New York, NY (Top40 Charts) According to a recent Pew Research study, 64% of American adults own a smartphone, and they check it on average 150 times a day. But is our increasing reliance on smart technology like phones, tablets, and the much-hyped new Apple Watch and other wearable technologies improving our lives through unprecedented access to knowledge and to each other, or is it making us dependent and impairing our cognitive abilities? On Wednesday, May 13, Intelligence Squared U.S. will explore both the risks and rewards of an ever-connected age with a live debate on the motion "Smart Technology Is Making Us Dumb."
Debaters include Nicholas Carr, author of a widely-cited 2008 Atlantic article titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" and Pulitzer Prize finalist, and renowned web entrepreneur Andrew Keen arguing for the motion. Arguing against the motion are anthropologist Genevieve Bell of Intel, named one of the "100 Most Creative People In Business" by Fast Company, and
David Weinberger, a senior researcher at the Berkman Center who has advised three presidential campaigns on
Internet issues.
Arguing for the motion:
* Nicholas Carr: Author, The Glass Cage: Automation and Us & The Shallows
Nicholas Carr writes about technology and culture. He is the author of the acclaimed new book The Glass Cage: Automation and Us (2014), which examines the personal and social consequences of our ever growing dependency on computers. His previous work, The Shallows: What the
Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (2011), was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a New York Times bestseller. A former columnist for the Guardian, Carr has written for The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Wired, Nature, MIT Technology Review, and other periodicals. His essays, including "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" and "The Great Forgetting," have been collected in several anthologies.
* Andrew Keen:
Internet Entrepreneur & Author, The
Internet is Not the Answer
Andrew Keen is an
Internet entrepreneur and the author of three books: The
Internet Is Not the Answer (2015),
Digital Vertigo: How Today's Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing and Disorienting Us (2012), and Cult of the Amateur: How The
Internet Is Killing Our Culture (2007). In 1995, he founded Audiocafe.com and built it into a popular first generation
Internet company. Keen is currently the executive director of the Silicon Valley salon FutureCast, a senior fellow at CALinnovates, the host of the "Keen On" Techonomy chat show, and a columnist for CNN.
Arguing against the motion:
* Genevieve Bell: Anthropologist & VP, Intel Labs
Genevieve Bell is a vice president, Intel Fellow, and the director of User
Experience Research in the Intel Labs organization at Intel Corporation. An accomplished anthropologist, researcher, and author, she has been granted a number of patents for consumer electronics innovations. Bell is a highly regarded industry expert and frequent commentator on the intersection of culture and technology, featured in Wired, Forbes, Atlantic, Wall Street Journal and New York Times. She was recognized as one of the "100 Most Creative People in Business" by Fast Company, inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, and honored as the 2013 Woman of Vision for Leadership by the Anita Borg Institute. With Paul Dourish, she authored Divining a
Digital Future (2011).
*
David Weinberger: Senior Researcher, Berkman Center & Author, Too Big to Know
David Weinberger is a senior researcher at the Berkman Center for
Internet & Society at Harvard, where he previously served as co-director of the Library Innovation Lab and led its Interoperability Initiative. His most recent book, Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room (2014), won two international Best Book of the Year awards. He has been published by Wired, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, New York Times, and elsewhere. Additionally, Weinberger advised three U.S. presidential campaigns on
Internet issues and was a
Franklin Fellow at the U.S.
State Department.
The debate will also stream live online, then air soon after as part of the syndicated NPR show "Intelligence Squared U.S." On May 13, online viewers can tune in here (https://bit.ly/1JwgVj2) or via IQ2's new app (https://shorefi.re/VTwKwx)
WHAT: Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates "Smart Technology Is Making Us Dumb"
WHEN: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 / Reception 5:45-6:30 / Debate 6:45-8:15 PM
WHERE: Kaufman Center/129 W. 67th Street (bet. Broadway and Amsterdam)/New York, NY 10023
TICKETS: $40 ($12 for students w/ ID). To purchase, visit https://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/
ABOUT INTELLIGENCE SQUARED U.S. DEBATES (IQ2US)
A non-partisan, nonprofit organization, Intelligence Squared U.S. was founded in 2006 to restore civility, reasoned analysis and constructive public discourse to today's often biased media landscape. IQ2US reaches millions through multi-platform distribution, including radio, television, live streaming, podcasts and interactive digital content. It is one of the top 25 most popular podcasts on iTunes, and has won the 2014 Clarion Award for
Radio Regular Feature Program and back-to-back 2013-2014 New York Festivals International
Radio Awards for Best Public Affairs Program. The debates have attracted some of the world's top thinkers, including Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Forbes, Dr. Neal Barnard, Arianna Huffington, Paul Krugman, and Karl Rove. With over 100 debates and counting, Intelligence Squared U.S. has encouraged the public to "think twice" on a wide range of provocative topics. Author and ABC News correspondent John Donvan has moderated IQ2US since 2008. The executive producer is Dana Wolfe.
