Sveriges 100 mest populära podcasts
Last week, Senator Chuck Schumer brought together Congress and many of the biggest names in AI for the first closed-door AI Insight Forum in Washington, D.C. Tristan and Aza were invited speakers at the event, along with Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, Sam Altman, and other leaders. In this update on Your Undivided Attention, Tristan and Aza recount how they felt the meeting went, what they communicated in their statements, and what it felt like to critique Meta?s LLM in front of Mark Zuckerberg.
Correction: In this episode, Tristan says GPT-3 couldn?t find vulnerabilities in code. GPT-3 could find security vulnerabilities, but GPT-4 is exponentially better at it.
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In Show of Force, Silicon Valley Titans Pledge ?Getting This Right? With A.I.
Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and others discussed artificial intelligence with lawmakers, as tech companies strive to influence potential regulations
Majority Leader Schumer Opening Remarks For The Senate?s Inaugural AI Insight Forum
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) opened the Senate?s inaugural AI Insight Forum
The Wisdom Gap
As seen in Tristan?s talk on this subject in 2022, the scope and speed of our world?s issues are accelerating and growing more complex. And yet, our ability to comprehend those challenges and respond accordingly is not matching pace
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Spotlight On AI: What Would It Take For This to Go Well?
The AI ?Race?: China vs. the US with Jeffrey Ding and Karen Hao
Spotlight: Elon, Twitter and the Gladiator Arena
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
Where do the top Silicon Valley AI researchers really think AI is headed? Do they have a plan if things go wrong? In this episode, Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin reflect on the last several months of highlighting AI risk, and share their insider takes on a high-level workshop run by CHT in Silicon Valley.
NOTE: Tristan refers to journalist Maria Ressa and mentions that she received 80 hate messages per hour at one point. She actually received more than 90 messages an hour.
CORRECTION: Jeffrey Ding says the export controls on advanced chips that were established in October 2022 only apply to military end-users. The controls also impose a license requirement on the export of those advanced chips to any China-based end-user.
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Musk, Zuckerberg, Gates: The titans of tech will talk AI at private Capitol summit
This week will feature a series of public hearings on artificial intelligence. But all eyes will be on the closed-door gathering convened by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
Takeaways from the roundtable with President Biden on artificial intelligence
Tristan Harris talks about his recent meeting with President Biden to discuss regulating artificial intelligence
Biden, Harris meet with CEOs about AI risks
Vice President Kamala Harris met with the heads of Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, and OpenAI as the Biden administration rolled out initiatives meant to ensure that AI improves lives without putting people?s rights and safety at risk
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The AI ?Race?: China vs the US with Jeffrey Ding and Karen Hao
The Dictator?s Playbook with Maria Ressa
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
In the debate over slowing down AI, we often hear the same argument against regulation. ?What about China? We can?t let China get ahead.? To dig into the nuances of this argument, Tristan and Aza speak with academic researcher Jeffrey Ding and journalist Karen Hao, who take us through what?s really happening in Chinese AI development. They address China?s advantages and limitations, what risks are overblown, and what, in this multi-national competition, is at stake as we imagine the best possible future for everyone.
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Recent Trends in China?s Large Language Model Landscape by Jeffrey Ding and Jenny W. Xiao
This study covers a sample of 26 large-scale pre-trained AI models developed in China
This paper argues for placing a greater weight on a state?s capacity to diffuse, or widely adopt, innovations
U.S. moves to cut research ties with China over security concerns threaten American progress in critical areas
Military technology has grown so complex that it?s hard to imitate
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The Three Rules of Humane Tech
A Fresh Take on Tech in China with Rui Ma and Duncan Clark
Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
For all the talk about AI, we rarely hear about how it will change our relationships. As we swipe to find love and consult chatbot therapists, acclaimed psychotherapist and relationship expert Esther Perel warns that there?s another harmful ?AI? on the rise ? Artificial Intimacy ? and how it is depriving us of real connection. Tristan and Esther discuss how depending on algorithms can fuel alienation, and then imagine how we might design technology to strengthen our social bonds.
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Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
Esther's debut work on the intricacies behind modern relationships, and the dichotomy of domesticity and sexual desire
The State of Affairs by Esther Perel
Esther takes a look at modern relationships through the lens of infidelity
Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel
Listen in as real couples in search of help bare the raw and profound details of their stories
Esther?s podcast that focuses on the hard conversations we're afraid to have at work
A young man strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the internet
In a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need
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Big Food, Big Tech and Big AI with Michael Moss
The Three Rules of Humane Tech
Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
We are on the cusp of an explosion of cheap, consumer-ready neurotechnology - from earbuds that gather our behavioral data, to sensors that can read our dreams. And it?s all going to be supercharged by AI. This technology is moving from niche to mainstream - and it has the same potential to become exponential.
Legal scholar Nita Farahany talks us through the current state of neurotechnology and its deep links to AI. She says that we urgently need to protect the last frontier of privacy: our internal thoughts. And she argues that without a new legal framework around ?cognitive liberty,? we won?t be able to insulate our brains from corporate and government intrusion.
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The Battle for Your Brain offers a path forward to navigate the complex dilemmas that will fundamentally impact our freedom to understand, shape, and define ourselves
Computer Program Reveals What Neurons in the Visual Cortex Prefer to Look At
A study of macaque monkeys at Harvard generated valuable clues based on an artificial intelligence system that can reliably determine what neurons in the brain?s visual cortex prefer to see
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man by Marshall McLuhan
An influential work by a fixture in media discourse
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The Three Rules of Humane Tech
Talking With Animals? Using AI
How to Free Our Minds with Cult Deprogramming Expert Dr. Steven Hassan
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
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.
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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.
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
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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_
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.
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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
Center for Humane Technology?s recently updated Take Control Toolkit
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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_
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.
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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
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
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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_
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.
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Is the First Amendment Obsolete?
This essay explores free expression challenges
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
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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_
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
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The Three Rules of Humane Tech
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
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.
