PopTech 2014: Rebellion

Holding To Account

presented by Anil Dash

I’m glad those social net­works pro­vide those ser­vices. I think it’s impor­tant for the dia­logue to hap­pen that way. But it can’t be the only way for us to have pub­lic dis­course. Online, we only have these spaces that are owned by pri­vate com­pa­nies. We don’t have pub­lic parks.

Maria Popova with John Maeda at PopTech 2014

presented by John Maeda, Maria Popova

I think read­ing and writ­ing are real­ly two forms of the same act, which is a dis­course with one’s own mind, and ide­al­ly a dis­course with anoth­er mind. As a read­er it’s the author’s, and as a writer it’s the read­er’s, you know. But the two sort of feed into each oth­er, and for me writ­ing is just and record of my own becoming.

Our Faces

presented by Sharrona Pearl

The French philoso­pher Immanuel Levinas has taught us that it is through our inter­ac­tions with the face of some­body else, it is through encoun­ter­ing the face of anoth­er, that our respon­si­bil­i­ties to some­one else arise. You can­not look at some­body else, tru­ly look at them, and then walk away with­out hav­ing some kind of sense of a rela­tion­ship towards that per­son. But what if the oth­er has no face? What then? Or what if the face of the oth­er is actu­al­ly the face of anoth­er per­son entirely?

Slow Rebellion

presented by Erin McKean

If we think that the rebel­lion changes the world, does it real­ly mat­ter what the time scale is? It does­n’t have to be an overnight over­throw. It can be the steady remak­ing of the world through pure force of con­vic­tion, like water wear­ing away stone. We have slow food, we have slow fash­ion, why can’t we have slow rebellion?