{"id":5249,"date":"2018-02-22T10:07:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T15:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5249"},"modified":"2021-01-07T18:32:43","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T23:32:43","slug":"we-built-them-from-us-my-appearance-on-the-team-human-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5249","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;We Built Them From Us&#8221;: My Appearance on the TEAM HUMAN Podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this month I was honoured to have the opportunity to sit and talk to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Douglas_Rushkoff\">Douglas Rushkoff<\/a> on his <a href=\"http:\/\/teamhuman.fm\/episodes\/ep-74-damien-williams\/\"><i>TEAM HUMAN<\/i> podcast<\/a>. If you know me at all, you know this isn&#8217;t by any means the only team for which I play, or even the only way I think about the construction of our &#8220;teams,&#8221; and that comes up in our conversation. We talk a great deal about algorithms, bias, machine consciousness, culture, values, language, and magick, and the ways in which the nature of our categories deeply affect how we treat each other, human and nonhuman alike. It was an absolutely fantastic time.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.squarespace-cdn.com\/content\/5f3d45e1b8a05d74a8deb4b5\/1597851556873-B1G489ITCP3UN6JXXXEW\/TH_Logo-Red.png?content-type=image%2Fpng\" \/><\/p>\n<p>From the page:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In this episode, Williams and Rushkoff look at the embedded biases of technology and the values programed into our mediated lives. How has a conception of technology as \u201cobjective\u201d blurred our vision to the biases normalized within these systems? What ethical interrogation might we apply to such technology? And finally, how might alternative modes of thinking, such as magick, the occult, and the spiritual help us to bracket off these systems for pause and critical reflection? This conversation serves as a call to vigilance against runaway systems and the prejudices they amplify.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.pippa.io\/teamhuman\/episodes\/ep-74-damien-williams\" width=\"100%\" height=\"110px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As I put it in the conversation: &#8220;Our best interests are at best incidental to [capitalist systems] because they will keep us alive long enough to for us to buy more things from them.&#8221; Following from that is the fact that we build algorithmic systems out of those capitalistic principles, and when you iterate out from there\u2014considering all attendant inequalities of these systems on the merely human scale\u2014we&#8217;re in deep trouble, fast.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the rest of this conversation to get a fuller understanding of how it all ties in with language and the occult. It&#8217;s a pretty great ride, and I hope you enjoy it.<\/p>\n<p>Until Next Time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this month I was honoured to have the opportunity to sit and talk to Douglas Rushkoff on his TEAM HUMAN podcast. If you know me at all, you know this isn&#8217;t by any means the only team for which I play, or even the only way I think about the construction of our &#8220;teams,&#8221; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1081,1108,959,1198,101,186,1273,418,419,492,495,944,561,607,627,1264,628,1026,1080,684,701,1229,1230,1132,1233,1272,810,1030,811,1223,1277],"class_list":["post-5249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-algorithmic-bias","tag-algorithmic-intelligence","tag-algorithmic-systems","tag-audio","tag-bias","tag-comparative-religion","tag-douglas-rushkoff","tag-invisible-architecture-of-bias","tag-invisible-architectures-of-bias","tag-machine-consciousness","tag-machine-learning","tag-my-voice","tag-my-work","tag-oppression","tag-philosophy","tag-philosophy-of-engineering","tag-philosophy-of-mind","tag-philosophy-of-technology","tag-podcasts","tag-racism","tag-religious-studies","tag-science-and-technology-studies","tag-science-technology-and-society","tag-sexism","tag-sts","tag-team-human","tag-technoccult","tag-technological-ethics","tag-technology","tag-technology-and-religion","tag-technoscience"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5WByP-1mF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5227,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5227","url_meta":{"origin":5249,"position":0},"title":"Appearance on the You Are Not So Smart Podcast","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"December 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago I had a conversation with David McRaney of the You Are Not So Smart podcast, for his episode on Machine Bias. As he says on the blog: Now that algorithms are everywhere, helping us to both run and make sense of the world, a strange question\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"A Future Worth Thinking About\"","block_context":{"text":"A Future Worth Thinking About","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=a-future-worth-thinking-about"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5316,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5316","url_meta":{"origin":5249,"position":1},"title":"My Appearance on The Machine Ethics Podcast&#8217;s A.I. Retreat Episode","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"October 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"As you already know, we went to the second Juvet A.I. Retreat, back in September. If you want to hear several of us talk about what we got up to at the then you're in luck because here are several conversations conducted by Ben Byford of the Machine Ethics Podcast.