BROADCASTS.com

Jeff and Jonathan are back with season two of Subjects in Process. Starting off with a series on technology, in this first half of the episode, Jeff and Jonathan attempt to summarize what they think they know, their sources and where they are coming from, and what questions they want to investigate about what Martin Heidegger called “the question concerning technology”. In the second half of the episode – recorded two weeks later – they go into more of their assumptions and lay the groundwork to discuss some shifts in their thinking. Jonathan describes his expectation of discussing the catch-22 of either being carried along by the forces of tech or the blunders of overseeing the impossible task of attempting to confront this and comprehensively design the world, and how he has shifted to considering alternatives beyond this potentially false dilemma. The discussion touches on Albert Borgmann (allegedly not an cyborg); how tech changes birthday parties; the power and limits of tech as revealed by old school and new school computer chess engines; Zeynep Tufekci and the challenges of resulting from too much information; Martin Heidegger and “standing reserve,” or the modern tendency to see the world as merely resource; tech companies “bio-hacking” customers through data and dopamine; the wonders of nerding out; what changes in a fast-changing society; how tech can cut us off from the world; Wendell Berry and the possibilities of resisting tech; transparency of technology and how that impacts human freedom; Super AI and the pros and cons of both its potential failure or success; complexity in the world and the limitations of human understanding; early onset grumpiness and the risks of catastrophizing; addiction and dopamine hits for kids; the confusion of biological and information signals in the modern environment; Nicholas Carr, “The Shallows,” and tech’s impact on our attention span; substantive, instrumentalist, and pluralist views on technology; therapy robots and the tragedy of their potential effectiveness; approaches to combating drug addiction; and if we can preserve what is good and empower individual decision-making.