multimodal, meaning it was trained on both images and text. We don’t yet understand its capabilities - yet it has already been deployed to the public.

At Center for Humane Technology, we want to close the gap between what the world hears publicly about AI from splashy CEO presentations and what the people who are closest to the risks and harms inside AI labs are telling us. We translated their concerns into a cohesive story and presented the resulting slides to heads of institutions and major media organizations in New York, Washington DC, and San Francisco. The talk you're about to hear is the culmination of that work, which is ongoing.

AI may help us achieve major advances like curing cancer or addressing climate change. But the point we're making is: if our dystopia is bad enough, it won't matter how good the utopia we want to create. We only get one shot, and we need to move at the speed of getting it right.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA

AI ‘race to recklessness’ could have dire consequences, tech experts warn in new interview

Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin sit down with Lester Holt to discuss the dangers of developing AI without regulation

The Day After (1983)

This made-for-television movie explored the effects of a devastating nuclear holocaust on small-town residents of Kansas

The Day After discussion panel

Moderated by journalist Ted Koppel, a panel of present and former US officials, scientists and writers discussed nuclear weapons policies live on television after the film aired

Zia Cora - Submarines 

“Submarines” is a collaboration between musician Zia Cora (Alice Liu) and Aza Raskin. The music video was created by Aza in less than 48 hours using AI technology and published in early 2022

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES 

Synthetic humanity: AI & What’s At Stake

A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen

Two Million Years in Two Hours: A Conversation with Yuval Noah Harari

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

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37 Minuten
A few months ago on Your Undivided Attention, we released a Spotlight episode on TikTok's national security risks. Since then, we've learned more about the dangers of the China-owned company: We've seen evidence of TikTok spying on US journalists, and proof of hidden state media accounts to influence the US elections. We’ve seen Congress ban TikTok on most government issued devices, and more than half of US states have done the same, along with dozens of US universities who are banning TikTok access from university wifi networks. More people in Western governments and media are saying that they used to believe that TikTok was an overblown threat. As we've seen more evidence of  national security risks play out, there’s even talk of banning TikTok itself in certain countries. But is that the best solution? If we opt for a ban, how do we, as open societies, fight accusations of authoritarianism? 

On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, we're going to do a deep dive into these questions with Marc Faddoul. He's the co-director of Tracking Exposed, a nonprofit investigating the influence of social media algorithms in our lives. His work has shown how TikTok tweaks its algorithm to maximize partisan engagement in specific national elections, and how it bans international news in countries like Russia that are fighting propaganda battles inside their own borders. In other words, we don't all get the same TikTok because there are different geopolitical interests that might guide which TikTok you see. That is a kind of soft power that TikTok operates on a global scale, and it doesn’t get talked about often enough.

We hope this episode leaves you with a lot to think about in terms of what the risks of TikTok are, how it's operating geopolitically, and what we can do about it.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA

Tracking Exposed Special Report: TikTok Content Restriction in Russia

How has the Russian invasion of Ukraine affected the content that TikTok users see in Russia? [Part 1 of Tracking Exposed series]

Tracking Exposed Special Report: Content Restrictions on TikTok in Russia Following the Ukrainian War

How are TikTok’s policy decisions affecting pro-war and anti-war content in Russia? [Part 2 of Tracking Exposed series]

Tracking Exposed Special Report: French Elections 2022

The visibility of French candidates on TikTok and YouTube search engines

The Democratic Surround by Fred Turner

A dazzling cultural history that demonstrates how American intellectuals, artists, and designers from the 1930s-1960s imagined new kinds of collective events that were intended to promote a powerful experience of American democracy in action

RECLOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

When Media Was for You and Me with Fred Turner

Addressing the TikTok Threat

A Fresh Take on Tech in China with Rui Ma and Duncan Clark

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

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46 Minuten
It may seem like the rise of artificial intelligence, and increasingly powerful large language models you may have heard of, is moving really fast… and it IS. 

But what’s coming next is when we enter synthetic relationships with AI that could come to feel just as real and important as our human relationships... And perhaps even more so. 

In this episode of Your Undivided Attention, Tristan and Aza reach beyond the moment to talk about this powerful new AI, and the new paradigm of humanity and computation we’re about to enter. 

This is a structural revolution that affects way more than text, art, or even Google search. There are huge benefits to humanity, and we’ll discuss some of those. But we also see that as companies race to develop the best synthetic relationships, we are setting ourselves up for a new generation of harms made exponentially worse by AI’s power to predict, mimic and persuade.

It’s obvious we need ways to steward these tools ethically. So Tristan and Aza also share their ideas for creating a framework for AIs that will help humans become MORE humane, not less.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA 

Cybernetics: or, Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine by Norbert Wiener

A classic and influential work that laid the theoretical foundations for information theory

New Chatbots Could Change the World. Can You Trust Them?

The New York Times addresses misinformation and how Siri, Google Search, online marketing and your child’s homework will never be the same

Out of One, Many: Using Language Models to Simulate Human Samples by Lisa P. Argyle, Ethan C. Busby, Nancy Fulda, Joshua Gubler, Christopher Rytting, David Wingate

This paper proposes and explores the possibility that language models can be studied as effective proxies for specific human sub-populations in social science research

Earth Species Project

Earth Species Project, co-founded by Aza Raskin, is a non-profit dedicated to using artificial intelligence to decode non-human communication

Her (2013)

A science-fiction romantic drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Spike Jonze

What A Chatty Monkey May Tell Us About Learning To Talk

NPR explores the fascinating world of gelada monkeys and the way they communicate

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

How Political Language is Engineered with Drew Westen & Frank Luntz

What is Humane Technology?

