The Technically Human Podcast

The LAWS of War: Lethal autonomous weapons systems and the new ethics of warfare

In this episode, I speak with Dr. John C. Williams about the ethics of automated weapons systems. We talk about the concept of meaningful human control, about the ethics of war, and what it means to engage in the politics of biopower in the age of lethal autonomous weapons.

Dr. John C. Williams is a Professor in the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University, in the UK.

Among the many areas of his research, Dr. Williams is an expert on the ethics of war and challenges presented by changing patterns and technologies of violence and the issue of democratic authority over warfare. His work looks at key technologies including drones and emergent autonomous weapons systems, and considers the ethics of meaningful human control as AI increasingly becomes part of what it means to wage war. He is the author of Ethics, Diversity and World Politics: Saving Pluralism From Itself? (Oxford University Press), and The Ethics of Territorial Borders: Drawing Lines in the Shifting Sand. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, as well as multiple other articles on the ethics of technology at the intersection of war.

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

Grimm Futures: Technology’s fairy tales

In this episode of "Technically Human," I sit down with D.J. MacLennan to talk about the relationship between technological realities and fairy tale mythologies. We talk about what it means to re-write epic and age-old stories about magical worlds and beings in the age of tech, and how technological culture may itself be a form of fairy tale thinking.

D.J. MacLennan is a writer of speculative fiction and non-fiction from the Isle of Skye in the Highlands of Scotland. His new book, Future Bright, Future Grimm: Transhumanist Tales for Mother Nature's Offspring reboots the Grimms brothers' fables to imagine how the fairy tales help us imagine the future, and how science fiction blends with fairy tale mythologies,  as technology becomes increasingly embedded in our bodies and our landscapes.

This podcast was produced by Matt Perry.

Artwork by Desi Aleman.

Moving Pictures: Film director Jake Wachtel discusses his new film, Karmalink, and sci-fi in Cambodia

"Technically Human" is back with a brand new season of the show!

In our first episode of the season, I sit down with film director Jake Wachtel to talk about his debut film, "Karmalink," the first science fiction film set in Cambodia. We discuss the connection between digital technologies, reincarnation, and Buddhism, we talk about the state of technological development in Cambodia, and Jake reflects on how Cambodians are imagining the future, in light of Cambodia's past.

Jake Wachtel grew up in California, and studied Film and Neuroscience at Stanford University. In 2015, he moved to Cambodia to teach filmmaking to children through Filmmakers Without Borders. His short THE FOREIGNER HERE premiered at the Cambodian International Film Festival alongside the new wave of Cambodian directors. His doc work has been featured on NYTimes.com, Wired, NPR and MSNBC. KARMALINK is his debut feature.

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

In memory of Leng Heng Prak.

 

 

How Women Work: Gender, digital labor, and (not) getting paid to do what you love

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Brooke Duffy about the structure of digital labor. We talk about Instagram influencers and the people who love to hate them, the double bind that women online face in presenting themselves as both "authentic" and  "relatable," and the problem with the advice we so often get, to "do what we love."

Dr. Brooke Erin Duffy is an Associate Professor at Cornell University, where she holds appointments in the Department of Communication and the Program in Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies. Her work spans the topics of social media, gender, identity and inequality, digital labor, and promotional culture.

She's the author of two monographs on gender and cultural production, including (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender, Social Media, and Aspirational Work (Yale University Press, in 2017), which draws upon research with fashion bloggers, YouTubers, and Instagram influencers to explore the culture and politics of the digital labor. Wired named it one of the "Top Tech Books of 2017." Dr. Duffy's first monograph, Remake, Remodel: Women’s Magazines in the Digital Age (University of Illinois Press, 2013), examined the rapidly changing technologies and political economies of media production through an analysis of the magazine industry. Duffy’s third book, Platforms and Cultural Production with Thomas Poell and David Nieborg, is forthcoming with Polity in 2021. She is also the co-editor of Key Readings in Media Today: Mass Communication in Contexts with Joseph Turow (Routledge press, in 2009). 

Dr. Duffy’s research has been published in a wide variety of academic journals, and she is also a public scholar, whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, Vox, Times Higher Education, Wired, and Quartz. Her commentary has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, the BBC, Vox, The Washington Post, The USA Today, and Vice, among others.

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

A Conversation with Open Dyalog: civil discourse in the digital age

In this week’s episode, we bring you a conversation about, well, how we have conversations. Listeners of this podcast, students who have taken my class, and anyone who has heard me talk about ethics and technology in public has heard me talk about the importance of civil discourse. In an age of Twitter feuds, Facebook shouting matches, and an online culture of escalating arguments, learning the skills of talking to one another is more important—and less understood—than ever.

