Douglas Rushkoff: “If You Are Not A Programmer, Then You Are One Of The Programmed.”

(UPDATED) I’ve been granted a fascinating and awesome opportunity to take an online class hosted by one of the leading technology and media critics of our time Douglas Rushkoff, author of my favorite book Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back and the man behind documentaries such as Merchants of Cool and Digital Nation, both of which can be streamed online. 

In releasing his new book Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age, Rushkoff decided that it would be interesting to host an online class that anyone can join, in an effort to mediate the conversations around the book and create an opportunity to engage with readers. I am happy to announce that I will be in attendance and he has given me permission to write about the class.

Weekly, Rushkoff will be leading discussions on the biases of technology and internet culture, and how in an age where no one knows how to program computers, we become the programmed. In turn, I will be writing essays about these discussions and trying to relate them back to the music industry. Rather than just taking this class as a personal interest of mine, I decided that I would be much more valuable to you and him if I helped spread his ideas further and translated them to an audience that may not be as familiar with his work.

The catch of his new book is that he independently published the book himself because he thought that the publishing model is fundamentally broken. Until fixed, Rushkoff doesn’t want to be a part of it. Therefore, his new book can only be bought at one place, OR Books. So, to help raise awareness, I’ll be linking to his publishers site in every post, over the next ten weeks of discussion, at the end of which, he has agreed to do an interview on the blog. I think this is an important topic and I hope that you’ll enjoy exploring these ideas with me.

Here’s a hint at what’s to come:

—

Full-Disclosure: Doug granted me a press pass for the course. I'm giving it coverage because I think his ideas are important and because the book is just plain awesome. If you'd like to read along, you can buy Doug's new book here.