Down the Rabbit Hole by Design with Guillaume Chaslot

 

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35 Minuten
It’s easy to tell ourselves we’re living in the world we want – one where Darwinian evolution drives competing technology platforms and capitalism pushes nations to maximize GDP regardless of externalities like carbon emissions. It can feel like evolution and competition are all there is.

If that’s a complete description of what’s driving the world and our collective destiny, that can feel pretty hopeless. But what if that’s not the whole story of evolution? 

This is where evolutionary theorist, author, and professor David Sloan Wilson comes in. He has documented where an enlightened game, one of cooperation, rather than competition, is possible. His work shows that humans can and have chosen values like cooperation, altruism and group success – versus individual competition and selfishness – at key moments in our evolution, proving that evolution isn’t just genetic. It’s cultural, and it’s a choice. 

In a world where our trajectory isn’t tracking in the direction we want, it's time to slow down and ask: is a different kind of conscious evolution possible? 

On Your Undivided Attention, we’re going to update the Darwinian principles of evolution using a critical scientific lens that can help upgrade our ability to cooperate – ranging from the small community-level, all the way to entire technology companies that can cooperate in ways that allow everyone to succeed. 

RECOMMENDED MEDIA

This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution by David Sloan Wilson

Prosocial: Using Evolutionary Science to Build Productive, Equitable, and Collaborative Groups by David Sloan Wilson

Atlas Hugged: The Autobiography of John Galt III by David Sloan Wilson

Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action by Elinor Ostrom

Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella

WTF? What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us by Tim O’Reilly

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace & Jim Erickson

 

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES 

An Alternative to Silicon Valley Unicorns with Mara Zepeda & Kate “Sassy” Sassoon

A Problem Well-Stated is Half-Solved with Daniel Schmachtenberger 

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

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43 Minuten
Welcome to our first-ever Ask Us Anything episode. Recently we put out a call for questions… and, wow, did you come through! We got more than 100 responses from listeners to this podcast from all over the world. It was really fun going through them all, and really difficult to choose which ones to answer here. But we heard you, and we’ll carry your amazing suggestions and ideas forward with us in 2023.

When we created Your Undivided Attention, the goal was to explore the incredible power technology has over our lives, and how we can use it to catalyze a humane future. Three years and a global pandemic later, we’re more committed than ever to helping meet the moment with crucial conversations about humane technology - even as the tech landscape constantly evolves and world events bring more urgency to the need for technology that unites us, invests in democratic values, and enhances our well-being.

We’ve learned from our guests alongside all of you. Sixty-one episodes later, the podcast has over 16 million unique downloads! That’s a lot of people who care about the promise of humane technology and are working to construct a more humane version of technology in their lives, their family’s lives, and within their communities and society at large. We’re a movement! 

Thank you to everyone who submitted questions and comments for us. We loved doing this, and we’re looking forward to doing it again!

Correction:

When discussing DeepMind’s recent paper, Aza said the premise was four people entering their views and opinions, with AI finding the commonality between all of those viewpoints. It was actually three people entering their views and opinions.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA 

CHT’s Recommended Reading List:

Foundations of Humane Technology

Our free, self-paced online course for professionals shaping tomorrow’s technology

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff 

Foundational reading on the attention economy

Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Umoja Noble 

Seminal work on how algorithms in search engines replicate and reinforce bias online and offline

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman 

Written in 1985, Postman’s work shockingly predicts our current media environment and its effects

Attention Merchants by Tim Wu

A history of how advertisers capture our attention

Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth 

A compass for how to upgrade our economic models to be more regenerative and distributive

Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows

This excellent primer shows us how to develop systems thinking skills

What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael Sandel

Sandel explores how we can prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don’t belong

Essay: Disbelieving Atrocities by Arthur Koestler

Originally published January 9, 1944 in The New York Times

Humane Technology reading list

Comprehensive for those who want to geek out

ORGANIZATIONS TO EXPLORE 

Integrity Institute

Integrity Institute advances the theory and practice of protecting the social internet, powered by their community of integrity professionals

All Tech Is Human job board

All Tech Is Human curates roles focused on reducing the harms of technology, diversifying the tech pipeline, and ensuring that technology is aligned with the public interest

Denizen

Denizen brings together leaders across disciplines to accelerate systemic change

New_Public

New_Public is place for thinkers, builders, designers and technologists to meet and share inspiration

Psychology of Technology Institute

PTI is non-profit network of behavioral scientists, technology designers, and decision-makers that protects and improves psychological health for society by advancing our understanding and effective use of transformative technologies

RadicalxChange

RxC is a social movement for next-generation political economies

The School for Social Design

The School for Social Design offers three courses on articulating what’s meaningful for different people and how to design for it at smaller and larger scales

TechCongress

TechCongress is a technology policy fellowship on Capitol Hill

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES 

An Alternative to Silicon Valley Unicorns

https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/54-an-alternative-to-silicon-valley-unicorns

A Problem Well-Stated is Half-Solved

https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/a-problem-well-stated-is-half-solved

Digital Democracy is Within Reach

https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/23-digital-democracy-is-within-reach

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