🎧 Paul Mason on the Human Future

Episode summary: We talk to Paul Mason about his new book Clear Bright Future - a radical defence of the human being in the age of digital transformation and a call to political action. The book covers a lot of ground and so do we: Trump and Nietzsche, machine learning and network effects, climate change and neoliberalism, secular humanism and Christian Enlightenment. But no Brexit! A conversation about the biggest political choices we face and the deep philosophical questions that lie behind them. With Helen Thompson. Talking Points: How do we demystify technology? - In his first book on mechanics, Galileo described machines as things that harness the forces of nature. - Likewise, Adam Smith emphasized that labour produces value, not machines. - Modern science often likens reality to a computer; but we’ve created them, not the other way around. AI has the potential to fundamentally transform industrial societies. - Civil society needs to have a say in how this technology evolves. - How do we introduce ethical questions…