capitalism

Democracy in action has looked the same for generations. Constituents might go to a library or school every one or two years and cast their vote for people who don't actually represent everything that they care about. Our technology is rapidly increasing in sophistication, yet our forms of democracy have largely remained unchanged. What would an upgrade look like - not just for democracy, but for all the different places that democratic decision-making happens?

On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, we’re joined by political economist and social technologist Divya Siddarth, one of the world's leading experts in collective intelligence. Together we explore how new kinds of governance can be supported through better technology, and how collective decision-making is key to unlocking everything from more effective elections to better ways of responding to global problems like climate change.

Correction:

Tristan mentions Elon Musk’s attempt to manufacture ventilators early on in the COVID-19 pandemic. Musk ended up buying over 1,200 ventilators that were delivered to California.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA

Against Democracy by Jason Brennan

A provocative challenge to one of our most cherished institutions

Ledger of Harms

Technology platforms have created a race for human attention that’s unleashed invisible harms to society. Here are some of the costs that aren't showing up on their balance sheets

The Wisdom Gap

This blog post from the Center for Humane Technology describes the gap between the rising interconnected complexity of our problems and our ability to make sense of them

DemocracyNext

DemocracyNext is working to design and establish new institutions for government and transform the governance of organizations that influence public life

CIP.org

An incubator for new governance models for transformative technology

Ethelo

Transform community engagement through consensus

Kazm’s Living Room Conversations

Living Room Conversations works to heal society by connecting people across divides through guided conversations proven to build understanding and transform communities

The Citizens Dialogue

A model for citizen participation in Ostbelgien, which was brought to life by the parliament of the German-speaking community

Asamblea Ciudadana Para El Clima

Spain’s national citizens’ assembly on climate change

Climate Assembly UK

The UK’s national citizens’ assembly on climate change

Citizens’ Convention for the Climate

France’s national citizens’ assembly on climate change

Polis

Polis is a real-time system for gathering, analyzing and understanding what large groups of people think in their own words, enabled by advanced statistics and machine learning

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang 

They Don’t Represent Us with Larry Lessig

A Renegade Solution to Extractive Economics with Kate Raworth

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

A few episodes back, we presented Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin’s talk The AI Dilemma. People inside the companies that are building generative artificial intelligence came to us with their concerns about the rapid pace of deployment and the problems that are emerging as a result. We felt called to lay out the catastrophic risks that AI poses to society and sound the alarm on the need to upgrade our institutions for a post-AI world.

The talk resonated - over 1.6 million people have viewed it on YouTube as of this episode’s release date. The positive reception gives us hope that leaders will be willing to come to the table for a difficult but necessary conversation about AI.

However, now that so many people have watched or listened to the talk, we’ve found that there are some AI myths getting in the way of making progress. On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, we debunk five of those misconceptions. 

RECOMMENDED MEDIA 

Opinion | Yuval Harari, Tristan Harris, and Aza Raskin on Threats to Humanity Posed by AI - The New York Times

In this New York Times piece, Yuval Harari, Tristan Harris, and Aza Raskin call upon world leaders to respond to this moment at the level of challenge it presents.

Misalignment, AI & Moloch

A deep dive into the game theory and exponential growth underlying our modern economic system, and how recent advancements in AI are poised to turn up the pressure on that system, and its wider environment, in ways we have never seen before

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

The AI Dilemma

The Three Rules of Humane Tech

Can We Govern AI? with Marietje Schaake

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

Why isn't Twitter doing more to get bots off their platform? Why isn’t Uber taking better care of its drivers? 

What if...they can't?

Venture-capital backed companies like Twitter and Uber are held accountable to maximizing returns to investors. If and when they become public companies, they become accountable to maximizing returns to shareholders. They’ve promised Wall Street outsized returns — which means Twitter can't lose bots if it would significantly lower their user count and in turn lower advertising revenue, and Uber can’t treat their drivers like employees if it competes with profits.

But what's the alternative? What might it look like to design an ownership and governance model that incentivizes a technology company to serve all of its stakeholders over the long term – and primarily, the stakeholders who create value?

This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're talking with two experts on creating the conditions for humane business, and in turn, for humane technology: Mara Zepeda and Kate “Sassy” Sassoon of Zebras Unite Co-Op. Zebras Unite is a member-owned co-operative that’s creating the capital, culture, and community to power a more just and inclusive economy. The Zebras Unite Coop serves a community of over 6,000 members, in about 30 chapters, over 6 continents. Mara is their Managing Director, and Kate is their Director of Cooperative Membership.

