Show Notes
The future doesn't simply arrive. People build it.
And yet, conversations about artificial intelligence and the future of work increasingly treat change as something that's already been decided: AI adoption is inevitable. Automation is inevitable. Entire professions will inevitably be transformed—or eliminated.
Inevitability, though, is never a neutral description. Often, it becomes an argument that discourages us from asking who's making these decisions, who stands to benefit, who will bear the consequences, and which alternatives we're choosing to leave unexplored.
In the first episode of R: On Everything, author and technologist Ryan R. Campbell examines how the language of inevitability disguises human choices as natural forces. Drawing on workplace conversations about AI, the history of the Luddites, the possibilities opened up by AI-assisted software engineering, and the role of purpose in evaluating new technology, Ryan argues for something more demanding than either uncritical adoption or categorical refusal: participation.
In this episode:
How “inevitable” shifts from prediction to argument
Why technological change is shaped by budgets, incentives, strategies, and values
What the Luddites actually resisted—and why their story still matters
The difference between augmenting people and designing systems to remove them
How inevitability can become a self-fulfilling prophecy
The questions that help us recover agency amid forces we cannot fully control
Why accepting the limits of our power does not require surrendering our judgment
The future may constrain our choices. It doesn't relieve us of the responsibility to make them.
Referenced in this episode:
Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement*
“The Power of Purpose: Why You Need a Mission Statement”
Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant
Written and hosted by Ryan R. Campbell.
Explore the essays and subscribe to R: On Everything at https://r-on-everything.com.
*In the episode, this book was mistakenly referred to as a manifestation, rather than a manifesto. And, separately, at one point, I refer to the Gospel of Inevitability as the "Gospital of Inevitability." Tongue-tiedness can get you on even your better days, it seems.
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R: On Everything is a podcast about technology, work, creativity, culture, and the ideas connecting them.