We all know and feel that science and technology are transforming how we work, love, and play. Our lives are being affected inside and out: how our brain works, how we communicate, connect and create, how we parent and politic, how we learn and heal and die, our lifestyle and culture. There are techno-utopians who think this is the be-all end-all and techno-dystopians who think this is simply the end. And then there are the wise explorers and explicators of the present who encourage us to think hopefully and responsibly about where we are headed.
Few people are as inspiring, imaginative, knowledgeable, creative, and funny as groundbreaking filmmaker and Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain. Her immensely entertaining and unique AOL Originals hit show The Future Starts Here, which received over 20 million views in its first season and was nominated for a 2014 Emmy, just began its second season.
I have watched all the episodes – none are longer than five minutes or so – and they are all remarkable. The most recent, “Robots, Botox and Google Glass”, reflects on our love and fear of technology: the uncanny feeling evoked by technologies that are more and more life-like and the ever expanding surveillance that make us aware of awareness.
With fast-paced images, colorful animations, erudition and funny insights, Shlain, who created the Technology Shabbat, invites us to reflect on important and profound questions – what does it mean to be human and who do we want to be in this age of connectivity? Shlain leaves us with a magical mix of awe, humility and perhaps most important, a sense of agency in a world that seems so out of control. She is a wisdom teacher for this age, creatively taking us to where mindfulness, purposefulness and technology meet.
The Future Starts Here is a must watch!
Rabbi Irwin Kula is a 7th generation rabbi and a disruptive spiritual innovator. A rogue thinker, author of the award-winning book, Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life, and President-Emeritus of Clal – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, he works at the intersection of religion, innovation, and human flourishing. A popular commentator in both new and traditional media, he is co-founder with Craig Hatkoff and the late Professor Clay Christensen of The Disruptor Foundation whose mission is to advance disruptive innovation theory and its application in societal critical domains. He serves as a consultant to a wide range of foundations, organizations, think tanks, and businesses and is on the leadership team of Coburn Ventures, where he offers uncommon inputs on cultural and societal change to institutional investors across sectors and companies worldwide.