Dark Possibilities and Grim Realities Notes & Resources

Dark Possibilities and Grim Realities

In this episode, Brian David Johnson talks with guests about the future of AI and what we should be optimizing for.

Douglas Rushkoff is an author and documentarian who studies human autonomy in a digital age. Named as

one of the “world’s ten most influential intellectuals” by the Massachusetts’s Institute of Technology, his work

explores how different technological environments change our relationship to narrative, money, power, and

one another. He has been a leading voice for applying digital media toward social and economic justice. He is

also a research fellow of the Institute for the Future, and founder of the Laboratory for Digital Humanism at

CUNY/Queens, where he is a Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics. His recent book is Team

Human, based on his podcast of the same name.

Site: https://rushkoff.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rushkoff

August Cole is a science-fiction author whose works explore the future of conflict through various forms of

fictional intelligence storytelling. His work has taken him all across the work from speaking at the Nobel

Institute in Oslo, to presenting on the future of warfare at SXSW Interactive to lecturing at West Point. He is

also a non-resident fellow at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Creativity at Marine Corps University

and a non-resident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center on Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council.

Site: https://www.augustcole.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/august_cole

Chris Noessel is the Senior Lead Designer for the Embedded Business Agent AI at IBM. He is the co-author of

Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction and The Essentials of Interaction Design, 4th

Edition. As a public speaker, he has given talks all around the world on topics such as interaction design for AI,

interactive narrative, information visualization, future of technology, and sci-fi interfaces.

Site: https://about.me/christophernoessel/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisnoessel

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisnoessel

Alida Draudt is human-centered business strategist, applied futurist and author on strategic foresight.

Currently, she is the Strategy Director at AKQA, and is also an Adjunct Professor of Strategic Foresight at the

California College of Arts. Through her work with the Threatcasting Lab – a collaboration between the Army

Cyber Institute and Arizona State University – and numerous independent works, Alida has looked at futures

and implications that span societal, political, environmental, economic, and technological implications. She is

also the co-author of What the Foresight, a book that promotes accessible ways for everyone to think better

about their futures.

Site: https://www.alidadraudt.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alida_p_d/

Laura Moy is a public interest technology policy lawyer and Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown Law.

She is also the Director of Georgetown Law’s Communications & Technology Law Clinic, and Associate Director

of the Centre on Privacy & Technology, a think-tank at the law school that does research and advocacy on

issues that intersect technology and civil rights. In her role as a policy expert, she has written, spoken, and

advocated before agencies and Congress on consumer privacy, law enforcement surveillance, data security,

device portability, copyright, and net neutrality

Bio: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/laura-moy/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lauramoy

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramoy/

Cindy Cohn is the Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Before taking this role, she

has been the EFF’s Legal Director and it’s General Counsel. She was named to TheNonProfitTimes 2020 Power

& Influence TOP 50 list, honoring influential persons of 2020. She was named as one of America’s Top 50

Women in Tech by Forbes in 2018. Ms. Cohn is considered one of the experts handling legal issues arising from

the secretive government spying programs work.

Bio: https://www.eff.org/about/staff/cindy-cohn/

Maureen “Mo” Johnson-Leon is a public scholar, community organizer and creator whose works span public

health policy, infectious disease research, data and tech ethics, democracy, equity and cooperative

governance of multi-stakeholder community-based research projects. She is currently focused on data equity

in pandemic response in collaboration with the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium, and on

mixed methods survey research with the Rural Pandemic Modeling group at the University of Idaho.

Site: https://moridesamoped.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/moridesamoped/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maureenalicejohnson/

Bruce Sterling is a technical commentator, design futurist and science-fiction author. His works include Man-

Made Self (1976), Schismatrix (1985), Islands in the Net (1988), and Heavy Weather (1994). He is one of the

founders of the cyberpunk movement in sci-fi and also the chief ideological promulgators of the subgenre. His

novelettes Bicycle Repairman(1996) and Taklamakan(1998) have won Hugo Awards. Since 2003, he has

blogged at Beyond the Beyond, hosted by Wired alongside contributions to other publications such as the

Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Science Fiction Eye and Monad.

Bio: https://www.edge.org/memberbio/bruce_sterling/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bruces/

References

– Mechanomorphism – https://www.dictionary.com/browse/mechanomorphism

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/074756328690004X

– Wintermute from Neuromancer (1984) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer/

– The Terminator (1984) – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/

– Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet(1956) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robby_the_Robot/

– Understanding Data Bias – https://towardsdatascience.com/survey-d4f168791e57/

– Predictive Policing in Oakland – https://statescoop.com/oakland-calif-set-to-ban-predictive-policingbiometric-surveillance-tools/

– The Beachcomber of Novi Kotor – https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/artificial-labor/140675/thebeachcomber-of-novi-kotor/

– Robot Artists and Black Swans : The Italian Fantascienza Stories –

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55345917-robot-artists-and-black-swans/

– The Task Lamp – https://bruces.medium.com/the-task-lamp-by-bruce-sterling-2019-d4e4c03044a0/