Podcasts about Computation

How exactly does the mind work? How do we learn and make decisions? And how does that compare to the way AI thinks? In their new book, “The Emergent Mind: How Intelligence Arises in People and Machines,” San Francisco State psychologist Gaurav Suri and Stanford's Jay McClelland examine how neural networks work in our brains, and in AI. Guests: Gaurav Suri, computational neuroscientist and professor, San Francisco State University Jay McClelland, professor and director of the Center for Mind, Brain, Computation and Technology, Stanford University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Computation is killing the wet lab—and reshaping enzyme innovation in the process. Maria Fátima Lucas, CEO of ZYMVOL, shares how AI and physics-based simulation shrink enzyme discovery from 100 million sequence variants to fewer than 300 lab-tested hits—cutting timelines, risk, and cost by orders of magnitude.In this episode, Maria unpacks how ZYMVOL is making biocatalysis not just greener, but cheaper and faster—bringing clean chemistry to sectors previously priced out. From Europe's regulatory drivers to a bold product pivot into bio-based melanin, this is a rare look inside a deeptech company scaling with precision, not hype.Tune in for a fresh look at building ventures that last, not just raise.--- Hey Climate Tech enthusiasts! Searching for new podcasts on sustainability? Check out the Leaders on a Mission podcast, where I interview climate tech leaders who are shaking up the industry and bringing us the next big thing in sustainable solutions. Join me for a deep dive into the future of green innovation exploring the highs, lows, and everything in between of pioneering new technologies.Get an exclusive insight into how these leaders started up their journey, and how their cutting edge products will make a real impact.Tune in on…YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@leadersonamissionNet0Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7o41ubdkzChAzD9C53xH82Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leaders-on-a-mission/id1532211726…to listen to the latest episodes!Timestamps:00:00 – Clean chemistry = mission02:41 – From pharma to enzymes05:07 – Bootstrapping for 6 years07:03 – AI + physics workflow10:55 – Why cost always wins11:15 – Regulatory bans as tailwind14:52 – End-to-end solution model19:31 – First hits in 3 months23:47 – Enzyme marketplace vision28:42 – Bio-melanin case study35:24 – Fundraising and futureUseful links: ZYMVOL  website: https://zymvol.com/ZYMVOL LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zymvol/Maria Fatima Lucas LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fatimalucas/Leaders on a Mission website: https://cs-partners.net/podcasts/Simon Leich's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/executive-talent-headhunter-agtech-foodtech-agrifoodtech-agritech/

Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qaTopics: Computation in antiquity to early machines - Computation and physical reality - Historical attitudes toward computing and AI - Cantor, continuum and computability - Automata in history & fiction - How scientists are remembered - Exploring science's landmarks

Neste episódio do podcast Professor Adolfo Neto, da Rede Emílias de Podcast, o professor André L. Vignatti (UFPR) é entrevistado por Gustavo Lugo, Larissa Behrens e Adolfo Neto sobre seu livro "A Máquina da Natureza - Uma Perspectiva Cronológica da Ciência da Computação Teórica", vencedor do prêmio Jabuti Acadêmico na área de Computação em 2025. O professor Vignatti explica que o título do livro reflete sua crença de que a computação foi descoberta, não inventada, sendo um fenômeno natural. Ele destaca que o livro busca desmistificar o formalismo da área, tornando os conceitos acessíveis, o que tem atraído muitos alunos para sua disciplina "Grandes Ideias da Computação Teórica" na UFPR. Gustavo Lugo elogia a abordagem do livro por sua beleza e sensibilidade, enquanto Larissa Behrens enaltece a escrita acessível. O professor Vignatti também discute a importância do não determinismo e da aleatoriedade na computação para explicar fenômenos naturais e na evolução de algoritmos. Ele compartilha a decisão de ter versões colorida e preto e branco do livro, ressaltando a importância de valorizar a produção nacional e incentivar a paixão pela computação. A conversa se estende para a preferência por livros físicos, enfatizando seus benefícios cognitivos.Página de André Vignattihttps://www.inf.ufpr.br/vignatti/ CV Lattes http://lattes.cnpq.br/1944386300029937 Links para comprar o livroA Máquina da Natureza (colorido) na Amazon - https://amzn.to/3WmIVCU  A Máquina da Natureza (preto e branco) na Amazon - https://amzn.to/4mQtPRd  A Máquina da Natureza (colorido) no Clube de Autores - https://clubedeautores.com.br/livro/a-maquina-da-natureza-edicao-luxo-colorida   A Máquina da Natureza (preto e branco) no Clube de Autores - https://clubedeautores.com.br/livro/a-maquina-da-natureza-2  André Vignatti leva a profundidade da ciência da computação teórica ao Prêmio Jabutihttps://www.c3sl.ufpr.br/2025/08/26/andre-vignatti-leva-a-profundidade-da-ciencia-da-computacao-teorica-ao-premio-jabuti/ Artigos:Citation Analysis Disparity Between Sub-Areas of Brazilian Computer Sciencehttps://sol.sbc.org.br/index.php/brasnam/article/view/29330 Beyond Boundaries: Collaboration Networks and Research Output in Brazilian Computer Sciencehttps://sol.sbc.org.br/index.php/brasnam/article/view/36367 Uma Introdução à Computação Quânticahttps://ic.unicamp.br/~bit/arquivos/tg.pdf Livro de professora da UTFPR é finalista do Jabuti Acadêmicohttps://www.utfpr.edu.br/noticias/geral/livro-de-professora-da-utfpr-e-finalista-do-jabuti-academico Professores da UTFPR são autores de livro semifinalista do prêmio Jabutihttps://www.plural.jor.br/professores-da-utfpr-sao-autores-de-livro-semifinalista-do-premio-jabuti/“A cientista colecionadora de dados – Claudia Maria Bauzer Medeiros”, da editora Inverso.Silvia Amelia Bim, Mirella Moro, Aletéia Araújo e Luciana Salgado, com a ilustração de Paula Prado Muriel. É o primeiro volume da série Meninas Digitais, uma iniciativa do Programa da Sociedade Brasileira da Computação (SBC).https://editorainverso.com.br/produtos/a-cientista-colecionadora-de-dados/https://amzn.to/4mJzIAg Alan Turing: Suas Máquinas e Seus Segredoshttps://amzn.to/427U1PsAda Lovelace, a condessa curiosahttps://editorainverso.com.br/produtos/ada-lovelace-a-condessa-curiosa/ https://amzn.to/4oXP9Gv Livro Papadimitriou https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/138565.Elements_of_the_Theory_of_Computation 

