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Douglas Rushkoff
January 29, 2019 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm UTC+0
discussing the subject of his new book
Team Human
published by W.W. Norton
Though created by humans, our technologies, markets, and institutions often contain an antihuman agenda. Douglas Rushkoff, digital theorist and host of the NPR-One podcast Team Human, reveals the dynamics of this antihuman machinery and invites us to remake these aspects of society in ways that foster our humanity.
In 100 aphoristic statements, his manifesto exposes how forces for human connection have turned into ones of isolation and repression: money, for example, has transformed from a means of exchange to a means of exploitation, and education has become an extension of occupational training. Digital-age technologies have only amplified these trends, presenting the greatest challenges yet to our collective autonomy: robots taking our jobs, algorithms directing our attention, and social media undermining our democracy. But all is not lost. It’s time for Team Human to take a stand, regenerate the social bonds that define us and, together, make a positive impact on this earth.
About Douglas Rushkoff:
Named one of the “world’s ten most influential intellectuals” by MIT, Douglas Rushkoff is an author, media theorist, professor, and documentarian who studies human autonomy in a digital age. His twenty books include the upcoming Team Human, based on his podcast, as well as the bestsellers Present Shock, Throwing Rocks and the Google Bus, Program or Be Programmed, Life Inc, and Media Virus. He also made the PBS Frontline documentaries Generation Like, The Persuaders, and Merchants of Cool. His book Coercion won the Marshall McLuhan Award, and the Media Ecology Association honored him with the first Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity. Rushkoff’s work explores how different technological environments change our relationship to narrative, money, power, and one another. He coined such concepts as “viral media,” “screenagers,” and “social currency,” and has been a leading voice for applying digital media toward social and economic justice. He is a research fellow of the Institute for the Future, and founder of the Laboratory for Digital Humanism at CUNY/Queens, where he is a Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics. His novels and comics, Ecstasy Club, A.D.D, and Aleister & Adolf, are all being developed for the screen.
Praise for the work of Douglas Rushkoff
“Original and uplifting. Just the book America needs right now. In his unique and engaging style, Rushkoff reminds us of our human essence: we are social creatures, and if we trust this truth about ourselves we can accomplish the seemingly impossible.” — Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet and Daring Democracy
“Rushkoff is the gold standard. He always knows what tech is up to—and he’s usually prophetic. Now he’s here to tell us how our Silicon masters are attempting to pit us against one another for their own gain. Go Team Human.” — Walter Kirn, author of Blood Will Out and Up in the Air
“A vivid thinker, Rushkoff is an insightful and acerbic antidote to Facebook, cultural hegemony, and the corporatization of everything.” — Seth Godin, bestselling author of The Dip, Linchpin, and What to Do When It’s Your Turn (and It’s Always Your Turn)
“Can the revolution start already? This book will help us. Thank God for Douglas Rushkoff.” — Parker Posey
“Technology can be a force for good or amplify our self-destructive capacities. In Team Human, the always-brilliant Douglas Rushkoff reminds us that the tools we design design us in turn, and offers a vision to invert our tools and make them better.” — Jason Silva, host of National Geographic’s Brain Games
“An astonishing, paradigm-shifting must-read for all inhabitants of the twenty-first century. Precisely and cogently written. Rushkoff’s best work so far.” — Grant Morrison
“A searing critique…Visionary, original, and inspirational. If you’re not already a member of Team Human, you will be once you’ve finished reading it.” — Jeremy Lent, author of The Patterning Instinct
“[A] catalyst for conversations on what it means to be human.” — Booklist