Dr. Laura Drake is an independent scholar and philosopher of technology. She started out as a Computer Science Major and Computer Scientist but soon noticed that technology was a barrier to human connection and intimacy. She now specializes in studying the invisible yet profound effects of 21st century algorithmic technologies on human society. Laura previously served as the chair for the Powerful People and More Powerful Technologies panel at the Society for Philosophy and Technology conference at Texas A&M University. She is the author of the Frictionless Technologies: The Innovation of Human Obsolescence paper, which is currently in peer review.
Laura joins me today to discuss how technology is deleting our human intimacy and connection. She shares how she determined that she wanted to be in the world at an early age and not on a screen playing with numbers and algorithms. Laura talks about not having a smartphone and noticing that more people are becoming envious of living without the dictations of technology. We discuss how social media is antisocial, unmeaningful and pulls people away from the real world and into a fake simulated reality. Laura explores whether the technology-driven changes happening to humans are good or not good and whether they are strengthening, weakening, or removing our capabilities. She also shares how humans have become passive recipients in a world made for computers and AI and highlights that our current heading is putting us on a trajectory towards a state of functional extinction.
“Humans are being remade by these technologies into behaviors that will emulate simple machines.” - Laura Drake
This week on Insert:Human
- How the invention of email started to change and hinder people’s communication and human connection
- Preserving your humanity in a technology-driven society
- How capitalism and corporations are pushing humans outside of human tolerances and endurance and crushing the human soul
- Social media’s role in creating transactional addiction over meaningful relationships
- How humans are becoming more like simple machines
- Reclaiming your mind and humanity through learning to band together without technological mediation
Resources Mentioned:
- Book: Re-Engineering Humanity by Brett M. Frischmann and Evan Selinger
- Book Review: Re-Engineering Humanity
Connect with Laura Drake:
- The Technoskeptic
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