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"algorithmic bias\"","block_context":{"text":"algorithmic bias","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=algorithmic-bias"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/ownE2zxTN2U\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5269,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5269","url_meta":{"origin":5249,"position":2},"title":"My Review of Shannon Vallor&#8217;s TECHNOLOGY AND THE VIRTUES","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"May 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"My piece \"Cultivating Technomoral Interrelations,\" a review of\u00a0Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting has been up over at the Social Epistemology Research and Reply Collective for a few months, now, so I figured I should post something about it, here. As you'll read, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"A Future Worth Thinking About\"","block_context":{"text":"A Future Worth Thinking About","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=a-future-worth-thinking-about"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/socialepistemologydotcom.files.wordpress.com\/2018\/02\/shannon-vallor-technology-virtues-cover.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5082,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5082","url_meta":{"origin":5249,"position":3},"title":"From WIRED: &#8220;Tech Giants Team Up to Keep AI From Getting Out of Hand&#8221;","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"September 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I spoke with Klint Finley over at WIRED about Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM, and Microsoft's new joint ethics and oversight venture, which they've dubbed the \"Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society.\" They held a joint press briefing, today, in which Yann LeCun, Facebook's director of AI, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"A Future Worth Thinking About\"","block_context":{"text":"A Future Worth Thinking About","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=a-future-worth-thinking-about"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5899,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5899","url_meta":{"origin":5249,"position":4},"title":"ChatGPT is Actively Marketing to Students During University Finals Season","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"April 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It's really disheartening and honestly kind of telling that in spite of everything, ChatGPT is actively marketing itself to students in the run-up to college finals season. We've talked many (many) times before about the kinds of harm that can come from giving over too much epistemic and heuristic authority\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"A Future Worth Thinking About\"","block_context":{"text":"A Future Worth Thinking About","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=a-future-worth-thinking-about"},"img":{"alt_text":"Screenshot of ChatpGPT page:ChaptGPT Promo: 2 months free for students ChatGPT Plus is now free for college students through May Offer valid for students in the US and Canada [Buttons reading \"Claim offer\" and \"learn more\" An image of a pencil scrawling a scribbly and looping line] ChatGPT Plus is here to help you through finals","src":"https:\/\/cdn.bsky.app\/img\/feed_fullsize\/plain\/did:plc:ybkylffhwhn2an2ic2lxh76k\/bafkreidh6mhffosfxhbgnxx6aybjycvgj3c2ygzto2xhzvsohdsv3g6evm@jpeg","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/cdn.bsky.app\/img\/feed_fullsize\/plain\/did:plc:ybkylffhwhn2an2ic2lxh76k\/bafkreidh6mhffosfxhbgnxx6aybjycvgj3c2ygzto2xhzvsohdsv3g6evm@jpeg 1x, https:\/\/cdn.bsky.app\/img\/feed_fullsize\/plain\/did:plc:ybkylffhwhn2an2ic2lxh76k\/bafkreidh6mhffosfxhbgnxx6aybjycvgj3c2ygzto2xhzvsohdsv3g6evm@jpeg 1.5x, https:\/\/cdn.bsky.app\/img\/feed_fullsize\/plain\/did:plc:ybkylffhwhn2an2ic2lxh76k\/bafkreidh6mhffosfxhbgnxx6aybjycvgj3c2ygzto2xhzvsohdsv3g6evm@jpeg 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5295,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5295","url_meta":{"origin":5249,"position":5},"title":"At HPE: &#8220;4 obstacles to ethical AI (and how to address them)&#8221;","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"July 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I talked with Hewlett Packard Enterprise's Curt Hopkins, for their article\u00a0\"4 obstacles to ethical AI (and how to address them).\" We spoke about the kinds of specific tools and techniques by which people who populate or manage artificial intelligence design teams can incorporate expertise from the humanities and social sciences.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"A Future Worth Thinking About\"","block_context":{"text":"A Future Worth Thinking About","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=a-future-worth-thinking-about"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201109005732\/https%3A\/\/www.hpe.com\/content\/dam\/hpe\/insights\/articles\/2018\/07\/4-obstacles-to-ethical-ai-and-how-to-address-them\/featuredStory\/How-to-fix-AI.jpg.transform\/nxt-1043x496-crop\/image.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201109005732\/https%3A\/\/www.hpe.com\/content\/dam\/hpe\/insights\/articles\/2018\/07\/4-obstacles-to-ethical-ai-and-how-to-address-them\/featuredStory\/How-to-fix-AI.jpg.transform\/nxt-1043x496-crop\/image.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201109005732\/https%3A\/\/www.hpe.com\/content\/dam\/hpe\/insights\/articles\/2018\/07\/4-obstacles-to-ethical-ai-and-how-to-address-them\/featuredStory\/How-to-fix-AI.jpg.transform\/nxt-1043x496-crop\/image.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201109005732\/https%3A\/\/www.hpe.com\/content\/dam\/hpe\/insights\/articles\/2018\/07\/4-obstacles-to-ethical-ai-and-how-to-address-them\/featuredStory\/How-to-fix-AI.jpg.transform\/nxt-1043x496-crop\/image.jpeg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5249"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5555,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5249\/revisions\/5555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}