The colossal problem with universal basic income
Here's why universal basic income will hurt the 99%, and make the 1% even richer.
22 March, 2019
Videos
- Universal basic income is a band-aid solution that will not solve wealth inequality, says Rushkoff.
- Funneling money to the 99% perpetuates their roles as consumers, pumping money straight back up to the 1% at the top of the pyramid.
- Rushkoff suggests universal basic assets instead, so that the people at the bottom of the pyramid can own some means of production and participate in the profits of mega-rich companies.
Keep reading
Show less
The internet is emotionally abusing us. And we can't quit it.
Algorithms and propagandists exploit the human instinct to connect to play us.
29 January, 2019
Videos
- We invest trillions in companies that develop algorithms designed to play us for the sake of profits.
- Facebook algorithms, for instance, show us content that will provoke emotional responses.
- The algorithms look for "exploits" in humans, find how we establish rapport with others, and leverage it for marketing.
Videos
- Facebook and Google began as companies with supposedly noble purposes.
- Creating a more connected world and indexing the world's information: what could be better than that?
- But pressure to return value to shareholders came at the expense of their own users.
Keep reading
Show less
Why 'upgrading' humanity is a transhumanist myth
Upload your mind? Here's a reality check on the Singularity.
18 January, 2019
Videos
- Though computer engineers claim to know what human consciousness is, many neuroscientists say that we're nowhere close to understanding what it is, or its source.
- Scientists are currently trying to upload human minds to silicon chips, or re-create consciousness with algorithms, but this may be hubristic because we still know so little about what it means to be human.
- Is transhumanism a journey forward or an escape from reality?
Keep reading
Show less
Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas Rushkoff is the host of the Team Human podcast and a professor of digital economics at CUNY/Queens. He is also the author of a dozen bestselling books on media, technology, and culture, including, Present Shock, Program or Be Programmed, Media Virus, and Team Human, the last of which is his latest work.