That is why, this week, I invited the founder of the Open Dyalog movement, Zahabiya Nuruddin, to join me this week to talk about how, in a time when we interact with one another increasingly online, through our tech, we can practice the ethics of civil discourse. The head of research for the “Technically Human” team, Sakina Nuruddin, co-hosts this week's show. Sakina is the founder of the Cal Poly chapter of Open Dyalog. 

Interested in Open Dyalog? Contact Sakina at snuruddi@calpoly.edu. 

Thanks for listening! We are off next week for the Thanksgiving break—we’ll return the first week of December for our final episode of the Technically Human season.

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

Cybersecurity in the age of Zero Trust

In this episode, I talk to Rob Dickinson, the CEO of Resurface. We talk about the ethic behind cybersecurity technology, the ethics of data ownership, and what regulations and laws can--and can't--do. 

Rob Dickinson is Co-Founder and CEO at Resurface, an innovative platform focused on data privacy and API activity. His work around observability, cybersecurity and the “internet of things” has set him out as a thought leader in this part of the tech world. As a technologist, Rob seeks to build a future of responsible and ethical API. He is a pioneering thinker in the movement to regain ownership of our data, and in what he calls ZeroTrust cybersecurity.

 

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

 

Technically Human 101: a crash course on being human in the age of tech

In this episode, we do a deep dive into the Technically Human show archive to bring you an episode that puts together some of the show's top moments. If you are looking for a guide into the key questions, concepts, and characters critical to thinking about ethics and technology. 

We've put together a show that answers some of the top questions that we consistently get asked about ethics and technology, with some of "Technically Human's" most memorable guests.

This episode features commentary on the philosophy of the good with Ryan Jenkins, bioethics with Art Caplan, digital human rights and sci-fi with Dave Eggers, BUMMR technological critiques by Jaron Lanier, commentary on democracy and tech Yaël Eisenstat, Silicon Valley humor with Dan Lyons, technology's impact on intimacy with Julie Albright, a meditation on the ethics of the algorithm with Todd Presner, a consideration of disability and tech with George Estreich, and a conversation about technological utopianism with Morgan Ames.

If you're looking for a crash course in ethical technology, this is the episode for you!

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

Embodied Technology and the Quantified Self with Dr. Steven LeBoeuf

In this episode of "Technically Human," I dive into the history, the sociology, and the ethics of wearables with Dr. Steven LeBoeuf, the President and Co-Founder of Valencell Technologies. We talk about how wearable technologies trouble the boundaries of what we call a "self," and how what it means to be human is changing as we increasingly enlist technologies on our bodies in reporting on what is happening in our bodies.

We talk about the evolution of wearables, the technologies that go into wearable tech, and why you might want to think twice about wearing devices that collect information about what goes on inside your body, especially if you don't know who might be using that data--or why.

 

This episode was produced by Mereck Palazzo & Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

The Fork in the Road to Ethical Technology: Vivek Wadhwa on navigating ethical roadmaps in a perilous tech landscape

In this episode, I sit down with Vivek Wadhwa to talk about his pivot from tech entrepreneur and big tech enthusiast, to critic and activist. We talk about his path to tech and then to his activism in education, his research into tech innovation, and his research into the importance of global diversity when considering questions of how we imagine, innovate, and build.

Vivek Wadhwa is a Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program. He is the author of five best-selling books: From Incremental to Exponential; Your Happiness Was Hacked; The Driver in the Driverless Car; Innovating Women; and The Immigrant Exodus.

He has been a globally syndicated columnist for The Washington Post and held appointments at Carnegie Mellon University, Duke University, Stanford Law School, UC Berkeley, Emory University, and Singularity University. In 2012, the U.S. Government awarded Wadhwa distinguished recognition as an “Outstanding American by Choice” for his “commitment to this country and to the common civic values that unite us as Americans.”

He was also named one of the world’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers” by Foreign Policy magazine in that year; in June 2013, he was on TIME magazine’s list of “Tech 40”, one of forty of the most influential minds in tech; and in September 2015, he was second on a list of “ten men worth emulating” in The Financial Times. In 2018, he was awarded Silicon Valley Forum’s Visionary Award, a list of luminaries “who have made Silicon Valley synonymous with creativity and life-changing advancements in technology.”

 

Wadhwa is an advisor to several governments; mentors entrepreneurs; and writes for top publications across the globe. He has also researched Silicon Valley’s diversity, or the lack of it.  He documented that women entrepreneurs have the same backgrounds and motivations as men do, but are rare in the ranks of technology CEOs and CTOs. He is the founding president of the Carolinas chapter of The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TIE), a non-profit global network intended to foster entrepreneurship.  He has been featured in thousands of articles in publications worldwide, including the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Forbes magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, and Science Magazine, and has made many appearances on U.S. and international TV stations, including CBS 60 Minutes, PBS, CNN, ABC, NBC, CNBC, and the BBC.

