Spencer is a PhD student in sociocultural anthropology. He studies technology, finance, and media in North America and Europe. Broadly, he is interested in how cultural beliefs about what it means to be human, and what it means to be a better human, animate the designs of emergent technologies. His dissertation research studies how San Francisco’s AI researchers reckon with the social consequences of their technologies and refigure society, morality, and “the Human” as objects of computation in the process. This work is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Besides anthropology, he engages with science and technology studies, media studies, ethics, and critical theory. His previous ethnographic work has brought him in contact with Berlin’s NFT enthusiasts, Wall Street Bankers, and art collectors. His research is motivated by previous experience working in technology startups and management consulting. He received an MPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge and a BA in International Studies and Economics from the University of Chicago.
Read more about his work on his website: spencermkaplan.com