When he recorded this conversation, Doug Rushkoff was at home in a small town somewhere near New York, and I was in my echoey kitchen five minutes from the beach on the south coast of England. But that’s just the physical. More importantly, we were together in cyberspace, a place both he and I are very familiar with.

We chatted about the old days, when state-of-the-art meant a DOS computer with no pictures, music or video. I think of myself as an early adopter, but Doug got there long before me. His book Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace came out in 1993, just as I was starting to dip my toes into the internet, and he’s been an influential technology commentator ever since. So I was really pleased when he asked to interview me about my book Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace.

Our conversation ranged far and wide, from the early years of cyberspace to the present day and then forward to the uncertain future of humanity itself. I really enjoyed our chat. Hope you do too.

https://www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/sue-thomas

PS I can also strongly recommend Doug’s January 2020 interview with James Lovelock, scientist extraordinaire, proposer of the Gaia Hypothesis, and an energetic 102 years old! The two of them really hit it off and to hear Lovelock’s delight in their conversation is really joyful.

https://www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/ep-146-james-lovelock-we-humans-are-a-good-thing