Are the Machines Coming to Get Us?
We carry supercomputers in our pockets, ask artificial voices to play our music, and rely on algorithms to choose our entertainment and potential romantic partners. Technology promises to solve our problems and connect us to each other, yet many of us feel more isolated and anxious than ever. This session examines our complex relationship with the machines we've created and the question of who is really in control.
The fear isn't necessarily that robots will take over the world, but that we might gradually surrender our humanity without realizing it. When we delegate our memory to smartphones, our navigation to GPS, and our social connections to platforms, what essential human capacities do we risk losing? At what point does convenience become dependency, and assistance become replacement?
Our conversation will explore:
Can technology meet our deepest human needs or only mimic them?
What do we lose when we outsource parts of our lives to machines?
Are we still in control of the systems we've built?
Are the Machines Coming to Get Us?
We carry supercomputers in our pockets, ask artificial voices to play our music, and rely on algorithms to choose our entertainment and potential romantic partners. Technology promises to solve our problems and connect us to each other, yet many of us feel more isolated and anxious than ever. This session examines our complex relationship with the machines we've created and the question of who is really in control.
The fear isn't necessarily that robots will take over the world, but that we might gradually surrender our humanity without realizing it. When we delegate our memory to smartphones, our navigation to GPS, and our social connections to platforms, what essential human capacities do we risk losing? At what point does convenience become dependency, and assistance become replacement?
Our conversation will explore:
Can technology meet our deepest human needs or only mimic them?
What do we lose when we outsource parts of our lives to machines?
Are we still in control of the systems we've built?
We carry supercomputers in our pockets, ask artificial voices to play our music, and rely on algorithms to choose our entertainment and potential romantic partners. Technology promises to solve our problems and connect us to each other, yet many of us feel more isolated and anxious than ever. This session examines our complex relationship with the machines we've created and the question of who is really in control.
The fear isn't necessarily that robots will take over the world, but that we might gradually surrender our humanity without realizing it. When we delegate our memory to smartphones, our navigation to GPS, and our social connections to platforms, what essential human capacities do we risk losing? At what point does convenience become dependency, and assistance become replacement?
Our conversation will explore:
Can technology meet our deepest human needs or only mimic them?
What do we lose when we outsource parts of our lives to machines?
Are we still in control of the systems we've built?
Conversation Catalysts
At Premise, a Conversation Catalyst is a short story, essay, film, or poem that sparks reflection and connection. It’s the shared reference point that grounds each session and opens the door to meaningful and deep conversation.
Her, a film directed by Spike Jonze
"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster
Preparation: < 3 hours
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We explore what happens when our tools begin to shape us more than we shape them.
Her directed by Spike Jonze
Jonze's film follows Theodore, a man who falls in love with Samantha, an artificial intelligence operating system. What begins as a practical relationship evolves into genuine emotional intimacy, forcing viewers to question the nature of love, consciousness, and connection. The film presents technology not as threatening but as seductive and caring, making our dependence feel natural.
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Her, a film directed by Spike Jonze
"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster
Preparation: < 3 hours
We explore what happens when our tools begin to shape us more than we shape them.
Her directed by Spike Jonze
Jonze's film follows Theodore, a man who falls in love with Samantha, an artificial intelligence operating system. What begins as a practical relationship evolves into genuine emotional intimacy, forcing viewers to question the nature of love, consciousness, and connection. The film presents technology not as threatening but as seductive and caring, making our dependence feel natural.
Conversation Catalysts
At Premise, a Conversation Catalyst is a short story, essay, film, or poem that sparks reflection and connection. It’s the shared reference point that grounds each session and opens the door to meaningful and deep conversation.
Her, a film directed by Spike Jonze
"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster
Text Set A
Preparation: < 3 hours
Session Description
We explore what happens when our tools begin to shape us more than we shape them.
Her directed by Spike Jonze
Jonze's film follows Theodore, a man who falls in love with Samantha, an artificial intelligence operating system. What begins as a practical relationship evolves into genuine emotional intimacy, forcing viewers to question the nature of love, consciousness, and connection. The film presents technology not as threatening but as seductive and caring, making our dependence feel natural.