When does comedy become more than a laugh? Ben Mangrum of MIT joins RtB to discuss his new book, The Comedy of Computation: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obsolescence (Stanford UP, 2025), which in some ways is organized around “the intriguing idea that human knowledge work is our definitive feature and yet the machines we are ourselves made are going to replace us at it.” Comedy has provided a toolbox (Charles Tilly calls them "collective repertoires") for responding to the looming obsolescence of knowledge workers.John's interest in Menippean satire within science fiction leads him to ask about about the sliding meanings of comedy and its pachinko machine capacity; he loves the way Ben uses the word and concept of doubling,; Ben explains how the computer may either queer (in an antisocial way) or get assimilated into romantic heteronormative pairings. John asks about Donna Haraway's 1985 A Cyborg Manifesto and teh way it denaturalizes gender roles and the way new technological affordances (from the Acheulean axe that Malafouris discusses to the Apple watch) redefine human roles. Ben delves into the minstrelsy pre-history of the photo-robots going as far back as the late 19th century. They unpack the distinctively American Leo Marxian optimism of The Machine in the Garden (1964) that spreads back as far as the proto-robots like The Steam Man of the Prairies(1868) and good old Tik-Tok in the Wizard of Oz novels. John asks about double-edged nature of Ben's claim that comic “genericity provides forms for making a computationally mediated social world seem more habitable, even as it also provides Is for criticizing and objecting to that world." First you get description says Ben--and then sometimes critique. John asks about the iterability of the new: how much of what seems new actually New New (in the sense of that great 1999 Michael Lewis book, The New New Thing)? Mentioned in the episode: The Desk Set a play William Marchand and a movie starring Katherine Hepburn. How might a computer be incorporated into the sociability of a couple? Her (Spike Jonze,, 2013) computer meets human makes the rom-com into a coupling machine. WarGames (1983( ends with Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy (not Ione Skye—silly John!) paired. But also with Broderick and the formerly deadly computer settling down to “how about a nice game of chess”? Black Mirror as the 2020's version of the same dark satire as the 1950's Twilight Zone. John asks about Stanislaw Lem's Cyberiad, and the comic coupling of Kirk and Spock and the death-as-computer comedy of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979). Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden (1964). Dave Eggers: the joke structure as critique in The Circle and The Every. John Saybrook wrote in the New Yorker about an eye-opening conversation with Bill Gates in 1994. Istvan Csicsery-Ronay's Seven Beauties of Science Fiction on the “fictionalization of everyday life" Recallable Books: Elif Batuman The Idiot (2017) Richard Powers, Plowing the Dark (2000) Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends (2017) Listen and Read here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

When does comedy become more than a laugh? Ben Mangrum of MIT joins RtB to discuss his new book, The Comedy of Computation: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obsolescence (Stanford UP, 2025), which in some ways is organized around “the intriguing idea that human knowledge work is our definitive feature and yet the machines we are ourselves made are going to replace us at it.” Comedy has provided a toolbox (Charles Tilly calls them "collective repertoires") for responding to the looming obsolescence of knowledge workers.John's interest in Menippean satire within science fiction leads him to ask about about the sliding meanings of comedy and its pachinko machine capacity; he loves the way Ben uses the word and concept of doubling,; Ben explains how the computer may either queer (in an antisocial way) or get assimilated into romantic heteronormative pairings. John asks about Donna Haraway's 1985 A Cyborg Manifesto and teh way it denaturalizes gender roles and the way new technological affordances (from the Acheulean axe that Malafouris discusses to the Apple watch) redefine human roles. Ben delves into the minstrelsy pre-history of the photo-robots going as far back as the late 19th century. They unpack the distinctively American Leo Marxian optimism of The Machine in the Garden (1964) that spreads back as far as the proto-robots like The Steam Man of the Prairies(1868) and good old Tik-Tok in the Wizard of Oz novels. John asks about double-edged nature of Ben's claim that comic “genericity provides forms for making a computationally mediated social world seem more habitable, even as it also provides Is for criticizing and objecting to that world." First you get description says Ben--and then sometimes critique. John asks about the iterability of the new: how much of what seems new actually New New (in the sense of that great 1999 Michael Lewis book, The New New Thing)? Mentioned in the episode: The Desk Set a play William Marchand and a movie starring Katherine Hepburn. How might a computer be incorporated into the sociability of a couple? Her (Spike Jonze,, 2013) computer meets human makes the rom-com into a coupling machine. WarGames (1983( ends with Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy (not Ione Skye—silly John!) paired. But also with Broderick and the formerly deadly computer settling down to “how about a nice game of chess”? Black Mirror as the 2020's version of the same dark satire as the 1950's Twilight Zone. John asks about Stanislaw Lem's Cyberiad, and the comic coupling of Kirk and Spock and the death-as-computer comedy of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979). Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden (1964). Dave Eggers: the joke structure as critique in The Circle and The Every. John Saybrook wrote in the New Yorker about an eye-opening conversation with Bill Gates in 1994. Istvan Csicsery-Ronay's Seven Beauties of Science Fiction on the “fictionalization of everyday life" Recallable Books: Elif Batuman The Idiot (2017) Richard Powers, Plowing the Dark (2000) Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends (2017) Listen and Read here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When does comedy become more than a laugh? Ben Mangrum of MIT joins RtB to discuss his new book, The Comedy of Computation: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obsolescence (Stanford UP, 2025), which in some ways is organized around “the intriguing idea that human knowledge work is our definitive feature and yet the machines we are ourselves made are going to replace us at it.” Comedy has provided a toolbox (Charles Tilly calls them "collective repertoires") for responding to the looming obsolescence of knowledge workers.John's interest in Menippean satire within science fiction leads him to ask about about the sliding meanings of comedy and its pachinko machine capacity; he loves the way Ben uses the word and concept of doubling,; Ben explains how the computer may either queer (in an antisocial way) or get assimilated into romantic heteronormative pairings. John asks about Donna Haraway's 1985 A Cyborg Manifesto and teh way it denaturalizes gender roles and the way new technological affordances (from the Acheulean axe that Malafouris discusses to the Apple watch) redefine human roles. Ben delves into the minstrelsy pre-history of the photo-robots going as far back as the late 19th century. They unpack the distinctively American Leo Marxian optimism of The Machine in the Garden (1964) that spreads back as far as the proto-robots like The Steam Man of the Prairies(1868) and good old Tik-Tok in the Wizard of Oz novels. John asks about double-edged nature of Ben's claim that comic “genericity provides forms for making a computationally mediated social world seem more habitable, even as it also provides Is for criticizing and objecting to that world." First you get description says Ben--and then sometimes critique. John asks about the iterability of the new: how much of what seems new actually New New (in the sense of that great 1999 Michael Lewis book, The New New Thing)? Mentioned in the episode: The Desk Set a play William Marchand and a movie starring Katherine Hepburn. How might a computer be incorporated into the sociability of a couple? Her (Spike Jonze,, 2013) computer meets human makes the rom-com into a coupling machine. WarGames (1983( ends with Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy (not Ione Skye—silly John!) paired. But also with Broderick and the formerly deadly computer settling down to “how about a nice game of chess”? Black Mirror as the 2020's version of the same dark satire as the 1950's Twilight Zone. John asks about Stanislaw Lem's Cyberiad, and the comic coupling of Kirk and Spock and the death-as-computer comedy of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979). Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden (1964). Dave Eggers: the joke structure as critique in The Circle and The Every. John Saybrook wrote in the New Yorker about an eye-opening conversation with Bill Gates in 1994. Istvan Csicsery-Ronay's Seven Beauties of Science Fiction on the “fictionalization of everyday life" Recallable Books: Elif Batuman The Idiot (2017) Richard Powers, Plowing the Dark (2000) Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends (2017) Listen and Read here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