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Against Democracy by Jason Brennan
A provocative challenge to one of our most cherished institutions
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
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 is working to design and establish new institutions for government and transform the governance of organizations that influence public life
An incubator for new governance models for transformative technology
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
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
The UK?s national citizens? assembly on climate change
Citizens? Convention for the Climate
France?s national citizens? assembly on climate change
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
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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_
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.
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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.
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
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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_
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.
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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
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
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The Three Rules of Humane Tech
Synthetic Humanity: AI & What?s At Stake
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
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.
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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)
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
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Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang
The Three Rules of Humane Tech
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
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.
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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
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Synthetic humanity: AI & What?s At Stake
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
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.
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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
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
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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_
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.
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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
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When Media Was for You and Me with Fred Turner
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_
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.
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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
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, co-founded by Aza Raskin, is a non-profit dedicated to using artificial intelligence to decode non-human communication
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
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How Political Language is Engineered with Drew Westen & Frank Luntz
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.
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This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution 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
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_
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 brings together leaders across disciplines to accelerate systemic change
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
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 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
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
When you look at the world, it can feel like we're in a precarious moment. If you?ve listened to past episodes, you know we call this the meta-crisis ? an era of overlapping and interconnected crises like climate change, polarization, and the rise of decentralized technologies like synthetic biology. It can feel like we?re on a path to destroy ourselves.
That's why we?re talking to Rick Doblin, the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS. They?re a nonprofit focused on educating and researching the benefits of using psychedelic therapy to address PTSD and promote humane ways of relating worldwide.
Doblin?s vision is for nothing less than a transformation of society through psychedelic-assisted therapy ? not for the drugs themselves, but for their ability to help us react to one another with compassion, appreciate differences, and accept criticism.
Given the perma-crisis we face, it?s provocative to think about a tool that, when prescribed and used safely, could help us overcome rivalrous dynamics out in the world and on social media. If we rescue our hijacked brains, we can heal from the constant trauma inflation we get online, and shrink the perception gap that splits us into tribes.
Both MAPS and Center for Humane Technology want to understand what helps minds heal and be free. We invite you to keep an open mind about a different kind of humane technology as you listen to this episode.
Correction:
Doblin attributes a quote to Stan Grof about psychedelics helping your ego be ?transparent to the transcendent.? In his book Pathways to Bliss, Joseph Campbell wrote, "When a deity serves as a model for you, your life becomes transparent to the transcendent as long as you realize the inspiring power of that deity. This means living not in the name of worldly success and achievement, but rather in the name of the transcendent, letting the energy manifest through you.? Grof was likely paraphrasing Campbell?s work and applying it to psychedelics.
Additional credits:
The episode contains an original musical composition by Jeff Sudakin. Used with permission.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
The non-profit founded by Rick Doblin in 1986 focused on developing medical, legal, and cultural contexts for people to benefit from the careful uses of psychedelics and marijuana. MAPS has some open clinical trials; see details on their website.
In this fascinating dive into the science of psychedelics, Doblin explains how drugs like LSD, psilocybin and MDMA affect your brain - and shows how, when paired with psychotherapy, they could change the way we treat PTSD, depression, substance abuse and more.
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
Pollan writes of his own consciousness-expanding experiments with psychedelic drugs, and makes the case for why shaking up the brain's old habits could be therapeutic for people facing addiction, depression, or death.
How to Change Your Mind on Netflix
The docuseries version of Pollan?s book
Breath by James Nestor
This popular science book provides a historical, scientific and personal account of breathing, with special focus on the differences between mouth breathing and nasal breathing.
A free app for sleep, anxiety, and stress
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
You Will Never Breathe the Same Again with James Nestor
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/38-you-will-never-breathe-the-same-again
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_
When it comes to social media risk, there is reason to hope for consensus. Center for Humane Technology co-founder Tristan Harris recently helped launch a new initiative called the Council for Responsible Social Media (CRSM) in Washington, D.C. It?s a coalition between religious leaders, public health experts, national security leaders, and former political representatives from both sides - people who just care about making our democracy work.
During this event, Tristan sat down with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, a friend of Center for Humane Technology, to discuss the harm caused to our mental health and global democracy when platforms lack accountability and transparency. The CRSM is bipartisan, and its kickoff serves to boost the solutions Frances and Tristan identify going into 2023.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Council for Responsible Social Media (CRSM)
A project of Issue One, CRSM is a cross-partisan group of leaders addressing the negative mental, civic, and public health impacts of social media in America.
Twitter Whistleblower Testifies on Security Issues
Peiter ?Mudge? Zatko, a former Twitter security executive, testified on privacy and security issues relating to the social media company before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Beyond the Screen is a coalition of technologists, designers, and thinkers fighting against online harms, led by the Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen.
Our campaign to pressure Facebook to make one immediate change ? join us!
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/42-a-conversation-with-facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen
A Facebook Whistleblower: Sophie Zhang
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/episode-37-a-facebook-whistleblower
Mr. Harris Zooms to Washington
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/episode-35-mr-harris-zooms-to-washington
With Great Power Comes? No Responsibility?
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/3-with-great-power-comes-no-responsibility
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
The weekly American news show 60 Minutes invited Center for Humane Technology co-founder Tristan Harris back recently to discuss political polarization and the anger and incivility that gets elevated on social media as a matter of corporate profit. We're releasing a special episode of Your Undivided Attention this week to dig further into some of the important nuances of the complexity of this problem.
CHT?s work was actually introduced to the world by Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes back in 2017, and we?re honored to have been invited back. In this new interview, we cover the business model of competing for engagement at all costs - the real root of the problem that we?re thrilled to be able to discuss on a far-reaching platform.
We also busted the myth that if you?re not on social media, you don?t need to be concerned. Even if you're not on social media, you likely live in a country that will vote based on other people?s collective choices and behaviors. We know that the media we engage with shapes the people who consume it.
CORRECTION:
Tristan notes that Facebook's Head of Global Policy, Monika Bickert, says in the interview that social media can't be the root of America's anger because it's people over the age of 60 who are most polarized. She actually said that people over the age of 65 are most polarized.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
60 Minutes: ?Social Media and Political Polarization in America?
https://humanetech.com/60minutes
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297276/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.
