Leaps Talk #5: Tristan Harris: Disinformation and the Ethics of Technological Progress

Tristan Harris

Called the “closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience,” by The Atlantic magazine, Tristan Harris spent three years as a Google Design Ethicist developing a framework for how technology should “ethically” steer the thoughts and actions of billions of people from screens. He is now co-founder & president of the Center for Humane Technology, whose mission is to reverse ‘human downgrading’ and re-align technology with humanity. Additionally, he is co-host of the Center for Humane Technology's Your Undivided Attention podcast with co-founder Aza Raskin.

Tristan Harris is featured in the top trending Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, a powerful film that explores the human impacts of social technologies, released in September 2020. Rolling Stone magazine named Tristan one of “25 People Shaping the World”, and was named in Fortune’s 40 under 40 of 2018 for his work on reforming technology. In 2016, Tristan left Google to work on reforming the attention economy with the non-profit initiative, Time Well Spent which called out the industry’s “race to the bottom of the brain stem” to capture attention and proposed design solutions.

John Cumbers

Founder of SynBioBeta, John is passionate about education and on the use and adoption of biological technologies. He has received multiple awards and grants from NASA and the National Academy of Sciences for his work in the field. He received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry from Brown University.