When does comedy become more than a laugh? Ben Mangrum of MIT joins RtB to discuss his new book, The Comedy of Computation: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obsolescence (Stanford UP, 2025), which in some ways is organized around “the intriguing idea that human knowledge work is our definitive feature and yet the machines we are ourselves made are going to replace us at it.” Comedy has provided a toolbox (Charles Tilly calls them "collective repertoires") for responding to the looming obsolescence of knowledge workers.John's interest in Menippean satire within science fiction leads him to ask about about the sliding meanings of comedy and its pachinko machine capacity; he loves the way Ben uses the word and concept of doubling,; Ben explains how the computer may either queer (in an antisocial way) or get assimilated into romantic heteronormative pairings. John asks about Donna Haraway's 1985 A Cyborg Manifesto and teh way it denaturalizes gender roles and the way new technological affordances (from the Acheulean axe that Malafouris discusses to the Apple watch) redefine human roles. Ben delves into the minstrelsy pre-history of the photo-robots going as far back as the late 19th century. They unpack the distinctively American Leo Marxian optimism of The Machine in the Garden (1964) that spreads back as far as the proto-robots like The Steam Man of the Prairies(1868) and good old Tik-Tok in the Wizard of Oz novels. John asks about double-edged nature of Ben's claim that comic “genericity provides forms for making a computationally mediated social world seem more habitable, even as it also provides Is for criticizing and objecting to that world." First you get description says Ben--and then sometimes critique. John asks about the iterability of the new: how much of what seems new actually New New (in the sense of that great 1999 Michael Lewis book, The New New Thing)? Mentioned in the episode: The Desk Set a play William Marchand and a movie starring Katherine Hepburn. How might a computer be incorporated into the sociability of a couple? Her (Spike Jonze,, 2013) computer meets human makes the rom-com into a coupling machine. WarGames (1983( ends with Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy (not Ione Skye—silly John!) paired. But also with Broderick and the formerly deadly computer settling down to “how about a nice game of chess”? Black Mirror as the 2020's version of the same dark satire as the 1950's Twilight Zone. John asks about Stanislaw Lem's Cyberiad, and the comic coupling of Kirk and Spock and the death-as-computer comedy of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979). Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden (1964). Dave Eggers: the joke structure as critique in The Circle and The Every. John Saybrook wrote in the New Yorker about an eye-opening conversation with Bill Gates in 1994. Istvan Csicsery-Ronay's Seven Beauties of Science Fiction on the “fictionalization of everyday life" Recallable Books: Elif Batuman The Idiot (2017) Richard Powers, Plowing the Dark (2000) Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends (2017) Listen and Read here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science

When does comedy become more than a laugh? Ben Mangrum of MIT joins RtB to discuss his new book, The Comedy of Computation: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obsolescence (Stanford UP, 2025), which in some ways is organized around “the intriguing idea that human knowledge work is our definitive feature and yet the machines we are ourselves made are going to replace us at it.” Comedy has provided a toolbox (Charles Tilly calls them "collective repertoires") for responding to the looming obsolescence of knowledge workers.John's interest in Menippean satire within science fiction leads him to ask about about the sliding meanings of comedy and its pachinko machine capacity; he loves the way Ben uses the word and concept of doubling,; Ben explains how the computer may either queer (in an antisocial way) or get assimilated into romantic heteronormative pairings. John asks about Donna Haraway's 1985 A Cyborg Manifesto and teh way it denaturalizes gender roles and the way new technological affordances (from the Acheulean axe that Malafouris discusses to the Apple watch) redefine human roles. Ben delves into the minstrelsy pre-history of the photo-robots going as far back as the late 19th century. They unpack the distinctively American Leo Marxian optimism of The Machine in the Garden (1964) that spreads back as far as the proto-robots like The Steam Man of the Prairies(1868) and good old Tik-Tok in the Wizard of Oz novels. John asks about double-edged nature of Ben's claim that comic “genericity provides forms for making a computationally mediated social world seem more habitable, even as it also provides Is for criticizing and objecting to that world." First you get description says Ben--and then sometimes critique. John asks about the iterability of the new: how much of what seems new actually New New (in the sense of that great 1999 Michael Lewis book, The New New Thing)? Mentioned in the episode: The Desk Set a play William Marchand and a movie starring Katherine Hepburn. How might a computer be incorporated into the sociability of a couple? Her (Spike Jonze,, 2013) computer meets human makes the rom-com into a coupling machine. WarGames (1983( ends with Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy (not Ione Skye—silly John!) paired. But also with Broderick and the formerly deadly computer settling down to “how about a nice game of chess”? Black Mirror as the 2020's version of the same dark satire as the 1950's Twilight Zone. John asks about Stanislaw Lem's Cyberiad, and the comic coupling of Kirk and Spock and the death-as-computer comedy of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979). Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden (1964). Dave Eggers: the joke structure as critique in The Circle and The Every. John Saybrook wrote in the New Yorker about an eye-opening conversation with Bill Gates in 1994. Istvan Csicsery-Ronay's Seven Beauties of Science Fiction on the “fictionalization of everyday life" Recallable Books: Elif Batuman The Idiot (2017) Richard Powers, Plowing the Dark (2000) Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends (2017) Listen and Read here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainTheme: Numerical and Mathematical DevelopmentSpatiotemporal Dynamics of Arithmetic Computation in the Human BrainColloque - Pedro Pinheiro-Chagas : Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Arithmetic Computation in the Human BrainPedro Pinheiro-ChagasRésuméMathematics is among humanity's most remarkable achievements, yet we still lack a comprehensive understanding of how the brain performs even simple arithmetic. In this talk, I will present a series of studies investigating the encoding of elementary math, as well as the architecture, spatiotemporal dynamics, and causal role of the underlying brain networks. I will show that arithmetic computations selectively activate a distinct network in the human brain, which dissociates from language areas and overlaps with regions related to object recognition, visuospatial attention, working memory and relational reasoning. Next, using machine learning and intracranial recordings in humans, I will demonstrate how we can precisely track the cascade of unfolding representational codes during mental arithmetic, shedding light on the roles of each hub of the math network. Overall, this talk will provide insights into how elementary math concepts are implemented in the brain and, more broadly, show how the case study of math cognition can help us understand the algorithms of human intelligence.

Stanislas DehaeneChaire Psychologie cognitive expérimentaleAnnée 2025-2026Collège de FranceColloque : Seeing the Mind, Educating the BrainTheme: Numerical and Mathematical DevelopmentPattern Codes for Numerical Quantity during Perception and Internal Computation in the Human BrainColloque - Evelyn Eger : Pattern Codes for Numerical Quantity during Perception and Internal Computation in the Human BrainEvelyn EgerRésuméDuring the last two decades, neuroimaging has generated a wealth of knowledge on how number processing inserts itself into the functional neuroanatomy of the human brain. We understand quite well now what are the cortical areas involved, and the neural codes for individual quantities as perceptual entities. Still, we lack a general understanding of how quantity representations are transformed during mental computations, and how or even where results of such computations are coded in the brain. By using ultra-high-field (UHF) imaging during an approximate calculation task designed to disentangle in- and outputs of a computation from the operation, we uncovered a representation of internally generated quantities which was most prominent in higher-level regions like the angular gyrus and lateral prefrontal cortex, and the intra-parietal sulcus. Intraparietal sensory-motor integration regions were the only ones found to share the same representational space for stimulus-evoked and internally generated quantities. This suggests the transformation may occur in these regions, before result numbers are maintained for task purposes in higher-level areas in a format possibly detached from sensory-evoked inputs. Results illustrate the power of UHF imaging to finely characterize neural codes underlying human numerical abilities with non-invasive methods.

A characteristic of complex systems is that individual components combine to exhibit large-scale emergent behavior even when the components were not specifically designed for any particular purpose within the collective. Sometimes those individual components are us -- people interacting within societies or online communities. Studying the dynamics of such interactions is interesting both to better understand what is happening, and hopefully to designing better communities. I talk with Petter Törnberg about flows of information, how polarization develops, and how artificial agents can help steer things in better directions.Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/09/29/330-petter-tornberg-on-the-dynamics-of-misinformation/Support Mindscape on Patreon.Petter Törnberg received a Ph.D. in complex systems from Chalmers University of Technology. He is now an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Language, Logic and Computation at the University of Amsterdam, Associate Professor in Complex Systems at Chalmers University of Technology, NWO VENI laurate, and senior researcher at the University of Neuchâtel.Web siteUniv. Amsterdam web pageGoogle Scholar publicationsAmazon author pageBlueskySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Two years ago, policymakers floated a global AI pause, some even suggested bombing data centers to stop progress. Today, the U.S. is pulling back from the brink.Adam Thierer, author of Permissionless Innovation and Evasive Entrepreneurs, joins Niklas to unpack:* How the “war on computation” began and the moment the tide turned* Why sectors “born free” explode with innovation, while “born in captivity” stay stuck* The explosion of 1,000+ AI-related bills across U.S. states and the risk of a regulatory maze* The strange alliance between the far left and far right to slow progress* Why AI could be the ultimate technology of freedom or a tool for repression* Why compared to 2 years ago there are reasons to be more optimistic now.If you're building in AI, biotech, or any frontier space, this is your field guide to defending the right to build.More about Adam's work:* Adam's X* Medium* Amazon BooksExplore Infinita City:* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times* Visit Infinita City* Join the Builders' Hub on Telegram* Follow Infinita City on X This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.infinitacitytimes.com

Get 50% off Claude Pro, including access to Claude Code, at http://claude.ai/theoriesofeverything As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe In this episode, I speak with Stephen Wolfram—creator of Mathematica and Wolfram Language—about a “new kind of science” that treats the universe as computation. We explore computational irreducibility, discrete space, multi-way systems, and how the observer shapes the laws we perceive—from the second law of thermodynamics to quantum mechanics. Wolfram reframes Feynman diagrams as causal structures, connects evolution and modern AI through coarse fitness and assembled “lumps” of computation, and sketches a nascent theory of biology as bulk orchestration. We also discuss what makes science good: new tools, ruthless visualization, respect for history, and a field he calls “ruliology”—the study of simple rules, where anyone can still make real contributions. This is basically a documentary akin to The Life and Times of Stephen Wolfram. I hope you enjoy it. Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e SUPPORT: - Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join - Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 SOCIALS: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs Guests do not pay to appear. Theories of Everything receives revenue solely from viewer donations, platform ads, and clearly labelled sponsors; no guest or associated entity has ever given compensation, directly or through intermediaries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode: 2684 Will Computers Replace Scientists?  Today, will computers replace scientists?

We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!Market Basket board's lawyer sends warning to Arthur T. Demoulas's side over ‘public vitriol'. The latest on the Market Basket drama.Guest: Jon Chesto – Boston Globe Business ReporterWebster Deputy Chief of Police Gordon Wentworth tells us the tale of Goose the water monitor lizard who gained widespread fame!Guest: Gordon Wentworth – Webster Deputy Chief of Police   Astronomer Says Unidentified Space Object Could Be Alien Spacecraft!Guest: Prof. Avi Loab - Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science Director of the Institute for Theory & Computation at Harvard University MA woman attacked by bat when it flew into her open mouth while stargazing in Arizona! GoFundMe created for her medical expenses.Guest: Erica Kahn – Victim of bat attack

We couldn't be more honored to have Catherine Malabou on the pod, a serious inspiration for all of us. This episode covers so much, moving from AI to education to anarchism to feminism, but all grounded within a focus on automony -- the autonomy of language from us, the autonomy of an anarchic subject or an anarchic collective, the autonomy of the clitoris from gender, the autonomy of the plastic being or form with respect to change.If you're unfamiliar with Malabou's work, this is actually a really great place to start. Her work includes all of the above topics, and it pushes further into language, neuroscience, and politics than most philosophers dare. We've been following her since the epic What Should We Do With Our Brains?, the legendary Plasticity at the Dusk of Writing (whose fleshing out of Malabou's reading of the plastic inspired so many theorists, arists, and researchers across endless fields and disciplines), and our personal favorite, the recent Stop Thief! Anarchism and Philosophy. We'd almost recommend working backwards from this episode (as an Anglophone, I'm thinking in terms of English translation), going into Stop Thief and Pleasure Erased: The Clitoris Unthought before taking on the works on Hegel, Derrida, and plasticity.We're so so inspired by the freshness of Catherine Malabou's perspective on AI -- as always, she dares to say and formalize things that many philosophers treat reflexively. We hope to have more conversations on the topic of AI and education soon, following from Malabou's hot takes. :) 

What starts with a wild Burning Man confession evolves into a deep debate on the fabric of existence.Welcome to the Alfalfa Podcast

Baby Blue Viper is an evolving platform for clarity, reflection, and poetic disruption.BBV Consultancy is its applied, bilingual arm —offering strategic support — in English and Spanish — for those navigating complexity, change, and the Bitcoin era. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.babyblueviper.com/subscribe