60 Minutes: ?Brain Hacking?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awAMTQZmvPE
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
Elon, Twitter, and the Gladiator Arena
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/elon-twitter-and-the-gladiator-arena
Addressing the TikTok Threat
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/bonus-addressing-the-tiktok-threat
What is Civil War In The Digital Age? With Barbara F Walter
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/50-what-is-civil-war-in-the-digital-age
Since it?s looking more and more like Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, will probably soon have ownership of Twitter, we wanted to do a special episode about what this could mean for Twitter users and our global digital democracy as a whole.
Twitter is a very complicated place. It is routinely blocked by governments who fear its power to organize citizen protests around the world. It?s also where outrage, fear and violence get amplified by design, warping users? views of each other and our common, connected humanity.
We?re at a fork in the road, and we know enough about humane design principles to do this better. So we thought we would do a little thought experiment: What if we applied everything we know about humane technology to Twitter, starting tomorrow? What would happen?
This is the second part in a two-part conversation about Twitter that we?ve had on Your Undivided Attention about Elon Musk?s bid for Twitter and what it could mean in the context of the need to go in a more humane direction.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
Published in 1859, this philosophical essay applies Mill's ethical system of utilitarianism to society and state
Elon Musk Only Has ?Yes? Men by Jonathan L. Fischer
Reporting from Slate on the subject
Foundations of Humane Technology
The Center for Humane Technology's free online course for professionals shaping tomorrow's technology
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
A Bigger Picture on Elon and Twitter
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/bigger-picture-elon-twitter
Transcending the Internet Hate Game with Dylan Marron
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/52-transcending-the-internet-hate-game
Fighting With Mirages of Each Other with Adam Mastroianni
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/56-fighting-with-mirages-of-each-other
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
We often talk about the need to protect American democracy. But perhaps those of us in the United States don't currently live in a democracy.
As research shows, there's pretty much no correlation between the percentage of the population that supports a policy and its likelihood of being enacted. The strongest determinant of whether a policy gets enacted is how much money is behind it.
So, how might we not just protect, but better yet revive our democracy? How might we revive the relationship between the will of the people and the actions of our government?
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're doing something special. As we near the election, and representation is on our minds, we're airing a talk by Harvard Law professor and Creative Commons co-founder Larry Lessig. It's a 2019 talk he gave at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, DC about his book, They Don't Represent Us.
The book title has two meanings: first, they ? as in our elected representatives ? don't represent us. And second, we ? as in the people ? don't represent ourselves. And this is where social media comes in: we don't represent ourselves because the more we use social media, the more we see extreme versions of the other side, and the more extreme, outraged, and polarized we ourselves become.
Last note: Lessig's talk is highly visual. We edited it lightly for clarity, and jump in periodically to narrate things you can?t see. But if you prefer to watch his talk, you can find the link below in Recommended Media.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Video: They Don't Represent Us
The 2019 talk Larry Lessig gave at Politics and Prose in Washington, DC about his book of the same name
Larry Lessig?s 2019 book that elaborates the ways in which democratic representation is in peril, and proposes a number of solutions to revive our democracy -- from ranked-choice voting to non-partisan open primaries
Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens
Princeton's Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page study measuring the correlation between the preferences of different groups and the decisions of our government
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/23-digital-democracy-is-within-reach
How Political Language Is Engineered with Drew Westen and Frank Luntz
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/53-how-political-language-is-engineered
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
The next frontier of the internet is the metaverse. That's why Mark Zuckerberg changed the name of his company from Facebook to Meta, and just sold $10 billion in corporate bonds to raise money for metaverse-related projects.
How might we learn from our experience with social media, and anticipate the harms of the metaverse before they arise? What would it look like to design a humane metaverse ? that respects our attention, improves our well-being, and strengthens our democracy?
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we talk with two pioneers who are thinking critically about the development of the metaverse. Professor Jeremy Bailenson is the Founding director of Stanford?s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, where he studies how virtual experiences lead to changes in perceptions of self and others. Dr. Courtney Cogburn is an Associate Professor at Columbia's School of Social Work, where she examines associations between racism and stress-related disease. Jeremy and Courtney collaborated on 1000 Cut Journey, a virtual reality experience about systemic racism.
CORRECTIONS:
RECOMMENDED MEDIA:
Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do
https://www.amazon.com/Experience-Demand-Virtual-Reality-Works/dp/0393253694
Jeremy Bailenson's 2018 book exploring how virtual reality can be harnessed to improve our everyday lives
Experiencing Racism in VR
https://www.ted.com/talks/courtney_cogburn_experiencing_racism_in_vr_courtney_d_cogburn_phd_tedxrva
Courtney Cogburn's 2017 TEDx talk about how using virtual reality to help people experience the complexities of racism
Do Artifacts Have Politics?
https://faculty.cc.gatech.edu/~beki/cs4001/Winner.pdf
Technology philosopher Langdon Winner?s seminal 1980 article, in which he writes, "by far the greatest latitude of choice exists the very first time a particular instrument, system, or technique is introduced."
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES:
Do You Want To Become A Vampire? with LA Paul
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/39-do-you-want-to-become-a-vampire
Pardon the Interruptions with Gloria Mark
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/7-pardon-the-interruptions
Bonus - What Is Humane Technology?
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/bonus-what-is-humane-technology
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
Have you ever lost a friend to misperception? Have you lost a friend or a family member to the idea that your views got so different, that it was time to end the relationship ? perhaps by unfriending each other on Facebook?
As it turns out, we often think our ideological differences are far greater than they actually are. Which means: we?re losing relationships and getting mired in polarization based on warped visions of each other.
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're talking with Adam Mastroianni, a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia Business School who studies how we perceive and misperceive our social worlds. Together with Adam, we're going to explore how accurate ? and inaccurate ? our views of each other are. As you listen to our conversation, keep in mind that relationship you might have lost to misperception, and that you might be able to revive as a result of what you hear.
