#476 Attentionalism, Censorship, and Expanding Your Mind with Alexander Bard, Writer & Philosopher
Today we’re talking to Alexander Bard, Philosopher and Author; and we discuss how consumer attention has become society’s new currency, why the moderators of any social network need to be highly qualified and highly paid, and why it’s important to constantly expose yourself to different views and challenge your beliefs.
All of this right here, right now, on the ModernCTO Podcast!
About Alexander Bard:
Alexander Bard is a Swedish cyberphilosopher, music producer, television star, and highly sought-after international speaker. He has written five books together with media theorist Jan Söderqvist. The first three titles – The Netocrats, The Global Empire and The Body Machines – have also been released together as The Futurica Trilogy and translated to over 20 languages. A fourth book Syntheism – Creating God in The Internet Age was released in 2014 and in the autumn of 2018 the fifth book Digital Libido – Sex, Power and Violence in The Network Society was published. A third book in the trilogy with the working title Process and Event will be released in 2022. Throughout their oeuvre, Bard & Söderqvist construct a brand new metaphysical system for the digital age, covering everything from the inner existential truths of the new physics to the radical utopian potential of participatory culture.
Bard has given lectures on the philosophical, sociological and economic implications of the digital revolution since the late 1990s. Throughout his career, he has been a fundamental force in creating the Swedish music export sensation – making Sweden the world’s biggest per capita music exporter – while promoting a deeper understanding of the full dramatic effects of information-technological disruptions (Sweden being the home of more tech unicorns per capita than anywhere else in the world). Bard certainly believes in practicing what he preaches, being deeply involved as a social entrepreneur in a series a highly successful technology companies and spiritual and political projects.
Bard studied Economic Geography at The Stockholm School of Economics in the 1980s while building a highly successful international career as a songwriter and record producer. In 1992 he co-founded Stockholm Records, which quickly achieved global success – with bands like The Cardigans, A-Teens, and Bard’s own Army of Lovers – before the company was sold to and integrated with Universal Music in 1998. Even though he has claimed to be too busy with cyberphilosophy and political and spiritual activism to find the time for any more songwriting, Bard achieved No. 1 hit records in Europe, Asia and North America as recently as 2013. He is, perhaps unsurprisingly, also a television celebrity in Scandinavia, and has been seen on the talent shows Swedish Idol and Sweden’s Got Talent as the tough judge.