PickVidsBest Futurism & technology and society Videos
The 116 Futurism & technology and society videos here were recommended by different people across different months. Choose by who it is for: 2 introductory, 4 intermediate, 110 for a general viewer, and 0 for someone who wants the harder derivation. Most of them are a talk. What they share is that one speaker finishes a claim, and the examples exist to hold that claim up. Channels you will keep seeing include TED, Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell, Isaac Arthur.
#Earth 🌏 Will we survive this ? Amazing⚡️ #crashcourse on #collapse & #environment by #ArthurKeller
Arthur Keller gives a roughly half-hour crash course on environmental collapse, covering exponential growth, carrying capacity and ecological overshoot.
Stanford Seminar - Unethical Algorithms of Massive Scale
Psychologist Robert Epstein presents a Stanford EE380 colloquium on how internet algorithms such as search rankings can manipulate opinions, purchases and votes at massive scale.
Generative AI is a Parasitic Cancer
Freya Holmer delivers a long critique of generative AI, arguing it degrades the internet by flooding it with machine-generated junk.
TikTok in China versus the United States | 60 Minutes
A 60 Minutes segment in which Tristan Harris contrasts TikTok with its Chinese counterpart Douyin.
The next outbreak? We’re not ready | Bill Gates | TED
Bill Gates's 2015 TED talk, given after the 2014 Ebola outbreak, argues the world is unprepared for the next fast-spreading epidemic.
A Day Made of Glass... Made possible by Corning. (2011)
Corning's 2011 concept video showing a future where specialty glass surfaces and touchscreens are woven into everyday life.
Everythings Amazing & Nobodys Happy
A clip of Louis C.K.'s bit "Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy," about how quickly people take modern technology for granted and complain about it.
What Fossils Will We Leave Behind in 65 Million Years?
Curious Droid asks what traces human civilization would leave in the geological record 65 million years from now.
Colonizing Venus
Isaac Arthur examines options for colonizing Venus, from vast floating habitats in the temperate upper atmosphere to full terraforming of the planet.
Weird Kids' Videos and Gaming the Algorithm
Folding Ideas examines weird, algorithm-gamed children's content on YouTube, from automated toddler videos and educational spam to exploitative prank channels.
Web 2.0 Expo NY: Clay Shirky (shirky.com) It's Not Information Overload. It's Filter Failure.
Clay Shirky argues at Web 2.0 Expo NY that the problem online is not information overload but filter failure.
I Forgot My Phone
A two-minute satirical short film in which a woman leaves her phone at home and notices how everyone around her is absorbed in their screens.
Algorithms are breaking how we think
A Technology Connections video essay arguing that algorithmic feeds make people passive about finding content, leading to complacency in how they seek information.
Automation Dependency - Part One, by Capt. VanderBurgh (restored)
Part one of an American Airlines training video presented by Captain Warren VanderBurgh on automation dependency.
Daniel Schmachtenberger on The Portal (with host Eric Weinstein), Ep. #027 - On Avoiding Apocalypses
A long conversation between Eric Weinstein and Daniel Schmachtenberger on whether humanity can flourish long term on a single planet, introducing the Game A versus Game B framing.
Louis CK - Everything Is Amazing and Nobody Is Happy
A short clip of Louis CK on Conan riffing that everything is amazing and nobody is happy, about complaining over modern wonders like air travel and wifi.
Jaron Lanier interview on how social media ruins your life
A Channel 4 News interview with technologist Jaron Lanier, who argues that social media damages people's lives.
Let's use video to reinvent education | Salman Khan
Salman Khan explains why he created Khan Academy, a structured library of video lessons with interactive exercises.
Nick Bostrom - The Simulation Argument (Full)
An interview with Nick Bostrom at Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute presenting his simulation argument: at least one of three propositions about posthuman civilizations and ancestor simulations must be true.
Jaron Lanier – Who is Civilization for? (+ Q&A with Ulrich Kelber) Willy Brandt Lecture 2018
Jaron Lanier delivers the 2018 Willy Brandt Lecture in Berlin on who civilization is for, covering data, AI, tech platforms and the economics of who benefits, followed by a Q&A with Germany's data protection commissioner Ulrich Kelber.
Live Forever As You Are Now With Alan Resnick | Infomercials | Adult Swim
An Adult Swim fake infomercial in which Alan Resnick pitches a four-step program for creating a digital avatar to live forever.
Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers | Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker's TED talk presents data on homicide, war, poverty and pollution to argue that the world has improved over the past decades.
Peter Thiel and George Gilder debate on "The Prospects for Technology and Economic Growth"
A 2012 debate between Peter Thiel and George Gilder on whether technological progress and economic growth are accelerating or decelerating, moderated by William Davidow.
How to Build a Dyson Sphere - The Ultimate Megastructure
A Kurzgesagt animated explainer on how humanity could build a Dyson sphere, a swarm of structures capturing the sun's energy.