CORRECTIONS: In the episode, Adam says in 1978, 85% of people said they'd vote for a Black president, but the actual percentage is 80.4%. Tristan says that Republicans estimate that more than a third of Democrats are LGBTQ, but the actual percentage is 32%. Finally, Tristan refers to Anil Seth's notion of cognitive impenetrability, but that term was actually coined by the Canadian cognitive scientist and philosopher Zenon W. Pylyshyn.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Widespread Misperceptions of Long-term Attitude Change
https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2107260119
Adam Mastroianni's research paper showing how stereotypes of the past lead people to misperceive attitude change, and how these misperceptions can lend legitimacy to policies that people may not actually prefer
Experimental History
https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/
Adam's blog, where he shares original data and thinks through ideas
Americans experience a false social reality by underestimating popular climate policy support by nearly half
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32412-y
Academic study showing that Americans are living in what researchers called a ?false social reality? with respect to misperceptions about climate views
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
Mind the (Perception) Gap with Dan Vallone
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/33-mind-the-perception-gap
The Courage to Connect. Guests: Ciaran O?Connor and John Wood, Jr.
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/30-the-courage-to-connect
Transcending the Internet Hate Game with Dylan Marron
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/52-transcending-the-internet-hate-game
Imagine it's the Cold War. Imagine that the Soviet Union puts itself in a position to influence the television programming of the entire Western world ? more than a billion viewers.
While this might sound like science fiction, it?s representative of the world we're living in, with TikTok being influenced by the Chinese Communist Party.
TikTok, the flagship app of the Chinese company Bytedance, recently surpassed Google and Facebook as the most popular site on the internet in 2021, and is expected to reach more than 1.8 billion users by the end of 2022. The Chinese government doesn't control TikTok, but has influence over it. What are the implications of this influence, given that China is the main geopolitical rival of the United States?
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we bring you a bonus episode about TikTok. Co-hosts Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin explore the nature of the TikTok threat, and how we might address it.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Pew Research Center's "Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022"
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/
Pew's recent study on how TikTok has established itself as one of the top online platforms for U.S. teens
Axios' "Washington turns up the heat on TikTok"
Article on recent Congressional responses to the threat of TikTok
Felix Krause on TikTok's keystroke tracking
https://twitter.com/KrauseFx/status/1560372509639311366
A revelation that TikTok has code to observe keypad input and all taps
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
A Fresh Take on Tech in China with Rui Ma and Duncan Clark
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/44-a-fresh-take-on-tech-in-china
A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/42-a-conversation-with-facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen
From Russia with Likes (Part 1). Guest: Renée DiResta
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/5-from-russia-with-likes-part-1
From Russia with Likes (Part 2). Guest: Renée DiResta
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/6-from-russia-with-likes-part-2
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
At Center for Humane Technology, we often talk about multipolar traps ? which arise when individuals have an incentive to act in ways that are beneficial to them in the short term, but detrimental to the group in the long term. Think of social media companies that compete for our attention, so that when TikTok introduces an even-more addictive feature, Facebook and Twitter have to mimic it in order to keep up, sending us all on a race to the bottom of our brainstems.
Intervening at the level of multipolar traps has extraordinary leverage. One such intervention is the Long Term Stock Exchange ? a U.S. national securities exchange serving companies and investors who share a long-term vision. Instead of asking public companies to pollute less or be less addictive while holding them accountable to short-term shareholder value, the Long-Term Stock Exchange creates a new playing field, which incentivizes the creation of long-term stakeholder value.
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we?re airing an episode of a podcast called ZigZag ? a fellow member of the TED Audio Collective. In an exploration of how technology companies might transcend multipolar traps, we're sharing with you ZigZag?s conversation with Long Term Stock Exchange founder Eric Ries.
CORRECTION: In the episode, we say that TikTok has outcompeted Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. In fact, TikTok has outcompeted Facebook, but not yet YouTube or Instagram ? TikTok has 1 billion monthly users, while YouTube has 2.6 billion and Instagram has 2 billion. However, we can say that TikTok is on a path toward outcompeting YouTube and Instagram.
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
An Alternative to Silicon Valley Unicorns with Mara Zepeda & Kate ?Sassy? Sassoon: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/54-an-alternative-to-silicon-valley-unicorns
A Problem Well-Stated Is Half-Solved with Daniel Schmachtenberger: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/a-problem-well-stated-is-half-solved
Here?s Our Plan And We Don?t Know with Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin, and Stephanie Lepp: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/46-heres-our-plan-and-we-dont-know
When you hear the word cyber-attack, what comes to mind? Someone hacking into your email, or stealing your Facebook password?
As it turns out, our most critical infrastructure can be hacked. Our banks, water treatment facilities, and nuclear power plants can be deactivated and even controlled simply by finding bugs in the software used to operate them. Suddenly, cyber-attack takes on a different meaning.
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're talking with cyber-security expert Nicole Perlroth. Nicole spent a decade as the lead cyber-security reporter at The New York Times, and is now a member of the Department of Homeland Security?s Cybersecurity Advisory Committee. She recently published ?This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends? ? an in-depth exploration of the global cyber arms race.
CORRECTIONS: In the episode, Nicole says that "the United States could have only afforded 2 to 3 more days of Colonial Pipeline being down before it ground the country ? our economy ? to a halt." The correct number is actually 3 to 5 days. She also refers to a 2015 study researching why some countries have significantly fewer successful cyber-attacks relative to cyber-attack attempts. That study was actually published in 2016.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends
Nicole Perlroth?s 2021 book investigating the global cyber-weapons arms race
Reporter Page at the New York Times
Nicole?s articles while the lead cyber-security reporter at the New York Times
The Global Cyber-Vulnerability Report (in brief)
Brief of a 2015 study by the Center for Digital International Government, Virginia Tech, and the University of Maryland that researched why some countries have significantly fewer successful cyber-attacks relative to cyber-attack attempts
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
The Dark Side Of Decentralization with Audrey Kurth Cronin: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/49-the-dark-side-of-decentralization
Is World War III Already Here? Guest: Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/45-is-world-war-iii-already-here
A Problem Well-Stated Is Half-Solved with Daniel Schmachtenberger:
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/a-problem-well-stated-is-half-solved
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
Why isn't Twitter doing more to get bots off their platform? Why isn?t Uber taking better care of its drivers?
