Future Knowledge

In The Secret Life of Data, authors Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert explore how the information we generate every day—email addresses, phone numbers, browsing habits, even biometric data—circulates through vast digital systems that shape our lives in ways we rarely see. Their book examines the hidden infrastructures of data collection, surveillance, and algorithmic decision-making, revealing how these systems influence culture, power, and identity in a networked world. Internet governance scholar Laura DeNardis speaks with Sinnreich and Gilbert.Grab your copy of The Secret Life of Data: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262048811/the-secret-life-of-data/This conversation was recorded on 4/18/2024. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/the-secret-life-of-dataCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

In The Apple II Age, historian Laine Nooney tells the story of the computer that helped launch Apple, and reshape personal computing. Introduced in 1977, the Apple II became a cultural phenomenon not just because of its hardware, but because of the vibrant software ecosystem that grew around it, from classroom staples like The Print Shop to early games and creative tools that defined a generation’s first encounters with computers. Historian Finn Brunton speaks with Nooney about how the Apple II helped create the culture of personal computing and the broader historical impact of this influential machine.Grab your copy of The Apple II Age: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo195231688.htmlThis conversation was recorded on 7/13/2023. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/the-apple-ii-ageCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

In Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, journalist Vauhini Vara explores how the technologies we use to understand the world—search engines, social platforms, and now AI systems—are also reshaping how we understand ourselves. Drawing from her own experience using chatbots to write about her sister’s death, Vara reflects on what happens when our most human questions, memories, and emotions are filtered through systems designed to analyze and monetize them. Humanities scholar Luca Messarra speaks with Vara about the promises and limits of machine understanding.Grab your copy of Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age: https://www.vauhinivara.com/searchesThis conversation was recorded on 2/26/2026. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/searches-book-talk Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

For more than three decades, Cindy Cohn, the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been at the center of the fight to protect privacy, free expression, and innovation online—taking on the NSA’s mass surveillance programs, defending encryption, and pushing back against efforts to weaken digital security in the name of safety. In her new book, Privacy's Defender, she reflects on the landmark cases that shaped the modern internet, the values that guide EFF’s work, and why privacy is not about hiding wrongdoing, but about preserving human autonomy and democracy in a networked world. Rainey Reitman, co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, leads our conversation.Grab your copy of Privacy's Defender: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262051248/privacys-defender/ This conversation was recorded on 02/23/2026.Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

Computer scientist Sayash Kapoor joins legal scholar Kevin Frazier to discuss “AI as Normal Technology,” the paper he co-authored with Arvind Narayanan, arguing that artificial intelligence is not an apocalyptic superintelligence or miraculous cure-all, but a powerful, ordinary technology shaped by human institutions and incentives. Kapoor challenges today’s AI hype and panic, urging us to see AI less as destiny and more as infrastructure—and to focus on governance, accountability, and public benefit.Grab your copy of AI as Normal Technology: https://knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-as-normal-technologyThis conversation was recorded on 01/29/2026. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/ai-as-normal-technology Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge