In search of … the secret life of tech

  • DeepAI Image Creator decided that my AI headshot should look like what would happen if my actual headshot had a baby with Richard Branson. I only wish I had that jacket for real.

A professor of media and technology at the University of Portland, Eric Anctil is first and foremost a technology provocateur. He is not an evangelist for technology and he is the first admit that technology often does far more harm than good.

If we hope to evolve as a species alongside our technological creations, Eric accepts that we must embrace — rather than reject — the ghost in the machine.

In addition to his academic work, Eric is a public speaker and is also the producer and host of The Secret Life of Tech, a media project and companion podcast that explores the hidden ways technology is changing how humans work, live, love, and even hate. The Secret Life of Tech tells the story of the secret lives that exist beneath – and because of – the technology we use every day.

Eric has taught in higher education since 1999. In that time he has presented at numerous conferences, been a keynote speaker for large and small audiences, appeared on a variety of radio and podcast shows, and has been an invited speaker to groups of all types and ages. In addition to public appearances, Eric has published his scholarship in various journals and books.

Eric regularly consults with colleges and universities, private and non-profit businesses, and across various sectors about issues related to technology, artificial intelligence, applied ethics, and the nexus of humans and machines.

Technology has been influencing and guiding humans since the earliest inventions and innovations. Fire led to the modern kitchen; irrigation begat industrial farming; air conditioners allowed for the desert cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas; and, the simple sandal eventually became Air Jordans.

However, with the advancement of the microprocessor in the second half of the 20th century, human’s ability to rapidly develop information processing has led to repeated generational computing advancements in a single lifetime. Artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, big-data aggregation, predictive analytics, and living in a world of constant surveillance are just a few examples of technologies that have come to challenge what it means to be human.

Consciousness, humor, empathy, pain, joy, regret, creativity, deception and faith are all uniquely human and threatened by a digital and automated future. It's a future created and controlled by a relative few, but its reach and impact is profound and happening almost invisibly and in plain sight.  

The time is now to confront and manage the complex future as we cross into a new age of human existence.