This episode features Shlomi Fuchter and Jack Parker Holder from Google DeepMind, who are unveiling a new AI called Genie 3. The host, Tim Scarfe, describes it as the most mind-blowing technology he has ever seen. We were invited to their offices to conduct the interview (not sponsored).Imagine you could create a video game world just by describing it. That's what Genie 3 does. It's an AI "world model" that learns how the real world works by watching massive amounts of video. Unlike a normal video game engine (like Unreal or the one for Doom) that needs to be programmed manually, Genie generates a realistic, interactive, 3D world from a simple text prompt.**SPONSOR MESSAGES***Prolific: Quality data. From real people. For faster breakthroughs.https://prolific.com/mlst?utm_campaign=98404559-MLST&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=script-gen***Here's a breakdown of what makes it so revolutionary:From Text to a Virtual World: You can type "a drone flying by a beautiful lake" or "a ski slope," and Genie 3 creates that world for you in about three seconds. You can then navigate and interact with it in real-time.It's Consistent: The worlds it creates have a reliable memory. If you look away from an object and then look back, it will still be there, just as it was. The guests explain that this consistency isn't explicitly programmed in; it's a surprising, "emergent" capability of the powerful AI model.A Huge Leap Forward: The previous version, Genie 2, was a major step, but it wasn't fast enough for real-time interaction and was much lower resolution. Genie 3 is 720p, interactive, and photorealistic, running smoothly for several minutes at a time.The Killer App - Training Robots: Beyond entertainment, the team sees Genie 3 as a game-changer for training AI. Instead of training a self-driving car or a robot in the real world (which is slow and dangerous), you can create infinite simulations. You can even prompt rare events to happen, like a deer running across the road, to teach an AI how to handle unexpected situations safely.The Future of Entertainment: this could lead to a "YouTube version 2" or a new form of VR, where users can create and explore endless, interconnected worlds together, like the experience machine from philosophy.While the technology is still a research prototype and not yet available to the public, it represents a monumental step towards creating true artificial worlds from the ground up.Jack Parker Holder [Research Scientist at Google DeepMind in the Open-Endedness Team]https://jparkerholder.github.io/Shlomi Fruchter [Research Director, Google DeepMind]https://shlomifruchter.github.io/TOC:[00:00:00] - Introduction: "The Most Mind-Blowing Technology I've Ever Seen"[00:02:30] - The Evolution from Genie 1 to Genie 2[00:04:30] - Enter Genie 3: Photorealistic, Interactive Worlds from Text[00:07:00] - Promptable World Events & Training Self-Driving Cars[00:14:21] - Guest Introductions: Shlomi Fuchter & Jack Parker Holder[00:15:08] - Core Concepts: What is a "World Model"?[00:19:30] - The Challenge of Consistency in a Generated World[00:21:15] - Context: The Neural Network Doom Simulation[00:25:25] - How Do You Measure the Quality of a World Model?[00:28:09] - The Vision: Using Genie to Train Advanced Robots[00:32:21] - Open-Endedness: Human Skill and Prompting Creativity[00:38:15] - The Future: Is This the Next YouTube or VR?[00:42:18] - The Next Step: Multi-Agent Simulations[00:52:51] - Limitations: Thinking, Computation, and the Sim-to-Real Gap[00:58:07] - Conclusion & The Future of Game EnginesREFS:World Models [David Ha, Jürgen Schmidhuber]https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.10122POEThttps://arxiv.org/abs/1901.01753[Akarsh Kumar, Jeff Clune, Joel Lehman, Kenneth O. Stanley]The Fractured Entangled Representation Hypothesishttps://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.11581TRANSCRIPT:https://app.rescript.info/public/share/Zk5tZXk6mb06yYOFh6nSja7Lg6_qZkgkuXQ-kl5AJqM

In this episode, I discuss an intriguing idea proposed by Victor Taelin, to base a logically sound type theory on an untyped but terminating language, upon which one may then erect as exotic a type system as one wishes.  By enforcing termination already for the untyped language, we no longer have to make the type system do the heavy work of enforcing termination.

Sam Arbesman, complexity scientist, author of "The Magic of Code," and scientist in residence at Lux Capital, joins me for a wide-ranging exploration of how we navigate an increasingly complex world that often exceeds human comprehension. We dive into the oral traditions that preserve crucial scientific knowledge, why cognitive diversity trumps demographic diversity, the forgotten innovations hiding in technological history, and Sam's vision for "Maxis 2.0". This conversation had everything—from science fiction's cultural impact to the philosophy of intellectual humility. Sam and I discovered we're remarkably simpatico on how to think about complex systems, the importance of historical context, and why saying "I don't know" is the foundation of genuine learning. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that's interesting!”, check out our Substack. Important Links: Personal Website Book Page: The Magic of Code Sam's X Profile Show Notes: Sam's Sci-fi Origins The Oral Tradition in Science and Technology Cultivating the Unexpected Open-Endedness and Large Language Models “All Models Are Wrong, but Some Are Useful” Culture's Role in Shaping Everything Patching Bugs in HumanOS Tech History and Forgotten Innovations A Tech Archaeology Fellowship Humility and Knowledge Learning Via Negativa The Complexity of Our World Sam's Current Obsessions in Science and Gaming Sam As Emperor of the World Books Mentioned: Dune; by Frank Herbert Foundation trilogy; by Isaac Asimov Overcomplicated: Technology at the Limits of Comprehension; by Sam Arbesman The Half-Life of Facts; by Sam Arbesman When We Cease to Understand the World; by Benjamín Labatut White Mirror; by Tinkered Thinking Nonzero; by Robert Wright The Evolution of God; by Robert Wright God and Golem, Inc.; by Norbert Wiener The Road; by Cormac McCarthy The Guide for the Perplexed; by Moses Maimonides The Story of Civilization; by Will and Ariel Durant Mistakes Were Made, and Yes, by Me; by Jim O'Shaughnessy

There seems to be no limit to what artificial intelligence can produce and create. So how will artificial intelligence impact the way we make and critique art? Today, we hear how artists are using artificial intelligence in their work. We ask a Connecticut professor, and artists of all disciplines, if AI is good or bad for the creative process. We also explore a question: If AI is the author, can what it made really be called art? GUESTS: Kevin Ramsey: Assistant Professor of Theater at the University of Hartford Roger Beaty: Associate Professor of Psychology at Pennsylvania State University Clement Valla: Artist and the Department Head of the Art, Computation, and Sound BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Demis Hassabis is the CEO of Google DeepMind and Nobel Prize winner for his groundbreaking work in protein structure prediction using AI. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep475-sc See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/demis-hassabis-2-transcript CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring Other - other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact EPISODE LINKS: Demis's X: https://x.com/demishassabis DeepMind's X: https://x.com/GoogleDeepMind DeepMind's Instagram: https://instagram.com/GoogleDeepMind DeepMind's Website: https://deepmind.google/ Gemini's Website: https://gemini.google.com/ Isomorphic Labs: https://isomorphiclabs.com/ The MANIAC (book): https://amzn.to/4lOXJ81 Life Ascending (book): https://amzn.to/3AhUP7z SPONSORS: To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: Hampton: Community for high-growth founders and CEOs. Go to https://joinhampton.com/lex Fin: AI agent for customer service. Go to https://fin.ai/lex Shopify: Sell stuff online. Go to https://shopify.com/lex LMNT: Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix. Go to https://drinkLMNT.com/lex AG1: All-in-one daily nutrition drink. Go to https://drinkag1.com/lex OUTLINE: (00:00) - Introduction (00:29) - Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections (08:40) - Learnable patterns in nature (12:22) - Computation and P vs NP (21:00) - Veo 3 and understanding reality (25:24) - Video games (37:26) - AlphaEvolve (43:27) - AI research (47:51) - Simulating a biological organism (52:34) - Origin of life (58:49) - Path to AGI (1:09:35) - Scaling laws (1:12:51) - Compute (1:15:38) - Future of energy (1:19:34) - Human nature (1:24:28) - Google and the race to AGI (1:42:27) - Competition and AI talent (1:49:01) - Future of programming (1:55:27) - John von Neumann (2:04:41) - p(doom) (2:09:24) - Humanity (2:12:30) - Consciousness and quantum computation (2:18:40) - David Foster Wallace (2:25:54) - Education and research PODCAST LINKS: - Podcast Website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast - Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr - Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 - RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ - Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 - Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/lexclips

Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about business, innovation, and managing life as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-business-qaTopics discussed: Using AI in daily work and research - Interfaces and the adoption of AI technology - Computation and the future of algorithms - Modern day skills and computational thinking - Productivity and procrastination - Innovation, markets, and globalization

**Content Warning** This episode includes discussions of sexual assault and attempted murder, which may be distressing for some listeners. Please listen with care.On this episode of Virtual Sentiments, host Kristen Collins speaks with Susan Brison, author of Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of a Self (Princeton University Press, 2002; 20th Anniversary Edition, 2023). In this conversation, Brison reflects on trauma, gendered violence, and the limits of traditional philosophy. She shares the story of her own rape, the trial that followed, and how it shaped her research and philosophy. Their conversation explores the feminist claim that “the personal is political,” emphasizing how trauma disrupts trust and identity, and how recovery requires relational support. Brison also critiques the punitive criminal justice system, advocating for restorative approaches that promote healing over retribution.Dr. Susan Brison is Susan and James Wright Professor of Computation and Just Communities and Professor of Philosophy at Dartmouth College where she is also Director of the Susan and James Wright Center for the Study of Computation and Just Communities.Read more work from Kristen Collins.Show Notes:APA Studies's special issue on Susan's work, "Feminism and Philosophy"Judith Herman's Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—From Domestic Abuse to Political TerrorNancy Sherman's Afterwar: Healing the Moral Wounds of Our SoldiersJonathan Shay's Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of CharacterRobin Dembroff's "Real Men on Top"Linda Martin Alcoff's Rape and ResistanceMary Ann Franks's "Democratic Surveillance"If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramLearn more about Academic & Student ProgramsFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatus

Full 3 hr episode on Patreon Part III of the non-cybernetics series focused on the little explored contributions of American Indian knowledge systems to the development of computation and algorithms. Mickey Newbury and songwriting, Navajo code-talkers during WWI/WWII, variations in native dialect, coyotes and stardust, sustaining genetic diversity, tricksters and their influence on probability studies, AIM takeover of the Fairchild semiconductor plant, indigenous anarchy and post-politics, Claude Shannon-Weaver method applied to Ojibwe scrolls, The Iroquois Confederacy as a model for the US constitution: symbolism of the arrows, the suspicious rise of Global Village Coffeehouse and tribal aesthetics in the early 90's, the vanishing native, the phrase “standing on business”, KB's postcard snail mail network, Marcel Mauss, Bataille, and the potlatch economy as a precursor to the feedback network, biodiversity in agriculture, multi-colored corn harvests, + more

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Professor John Norton has spent decades dismantling the hidden assumptions in physics from Newton's determinism to the myth of Landauer's Principle. In this episode, he explains why causation may not be real, how classical physics breaks down, and why even Einstein got some things wrong. If you're ready to rethink the foundations of science, this one's essential. Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 03:37 Norton's Dome Explained 06:30 The Misunderstanding of Determinism 09:31 Thermodynamics and Infinite Systems 14:39 Implications for Quantum Mechanics 16:20 Revisiting Causation 18:15 Critique of Causal Metaphysics 20:21 The Utility of Causal Language 24:58 Exploring Thought Experiments 33:05 Landauer's Principle Discussion 49:48 Critique of Experimental Validation 52:25 Consequences for Maxwell's Demon 1:13:34 Einstein's Critiques of Quantum Mechanics 1:28:16 The Nature of Scientific Discovery 1:42:56 Inductive Inferences in Science Links Mentioned: •⁠ ⁠A Primer on Determinism (book): https://amzn.to/45Jn3b4 •⁠ ⁠John Norton's papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UDteMFoAAAAJ •⁠ ⁠Causation as Folk Science (paper): https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/003004.pdf •⁠ ⁠Lipschitz continuity (wiki): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipschitz_continuity •⁠ ⁠The Dome: An Unexpectedly Simple Failure of Determinism (paper): https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/2943/1/Norton.pdf •⁠ ⁠Norton's Dome (wiki): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton%27s_dome •⁠ ⁠Approximation and Idealization (paper): https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/Ideal_Approx_final.pdf •⁠ ⁠On the Quantum Theory of Radiation (paper): https://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/scientists/einstein/1917_Radiation.pdf •⁠ ⁠Making Things Happen (book): https://ccc.inaoep.mx/~esucar/Clases-mgc/Making-Things-Happen-A-Theory-of-Causal-Explanation.pdf •⁠ ⁠Causation in Physics (wiki): https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/causation-physics/ •⁠ ⁠Laboratory of the Mind (paper): https://www.academia.edu/2644953/REVIEW_James_R_Brown_Laboratory_of_the_Mind •⁠ ⁠Roger Penrose on TOE: https://youtu.be/sGm505TFMbU •⁠ ⁠Ted Jacobson on TOE: https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8 •⁠ ⁠The Thermodynamics of Computation (paper): https://sites.cc.gatech.edu/computing/nano/documents/Bennett%20-%20The%20Thermodynamics%20Of%20Computation.pdf •⁠ ⁠What's Actually Possible? (article): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/the-unexamined-in-principle •⁠ ⁠On a Decrease of Entropy in a Thermodynamic System (paper): https://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/862.22/notes/computation/Szilard-1929.pdf •⁠ ⁠Landauer's principle and thermodynamics (article): https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10872 •⁠ ⁠The Logical Inconsistency of Old Quantum Theory of Black Body Radiation (paper): https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/Inconsistency_OQT.pdf SUPPORT: - Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join - Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 SOCIALS: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Explaining how and why our world works the way it does touches on so many fields of science: biology, chemistry, physics, and, of course, technology. However, according to researcher Blaise Agüera y Arcas, computation should also be part of the understanding of life on all levels – and going back further than one might think. In What Is Life? Evolution as Computation, Agüera y Arcas uses computation as a means of examining the complexities of our own universe. Inspired by the work of quantum mechanics pioneer Erwin Schrödinger, he revisits the question that has showcased the divide between biology and physics: what is life? How can life and all its attendant complexities come to exist in a random universe, governed by simple laws, whose disorder only increases over time? What Is Life? aims to provide surprising answers, reframing core concepts of self-reproduction, complex growth, and symbiotic relationships as inherently computational. Agüera y Arcas draws on decades of theory and existing literature from figures like Alan Turing and John von Neumann, as well as recent endeavors in the field of artificial life. From evolution and symbiogenesis to thermodynamics and climate models, What Is Life? explores computation as a tool beyond raw calculation to understand intricate phenomena. This volume serves as a first installment of an ongoing body of work, with his larger book What Is Intelligence? further developing this perspective on intelligence from simple organisms to brains and from societies to AI. What Is Life? is richly illustrated and studded with examples, recontextualizing computational concepts and applications for a general audience curious about diving deeper into the machinations of our living world. Blaise Agüera y Arcas is a researcher and author focused on artificial intelligence, sociality, evolution, and software development. He is a VP and Fellow at Google, where he is the CTO of Technology & Society and founder of Paradigms of Intelligence (Pi). He is a frequent speaker at TED and has been featured in the Economist and Noēma, and has previously published the books Who Are We Now? and Ubi Sunt. Charles Tonderai Mudede is a Zimbabwean-born cultural critic, urbanist, filmmaker, college lecturer, and writer. He is the Senior Staff writer of the Stranger, a lecturer at Cornish College of the Arts, and has collaborated with the director Robinson Devor on three films, two of which Police Beat and Zoo, premiered at Sundance, and one of which, Zoo, screened at Cannes, and the most recent of which, Suburban Fury, premiered at New York Film Festival. (Police Beat is now part of MOMA's permanent collection.) Mudede, whose essays regularly appear in e-Flux and Tank Magazine, is also the director of Thin Skin (2023).

