Introduce Yourself

Thanks. I am reading a lot about UI and SW/Apps but do you look at hardware and system level too? Possible I missed it.

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We want to cover all aspects of technology that now are directed to diminish the agency and happiness of human beings. You could contribute to that part, perhaps you can start by creating a new topic about that - hardware and systems built and leveraged against ethical humane values and needs.

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Hi, my name is Jack Marshall and I am an software enginner living at UK. Iā€™m a big fan of retro-computing. I can program in BASIC, C, Java, assembler, Perl, PHP and JS. I have a Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, some parts of a PDP-11 and many others, often obscure. I hate smartphones with the passion since I dropped my Nokia N95 (probably in 2010) and realized that life is much better without a pocket computer. The first time I realized something was wrong with the Internet was around 2006, when I was realized the fact that people didnā€™t fear exposing themselves on MySpace. Now, in 2019, when every teenager has got a pocket computer (which, because of being called a ā€œsmartphoneā€, most donā€™t realize that itā€™s a computer, not a phone), it has just become worse. I strongly believe that Internet safety should be still a topic today.

Cheers.

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Hi!

Iā€™m a web developer and small business owner in the USA. I came here after I heard a clip of Tristan Harrisā€™ excellent Senate testimony on the No Agenda podcast. My attention is not for sale!

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Phillip,
Interested in your philosophy of technology course and how you envision blockchain for humanity. What is your assessment of ā€œThe Age of Surveillance Capitalismā€ assertions offered by Soshana Buhoff magnum opus? I am founder of the Maka Si Tomni Institute on Pine Ridge Reservation SD and Amerindians have a healthy distrust in current philosophy of technology and open to new interpretations serving human realizations in value creation enterprises. Thanks.

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I too am interested in phenomenology. Have you read any David Abrams?

PS Iā€™m the CEO of Readup. You should check it out. I think youā€™d like it.
PSS More about me.
PSSS I was born and raised in Seaside Heights, NJ, on the Jersey shore.

Mushin,
I donā€™t have an especially deep understanding of blockchain technology. I have a laymanā€™s understanding based on popular articles, but I am not in a position to weigh in on what this technology might do for humanity in general. I know there are many possibilities with regard to a decentralized monetary system, but I really donā€™t know enough to say much on this.

I have not read The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, but I do teach a unit in my course on surveillance, privacy, and big data. I agree am in general agreement with Hartzog & Selinger that facial recognition technology should simply be completely banned. The surveillance state currently being constructed in China, for example, is terrifying.

I recommend the philosopher of technology Albert Borgmann. I think you might find his theory of ā€œfocal things and focal practicesā€ interesting, and continuous with your view of technology serving (rather than constraining) human value. Check out his classic book Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life (it is a bit outdated at this point, and he has more recent stuff, but it is a nice initial presentation of his theoretical framework).

Cheers,
Phil

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Hi Loundy,
I had not heard of David Abram, but just looked him up now. Interesting stuff for sure. I heartily approve of his theoretical foundation in the French phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty, a real favorite of mine! Nice to meet you here, looks like you are living a nice life :slight_smile:

Best,
Phil

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Hi everyone!

Iā€™m Ben, and Iā€™m a physics student in the UK. Iā€™ve become more and more aware of these issues of attention mining, especially with myself and the people around me. And Iā€™ve been fighting with the problem of trying to get people to fully understand that there is a problem in the first place. I really appreciate this humane tech movement, and am following it closely, and would love to get involved one day.

Iā€™m looking forward to discussing these issues with you all!

Ben

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Hi Everyone!

My name is Sean Herman. Iā€™ve been following Tristan Harrisā€™ work for years and am excited to finally be joining this community. I am the Founder/CEO of Kinzoo and author of ā€œScreen Capturedā€, a book that will be widely available in September.

Iā€™m interested in the Humane Tech Community because I want to connect with as many leaders as I can that are pushing the conversation forward regarding technologyā€™s place in our lives. I want to learn and share ideas and look forward to connecting with others to discuss and debate ideas in the space, in a constructive and respectful way.

I founded my company once my then-7-year-old daughter began showing interest in connected technology. She wanted to communicate with her grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins who live far away without always having to get my wife and I to set up a call, or send a message on her behalf. She also wanted to connect with a few of her closest friends over technology. I surveyed the landscape and all that existed was Facebook Messenger for Kids, or adult platforms that some were using within their families (like WhatsApp or Snapchat). I wasnā€™t comfortable with any of them so I built my business plan and began Kinzoo.

