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CNET Book Club: Douglas Rushkoff on why we all need to join Team Human

The author of Present Shock and Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus talks about his new book, and how the future of technology lies in human collaboration.

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming

Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times

Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials

Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings

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Scott Stein Editor at Large

I started with CNET reviewing laptops in 2009. Now I explore wearable tech, VR/AR, tablets, gaming and future/emerging trends in our changing world. Other obsessions include magic, immersive theater, puzzles, board games, cooking, improv and the New York Jets. My background includes an MFA in theater which I apply to thinking about immersive experiences of the future.

Expertise VR and AR, gaming, metaverse technologies, wearable tech, tablets Credentials

Nearly 20 years writing about tech, and over a decade reviewing wearable tech, VR, and AR products and apps

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Dan Ackerman

Scott Stein

March 23, 2019 4:00 a.m. PT

2 min read

Douglas Rushkoff has been writing about the internet for almost as long as there's been an internet. Along the way, the author of books like Present Shock and Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus codified (and named) concepts like viral media and social currency.

In his latest book, Team Human, he argues that while technology often pushes us in the other direction, "We are essentially social creatures, and that we achieve our greatest aspirations when we work together―not as individuals."

As a couple of fellow graying veterans of the internet 1.0 era, Scott and I were very interested in talking to Rushkoff (himself an early CNET contributor back in the 1990s) about the changing face of social media and the growing power of a handful of tech giants.

Podcast

See Team Human at Amazon

About CNET Book Club

The Book Club is hosted by a pair of self-proclaimed book experts: Dan Ackerman (author of the nonfiction video game history book The Tetris Effect), and Scott Stein, a playwright and screenwriter. We'll be announcing our next Book Club selection soon, so send us your suggestions and keep an eye out for updates on Twitter at @danackerman and @jetscott.

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