What if...they can't?
Venture-capital backed companies like Twitter and Uber are held accountable to maximizing returns to investors. If and when they become public companies, they become accountable to maximizing returns to shareholders. They?ve promised Wall Street outsized returns ? which means Twitter can't lose bots if it would significantly lower their user count and in turn lower advertising revenue, and Uber can?t treat their drivers like employees if it competes with profits.
But what's the alternative? What might it look like to design an ownership and governance model that incentivizes a technology company to serve all of its stakeholders over the long term ? and primarily, the stakeholders who create value?
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're talking with two experts on creating the conditions for humane business, and in turn, for humane technology: Mara Zepeda and Kate ?Sassy? Sassoon of Zebras Unite Co-Op. Zebras Unite is a member-owned co-operative that?s creating the capital, culture, and community to power a more just and inclusive economy. The Zebras Unite Coop serves a community of over 6,000 members, in about 30 chapters, over 6 continents. Mara is their Managing Director, and Kate is their Director of Cooperative Membership.
Two corrections:
The episode says that the failure rate of startups is 99%. The actual rate is closer to 90%.The episode says that in 2017, Twitter reported 350 million users on its platform. The actual number reported was 319 million users.RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Zebras Fix What Unicorns Break
A seminal 2017 article by Zebras Unite co-founders, which kicked off the movement and distinguished between zebras and unicorns ? per the table below.
Zebras Unite?s 2019 thought experiment of exiting Meetup to community
Zebras Unite Crowdcast Channel
Where you can find upcoming online events, as well as recordings of previous events.
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
A Renegade Solution to Extractive Economics with Kate Raworth: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/29-a-renegade-solution-to-extractive-economics
Bonus ? A Bigger Picture on Elon & Twitter: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/bigger-picture-elon-twitter
Here?s Our Plan And We Don?t Know with Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin, and Stephanie Lepp: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/46-heres-our-plan-and-we-dont-know
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we?re doing something different: we?re airing an episode of another podcast that?s also part of the TED Audio Collective.
Backing up for a moment: we recently aired an episode with Dylan Marron ? creator and host of the podcast, Conversations With People Who Hate Me. On his show, Dylan calls up the people behind negative comments on the internet, and asks them: why did you write that?
In our conversation with Dylan, we played a clip from episode 2 of Conversations With People Who Hate Me. In that episode, Dylan talks with a high school student named Josh, who?d sent him homophobic messages online. This week, we're airing that full episode ? the full conversation between Dylan Marron and Josh.
If you didn?t hear our episode with Dylan, do give it a listen. Then, enjoy this second episode of Conversations With People Who Hate Me.
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
Transcending the Internet Hate Game with Dylan Marron: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/52-transcending-the-internet-hate-game
A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/42-a-conversation-with-facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen
The Cure for Hate. Guest: Tony McAleer: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/11-the-cure-for-hate
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
Democracy depends on our ability to choose our political views. But the language we use to talk about political issues is deliberately designed to be divisive, and can produce up to a 15-point difference in what we think about those issues. As a result, are we choosing our views, or is our language choosing them for us?
This week,Your Undivided Attention welcomes two Jedi Masters of political communication. Drew Westen is a political psychologist and messaging consultant based at Emory university, who has advised the Democratic Party. Frank Luntz is a political and communications consultant, pollster, and pundit, who has advised the Republican Party. In the past, our guests have used their messaging expertise in ways that increased partisanship. For example, Luntz advocated for the use of the term ?death tax? instead of ?estate tax,? and ?climate change? instead of ?global warming.? Still, Luntz and Westen are uniquely positioned to help us decode the divisive power of language ? and explore how we might design language that unifies.
CORRECTIONS: in the episode, Tristan refers to a panel Drew Westen and Frank Luntz were on at the New York Public Library. He says the panel was ?about 10 years ago,? but it was actually 15 years ago in 2007. Also, Westen refers to a news anchor who moderated a debate between George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis in 1988. Drew mistakenly names the anchor as Bernard Kalb, when it was actually Bernard Shaw.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation
Drew Westen's 2008 book about role of emotion in determining the political life of the nation, which influenced campaigns and elections around the world
Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear
Frank Luntz's 2008 book, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the tactical use of words and phrases affects what we buy, who we vote for, and even what we believe in
New York Public Library's Panel on Political Language
A 2007 panel between multiple 'Jedi Masters' of political communication along the political spectrum, including Frank Luntz, Drew Westen, and George Lakoff
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
The Invisible Influence of Language with Lera Boroditsky: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/48-the-invisible-influence-of-language
How To Free Our Minds with Cult Deprogramming Expert Dr. Steven Hassan: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/51-how-to-free-our-minds
Mind the (Perception) Gap with Dan Vallone: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/33-mind-the-perception-gap
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
The game that social media sets us up to play is a game that rewards outrage. It's a game that we win by being better than other players at dunking on each other, straw-manning each other, and assuming the worst in each other. The game itself must be transformed.
And, we can also decide to step out of the game, and do something different.
On this week?s episode of Your Undivided Attention, we welcome Dylan Marron ? who has been called by Jason Sudeikis "a modern Mr. Rogers for the digital age." Dylan is the creator and host of the podcast Conversations With People Who Hate Me.
On the show, he calls up the people behind negative comments on the internet, and asks them a simple question: why did you write that? He just published a book by the same name, where he elaborates 12 lessons learned from talking with internet strangers. Together with Dylan, we explore how transforming the game and transforming ourselves can go hand-in-hand.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Conversations With People Who Hate Me (podcast)
Dylan Marron?s podcast where he calls up the people behind negative comments on the internet, and talks to them. In this episode, we heard a clip of Episode 2: Hurt People Hurt People.
Conversations With People Who Hate Me (book)
Dylan?s book where he elaborates 12 lessons learned from talking with internet strangers.
Feature documentary chronicling the work and legacy of Fred Rogers.
