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Sometimes referred to as a “documentarian,” sometimes as a “media theorist,” Douglas Rushkoff1 has long been a voice providing analysis and commentary on our sociotechnical human condition. His latest book, out next week, is Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires,2 but I see that book as a part two to his 2019 manifesto Team Human and podcast3 with the same name. So, to prepare us for understanding the mindset of the Silicon Valley tech and capitalist billionaires, we first need to know that they have already chosen a side, a team, and it’s not Team Human. More importantly, we need to understand that the game is already being played and you are already behind. Team Human is a wake-up call for you to get back in the game before it’s too late–it’s time to join Team Human.
The main thesis of Team Human is that pervasive (digital) technologies are increasingly isolating us from each other, physically, mentally, and culturally. Written as a manifesto, the book is a collection of one hundred statements, observations, or suggestions for how tech is taking over our civilization and what to do about it. The problem is that tech using us instead of us using tech. Worse, we continue happily creating this type of tech. For example, I recall the early days of Facebook where you could only join the social network if you were from a select number of universities. Once in, you were able to connect to other friends, slowing growing your social network. On the app, you were able to see and comment on posts from your friends, and the service truly did seem a way to connect with friends despite physical distances.
Yet over time that social aspect was forgotten by Facebook—the purpose of their service turned from emphasizing the sharing of content from your friends to an algorithmically-determined “feed” that would serve us memes, ads, pics, and comments from those–friend or not–that the algorithm determined would get the most reaction or attention from us. Our private data—who and what we liked or didn’t like—was gathered, analyzed, and optimized against each one of us to maximize “attention,” which for Facebook resulted in maximizing their ad revenue.
Today, using social media we increasingly feel disconnected from our friends, divided against each other, and often just disillusioned with society. Says Rushkoff, “each of their algorithms is designed to engage with us individually, disconnect us from one another, neutralize our defense mechanisms, and program our behavior as if we were computers. Television advertisers may have normalized the idea that consumers can be experimented on like lab rats, but social media weaponizes these techniques” (Rushkoff 2020, 37).
That last quote is insightful. Rushkoff discusses historically how this strategy by Facebook’s leaders is neither new nor unique. Before today’s social media, Rushkoff notes examples of the printing press, radio, and television, for example, and how those in power have historically always been one step ahead of those not in power (i.e., us) in terms of controlling the means of communication in society through technology platforms. Since they control the platform, they can maintain control over the power, and therefore over us. And since engineers design and implement according to how they are taught and what they are directed to by corporate leadership, we end up with technologies solving the wrong problem. As Rushkoff notes, “Engineers at our leading tech firms and universities tend to see human beings as the problem and technology as the solution” (Rushkoff 2020, 4).
I see this often–engineers are taught technosolutionism, where problems are defined so that the only solution is a technical one. The result is that a technical solution is found–engineers are good at solving problems—but the resulting solution is often for a problem we do not in reality have. For example, “instead of designing technologies that promote autonomy and help us make informed decisions, the persuasion engineers in charge of our biggest digital companies are hard at work creating interfaces that thwart our cognition and push us into an impulsive state where thoughtful choices—or thought itself—are nearly impossible” (Rushkoff 2020, 67).
The point is that sure, managers and engineers can identify a metric and optimize on that metric, but if the wrong metrics are chosen, for example with social media, we end up with a solution that divides users all while selling our data and earning advertising profits for the corporation. I assume Rushkoff will explore this Silicon Valley and modern capitalist mindset driving tech utopianism and solutionism, which in turn drives how problems are defined and metrics chosen, in his new book Survival of the Richest.
But I want to stress that Rushkoff is neither anti-technology nor a Luddite. And he does not feel that the game is already over, that our future will simply and deterministically be algorithmically determined. Rather, Rushkoff stresses that humans have agency to help determine the future we want to have. Says Rushkoff, “Artificial intelligence, cloning, genetic engineering, virtual reality, robots, nanotechnology, bio-hacking, space colonization, and autonomous machines are all likely coming, one way or another. But we must take a stand and insist that human values are folded into the development of each and every one of them” (Rushkoff 2020, 67).
In this I agree—in fact, that is the tagline for The Pseudodragon Newsletter: “Towards Designing and Using Responsible and Ethical Technologies to Create a Future Worth Having.” To do that, we can’t work alone—we need values and we need each other. We need Team Human.
Yours,
Kendall
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About
Just joining us? Or maybe you’ve forgotten why you signed up? I’m Kendall Giles, a writer, researcher, and drinker of much coffee. Currently I work at Virginia Tech in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering in Falls Church, Virginia. I also teach in the Master of Information Technology Program, teach in the ECE Master of Engineering Program, and am a PhD student in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. I research, write, and speak at the intersection of science, technology, and society, including the TechnoSlipstream podcast and the Pseudodragon Newsletter.
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Bibliography
Rushkoff, Douglas. 2019. Team Human. W. W. Norton & Company.
https://rushkoff.com
https://wwnorton.com/books/survival-of-the-richest/about-the-book/description
https://www.teamhuman.fm