Oh Rushkoff! Team Human book review
We can’t ignore the writing on the wall, the direction we’re going as a society is beginning to contradict itself in our everyday lives: Technology and humanity are at a battle for focus and outcome.
Douglas Rushkoff is a public speaker, college profesor and author most known for his work on media analysis and for coming up with the term viral media. Doug spoke at TED in New York on September 2018 and spoke about his new book team human, this book is written as blog posts, short entries that speak about a particular issue about the current state of being of technology and culture. The book reads almost like an episodic un-serialized show, the team human as a project is made up of a community of supporters, the book, and a similarly un-serialized internet radio show. To take in team human as a whole is to tune in weakly to listen to Rushkoff and guests for a while, then when you’re ready to take it all in read the book to synthesize the message.
This project is a very special, interesting - and sometimes worrisome - reading experience. My introduction were the talks, where Doug paints a picture of the problem. We think we are on the most evolved paradigm there is, especially with digital technology, we see the world around us and see opportunity and growth. But Doug tells a very telling story that puts this narrative into question: He was invited by tech billionaires to give a private talk about the future of tech, and the billionaires asked him what to do when people turn against them.
On the talk, Rushkoff said:
These are the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, yet they see themselves as utterly powerless to influence the future. The best they can do is hang on for the inevitable catastrophe and then use their technology and money to get away from the rest of us. And these are the winners of the digital economy!
The main takeaway from the talk is that this digital future is not going as planned. The heroes of the digital age like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos are not trying to build a tech-utopia anymore, they have given up on altruistic dreams and focus on going to mars, leaving the problems behind, leaving the earth behind. Douglas claims that this fear goes way deeper. We want to run away from ourselves, this means we don’t like humanity anymore. We don’t like other people in form of immigrants, we don’t like ourselves or own own bodies in form of upgrading our bodies to transhumanist robots, we don’t like our planet since we don’t want to stop climate change. But regardless of our disgust for what makes us “us” - other people, our bodies and our place in the universe - regardless we seem to hate ourselves, we still fear those very characteristics that makes us human. We’re double fucked.
We want it both ways: We love creativity, but since artificial intelligence is about to become a reality we have “accepted” that we can’t be more creative than the machines. We want growth and opportunity but we economically oppress each other since automation always wins. This dissonance between human and machine is the dichotomy that Doug focuses on. The podcast and the book focuses on defending and arguing for humanity. He said “Fine! I’m on team human!”
The book plays off perfectly from this message. In it you will find a detailed analysis of all of te ramifications of what he calles an anti-human agenda. From current technologies like social media and its culture to trans humanism and economic injustice. This is a slow burn, Doug knows how to introduce a topic without any previous knowledge. Like on his previous book he tends to dance around a topic to avoid buzzwords and an outright ideological rejection of his message. He very rarely calls an idea by it’s name. I theorize that his main audience are young people who have fallen for the tech fantasy. They tend to be political and social liberals, but reject ideas or radical change or revolution. Even if those radical ideas can be summed up as don’t step on others just because of hate or prejudice. To call an idea by it’s name would mean to bring up Marx, Feminism, social justice and imperialism. But the kids on silicon valley, and most 20 year old’s who have a say in building the future, see those moments as a cancer. Communism is dictatorship, feminism is unequal, the world is already just, and we should not repair the mistakes of our elders. The book walks in the minefield of neoliberal ideology without ever compromising.
The points as expressed on the book are, in my experience, almost universally accepted. You can’t bring up the injustices of the economy and capitalism with a moderate conservative, but you can say that inside tech platforms the desire for likes in a zero-sum game creates or develops bad habits on users, and can even lead to depression or anxiety. Then your conservative friend will eventually join the dots: It’s not that social media is bad by itself, but that the way that it threats people is oppressive and unfair. And any thing that threats people in the same way, AKA capitalism, is necessarily also unfair.
I think of Rushkoff as that uncle that always know what to say and how to say it. He fabulously speaks about technology going nice and slow, and ends up showing the world as it really is, no matter how cruel it can sometimes seem.
Team Human, as a book and a holistic project, is an eye-opener. I came in disagreeing with all the specifics about social issues and the economy, but exited the manifesto as a new man with a love for politics and action with a technological framework. If you are interested in technology and you care for a better future give Rushkoff a try. Start with his TED talk, if it gets to you listen to a few random episodes of his podcasts, and if you’re ready for you’re mind to be blown get the book.
If you can’t buy the book, you can read the whole thing for free on medium. It’s being uploaded on medium one section per week. The book is comprised of 100 short parts, as of time of publishing this you can find from part 1 to 24 on medium.