How to be "Team Human" in the digital future | Douglas Rushkoff

The Digital Future: Winners and Losers

In this section, the speaker talks about his experience with tech billionaires who were concerned about their future in the event of a catastrophe. He then goes on to discuss how the digital economy has changed from being about collective human imagination to a zero-sum competition.

Tech Billionaires' Concerns

• The speaker was invited to an exclusive resort to deliver a talk about the digital future.

• Five tech billionaires asked him binary questions and then asked for advice on where to put their doomsday bunkers.

• They wanted to know how they could maintain control of their security staff after "the event," which refers to a catastrophic event that ends the world as we know it.

The Digital Economy

• The digital renaissance was about the unbridled potential of collective human imagination.

• However, the dot com boom turned the digital future into stock futures.

• The future became something people bet on in some kind of zero-sum winner-takes-all competition.

• This competitive environment repressed creativity, novelty, and what makes us most human.

Social Media and Human Connection

• Social media uses our data to predict or influence our behavior rather than connecting people in new ways.

• Businesses want to get rid of people because they want healthcare, money, and meaning. You can't scale with people.

• Even videoconferencing tools don't allow us to establish real rapport or solidarity.

The Blockchain, Education, and Humane Technology

In this section, the speaker discusses how the blockchain does not engender trust between users and how education is being used to externalize the cost of training workers. He also talks about the humane technology movement and how it is being used to extract data and money from people.

The Blockchain

• The blockchain does not engender trust between users.

• It simply substitutes for trust in a new, even less transparent way.

Education

• Education is being used to externalize the cost of training workers.

• Public education was originally created as compensation for a job well done.

• It was meant to give coal miners dignity by allowing them to read novels or participate in democracy.

Humane Technology

• The humane technology movement is being used to extract data and money from people.

• Technologies are made as humane as possible as long as they please shareholders.

• Shareholders earn enough money so they can insulate themselves from the world they are creating by earning money in this way.

Humans vs. Robots

In this section, the speaker talks about how humans are not popular beings these days. He mentions that even environmentalists believe that humans destroyed the planet and deserve to go extinct. He also discusses how popular media portrays robots as better and nicer than people.

Humans vs. Robots

• Humans are not popular beings these days.

• Even environmentalists believe that humans destroyed the planet and deserve to go extinct.

• Popular media portrays robots as better and nicer than people.

Embracing Ambiguity in Digital Future

In this section, the speaker argues that human beings are special and there should be a place for them in the digital future. He talks about how humans can embrace ambiguity, understand paradox, and are conscious, weird, and quirky.

Embracing Ambiguity

• Human beings are special.

• There should be a place for humans in the digital future.

• Humans can embrace ambiguity, understand paradox, and are conscious, weird, and quirky.

The Importance of Collaboration

In this section, the speaker discusses how collaboration and communication are key to human evolution.

Human Evolution

• Being human is a team sport.

• Evolution is a collaborative act.

• Trees in the forest are connected with a vast network of roots and mushrooms that let them communicate with one another and pass nutrients back and forth.

Collaboration and Communication

• Human beings are the most evolved species because we have the most evolved ways of collaborating and communicating.

• Language and technology are two examples of our advanced communication methods.

Retrieving Values in Danger of Being Left Behind

In this section, the speaker talks about retrieving values that we're in danger of leaving behind and embedding them in digital infrastructure for the future.

Digital Future

• The speaker used to be the guy who talked about the digital future for people who hadn't yet experienced anything digital.

• Now he feels like he's the last guy who remembers what life was like before digital technology.

Embedding Values in Digital Infrastructure

• It's not a matter of rejecting technology but rather retrieving values that we're in danger of leaving behind.

• We need to embed these values into digital infrastructure for the future.

Building Platforms That Promote Creativity, Novelty, and Community Ownership

In this section, the speaker discusses building platforms that promote creativity, novelty, community ownership, and value circulation.

Platform Monopoly vs. Value Circulation

• An economy that favors a platform monopoly wants to extract all value out of people and places.

• Instead, we need an economy that promotes value circulation through a community by establishing platform cooperatives that distribute ownership as wide as possible.

Promoting Creativity and Novelty

• Platforms should not repress creativity and novelty in the name of prediction.

• Instead, they should promote creativity and novelty so that we can come up with solutions to get ourselves out of the mess we're in.

Making the World a Place We Don't Want to Escape From

In this section, the speaker talks about making the world a place that we don't feel the need to escape from.

Escaping vs. Creating

• Instead of trying to earn enough money to insulate ourselves from the world we're creating, we should spend that time and energy making the world a place that we don't feel the need to escape from.

• There is no escape; there is only one thing going on here.

Joining "Team Human"

• The speaker invites listeners to join "Team Human" and find others who want to make the future that we always wanted.

Treating People with Love and Respect

In this section, the speaker talks about treating people with love and respect.

Tech Billionaires

• The speaker was once asked by tech billionaires how they could maintain control of their security force after an apocalypse.

• He told them to start treating those people with love and respect right now because maybe they won't have an apocalypse to worry about.

Conclusion

• The talk ends with a thank you message.