Two corrections:

• The episode says that the failure rate of startups is 99%. The actual rate is closer to 90%.
• The episode says that in 2017, Twitter reported 350 million users on its platform. The actual number reported was 319 million users.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA 

Zebras Fix What Unicorns Break

A seminal 2017 article by Zebras Unite co-founders, which kicked off the movement and distinguished between zebras and unicorns — per the table below.

Meetup to the People 

Zebras Unite’s 2019 thought experiment of exiting Meetup to community

Zebras Unite Crowdcast Channel

Where you can find upcoming online events, as well as recordings of previous events.

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES 

A Renegade Solution to Extractive Economics with Kate Raworth: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/29-a-renegade-solution-to-extractive-economics

Bonus — A Bigger Picture on Elon & Twitter: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/bigger-picture-elon-twitter  

Here’s Our Plan And We Don’t Know with Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin, and Stephanie Lepp: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/46-heres-our-plan-and-we-dont-know

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

In this episode from October 2019, a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen and former a16z podcast showrunner Sonal Choksi bring on MIT economist and bestselling author Andrew McAfee to discuss why the lessons of human growth in times past, from the Industrial Revolution onwards, might not apply to our future. It used to be that the only way for humanity to grow — and progress — was through destroying the environment. But is this interplay between human growth vs. environment really a zero-sum game? Even if it were true in history, is it true today? If capitalism is not responsible for environmental degradation, than who or what is? And where does (and doesn’t) technology come in?

The conversation is based on McAfee’s 2019 book More from Less: The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources -- and What Happens Next,  ranging broadly across many areas of growth, from the future of energy and agriculture to the role of capitalism and technology today and tomorrow, from dematerialization  to Tesla, Buckminster Fuller, and more. 

Renowned quantum physicist Richard Feynman once wrote, "It is our capacity to doubt that will determine the future of civilization." 

In that spirit, this episode is a little different – because we're talking openly about our doubts, with you, our listeners. It's also different because it’s hosted by our Executive Producer Stephanie Lepp, with Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin in the hot seats.

How have we evolved our understanding of our social media predicament? How has that evolution inspired us to question the work we do at Center for Humane Technology? Join us as we say those three magic words — I don't know — and yet pursue our mission to the best of our ability.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA

Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System

Systems theorist Donella Meadows' seminal article, articulating a framework for thinking about how to change complex systems. 

Winning Humanity’s Existential Game

The Future Thinkers podcast with Daniel Schmactenberger, where he explores how to mitigate natural and human-caused existential risks and design post-capitalist systems

Ledger of Harms of Social Media

The Center for Humane Technology's research on elaborating the many externalities of our technology platforms' race for human attention 

Foundations of Humane Technology Course

CHT's forthcoming course on how to build technology that protects our well-being, minimizes unforeseen consequences, and builds our collective capacity to address humanity's urgent challenges

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES 

36 - A Problem Well-Stated Is Half-Solved: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/a-problem-well-stated-is-half-solved

42 - A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/42-a-conversation-with-facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen

43 - Behind the Curtain on The Social Dilemma: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/43-behind-the-curtain-on-the-social-dilemma

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_

Stephanie Shirley chats with Rob about entrepreneurship and philanthropy. How she set up her businesses, where she gets inspiration from, what she likes to do and her plans for the future. Stephanie talks about women in business and she gives advice on aspiring women entrepreneurs. She also talks about her philanthropy action and of course, what being disruptive means to her.

[Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors]

VALUABLE RESOURCES

https://robmoore.com/

bit.ly/Robsupporter  

https://robmoore.com/podbooks

 rob.team

ABOUT THE HOST

Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors”

“If you don't risk anything, you risk everything”

CONTACT METHOD

Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979

disruptive, disruptors, entreprenuer, business, social media, marketing, money, growth, scale, scale up, risk, property: http://www.robmoore.com

On this second part of live Q&A, Rob talks about capitalism and money, how to teach kids about the value of money, how to make money from scratch and why talking about money is not a "taboo". How do you know when you have made enough money, tips on how to keep on the conversation about money and his personal thoughts about making, managing and talking about money.

[Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors]

VALUABLE RESOURCES

https://robmoore.com/

bit.ly/Robsupporter  

https://robmoore.com/podbooks

 rob.team

ABOUT THE HOST

Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors”

“If you don't risk anything, you risk everything”

CONTACT METHOD

Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979

disruptive, disruptors, entreprenuer, business, social media, marketing, money, growth, scale, scale up, risk, property: http://www.robmoore.com