This Human Business

Today, it was announced that an artificial intelligence system under development at Amazon called Rekognition is now able to detect fear, using digital devices that scan the human face for signs of emotion. It’s time to get serious about emotion in business. It isn’t just a warm and fuzzy issue. On Monday, August 19, a new episode from the podcast This Human Business will confront the dark side, the light side, the absurd side of emotion in business.

The positive side of digital technology in business is clear, but commercial culture has yet to come to grips with the addictive nature of digital experiences, not just for individual users, but for entire businesses as well. This episode scrutinize the ethical problems beyond the elevated status that digital technology has been granted in business culture, in the context of my decision to spend all of 2019 without a smartphone.

Business leaders have begun to catch on to the idea that people outside of Silicon Valley don’t think of being human as some kind of pesky relic of an outdated biological past, a burden that should be transcended with technology. So, businesses have begun using the word -human- as a buzzword, a term that they add to their mission statements and promotional materials, though it’s pretty clear that they don’t have much of an idea about what being a human business is really all about. Let’s get real about this. How can we tell an authentic human business from a business that merely claims to be human?

New is what it’s all about. People will be quick to tell you that innovation is the thing that drives business these days. If it’s not new, it’s irrelevant, obsolete and vulnerable to disruption, the process through which innovative businesses invade the territories of those who have failed to innovate, pin them down and take them apart piece by piece until they die. The catch is that within the category of things that the business cult of innovation deems insufficiently innovative… is humanity.  

This final episode of the 1st season of This Human Business confronts the ugly reality exposed by the Me Too movement: The masculine default of business identity is hurting people and affecting the bottom line. Sexual assault, sexual harassment, and just plain sexism pervades business. How can we make it better - for women, for men, for everybody? How does gender fluidity relate to the practice of commerce? What do gender dynamics have to teach us about opportunities for the business of identity in general?

This final episode of the 1st season of This Human Business confronts the ugly reality exposed by the Me Too movement: The masculine default of business identity is hurting people and affecting the bottom line. Sexual assault, sexual harassment, and just plain sexism pervades business. How can we make it better - for women, for men, for everybody? How does gender fluidity relate to the practice of commerce? What do gender dynamics have to teach us about opportunities for the business of identity in general?

This episode of This Human Business considers the future of business, which is something that we cannot know, of course. When we're talking about the future of business, we're really talking about our concerns in the present and the legacy of the past. 

This episode of This Human Business considers the future of business, which is something that we cannot know, of course. When we're talking about the future of business, we're really talking about our concerns in the present and the legacy of the past. 

After years of hype, the digital revolution has finally led to the Great Techlash of 2018. Though Silicon Valley tycoons are still in love with their bots and their apps, the rest of us are realizing that the promises of technological utopia come with a dark side. We're growing skeptical of all the apps and automation. So, how can digital technology be humanized, to make it relevant and trustworthy again?

After years of hype, the digital revolution has finally led to the Great Techlash of 2018. Though Silicon Valley tycoons are still in love with their bots and their apps, the rest of us are realizing that the promises of technological utopia come with a dark side. We're growing skeptical of all the apps and automation. So, how can digital technology be humanized, to make it relevant and trustworthy again?

This week, This Human Business takes an unexpected turn with the news of the death of one of the businesses in this week’s intended episode about technology and humanity in business. That episode will come next week, but today, this stripped-down, mournful version of the ordinary podcast explores the strange businesss that sought to make artificial intelligence into a digital cat, its downfall, and the implications for business journalism.

This week, This Human Business takes an unexpected turn with the news of the death of one of the businesses in this week’s intended episode about technology and humanity in business. That episode will come next week, but today, this stripped-down, mournful version of the ordinary podcast explores the strange businesss that sought to make artificial intelligence into a digital cat, its downfall, and the implications for business journalism.

The digital industrial orthodoxy in business tells us that commerce is rational, mathematical. Cultural anthropologists looking at business know better. Business is filled with rituals, both for consumers and for people working in the corporate world. Enter the threshold and listen to this 4th episode of This Human Business to understand the elements of ritual, and how they can profit a business even as they make it more human.

The digital industrial orthodoxy in business tells us that commerce is rational, mathematical. Cultural anthropologists looking at business know better. Business is filled with rituals, both for consumers and for people working in the corporate world. Enter the threshold and listen to this 4th episode of This Human Business to understand the elements of ritual, and how they can profit a business even as they make it more human.

This bonus episode of This Human Business tells the story of Hermes, the god of commerce and the caduceus, as he encounters giants, the underworld, and a very picky turtle. How is this mythology relevant to present day buiness? Listen in and find out.