The secret place AI can't see
A conversation with Douglas Rushkoff of Team Human
We made a limited edition print publication! In case you missed it, you can read the announcement here. Grab your copy here if you’re in the US and here for international.
Today we’re sharing an excerpt from my conversation with
In addition to showing LSD-godfather Timothy Leary the world wide web for the first time (Leary’s response: “Oh my god, this is acid”), coining terms like “viral media” and “social currency,” and being called one of the top 10 most influential intellectuals by MIT (a title I’m sure he hates), Douglas just released the #1 internet book currently on Amazon, Program or Be Programmed.
I first emailed Douglas Rushkoff in 2019. The letter was several paragraphs long and ended with this:
Anyways, that's all. Feel free to read this and go 'That guy seems nice but possibly nuts, gonna go ahead and pass." or something of that nature, no hard feelings.
Wow this is a long e-mail,
Alex
Miraculously, he responded. We played email scheduling tag for a few years until I finally got my chance to speak with him as part of this series.
Here’s a video of one of my fav parts of the conversation in which we discuss rescuing the human from the machine, the absurdity of modern self-care, and how the spaces between moments are where we actually live.
The whole clip is worth watching, but these words in particular stopped me in my tracks:
The in between is where it happens.
It's less the meeting and more how am I getting to and from each of those meetings? And what am I thinking about in between? You know, it's like the ticks of the clock.
The computer understands the ticks, but human beings live in the moments between those ticks, in the duration that's not even acknowledged by the metrics.
And that's where it's at.
That's where human beings actually live.This secret place that computers don't even know and AIs can't see. They can only see the ticks. They're quantized. But we're breathing in that space. And that's where, if there is some spiritual thing, that's where it is.
To read, listen, and watch the full conversation, get your copy.
i’ve been obsessed with the concept of “in between” this year- so cool to read that someone else is thinking about that
During the pandemic, I stumbled upon the term "infra-ordinary," coined by French author and artist Georges Perec. This term represents the opposite of extraordinary. Perec urged readers to reflect on their daily lives, recognize meaningful moments, and find beauty in the patterns of their routines. After he created the term, he spent three days at a café in Paris, meticulously recording everything he observed as he "exhausted" the place. He presented his observations simply yet thoughtfully in a book called "An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris." I thought it goes well with the in-between!
I became obsessed with the 'in-between' last year, around the same time I started my newsletter, as slow as possible. In my newsletter, I'm exploring the in-between spaces of our lives that we see but often do not notice.
I bought the digital version last night and am looking forward to diving into it. I would have loved to have the printed version, but I live in Europe. Thank you!