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/42-a-conversation-with-facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen
The Cure for Hate. Guest: Tony McAleer: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/11-the-cure-for-hate
The Fake News of Your Own Mind with Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman:
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/19-the-fake-news-of-your-own-mind
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
How would you know if you were in a cult?
If not a cult, then at least under undue influence?
The truth is: we're all under some form of undue influence. The question is: to what degree and to what extent we?re aware of this influence ? which is exacerbated by social media. In an era of likes, followers, and echo chambers, how can we become aware of undue influence and gain sovereignty over our minds?
Our guest this week is Dr. Steven Hassan, an expert on undue influence, brainwashing, and unethical hypnosis. He?s the founder of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center ? a coaching, consulting, and training organization dedicated to helping people freely consider how they want to live their lives. Dr. Hassan was himself a member of a cult: the Unification Church (also known as the Moonies), which was developed in Korea in the 1950's. Since leaving the Moonies, Dr. Hassan has helped thousands of individuals and families recover from undue influence.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Freedom of Mind website: The website for Dr. Hassan?s Freedom of Mind Resource Center, which includes resources such as his Influence Continuum, BITE model of authoritarian control, and Strategic Interactive Approach for alleviating people of undue influence
The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steven Hassan: Dr. Hassan?s podcast exploring how mind-control works, and how to protect yourself from its grips
Reckonings: A podcast that told the stories of people who?ve transcended extremism, expanded their worldviews, and made other kinds of transformative change. Start with episode 17 featuring a former paid climate skeptic, or episode 18 featuring the former protégé of Fox News chairman Roger Ailes
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
Can Your Reality Turn on a Word? Guest: Anthony Jacquin: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/34-can-your-reality-turn-on-a-word
The World According to Q. Guest: Travis View: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/21-the-world-according-to-q
The Cure for Hate. Guest: Tony McAleer: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/11-the-cure-for-hate
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
If Elon Musk owns Twitter, what are the risks and what are the opportunities? In order for Twitter to support democracy ? and Musk?s goal of becoming a multi-planetary civilization ? we need a radical redesign that goes beyond free speech.
Note: this conversation was recorded on April 21, 2022. That was 3 days prior to the official purchase announcement, which revealed that Elon Musk will buy Twitter for $44 billion.
Clarification: In the episode, we talk about the creation of The Daily Show, featuring Jon Stewart. To be clear, The Daily Show was created by writer and producer Madeleine Smithberg and comedian and media personality Lizz Winstead ? for comedian and host Craig Kilborn. Jon Stewart took over in 1999, which is when he had the conversation with executives that we reference in the episode, where he didn't want to see the viewership numbers.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Examining algorithmic amplification of political content on Twitter
Polarization of Twitter (Knight Foundation)
Pew Research on the political extremes drowning out centrist voices on Twitter
Chronological feed vs algorithm (Computational Journalism Lab)
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/42-a-conversation-with-facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen
Here?s Our Plan And We Don?t Know: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/46-heres-our-plan-and-we-dont-know
A Problem Well-Stated Is Half-Solved: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/a-problem-well-stated-is-half-solved
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
Civil war might be the most likely escalation pathway towards disaster for our country. On the flip side, learning how to avoid civil conflict ? and more ambitiously, repair our civic fabric ? might have the greatest leverage for addressing the challenges we face.
Our guest Barbara F. Walter is ??one of the world's leading experts on civil wars, political violence, and terrorism. She?s the author of How Civil Wars Start: And How To Stop Them, which provides insight into the drivers of civil war, how social media fuels conflict, and how we might repair our broken democracies.
Together, we explore what makes for a healthy liberal democracy, why democracies worldwide are in decline, and the role of resentment and hope. Join us in an exploration of the generator functions for civil war in the digital age, and how we might prevent them.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
How Civil Wars Start: And How To Stop Them
Barbara F. Walter?s latest book and the subject of our conversation, identifying the conditions that give rise to modern civil war in order to address them
Political Violence At A Glance
An award-winning online magazine about the causes and consequences of violence and protest, co-authored by Barbara and other experts
Publications, analysis, and other resources from the organizations that measures for democracies and anocracies on a 21-point scale
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/42-a-conversation-with-facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen
The Courage to Connect. Guests: Ciaran O?Connor and John Wood, Jr.: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/30-the-courage-to-connect
Mind the (Perception) Gap with Dan Vallone: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/33-mind-the-perception-gap
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
?The fundamental problem of humanity is that we have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and God-like technology.? ? E. O. Wilson.
More than ever, we need the wisdom to match the power of our God-like technology. Yet, technology is both eroding our ability to make sense of the world, and increasing the complexity of the issues we face. The gap between our sense-making ability and issue complexity is what we call the ?wisdom gap."
How do we develop the wisdom we need to responsibly steward our God-like technology?
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're introducing one way Center for Humane Technology is attempting to close the wisdom gap ?through our new online course, Foundations of Humane Technology. In this bonus episode, Tristan Harris describes the wisdom gap we're attempting to close, and our Co-Founder and Executive Director Randima Fernando talks about the course itself.
Sign up for the free course: https://www.humanetech.com/course
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
A Problem Well-Stated Is Half-Solved with Daniel Schmachtenberger: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/a-problem-well-stated-is-half-solved
A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/42-a-conversation-with-facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen
Here?s Our Plan And We Don?t Know with Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin, and Stephanie Lepp: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/46-heres-our-plan-and-we-dont-know
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
[This episode originally aired on July 23rd, 2020.] Imagine a world where every country has a digital minister and technologically-enabled legislative bodies. Votes are completely transparent and audio and video of all conversations between lawmakers and lobbyists are available to the public immediately. Conspiracy theories are acted upon within two hours and replaced by humorous videos that clarify the truth. Imagine that expressing outrage about your local political environment turned into a participatory process where you were invited to solve that problem and even entered into a face to face group workshop.
