Podcast #35: Ainissa Ramirez

Science evangelist Ainissa Ramirez takes a look at how major technologies have shaped human culture—both intentionally and not.

By Betsy Brunner | June 4, 2020 | Culture, Ethics, Health, Knowledge, Media, Podcasts, Society, Transportation, Well-Being | Attention, Bias, Binary Thinking, Circadian Rhythms, Communications, Community, Consumerism, Control, Coronavirus, Critical Thinking, Diversity, Education, Electric Light, Emotional Reactivity, Empathy, Engineers, History, Imagination, Invention, Inventors, Language, Literature, Memory, Motivation, Non-Verbal Communication, Nuance, Photography, Polarization, Politics, Reading, Science, Self-Empowerment, Self-Identity, Social Media, Speed, STEM, storytelling, Telegraph, Texting, The Alchemy of Us, Trains, Twitter, Unintended Consequences

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Book Review: Re-Engineering Humanity

Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger warn that real freedom of will and human agency will require the ability to be “off.”

By Laura Drake | February 19, 2020 | Artificial Intelligence, Cognition, Philosophy, Society | Agency, Algorithms, Authoritarianism, Control, Democracy, Dumbing Down, Efficiency, Entertainment, Freedom, Humanity, Intelligence, Power, Simulation, Skills, Smart Environments, Social Engineering, Systems, Taylorism

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Google Becomes Evil

Counter to its positive mythology, Google manipulates search results to suit its own corporate purposes, quashing free access to information on the Web.

By Tom Valovic | October 16, 2019 | Ethics, Journalism, Media, Privacy, Society | Algorithms, Alternative Voices, AlterNet, Carey Gillam, Censorship, Control, Disinformation, Filtering, Fraud, Google, Harrassment, Information, Mercola.com, Monopoly, Monsanto, Search Engine, The Guardian, YMYL

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Podcast #24: Michael Zimmerman Gets Philosophical on Tech

In a wide-ranging conversation, philosopher Michael Zimmerman contextualizes our technological journey within the history of Western thought.

By Mo Lotman | January 9, 2019 | Artificial Intelligence, Culture, Employment, Environment, Ethics, Knowledge, Philosophy, Podcasts, Religion, Society | Acts of Enclosure, Addiction, Agriculture, Ancient World, Anger, Aristotle, Arnold Toynbee, Artificial General Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Authenticity, Axial Age, Behavior, Bible, Bolsheviks, Boundaries, Buddhism, Capitlism, Carolyn Merchant, Christianity, Civilization, Control, Craving, Creativity, CRISPR, David Loy, Death, Decadence, Deep Ecology, Delusion, Desire, Distraction, Earth, Ease, Embodiment, Engineering, Environment, Eternity, Exploitation, Exponential Growth, Facebook, Fake News, Fate, Finitude, Fire, Francis Bacon, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gnosticism, Golden Rule, Google, Greed, Hatred, Hegel, Heiddeger, Hubris, Human Nature, Humanness, Immaturity, Immortality, Industrial Revolution, Infantilization, Isaiah, Islam, Jaron Lanier, Karl Jaspers, Karl Marx, Knowledge, Lab-Grown Meat, Life, Loss, Martin Rees, Marxism, Master-Slave Dialectic, Meaning, Meat-Eating, Mediation, Medieval World, Metallurgy, Mind, Mining, Modernity, Money Economy, Morality, Mortality, Native Americans, Nature, Nazis, News, Nihilism, Obesity, Pain, Pascal, Peter Thiel, Philosophy, Plato, Playing God, Power, Production, Progress, Propoganda, Protestant Reformation, Ray Kurzweil, Reincarnation, relationships, Religion, René Descartes, Resentment, Resources, Respect, Sailing, Security, Self-Mastery, Silicon Valley, Smartphones, Socialism, Soviets, Spirituality, Splintering, Steve Jobs, Suffering, The Overman, The Singularity, Trade, Traditional Societies, Transhumanism, Twitter, Utopia, Wealth, Wildfires, Will to Power, Wisdom, Wonder

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The Death of Natural Childbirth

The second part of a series on childbirth examines how natural birth has been systematically disabled, at the cost of bonding and health.

By David A. J. Reynolds | June 27, 2018 | Community, Culture, Ethics, Family, Health, Medicine, Reproduction, Society, Well-Being | Ágnes Geréb, Amniotomy, Anesthesia, Asphyxia, Babies, Barbara Bridgman Perkins, Birthing, Caesarean Section, Childbirth, Children, Consumerism, Control, Demerol, Efficiency, Els Hendrix, Epidural, Finland, Forceps, Home-Birth, Hungary, Ignác Semmelweis, Infant Mortality, Institutionalized Birth, Interventionism, Irvine Loudon, Jacqueline Wolf, Jennifer Block, John Whitridge Williams, Kieran O’Driscoll, L.H. Lumey, Machines, Medicine, Michel Odent, Midwifery, Nature, Obstetrics, Oxytocin, Perfectionism, Pitocin, Pregnancy, Puerperal Fever, Rationalism, Sarah Buckley, Standardization, Taylorism, Technocentrism, The Netherlands, Twilight Sleep, UK, US, Western Medicine

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The Attack on Natural Childbirth

Over the past century or so, the most natural and integral part of the human life-cycle—birth—has been systematically medicalized and institutionalized, at the expense of the body’s own wisdom.

By David A. J. Reynolds | June 13, 2018 | Community, Culture, Ethics, Family, Health, Medicine, Reproduction, Society, Well-Being | Ágnes Geréb, Babies, Barbara Bridgman Perkins, Birthing, Childbirth, Children, Control, Efficiency, Hilary Marland, Home-Birth, Ina May Gaskin, Institutionalized Birth, Jennifer Block, L.H. Lumey, Machines, Maternity Care, Medicine, Midwifery, Nadine Edwards, Nature, Obstetrics, Oxytocin, Pathology, Physiology, Pregnancy, Rationalism, Repression, Standardization, Surgery, The Netherlands, Western Medicine

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