This episode was produced by Mereck Palazzo & Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

Principled Dissent: Joe Toscano explains why he left the tech industry and what real change looks like

In this episode, I speak with Joe Toscano about why he left Google in 2017, and how he became one of tech's leading critics. We talk about what he saw, in 2017, in the culture of tech that led him to leave, and what led him to found the Better Ethics and Consumer Outcomes Network (BEACON). We discuss the relationship between ethics, law, and policy, and best practices for building a space for change in the public and in the industry.

Joe Toscano is an award-winning designer, published author, and international keynote speaker. Joe previously consulted for Google in Mountain View, CA. Joe left because he believes the industry misuses data and felt the issues needed to be addressed through innovation rather than strict regulation.

Since leaving, Joe has traveled the world speaking to audiences ranging from 10 people at local events to 15,000 person corporate events, he has written a book, called Automating Humanity, and he has started the Better Ethics and Consumer Outcomes Network (BEACON), all focused on increasing technology literacy, discovering opportunities for intentional and thoughtful innovative practices, and moving communities forward through purpose-driven innovation.

Outside of BEACON Joe also writes for Forbes, is a member of the World Economic Forum's Steering Committee for Data Protection, and is featured in The Social Dilemma. His work is in the process of being translated into law, putting him in the room with legislators across the United States, including NY State Senate and dozens of Attorney's General, to whom he submitted evidence in the antitrust case against Google.

This episode was produced by Mereck Palazzo & Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

Memory Drive: The ethics of Holocaust memory in the age of virtual reality

In this episode of "Technically Human," I sit down with Dr. Steven Smith, the director USC's Dimensions in Holocaust Testimony.  

We talk about the ethics of memory, testimony, and witness, and how these fundamental concepts are being radically changed by developing technologies. Steven explains the ethics of Holocaust witness in the digital age and how a new interactive program that enlists virtual technologies may allow Holocaust testimony to remain vivified for generations to come. How should we think about the reality of virtual survivors? How is our basic concept of "witness"  transformed by new technologies? And what does  "memory" mean in our current digital age?

Dr. Stephen D. Smith is the Finci -Viterbi Executive Director of USC Shoah Foundation, and holds the UNESCO Chair on Genocide Education.

Smith founded the UK Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire, England and cofounded the Aegis Trust for the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide.

Smith has served as a producer on a number of film and new media projects, including Dimensions in Testimony, and the VR project The Last Goodbye. He also co-hosts the MemoryGeneration podcast, alongside documentary storyteller Rachael Cerrotti, a show that explores dimensions of testimony from survivors of genocide.

In recognition of his work, Smith has become a member of the Order of the British Empire and received the Interfaith Gold Medallion. He also holds two honorary doctorates, and lectures widely on issues relating to the history and collective response to the Holocaust, genocide, and crimes against humanity.

Dimensions in Testimony is a collection of interactive video testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation, enabling people to engage with Holocaust survivors and other witnesses to genocide, by asking questions and conversing. It is the subject of the Academy-Award nominated documentary film, 116 Cameras.

This episode was produced by Mereck Palazzo & Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

This episode is dedicated to Izzy Arbeiter.

Public Service: Yaël Eisenstat Tackles the Intersection of Ethics, Tech, and Democracy

In this special edition of "Technically Human," we feature a live public conversation about the future of democracy, technology, and public policy. In 2017, Yaël Eisenstat came onboard Facebook to change it, joining the company as its Global Head of Elections Integrity Operations. What she discovered while working there alarmed her. She started speaking out, becoming a leading critic of tech’s threat to democracy.In this conversation, I sit down with Yaël in front of a live audience to ask:

• How can American Democracy persevere in the age of social media?
• Why does tech need regulation?
• Who can reign in Big Tech?
• What can we do to help?

Yaël Eisenstat works at the intersection of tech, democracy, and policy, with a focus on what the public square and open, democratic debate look like in the digital world. She works as a Future of Democracy Fellow at Berggruen Institute and a policy advisor to start-ups, governments, and investors looking to align technology to better serve the public.

She has spent 20 years working around the globe on democracy and security issues as a CIA officer, a White House advisor, the Global Head of Elections Integrity Operations for political advertising at Facebook, a diplomat, and the head of a global risk firm. She was a Researcher-in-Residence at Betalab in 2020-21 and a Visiting Fellow at Cornell Tech's Digital Life Initiative in 2019-2020, where she focused on technology's effects on discourse and democracy and taught a multi-university course on Tech, Media and Democracy.