As I set out to design my product, I wanted to learn everything I could about persuasive technology, dark patterns and the impact of social media on the psyche of youth. I began to research and ended up going very deep in my quest to determine what features would, and wouldnā€™t, be included in my platform. Ultimately, I decided to write a book about what I learned, which is coming out in September 2019.

In my brief journey, Iā€™ve been fortunate to meet many great people that are doing amazing work in the space including Child Psychologists, Teachers, Parents, Authors and Academics. I look forward to meeting more leaders that are pushing the ideas of the Center for Humane Technology forward.

Look forward to contributing and to meeting all of you.

Sean

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Hi everyone!

Iā€™m Kai. I work as a social educator in a center with families at risk of social exclusion. Specifically, I work with children from primary school (6 to 12 years old).

Iā€™m interested in the Humane Tech Community because I constantly observe the social and personal conditioning generated by the technological era, and it is increasingly clear to me how important it is to be able to educate about it.

I am currently specializing in research on techno addictions, that is why I would love to make connections and share knowledge with all of you.

Keep in touch :slight_smile:

K.

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Hey Jared, I send you a mail for investment in 2 projects : http://ventureo.solutions and http://steemit.com/@askanything
Best,

Hello,
I am the founder of Ventureo, a specific token for nonprofits. Currency is a technology we need to make more humane.
http://ventureo.solutions

I also help students to get paid by asking questions on Steemit, rather than to pay for tuition fees.
http://steemit.com/@askanything

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Hi All,

Iā€™m Stephen, Iā€™m an IT consultant from Dublin, Ireland. I found my way here from a footnote in Yuval Harariā€™s latest book, and itā€™s great to find such an active community.
My main interest in Humane Technology is in the world of work, and the risks technology brings in reducing the opportunities for people to do meaningful work, and in the alignment of increasingly automated algorithms. There is an opportunity today to use technology to greatly increase the diversity and value of the work people do, but I think the way businesses are organised, and in particular how business transformation is planned tends to lead in the opposite direction.

My goal here is to try and develop these ideas and learn from others already working on it.

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^ funny you say that. I know a girl who lives in sri lanka, she is microsoft head of analytics for south east asia. Maybe 29 probably 28 year old girl. Her boss gives her a mighty task and says she has a week to do it.

She tells him ok boss I hope I can comb through all this and be done by then and closes her office door. Then she writes a script in about 20 minutes that automates the entire thing, and she talks to me and chills and watches movies etc.

EDIT:

Yuval Harariā€™s latest book,

^Sweet name drop!

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Good for her! Thatā€™s actually a big part of the issue I think, that people always have more work coming at them than they can handle, so for most people the only viable strategy is to do the minimum possible before bouncing tasks on to someone else. There is no time for deep thought or thinking about the big picture. I donā€™t doubt that if she wasnā€™t protective of her time she wouldnā€™t be able to finish the task within the week, let alone 20 minutes.

There is an old book about this and how in the management sector is business you are promoted to your level of incompetence.

Itā€™s called the peter principal, kind of satire I guess but based in truth and its a ridiculous part of economy and sociology intersecting badly.

Hello Everyone! My name is Sergio, and this year, I bootstrapped a small company called Calm Tech. My mission is to provide mentorship to people that need help with technology. I have been influenced by people like Tristan Harris and Amber Case, so I am happy to contribute to HTC.

I would like to invite everyone to visit https://www.calmtech.com.br/blog?lang=en. Signing up is free, and I promise no spam (I hate them and I do respect the golden rule). Posts are in English and Portuguese.

See you on our website and here in the HTC!

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Hi everyone! My name is Matt, Iā€™m currently pursuing my MA in Education and MBA at Stanford. Formerly Iā€™ve worked across a variety of technology projects for Bain & Co, most recently in their South African office.

Currently Iā€™m working BJ Foggā€™s Behavior Design lab. Weā€™re building tools to help people reduce their screentime. I look forward to both sharing more with this community as we have prototypes as well as learning from all you have accomplished thus far.

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Hi! My name is Javier Guajardo and I graduated from computer science last year. During college I was involved in a political movement in Mexico called ā€œwikipolĆ­ticaā€ that wanted to refresh the political landscape in Mexico. Iā€™m now working at the Mexico City govermentā€™s Digital Agency for Public Innovation, doing data viz, frontend dev, and some work with cartography.

I stumbled upon the Center for Humane Technology, while looking for ways for me as a developer to build less polarizing tools, and help reshape our public and political life, after years of unregulated social media platforms.

Iā€™m excited to read and discuss with all of you, and hopefully we can all build an internet thats fairer, and helps people, not the opposite.

Javier

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