Does that sound impossible? It?s ambitious and optimistic, but that's everything that our guest this episode, Audrey Tang, digital minister of Taiwan, has been working on in her own country for many years. Audrey?s path into public service began in 2014 with her participation in the Sunflower Movement, a student-led protest in Taiwan?s parliamentary building, and she?s been building on that experience ever since, leading her country into a future of truly participatory digital democracy.
Is decentralization inherently a good thing?
These days, there's a lot of talk about decentralization. Decentralized social media platforms can allow us to own our own data. Decentralized cryptocurrencies can enable bank-free financial transactions. Decentralized 3D printing can allow us to fabricate anything we want.
But if the world lives on Bitcoin, we may not be able to sanction nation states like Russia when they invade sovereign nations. If 3D printing is decentralized, anyone can print their own weapons at home. Decentralization takes on new meaning when we're talking about decentralizing the capacity for catastrophic destruction.
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we explore the history of decentralized weaponry, how social media is effectively a new decentralized weapon, and how to wisely navigate these threats. Guiding us through this exploration is Audrey Kurth Cronin ? one of the world?s leading experts in security and terrorism. Audrey is a distinguished Professor of International Security at American University, and the author of several books ? most recently: Power to the People: How Open Technological Innovation is Arming Tomorrow?s Terrorists.
Clarification: in the episode, Tristan refers to a video of Daniel Schmachtenberger's as "The Psychological Pitfalls of Working on Existential Risk." The correct name of the video is "Psychological Pitfalls of Engaging With X-Risks & Civilization Redesign."
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Power to the People: How Open Technological Innovation is Arming Tomorrow's Terrorists
Audrey Kurth Cronin's latest book, which analyzes emerging technologies and devises a new framework for analyzing 21st century military innovation
Psychological Pitfalls of Engaging With X-Risks & Civilization Redesign
Daniel Schmachtenberger's talk discussing the psychological pitfalls of working on existential risks and civilization redesign
Policy Reforms Toolkit
The Center for Humane Technology's toolkit for developing policies to protect the conditions that democracy needs to thrive: a comprehensively educated public, a citizenry that can check the power of market forces and bind predatory behavior
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
22 ? Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/23-digital-democracy-is-within-reach
28 ? Two Million Years in Two Hours: A Conversation with Yuval Noah Harari: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/28-two-million-years-in-two-hours-a-conversation-with-yuval-noah-harari
45 ? Is World War III Already Here? Guest: Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/45-is-world-war-iii-already-here
One of the oldest technologies we have is language. How do the words we use influence the way we think?
The media can talk about immigrants scurrying across the border, versus immigrants crossing the border. Or we might hear about technology platforms censoring us, versus moderating content.
If those word choices shift public opinion on immigration or technology by 25%, or even 2%, then we?ve been influenced in ways we can't even see. Which means that becoming aware of how words shape the way we think can help inoculate us from their undue influence. And further, consciously choosing or even designing the words we use can help us think in more complex ways ? and address our most complex challenges.
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're grateful to have Lera Boroditsky, a cognitive scientist who studies how language shapes thought. Lera is an Associate Professor of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego, and the editor-in-chief of Frontiers in Cultural Psychology.
Clarification: in the episode, Aza refers to Elizabeth Loftus' research on eyewitness testimony. He describes an experiment in which a car hit a stop sign, but the experiment actually used an example of two cars hitting each other.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
How language shapes the way we think
Lera Boroditsky's 2018 TED talk about how the 7,000 languages spoken around the world shape the way we think
Measuring Effects of Metaphor in a Dynamic Opinion Landscape
Boroditsky and Paul H. Thibodeau's 2015 study about how the metaphors we use to talk about crime influence our opinions on how to address crime
Subtle linguistic cues influence perceived blame and financial liability
Boroditsky and Caitlin M. Fausey's 2010 study about how the language used to describe the 2004 Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" influence our views on culpability
Why are politicians getting 'schooled' and 'destroyed'?
BBC article featuring the research of former Your Undivided Attention guest Guillaume Chaslot, which shows the verbs YouTube is most likely to include in titles of recommended videos ? such as "obliterates" and "destroys"
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
Mind the (Perception) Gap: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/33-mind-the-perception-gap
Can Your Reality Turn on a Word?: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/34-can-your-reality-turn-on-a-word
Down the Rabbit Hole by Design: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/4-down-the-rabbit-hole-by-design
The meta-crisis is so vast: climate change, exponential technology, addiction, polarization, and more. How do we grasp it, let alone take steps to address it?
One of the thinking tools we have at our disposal is science fiction. To the extent that we co-evolve with our stories, science fiction can prepare us for the impending future ? and empower us to shape it.
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're thrilled to have one of the greatest living science-fiction writers ? Kim Stanley Robinson. His most recent novel is The Ministry for the Future, a sweeping epic that reaches into the very near future, and imagines what it would take to unite humanity and avoid a mass extinction. Whether or not you've read the book, this episode has insights for you. And if this episode makes you want to read the book, our conversation won't spoil it for you.
Clarification: in the episode, Robinson refers to philosopher Antonio Gramsci's "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will." This phrase was originally said by novelist and playwright Romain Rolland. Gramsci made the phrase the motto of his newspaper, because he appreciated its integration of radical intellectualism with revolutionary activism.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
The Ministry For The Future
Robinson's latest novel and the subject of our conversation ? which reaches into the near future, and imagines what it would take to unite humanity and avoid a mass extinction
A Deeper Dive Into the Meta Crisis
CHT's blog post about the meta-crisis, which includes the fall of sense-making and the rise of decentralized technology-enabled power
The project based on E. O. Wilson's proposal to conserve half the land and sea ? in order to safeguard the bulk of biodiversity, including ourselves
Global tech worker community mobilizing the technology industry to face the climate crisis
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
18 ? The Stubborn Optimist?s Guide to Saving the Planet: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/18-the-stubborn-optimists-guide-to-saving-the-planet
Bonus ? The Stubborn Optimist?s Guide Revisited: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/bonus-the-stubborn-optimists-guide-revisited
29 ? A Renegade Solution to Extractive Economics: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/29-a-renegade-solution-to-extractive-economics
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
Renowned quantum physicist Richard Feynman once wrote, "It is our capacity to doubt that will determine the future of civilization."
