The Digital Human
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The Digital Human
Aleks Krotoski explores the digital world
Recent Episodes
181 episodes
Update from the Digital Human Team
The Digital Human is pausing to focus on what everyone's talking about - AI. Join Aleks and her co-host Kevin Fong for The Artifical Human from BBC R...
Reminiscence
‘I asked myself this very question after a family member was affected by dementia. In her later years, the only person my grandmother still remembered...
Permanence
Aleks Krotoski explores a story which sought to be forgotten, but wasn't. Agrippa (A Book of the Dead), was published in 1992. It was a book designed...
Cursed
Emails from friends should be safe. From a trusted friend especially. Hey, Aleks, check out this cool attachment. The message is a bit brief, sure, bu...
Subvert
Aleks Krotoski explores culture jamming in the digital world. Once used by "communications guerillas" to subvert corporate advertising, it's now taken...
Matchmaker
Aleks Krotoski explores how matchmaking in the future will be influenced both by the emerging tech and our attitude towards it. Have we reached the po...
Synthetic
With the rush of generative AI, we have the capacity to create synthetic companions that seem more human than ever before. They can talk in real time,...
Nope
Aleks Krotoski looks into the digital world. In this episode, we explore why people are rejecting a traditional relationship with tech, jobs and socie...
Utopia
Our tech future will supposedly be defined by megaprojects.
The most attention grabbing ideas include physical Megacities like ‘The Line’ in Sa...
Reunited
We’ve all seen those TV programmes (and perhaps shed a tear) when long lost family members are reunited. Who doesn’t love a fairytale ending? Making t...
Disk
They were ubiquitous - taped onto magazines covers, bursting out of overstuffed office cabinet drawers, used to hold everything from secret family rec...
The Orbital Human
Now the fanfare of billionaires space adventures has died down we're left with the question of are we witnessing a new democratisation of space not un...
Dialogue
We have been in an odd dialogue with algorithms from the very inception of the internet. They have been trained to spot offensive words, with the goal...
Overturn
"Right now, and I mean this instant, delete every digital trace of any menstrual tracking. Please."
This is a tweet that went viral in the wake...
Retreat
When the world feels as overwhelming as it has in recent years, it can be hard to fully disengage. Aleks Krotoski discovers the value of retreat, both...
Salvage
Online and offline, our world is a hugely complex tangle of modern creations and the legacy of the past. As we build upon the shoulders of times gone...
Unfinished
Ever had that gnawing feeling that there’s some unfinished business you have an itch to resolve? Maybe it’s a friendship you’ve let drift or a task a...
Curate
In recent months anxiety around what algorithms will do to the arts has become a hot topic. Art, Literature, Music, all are being generated by AI syst...
Generate
Art has, since time immemorial, been viewed as something quintessentially human. Many utopian visions of a technological future are based on the idea...
Schadenfreude
What’s going on when we scroll through our social feeds finding momentary happiness in the mishaps of celebrities or politicians whose views we dislik...
Implant
Imagine being able to fix a malfunction in your body with a programmable smart device implanted deep inside your body… The device senses, monitors and...
Bona Fide
Aleks was once asked by a friend to track down an invisible man - a character with no digital footprint at all. How does someone not exist in this med...
Disinhibition
Aleks Krotoski explores whether disinhibition, often associated with toxic online behaviours such as trolling, may also have benefits in our digital w...
Paradigm
Humans are special creatures, in part because of our relationship with out technology. Our brains are not purely biological, we actually think through...
Power
Aleks discovers how the digital world has reshaped social class and the rights of workers, and finds out how those workers are using lessons of the p...
Flip
The internet began as an academic tool, made to share information, bring people together and spur on advances that would benefit humans across the wor...
Solitary
Aleks Krotoski explores what it means to be solitary in our digital world and whether we should be more nuanced in our approach to the complex human e...
Unintended
Aleks Krotoski asks if we've all become techno-fundamentalists, unquestioningly accepting the latest innovation into our lives without thinking about...
Token
Economics has always been complicated, but the day to day stuff was always pretty straightforward. Make money from working, exchange that money for go...
Reflections
Aleks Krotoski asks if AI companions will be like imaginary friends of childhood. And if so will they afford the same benefits - making us better, mor...
Virtue
This year, The Digital Human celebrates its 10 year anniversary. During that time, we have explored all corners of the digital realm, and told hundred...
Function
Aleks Krotoski explores who owns the function of the devices we use, and why we need the right to repair and hack the things we consume.
Anticipation
Aleks Krotoski asks why we're always yearning for next technological solution to our problems?
What is it that has driven us to the current, see...
Partisan
Alexander Lukashenko has proudly called himself 'Europe's last dictator'. He has held power in Belarus since 1994, and has been known to repress oppos...
Folk Wisdom
A special kind of wisdom is transmitted from generation to generation - proverbial knowledge with no basis in fact, but still intuitive: chicken soup...
Collapse
Offline, we as individuals present different sides of ourselves in different situations. We behave very differently with friends, employers, parents,...
Banished
Aleks Krotoski asks where did all those groups and individuals deplatformed after the Jan 6th riots go and what have they been doing in the year since...
Fleeting
Aleks Krotoski asks if how we use technology has affected our attitudes to ephemerality and the transience of things.
Producer: Peter McManus
Taint
There are many ways in which the taint of prejudice, outdated ways of thinking and plain old human error can enter our artificial intelligence systems...
Unfocus
We've all had experiences of our attention wandering, usually at those moments when we most need to concentrate.
But, in our productivity-driven...