What if the next leap in artificial intelligence isn't about better language—but better understanding of space?In this episode, a16z General Partner Erik Torenberg moderates a conversation with Fei-Fei Li, cofounder and CEO of World Labs, and a16z General Partner Martin Casado, an early investor in the company. Together, they dive into the concept of world models—AI systems that can understand and reason about the 3D, physical world, not just generate text.Often called the “godmother of AI,” Fei-Fei explains why spatial intelligence is a fundamental and still-missing piece of today's AI—and why she's building an entire company to solve it. Martin shares how he and Fei-Fei aligned on this vision long before it became fashionable, and why it could reshape the future of robotics, creativity, and computational interfaces.From the limits of LLMs to the promise of embodied intelligence, this conversation blends personal stories with deep technical insights—exploring what it really means to build AI that understands the real (and virtual) world.Resources: Find Fei-Fei on X: https://x.com/drfeifeiFind Martin on X: https://x.com/martin_casadoLearn more about World Labs: https://www.worldlabs.ai/ Stay Updated: Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16zFind a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16zFind a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16zSubscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenbergPlease note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

Gehörst du auch zu den Menschen, die nach jeder ChatGPT-Anfrage erstmal "bitte" und "danke" sagen und sich vielleicht fragen, ob das überhaupt notwendig ist? In dieser Folge tauchen wir ein in dieses spannende Thema an der Schnittstelle zwischen Technik, Pragmatik und Gesellschaft: Wie gut kann künstliche Intelligenz Höflichkeit erkennen – und vielleicht sogar selbst höflich agieren?Dafür schauen wir in die Höflichkeitsforschung und klären zunächst, was Höflichkeit eigentlich ist. Mit der Theorie von Penelope Brown und Stephen Levinson schauen wir uns im Detail an, wie wir höflich kommunizieren und warum wir dafür manchmal einen Umweg der Kommunikation wählen. Abschließend schauen wir uns zwei aktuelle Studien genauer an, die untersucht haben, ob und wie KI Höflichkeit verstehen und selbst produzieren kann. Das Ergebnis ist spannend, denn es ist nicht alles Gold, was glänzt...Ein Podcast von Anton und Jakob. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sprachpfade --- Grundlagenliteratur: Ehrhardt, Claus (2018): Höflichkeit. In Frank Liedtke & Astrid Tuchen (Hrsg.), Handbuch Pragmatik, 282–292. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler. doi:10.1007/978-3-476-04624-6_28.Brown, Penelope & Stephen C. Levinson (2007): Gesichtsbedrohende Akte. In Steffen K. Herrmann, Sybille Krämer & Hannes Kuch (Hrsg.), Verletzende Worte. Die Grammatik sprachlicher Missachtung, 59–88. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. doi:10.1515/9783839405659-003. Dynel, Marta. 2023. Lessons in linguistics with ChatGPT: Metapragmatics, metacommunication, metadiscourse and metalanguage in human-AI interactions. Language & Communication 93. 107–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2023.09.002.Studien:Andersson, Marta & Dan McIntyre. 2025. Can ChatGPT recognize impoliteness? An exploratory study of the pragmatic awareness of a large language model. Journal of Pragmatics 239. 16–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2025.02.001.Lee, Soo-Hwan & Shaonan Wang. 2023. Do language models know how to be polite? Society for Computation in Linguistics. University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries 6(1). https://doi.org/10.7275/8621-5w02. --- weitere Links: Chomsky, Noam, Ian Roberts & Jeffrey Watumull. 2023. Opinion | Noam Chomsky: The False Promise of ChatGPT. The New York Times, sec. Opinion. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/noam-chomsky-chatgpt-ai.html. Zugriff am 04.05.2025. Marino, Andru. 2025. Oh no, I turned everything into an AI podcast. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/video/663196/oh-no-i-turned-everything-into-an-ai-podcast. Zugriff am 11.05.2025. Gegenüber Themenvorschlägen für die kommenden Ausflüge in die Sprachwissenschaft und Anregungen jeder Art sind wir stets offen. Wir freuen uns auf euer Feedback! Schreibt uns dazu einfach an oder in die DMs: anton.sprachpfade@protonmail.com oder jakob.sprachpfade@protonmail.com --- Grafiken und Musik von Elias Kündiger https://on.soundcloud.com/ySNQ6

Stephen Wolfram is a physicists, mathematician, and programmer who believes he has discovered the computational rules that organize the universe at the finest grain. These rules are not physical rules like the equations of state or Maxwell's equations. According to Wolfram, these are rules that govern how the universe evolves and operates at a level at least one step down below the reality that we inhabit. His computational principles are inspired by the results observed in cellular automata systems, which show that it's possible to take a very simple system, with very simple rules, and end up at complex patterns that often look organic and always look far more intricate than the black and white squares that the game started with. We sit down with him for a conversation about the platonic endeavor that he has undertaken, where to draw the line between lived experience and the computational universe, the limits of physics, and the value of purpose and the source of consciousness. MAKE HISTORY WITH US THIS SUMMER:https://demystifysci.com/demysticon-2025PATREON https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysciPARADIGM DRIFThttps://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-show00:00 Go!00:02:07 Entropy and Computational Irreducibility00:09:45 Understanding Observers in Physics00:15:12 The Concept of Time as Computation00:23:00 Neural Networks and Determinism00:30:03 Understanding Space and Its Nature00:39:24 Exploring the Nature of Emergence and Reality00:41:44 Perception and Computational Limitations of Human Minds00:46:18 The Complexity of Existence and Consciousness00:51:58 The Universe's Computation versus Human Understanding00:55:42 Conceptualizing Reality Beyond Physical Actors01:01:11 Computational Irreducibility in Biological Systems01:09:49 The Nature of Experience in Humans and Machines01:14:25 Internal Experiences and the Connection to Purpose01:18:07 Exploration of Purpose in Life and AI01:26:00 The Nature of Human Existence and Purpose01:35:19 Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Understanding Reality01:41:02 Communication Across Species02:01:13 Emergence of Simple Rules in Physics02:14:47 Observers and the Universe02:19:14 The Role of Mass and Experience02:24:02 Self-Reproduction and Evolution02:30:50 Complexity and Natural Selection02:37:07 Foundations of Medicine02:40:45 Application of Physics Concepts in Other Fields02:49:44 Limits and Possibilities of Travel Through Space02:53:11 Future of Human Civilization and Technology02:55:05 Science and Pre-Existing Questions about the Universe02:58:05 The Intersection of Mathematics and Physical Reality#physics, #computationalphysics, #consciousness, #freewill, #determinism, #spaceexploration, #evolution, #purpose, #futureofhumanity, #complexsystems , #machinelearning, #philosophypodcast , #sciencepodcast, #longformpodcast ABOUS US: Anastasia completed her PhD studying bioelectricity at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting, reading, and guiding backcountry excursions. Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities. PATREON: get episodes early + join our weekly Patron Chat https://bit.ly/3lcAasBMERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear : https://demystifysci.myspreadshop.com/allAMAZON: Do your shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaDSUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysciBLOG: http://DemystifySci.com/blog RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rssMAILING LIST: https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySciMUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671