In that spirit, this episode is a little different ? because we're talking openly about our doubts, with you, our listeners. It's also different because it?s hosted by our Executive Producer Stephanie Lepp, with Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin in the hot seats.
How have we evolved our understanding of our social media predicament? How has that evolution inspired us to question the work we do at Center for Humane Technology? Join us as we say those three magic words ? I don't know ? and yet pursue our mission to the best of our ability.
RECOMMENDED MEDIA
Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System
Systems theorist Donella Meadows' seminal article, articulating a framework for thinking about how to change complex systems.
Winning Humanity?s Existential Game
The Future Thinkers podcast with Daniel Schmactenberger, where he explores how to mitigate natural and human-caused existential risks and design post-capitalist systems
Ledger of Harms of Social Media
The Center for Humane Technology's research on elaborating the many externalities of our technology platforms' race for human attention
Foundations of Humane Technology Course
CHT's forthcoming course on how to build technology that protects our well-being, minimizes unforeseen consequences, and builds our collective capacity to address humanity's urgent challenges
RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES
36 - A Problem Well-Stated Is Half-Solved: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/a-problem-well-stated-is-half-solved
42 - A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/42-a-conversation-with-facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen
43 - Behind the Curtain on The Social Dilemma: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/43-behind-the-curtain-on-the-social-dilemma
Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
Would you say that the US is in war-time or peace-time? How do you know?
The truth is, the nature of warfare has changed so fundamentally, that we're currently in a war we don't even recognize. It's the war that Russia, China, and other hostile foreign actors are fighting against us ? weaponizing social media to undermine our faith in each other, our government, and democracy itself.
World War III is here, it's in cyberspace, and the US is unprepared ? and largely unaware.
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're fortunate to be speaking with Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster. General McMaster was the United States National Security Advisor from 2017 to 2018. He has examined the most critical foreign policy and national security challenges that face the United States, and is devoted to preserving America's standing and security.
Who do you think the Chinese government considers its biggest rival? The United States, right? Actually, the Chinese government considers its biggest rival to be its own technology companies.
It's China's tech companies who threaten its capacity to build a competitive China. That's why the Chinese government is cracking down on social media ? for example, by limiting the number of hours youth can play video games, and banning cell phone use in schools. China's restrictions on social media use may be autocratic, but may also protect users more than what we see coming from the US government.
It?s a complicated picture.
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're having a surprising conversation about technology in China. Here to give us a fresh take are two guests: investor, analyst, and co-host of the Tech Buzz China podcast Rui Ma, and China internet expert and author of Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built, Duncan Clark.
How do you make a film that impacts more than 100 million people in 190 countries in 30 languages?
This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're going behind the curtain on The Social Dilemma ? the Netflix documentary about the dark consequences of the social media business model, which featured the Center for Humane Technology. On the heels of the film's 1-year anniversary and winning of 2 Emmy Awards, we're talking with Exposure Labs' Director Jeff Orlowski-Yang and Producer Larissa Rhodes. What moved Jeff and Larissa to shift their focus from climate change to social media? How did the film transform countless lives, including ours and possibly yours? What might we do differently if we were producing the film today?
Join us as we explore the reverberations of The Social Dilemma ? which we're still feeling the effects of over one year later.
We are now in social media's Big Tobacco moment. And that?s largely thanks to the courage of one woman: Frances Haugen.
Frances is a specialist in algorithmic product management. She worked at Google, Pinterest, and Yelp before joining Facebook ? first as a Product Manager on Civic Misinformation, and then on the Counter-Espionage team. But what she saw at Facebook was that the company consistently and knowingly prioritized profits over public safety. So Frances made the courageous decision to blow the whistle ? which resulted in the biggest disclosure in the history of Facebook, and in the history of social media.
In this special interview, co-hosts Tristan and Aza go behind the headlines with Frances herself. We go deeper into the problems she exposed, discuss potential solutions, and explore her motivations ? along with why she fundamentally believes change is possible. We also announce an exciting campaign being launched by the Center for Humane Technology ? to use this window of opportunity to make Facebook safer.
In seven years of working on the problems of runaway technology, we?ve never experienced a week like this! In this bonus episode of Your Undivided Attention, we recap this whirlwind of a week ? from Facebook whistleblower France Haugen going public on 60 Minutes on Sunday, to the massive outage of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp on Monday, to Haugen?s riveting Congressional testimony on Tuesday. We also make some exciting announcements ? including our planned episode with Haugen up next, the Yale social media reform panel we?re participating in on Thursday, and a campaign we?re launching to pressure Facebook to make one immediate change.
This week it truly feels like we?re making history ? and you?re a part of it.
What helps you make meaning in challenging times? As you confront COVID, the climate crisis, and all of the challenges we discuss on this show, what helps you avoid nihilism or fundamentalism, and instead access healing, inspiration, and connection?
Today on Your Undivided Attention, we're joined by anthropologist and writer Jamie Wheal. Wheal is the author of Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex and Death In a World That's Lost Its Mind. In the book, he makes the case that in order to address the meta-crisis ? the interconnected challenges we face, which we talked about in Episode 36 with Daniel Schmachtenberger, we must address the meaning crisis ? the need to stay inspired, mended, and bonded in challenging times. Jamie argues that it doesn't matter whether we're staying inspired, mended, and bonded through institutionalized religion or other means as long as meaning-making is inclusively available to everyone.
What we hope you'll walk away with is a humane way to think about how to address the challenges we face, from COVID to climate ? by enabling us to make meaning in challenging times.
On September 13th, the Wall Street Journal released The Facebook Files, an ongoing investigation of the extent to which Facebook's problems are meticulously known inside the company ? all the way up to Mark Zuckerberg. Pollster Frank Luntz invited Tristan Harris along with friend and mentor Daniel Schmachtenberger to discuss the implications in a live webinar.
In this bonus episode of Your Undivided Attention, Tristan and Daniel amplify the scope of the public conversation about The Facebook Files beyond the platform, and into its business model, our regulatory structure, and human nature itself.