The Alumni Philodemica held a Book Club meeting on April 30th, featuring Douglas Rushkoff’s Team Human. This thought-provoking manifesto started by asserting, not unlike Aristotle, that humans are social creatures, whose greatest aspirations can only be achieved by working together. Rushkoff then argued that our ability to connect is being threatened by a vast, interconnected anti-human infrastructure, encompassing technology, money, and media. Our discussion tried to address one key challenge posed by the book: How can human beings intentionally create a future in which they can flourish, despite the presence of so many trends larger than the individual that seem to work against them? In true Philodemic fashion, our discussion brought together a wide-ranging array of perspectives and topics to answer that question, ranging from indigenous peoples’ medicinal practices to Marxist critiques of capitalism to the symbology of memes.
Team Human pulled together many familiar threads regarding critiques of modern America, ranging from social media’s polarizing and isolating effects to the loss of spiritual sensibilities in a growth-obsessed society. Our AP members appreciated the degree to which Rushkoff integrated these threads together into one coherent narrative, particularly the need to reconnect to shared human values and incorporate those values into technology, organizations, and systems (rather than wholesale reject technological development and progress).
Rushkoff begins with the cooperative ecosystem, noting that nature is cooperative rather than competitive, often because the most successful biological creatures can coexist in mutually beneficial ways. Human socialization relies on a balance between autonomy and interdependency. Rushkoff then engages with social control and how communications technologies are often co-opted to thwart meaningful human contact to the benefit of higher authorities. He explores mechanomorphism, where people view a new technology as their role model and begin projecting machine-like qualities onto humans (e.g. human mind as a computer), as well as how particular media environments promote particular types of societies. Several more chapters explore how the market expresses itself through technology, particularly how value-extraction capitalism results in infinite acquisition at the expense of commerce itself, and the problems with artificial intelligence being seen as a replacement for human beings.
Our AP members particularly appreciated the second half of the book, which discussed ambiguity as a key part of the human experience, the loss of spirituality involved in a growth-oriented society, and the ongoing detachment of science from system-side realities of nature and the human experience. We found common ground in the idea that our “rational minds” often set toxic or unsustainable goals that did not complement our bodily experiences or our social needs, and that the body should be studied as a holistic system rather than a bunch of individual parts. One common thread was the need to reconnect to our moment-to-moment experience, something the ancients understood experientially, and realize the future is a reality we create with our current choices rather than something that just happens to us.
The book ended with the call for another renaissance, a rebirth of old ideas in new context to advance our shared human values. This required connection to physical place and people’s lived experience, a kind of human contact that allowed us to reconnect with each other and the natural world of which we are part. The group did not come to full consensus on what human values we shared, but generally appreciated the ideals of cooperation over competition and the vital role of connection in what it means to be human. The group did agree that we needed to be more intentional about our lives, particularly how we interacted with technology and with each other, and that we needed to be cognizant of how integral we are as a part of systems.
After such a stimulating discussion, we adjourned in high spirits and with the resolve to further connect with our fellow alumni, communities, and human beings. Till our next book!