AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code

Richard Jonathan O. Taduran, Ph.D. (Adel), Ph.D. (UPD)

AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code is a reflective and analytical podcast that explores how humans adapt to, think with, and are transformed by AI and technology — through the lens of psychological and biological anthropology. This is not a tech podcast per se; it’s about the human condition in the age of algorithms — how culture shapes cognition, how cognition shapes code, and how code, in turn, reshapes culture. Hosted by Dr. Richard Jonathan O. Taduran, anthropologist and AI trainer.

  1. 4d ago

    My Story Could Be a Blockbuster: AI and the Future of Film

    What happens when your imagination becomes a production studio? In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I explore how generative AI may transform film from something we watch into something we personally create—prompt by prompt, scene by scene, dream by dream. From AI video tools and licensed fictional universes to synthetic actors and posthumous performances, the future of cinema is no longer just about cameras, studios, and screens. It is about taste, consent, storycraft, and the uneasy question of what happens when everyone can generate their own blockbuster. AI may not end cinema. It may multiply it beyond recognition. But if every story becomes personalized, frictionless, and perfectly tailored to us, will film still help us dream together—or teach us to dream alone? 📖 Read the full Author's Cut ⁠here. #AnthroIntelligence #AIandFilm #GenerativeAI #FutureOfCinema #SyntheticActors #CultureAndTechnology

    7 min

  2. May 18

    Selfies Without Selves: AI and the Limits of Algorithms

    Why do algorithms keep misunderstanding us? In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I explore a simple but unsettling truth: algorithms do not encounter humans as evolving, contradictory beings—they encounter categories. Using an experience where a forensic podcast episode on Kurt Cobain was flagged despite its academic intent, this episode examines how systems built to classify reality inevitably flatten it. From Enlightenment taxonomies to modern recommendation engines, the urge to sort, label, and predict has always carried a cost: reducing fluid human lives into static boxes. Algorithms can capture snapshots. Humans exist as trajectories. The tension between those two realities may define one of the central limits of artificial intelligence—and one of the last spaces where being human still matters. 📖 Read the full Author's Cut ⁠here. #AnthroIntelligence #Algorithms #HumanComplexity #AIandSociety #CultureAndTechnology #ArtificialIntelligence

    7 min

  3. May 4

    Words Without Worlds: Artificial Intelligence and the Limits of Language

    Why does AI feel like it understands us—even when it doesn’t? In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I explore the illusion at the heart of large language models: their ability to produce language that sounds intelligent without ever engaging the world it describes. Drawing on ideas from Yann LeCun and John Searle, this episode unpacks the difference between fluency and understanding, correlation and causation, symbols and experience. AI systems can map language with extraordinary precision—but they never touch the terrain of reality itself. The words may feel right. The meaning may feel real. But the understanding—always—remains human. 📖 Read the full Author's Cut ⁠here. #AnthroIntelligence #LanguageAndAI #LimitsOfAI #ArtificialIntelligence #PhilosophyOfMind #CultureAndTechnology

    7 min

  4. Apr 20

    All the Small Things: Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life

    We often imagine AI in extremes—utopia, dystopia, machines reshaping civilization. But what if the real story is much smaller? In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I explore the quiet, everyday ways artificial intelligence is already shaping how we think, feel, and decide. From drafting apologies to navigating relationships, AI is not replacing us—it is assisting the small acts of cognition that structure daily life. Drawing from Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and real-world usage studies, this episode examines the gap between imagined futures and lived reality—and how subtle patterns of reliance may gradually reshape culture itself. The future of AI is not arriving in dramatic form. It is being built, quietly, through the small things we choose to delegate. 📖 Read the full Author's Cut ⁠here. #AnthroIntelligence #EverydayAI #HumanBehavior #CultureAndTechnology #AIEthics #ArtificialIntelligence

