Showing results by narrator "Timandra Harkness" in All Categories

Big data knows where you've been and who your friends are. It knows what you like and what makes you angry. It can predict what you'll buy, where you'll be the victim of crime and when you'll have a heart attack. Big data knows you better than you know yourself, or so it claims. But how well do you know big data? You've probably seen the phrase in newspaper headlines, at work in a marketing meeting, or on a fitness-tracking gadget. But can you understand it without being a Silicon Valley nerd who writes computer programs for fun? Yes. Yes, you can.

Interrogating the historical currents that have brought us here, Harkness envisages a messier, riskier and less comfortable world than the one into which we’re sliding. Challenging listeners to scrutinise what’s missing from their personalised menus, Technology is Not the Problem encourages us to look afresh at the familiar: not just the technology we use every day, how we relate to the world and those around us.

We seem to have forgotten how to argue about important things without descending into tribalism, insults and generally thinking the worst of our opponents. This is no good. We'll never get out of the bitter divisions cleaving society if we don't learn to disagree fruitfully. In this series, Timandra Harkness explores the best ways to disagree with other people - constructively.