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Aleks Krotoski asks if we've all become techno-fundamentalists, unquestioningly accepting the latest innovation into our lives without thinking about potential downsides.

Aleks Krotoski asks if we've all become techno-fundamentalists, unquestioningly accepting the latest innovation into our lives without thinking about potential downsides.

Perhaps we could learn from a society who think much more carefully and critically about adopting new technology - the Amish. Unlike what many people believe, it's not that they reject technology outright but they make careful community based decisions about they what they permit. It's a thoughtful, democratic and yes scientific approach. They'll see how a modern innovation effects the community by allowing it to be trialled and if they don’t like what they see, they reject it,

How many of the negative unintended consequences of digital technology could have been avoided if the rest of us took a page out of their book?

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29 minutes

Last on

Thu 15 Sep 2022 23:30

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Lindsay Ems

Lindsay Ems

Lindsay Ems is Associate Professor and Faculty Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the College of Communication at Butler University. Her scholarship interrogates the roles mobile and digital media play in structuring of political and social relationships. She has written a book called Virtually Amish: Preserving Community at the Internet’s Margins, which has recently been published by MIT Press. The book explores the sophisticated strategies used in Amish communities to decide if and how to adopt new digital communication technologies and what is at stake for them when they make such decisions.


Saloma Furlong Miller

Saloma Furlong Miller

Saloma Furlong Miller left the Amish at the age of 23. She is the author three books, and her story has been featured in two PBS American Experience films, “The Amish” and “The Amish: Shunned.” 

Andrew Russell

Andrew Russell
Andrew Russell is Professor of History and Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. He is the co-author of The Innovation Delusion (2020) and Circuits, Packets, and Protocols (2022)

Christoper Ategeka

Christoper Ategeka
Christopher Ategeka is an award-winning engineer, entrepreneur, and author. He is the founder and general partner at the pre-seed fund Startup Playbook, that supports software companies run by women and other entrepreneurs traditionally underrepresented in the venture capital market. Ategeka has spent his career working at the intersections of technology and humanity. His book, “The Unintended Consequences of Technology,” identifies the challenges and opportunities that technology poses to people and the planet. 

Jane Alexander

Jane Alexander
Jane Alexander is a novelist, short story writer, and a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Edinburgh. Her most recent book, The Flicker Against the Light, is a collection of uncanny short stories about science and technology. Her second novel A User’s Guide To Make-Believe is a dystopian thriller about virtual realities, and her first novel The Last Treasure Hunt was selected as a Waterstones debut of the year in 2015. 

Broadcasts

  • Mon 13 Jun 2022 16:30
  • Thu 15 Sep 2022 23:30

Podcast