Ray's Reviews > Team Human

If you haven't been listening to podcast Team Human by Douglas Rushkoff--the great techno guru of the 90s who has now become more of a skeptic and the social consciousness of the silicon era--do so now. Full of brilliant ideas and dialogues about our current confusing era. Then, after listening to most of the archive, get the book Team Human.

To be honest, it's rather light for Rushkoff. To delve deeper, try Life Inc. or Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus. Team Human could be accused of oversimplifying a host of issues, but the book does provide a valuable service by summing up the ethos that humanity needs to start living by if we are going to survive the digital landscape that we are in. These things do need to sorted in an orderly manner, like a manifesto or at least a starter, so that well-meaning people will have a foundation to fall back on.

Much of the book is fascinating, on the connection between computerized media and nationalism as opposed to the unifying nature of other mediums. On the absurd abstraction of the economy, and how we must care more about the foreground and not be lost in the background. Why the Renaissance, which takes in positive old ideas, is a better metaphor for the state of the world than 'revolution', which always ends up with the same power structures in the end. There is even an analysis about how story structure in cinema has warped people's expectations of reality, and even gets into the cyclical nature of time in cultures both pre- and post-agriculturalism. And my personal favorite, the dangerous concept of mechanomorphism in which humans start imitating the machines.

Team Human is an important book for anyone who cares about just that, humans. Armed with these ideas, let's choose a team that has our interests in mind before it's too late...