What is a robot? Are robots our friends? Does the term “friend” even apply? So begins this week’s episode of Team Human with cyborg anthropologist Amber Case. Amber and Douglas look at how algorithmically programmed systems of automation and control might just be turning us into the robots. Case’s recent book, Calm Technology Design For the Next Generation of Devices proposes another way. How might we flip the script on systems that compress and atomize our every move? How might we use our technology to slow down rather than speed up – to resolve to sharper human detail rather than a pixelated blur. And finally, how might we use technology, including this podcast, to advance a slow-motion, empathetic, and deep state of calm? 

Rushkoff begins with a monologue on the Jewish high holidays. Is prayer a distraction to the real world work of justice that must be done, or is there something deeper and more communal to retrieve?

Learn more about Amber Case here: http://caseorganic.com/

Our intro theme is Foreman’s Dog by Fugazi. Thanks to Discord records for sharing. In the middle you heard Growth Trap by Joshua Sitron and his Team Human Band. And closing the show is a soundscape mix thanks to Our Fox and noise by Mal Madrigal.

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