Your Undivided Attention

Absolute MUST to listen for everyone in tech, policy making or just thinking / being concerned with the future of humanity

Congratulations. If only this level of conversation had been around before the Social Media giants got away with avoiding publisher responsibility for content, we might have avoided the worst downsides. And …. What I would really welcome now is a shift in focus toward discussing specific dangers and risks. What do experts in the field believe are the most imminent and serious dangers and risks? And then, how to we regulate to reduce these risks.

While the topics the hosts are sending are of extreme importance, I find that in recent months the delivery method has become somewhat unhealthy. From passionate young men interested in the betterment of technology, the hosts now have moved on to a very pessimistic view, to a somewhat paranoid approach of the topic. Pointing out everything that is wrong in the world can only take you so far. Feels like they are stuck at step 1 - raising awareness on the issues, but then failing to move further and initiate action. It probably needs a personal reassessment, taking a break and reviewing what they stand for more than what they stand against, what the future technology should look like rather than what it should not be, less fear-mongering more thinking from a loving ‘we can do this, let’s figure out how’ type of a perspective. This way the mental health issues Tristan has mentioned struggling with and recent somewhat pessimistic demeanour would change, leading to additional energy and vitality that could be put towards his reaching goal.

I’ve long been impressed with this podcast, and as an interdisciplinary artist-researcher, am fascinated by a number of issues here. I talk about the themes of the podcast regularly with others, and have used some of what I’ve learned to try help my grandfather, who lives in the isolated countryside but is spending hours a day being consumed by emotionally manipulative/extreme content that social media algorithms keep funnelling his way... I just have one request if that were possible. Besides the brilliant guests and their work, sometimes bits of research are mentioned; for example in relation to how conspiracy theories work on people, and for a researcher like me, references to these would be super useful. I’d love, if it were possible, if there were some kind of bibliography on the site to refer to some of the readings that inform the structure of and research for the podcast. It might help academics listening to the podcast to work on some of the issues raised. Thanks again for a great podcast.