A professor of media and technology at the University of Portland, Dr. Eric Anctil is first and foremost a technology provocateur. He is not an evangelist for technology and he is the first to admit that technology often does far more harm than good.
However, if we hope to evolve as a species alongside our technological creations, Dr. Anctil accepts that we must embrace — rather than reject — the ghost in the machine and create the best strategies for living with modern technology without going completely mad (obviously, a tall order).
In addition to his academic work, Dr. Anctil is a public speaker and is also the host and producer of Keep Evolving with Dr. Eric Anctil, a podcast that guides listeners to the intersection of humans and technology to discover meaning in that relationship and draw firmer conclusions about its deeper significance.
Dr. Anctil has taught in higher education since 1999. In that time he has presented at numerous conferences, been a keynote speaker for large and small audiences, appeared on a variety of radio and podcast shows, and has been an invited speaker to groups of all types and ages. In addition to public appearances, Dr. Anctil has published his scholarship in various journals and books.
Dr. Anctil regularly consults with colleges and universities, private and non-profit businesses, and across various sectors about issues related to technology, artificial intelligence, applied ethics, and the nexus of humans and machines.
“It's not your imagination, technology is changing you more today than ever before and the implications for that change — and for what it means to be human — have never been greater. Trying to stay human in a world that feels like it’s constantly trying to make us more like machines is not easy; we need each other, so let’s do this together. I believe we can evolve into the best versions of ourselves and live up to our human potential, but we have to start paying better attention to all the invisible change and we have to start now.”
— Dr. Eric Anctil