Yaël Eisenstat has become a key voice and public advocate for transparency and accountability in tech, particularly where real-world-consequences affect democracy and societies around the world. Her recent TED talk addresses these issues and proposes ideas for how government and society should hold the companies accountable.

In 2017, she was named in Forbes' list of “40 Women to Watch Over 40”. She is also an Adjunct Professor at NYU's Center for Global Affairs, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and she provides context and analysis on social media, elections integrity, political and foreign affairs in the media. She has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Brookings Techstream, TIME, WIRED, Quartz and The Huffington Post, has appeared on CNN, BBC World News, CBS Sunday Morning, Bloomberg News, CBS News, PBS and C-SPAN, in policy forums, and on a number of podcasts. She earned an M.A. in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

Funny Business: ”Silicon Valley” writer and co-producer Dan Lyons explains what‘s funny about tech culture

In this episode, I sit down with a personal hero, the iconic literary giant Dan Lyons. We discuss Dan's experience writing about tech culture for the hit HBO show "Silicon Valley," and Dan's own experience working in tech. We talk about what makes Silicon Valley funny--and how that humor gets at some of the deeply sobering realities of Silicon Valley culture. 

Dan Lyons is one of the best-known science and technology journalists in the United States. He was the technology editor at Newsweek, a staff writer at Forbes, and a columnist for Fortune magazine, while also contributing op-ed columns to the New York Times about the economics and culture of Silicon Valley. 

Dan is the author of two of the most important recent books about Silicon Valley: Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Startup Bubble, an international best-seller, and Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us, which was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best business books of 2018. He is also the mastermind of the epic parody blog “The Fake Steve Jobs Blog.” 

Dan has been a consistent and vocal critic of racial, gender, and age bias in the technology industry, penning articles about "bro culture," worker exploitation, and the "hustle" mentality that leads to employee burnout. He has become a leading advocate for greater diversity in the technology industry and an early critic of the gig economy for its abuse of workers. His work helped draw attention to the brutal working conditions in Amazon warehouses. He has earned a reputation as a fearless critic of powerful interests in Silicon Valley, with a voice that sets him apart from the often fawning journalism that comes out of the technology space. 

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

The TransHuman Code: Carlos Moreira imagines a human-centered technological future

In this episode of the podcast, I speak with Carlos Moreira, the CEO of WISeKey. We discuss the possibilities for building a human-centered technological future today—and the consequences if we do not. What does a human-centered model for technological production look like? How can we build human rights into our tech? And what needs to change to return human values to tech?

Carlos Moreira is the Founder Chairman CEO of the international cybersecurity firm WISeKey and the author (along with David Fergusson) of The Transhuman Code, a landmark book about ethics and technology. Before founding WISeKey, he served as the United Nations Expert on CyberSecurity and Trust Models. During his 17 years as UN Expert, he became recognized worldwide as an Internet Pioneer and a distinctive authority, thought leader, and entrepreneurial force in today’s digital world where the acquisition and trusted protection of Identity, Trust and Security has become an essential step for citizens and entities across the globe.

Guided by a belief that the Internet needs to be safe and universal and a tool for prosperity, he began developing technologies to protect the Internet and founded WISeKey. He is the founder of SG International Organization for Secure Electronic Transactions IOSET OISTE.org, a founding member of the “Comité de Pilotage Project E-Voting” of the Geneva Government, a Member of the UN Global Compact, and a Member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council—among many other leadership roles. He has previously served as an Adjunct Professor of the Graduate School of Engineering RMIT Australia, and as Head of the Trade Efficiency Lab at the Graduate School of Engineering at RMIT.

In The TransHuman Code, he and his co-author David Fergusson ask, ''Are we building a better future for humanity with the help of magnificent technology, or are we instead building a better future of better technology at the expense of humanity? The book imagines what it would look like to center humanity in the emerging tension between a human-controlled or a machine-controlled world.

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Cover art by Desi Aleman.

Explaining AI: Kordel France's quest to create Ethical AI

In this episode, I speak to Kordel France, the CEO of Seekar Technology. We discuss the challenges of building an ethical tech company, the importance of creating unbiased data sets, and Kordel discusses the importance of making AI explainable.

Seekar technologies builds Artificial Intelligence across industries, with a specific focus on creating ethical AI for uses in ethical contexts. His technology has been involved in creating a response to the COVID-19 pandemic that allows doctors to more efficiently screen for the virus, and in environmental protection and conversation efforts. Kordel founded Seekar technologies to set new standards for how technologists create and deply AI, and seeks to make AI mobile, ethical, explainable, and dynamic. His vision for Seekar Technologies is committed to developing a tech culture in which the use of AI will remain ethical and equitable.

 

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.