As Samantha grows beyond Theodore's comprehension, the film asks: If a machine can provide companionship and love, what makes human relationships special? What happens when artificial beings evolve beyond their creators?
"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster
Written in 1909, Forster's story imagines humans living in underground cells, attended by an all-encompassing Machine. Physical contact is obscene, ideas must be derivative, and direct experience of nature has been abandoned. When the Machine malfunctions, humanity realizes it has lost the knowledge to survive without technological mediation.
The story warns of a future where comfort comes at the cost of human agency and connection to the physical world. It asks: What essential human capacities might we lose as we become more dependent on technology?
Text Set A
Preparation: < 3 hours
Session Description
We explore what happens when our tools begin to shape us more than we shape them.
Her directed by Spike Jonze
Jonze's film follows Theodore, a man who falls in love with Samantha, an artificial intelligence operating system. What begins as a practical relationship evolves into genuine emotional intimacy, forcing viewers to question the nature of love, consciousness, and connection. The film presents technology not as threatening but as seductive and caring, making our dependence feel natural.
As Samantha grows beyond Theodore's comprehension, the film asks: If a machine can provide companionship and love, what makes human relationships special? What happens when artificial beings evolve beyond their creators?
"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster
Written in 1909, Forster's story imagines humans living in underground cells, attended by an all-encompassing Machine. Physical contact is obscene, ideas must be derivative, and direct experience of nature has been abandoned. When the Machine malfunctions, humanity realizes it has lost the knowledge to survive without technological mediation.
The story warns of a future where comfort comes at the cost of human agency and connection to the physical world. It asks: What essential human capacities might we lose as we become more dependent on technology?
Conversation Catalysts
At Premise, a Conversation Catalyst is a short story, essay, film, or poem that sparks reflection and connection. It’s the shared reference point that grounds each session and opens the door to meaningful and deep conversation.
Alone Together by Sherry Turkle (Selected Chapters) &
"The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury
Text Set B
Preparation: < 3 hours
Session Description
We examine how digital technology reshapes our relationships.
Alone Together by Sherry Turkle (Selected Chapters)
Psychologist Turkle explores how digital technology changes the way we relate to each other and ourselves. She documents how smartphones, social media, and robotic companions are reshaping human intimacy, creating a culture of connection that paradoxically leaves us feeling more alone as we substitute digital interactions for human complexity.
Turkle's research reveals how technology promises connection without friendship's demands and intimacy without risk. She asks: Are we losing the capacity for solitude and deep conversation? What happens to empathy when our relationships are mediated by screens?
"The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury
Bradbury's tale depicts a family whose high tech home includes a nursery that creates virtual environments based on children's thoughts. When parents become concerned about their children's obsession with an African veldt populated by lions, they discover the technology has given their children dangerous power.
The story warns about technology that anticipates and fulfills our desires so completely that it replaces human judgment. Bradbury asks: What happens when we create technologies that respond to our unconscious desires rather than conscious choices?
Text Set A
Preparation: < 3 hours
Session Description
We explore what happens when our tools begin to shape us more than we shape them.
Her directed by Spike Jonze
Jonze's film follows Theodore, a man who falls in love with Samantha, an artificial intelligence operating system. What begins as a practical relationship evolves into genuine emotional intimacy, forcing viewers to question the nature of love, consciousness, and connection. The film presents technology not as threatening but as seductive and caring, making our dependence feel natural.
As Samantha grows beyond Theodore's comprehension, the film asks: If a machine can provide companionship and love, what makes human relationships special? What happens when artificial beings evolve beyond their creators?
"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster
Written in 1909, Forster's story imagines humans living in underground cells, attended by an all-encompassing Machine. Physical contact is obscene, ideas must be derivative, and direct experience of nature has been abandoned. When the Machine malfunctions, humanity realizes it has lost the knowledge to survive without technological mediation.
The story warns of a future where comfort comes at the cost of human agency and connection to the physical world. It asks: What essential human capacities might we lose as we become more dependent on technology?