    7 min

  5. Apr 6

    Narratives in the New Battlespace: Artificial Intelligence at War

    War is no longer fought only on land, sea, air, and space—it is fought in the domain of perception. In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I examine how artificial intelligence is transforming warfare from physical confrontation to cognitive contestation. From AI-assisted targeting and autonomous systems to the industrial production of narratives, the battlefield is expanding into the human mind itself. As algorithms compress the kill chain and shape what people believe at scale, the question is no longer just who controls territory—but who controls reality. This episode explores a deeper shift: when machines mediate both decision-making and information, conflict is no longer just about force—it is about belief, ambiguity, and the fragmentation of shared truth. 📖 Read the full Author's Cut ⁠here.⁠ #AnthroIntelligence #AIWarfare #CognitiveWarfare #InformationWar #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfConflict

    7 min

  6. Mar 23

    The Rise of the Master Learner: Universities in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

    If artificial intelligence can explain theories, write code, and summarize research in seconds, what should universities actually teach? In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I explore the emergence of a new educational archetype: the Master Learner—an individual defined not by static expertise, but by the ability to continuously learn, adapt, and think critically alongside intelligent machines. As AI destabilizes traditional models of professional knowledge, universities face a fundamental shift: from producing subject-matter experts to cultivating intellectual agility, algorithmic literacy, and interdisciplinary curiosity. In a world where information is abundant but discernment is scarce, the real value of education lies in forming minds capable of navigating uncertainty. The future of higher education will not belong to institutions that simply transmit knowledge. It will belong to those that teach students how to keep learning when knowledge itself never stops changing. 📖 Read the full Author's Cut here. #AnthroIntelligence #MasterLearner #FutureOfUniversities #AIAndEducation #AlgorithmicLiteracy #LifelongLearning

    7 min

  7. Mar 9

    The End of the Knowledge Monopoly: AI and the Future of Higher Education

    For centuries, universities controlled access to knowledge. Today, artificial intelligence is dissolving that monopoly. In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I explore how AI is quietly unbundling the traditional university model—separating knowledge, networks, and credentials in ways that challenge a thousand-year-old institution. Using the Philippine crisis of diploma mills exposed by EDCOM 2 as a case study, this episode examines what happens when education becomes a transaction for credentials rather than a process of intellectual formation. As AI makes information abundant, the real value of the university may lie not in delivering knowledge, but in cultivating judgment, mentorship, and the productive struggle that shapes how we think. The age of scarce knowledge is ending. The deeper question now is whether universities can rediscover their purpose in a world where answers are everywhere—but wisdom is not. Read the full Author’s Cut ⁠here. #AnthroIntelligence #FutureOfEducation #AIAndUniversities #HigherEducationReform #KnowledgeEconomy #PhilippineEducation

    9 min

  8. Feb 23

    This Is Not a Software Update: Building National Intelligence in the Age of AI

    Artificial intelligence is not arriving as a convenient upgrade—it is reorganizing economies, infrastructure, and power in real time. In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I unpack why the AI moment is fundamentally different: energy systems, chips, cloud infrastructure, models, and applications are scaling simultaneously, compressing timelines and locking in advantage for decades. Drawing from insights shared by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang at the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, this episode reframes AI as national infrastructure—on par with electricity, roads, and telecommunications. For countries like the Philippines, the stakes are clear: without local research capacity, AI becomes something we consume rather than shape. National intelligence is not about slogans or nationalism. It is about the ability to encode culture, language, and knowledge into emerging systems—before others do it for us. This is not a future problem. It is a present one. Read the full Author’s Cut ⁠here⁠. #AnthroIntelligence #NationalIntelligence #AIInfrastructure #AIAndGovernance #CultureAndTechnology #PhilippineAI

    8 min
See All (23)

About

AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code is a reflective and analytical podcast that explores how humans adapt to, think with, and are transformed by AI and technology — through the lens of psychological and biological anthropology. This is not a tech podcast per se; it’s about the human condition in the age of algorithms — how culture shapes cognition, how cognition shapes code, and how code, in turn, reshapes culture. Hosted by Dr. Richard Jonathan O. Taduran, anthropologist and AI trainer.

Information