Welcome back to a new season of “Technically Human!” To kick off the year, I wanted to start out with a topic that has been coming up for me increasingly as I talk to people in Silicon Valley: free will.
OK, so I know it might seem a bit odd for a show about ethics and technology to feature what might seem like a purely philosophical concept. But spending time talking to folks in the tech scene, I discovered that the topic of free will comes up quite a lot. I wanted to understand why. The conversations made me wonder what it is about our technological culture—and maybe even our technologies themselves--that has reinvigorated this ancient debate, which extends back into the earliest philosophical traditions, and which is crucial to any concept of ethics.
In an age of algorithmic predictions, with tech companies and digital technologies that can anticipate and pinpoint our every move, can we still have free will as we know it? What happens to free will when our genetic technologies can plan what we’ll look like, how physically able we will be, and even who we’re likely to become? How free really are our actions when where we decide to eat is influenced by review sites that promote paid sponsors; where how we spend our money is dictated by data giants who tell us what we should like; and where even who we love is determined by algorithms on dating apps? How do we understand freedom of thought, and action, in an age where our biotechnologies not only record, but also predict and proscribe, how thoughts move around in our mind, and how they become actions?
To understand these questions, I turned to David Lawrence, the author of “Are We Biochemical Robots,” a book he wrote in opposition to Sam Harris’s popular argument against free will, a viewpoint endorsed by many in Silicon Valley. Lawrence, who holds a degree in philosophy from UCLA and a degree in law from USC, is a philosopher social critic, and a philosophical proponent of free will, opposing the determinist views held by many new media personalities. Here’s our conversation.
Funny Business: ”Silicon Valley” writer and co-producer Dan Lyons explains what‘s funny about tech culture
The TransHuman Code: Carlos Moreira imagines a human-centered technological future
Explaining AI: Kordel France's quest to create Ethical AI
Chris Wexler's Quest to Detoxify the Internet: AI and Krunam's Fight to Stop Human Trafficking
The Rise of the Ethical Hacker: The Wild, Wild West of Cybersecurity with Ted Harrington
Captivating Technology: How surveillance technology is taking over our prisons and our bodies
Network Technology: Dr. Ethel Mickey explains how networks structure the tech workforce
Millennial Action Technology: Steven Olikara talks tech and political activism for a new generation of leaders
Hard at Work: Sharla Alegria discusses inequality in the tech workforce
Digital Justice: Tech, policing, and the digital divide with Dr. Rashawn Ray and Dr. Nicol Turner Lee
Nintendo Nation: Jeff Ryan on Super Mario, gaming culture, and the ludology of play
Climate, Chemicals, Carcinogens, Cancer: Dr.Sandra Steingraber challenges the system
Natural Technology: Defining Technology in New Ways with Dr.Timothy Morton
Persons and Things: ThingLogix CTO Rob Rastovich talks human values and the Internet of Things
Body Technology: Disability and Technology Part 2 with Paralympian Ezra Frech
Body Technology: Disability and Technology Part 1 with Clayton Frech
Haley Pavone Reinvents the Heel: Fashion is an Ethics and Equity Issue
World Building:John Maeda designs the future of art, tech, and architecture
Dr. Mark Z. Jacobson Revolutionizes Climate Science: How tech can save the world from climate change and what YOU can do to help
Virtually Human: Living in Jaron Lanier’s virtual reality
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