In this episode, we speak with Edward Ongweso Jr about "artificial intelligence" and its implications, particularly concerning corporate interests and historical parallels with labor control. Edward critiques the term “artificial intelligence” for obscuring the underlying digital technologies and algorithmic systems that serve corporate agendas, emphasizing the narrow view of intelligence that excludes human cognitive elements. The conversation delves into the historical roots of computation, drawing parallels between modern AI and 19th-century plantation management techniques aimed at maximizing productivity and control.  We also explore the exploitation of global south workers in AI development, likening it to racialized regimes of chattel slavery. Furthermore, Ongweso critiques the concept of surveillance capitalism, arguing that surveillance has been integral to capitalism since its origins, particularly post-World War II, through marketing revolutions, the military-industrial complex, and financialization. The discussion concludes with an analysis of techno-authoritarianism, highlighting Silicon Valley's historical hostility to democracy and its prioritization of technologies that advance surveillance and social control. Edward is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, NY. Most of his work centers around tech criticism, labor and financial reporting, and book reviews. He is also the co-host of This Machine Kills, a podcast started in 2020 to discuss the political economy of technology. Support us via Patreon or BuyMeACoffee   Relevant Links:   Surveillance capitalism vs techno-feudalism vs techno-authoritarianism   A Materialist Approach to the Tech Industry: From Household to Military Tech with Dwayne Monroe        

OpenJDK's Project Leyden aims to improve the startup and warmup time of Java applications, for now by shifting computation from those phases to the applications' build time. Java 24 ships with ahead-of-time class loading and linking, which is the first step in that direction. In this episode, we learn about that as well as about Leyden's approach to reach its goals and some features that are available in its early access build plus some that aren't. Nicolai Parlog discusses with Dan Heidinga, who is JVM Runtime Architect at Oracle and, among other things, member of projects Leyden and Valhalla.

In this episode, Seerat interviews Dr. Jay McClelland, a professor in the Psychology Department and director of the Center for Mind, Brain, Computation, and Technology at Stanford. Their research includes a variety of topics from cognitive science and neuroscience to learning, memory, reading, mathematical cognition, and much more.

This is Part I of our Deep Learning Series where Le Random's editor-in-chief Peter Bauman (Monk Antony) speaks with the most relevant figures in deep learning art. In this first installment, Peter speaks with two of the earliest artists to engage with the intersection of art and deep generative models, Tom White (dribnet) and Gene Kogan.They explore the artistic, philosophical and cultural implications of GANs and deep generative models, drawing on the artists' early experiences and perspectives in the field . The conversation touches on the origins of their interest in GANs, the evolution of AI and its perception, critiques of AI art, the nature of machine representations, and the connection between AI and decentralization.Chapters

As a member of the Into the Impossible family, you get a special 20% discount on a subscription to The Economist. Visit their website at https://www.economist.com/Keating to get started. Pique is offering 20% off for life AND a free Starter Kit with your purchase—that's a rechargeable frother and glass beaker to make the perfect cup every time. Just go to http://piquelife.com/impossible Please join my mailing list here

In this episode of Crazy Wisdom, Stewart Alsop speaks with German Jurado about the strange loop between computation and biology, the emergence of reasoning in AI models, and what it means to "stand on the shoulders" of evolutionary systems. They talk about CRISPR not just as a gene-editing tool, but as a memory architecture encoded in bacterial immunity; they question whether LLMs are reasoning or just mimicking it; and they explore how scientists navigate the unknown with a kind of embodied intuition. For more about German's work, you can connect with him through email at germanjurado7@gmail.com.Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation!Timestamps00:00 - Stewart introduces German Jurado and opens with a reflection on how biology intersects with multiple disciplines—physics, chemistry, computation.05:00 - They explore the nature of life's interaction with matter, touching on how biology is about the interface between organic systems and the material world.10:00 - German explains how bioinformatics emerged to handle the complexity of modern biology, especially in genomics, and how it spans structural biology, systems biology, and more.15:00 - Introduction of AI into the scientific process—how models are being used in drug discovery and to represent biological processes with increasing fidelity.20:00 - Stewart and German talk about using LLMs like GPT to read and interpret dense scientific literature, changing the pace and style of research.25:00 - The conversation turns to societal implications—how these tools might influence institutions, and the decentralization of expertise.30:00 - Competitive dynamics between AI labs, the scaling of context windows, and speculation on where the frontier is heading.35:00 - Stewart reflects on English as the dominant language of science and the implications for access and translation of knowledge.40:00 - Historical thread: they discuss the Republic of Letters, how the structure of knowledge-sharing has evolved, and what AI might do to that structure.45:00 - Wrap-up thoughts on reasoning, intuition, and the idea of scientists as co-evolving participants in both natural and artificial systems.50:00 - Final reflections and thank-yous, German shares where to find more of his thinking, and Stewart closes the loop on the conversation.Key InsightsCRISPR as a memory system – Rather than viewing CRISPR solely as a gene-editing tool, German Jurado frames it as a memory architecture—an evolved mechanism through which bacteria store fragments of viral DNA as a kind of immune memory. This perspective shifts CRISPR into a broader conceptual space, where memory is not just cognitive but deeply biological.AI models as pattern recognizers, not yet reasoners – While large language models can mimic reasoning impressively, Jurado suggests they primarily excel at statistical pattern matching. The distinction between reasoning and simulation becomes central, raising the question: are these systems truly thinking, or just very good at appearing to?The loop between computation and biology – One of the core themes is the strange feedback loop where biology inspires computational models (like neural networks), and those models in turn are used to probe and understand biological systems. It's a recursive relationship that's accelerating scientific insight but also complicating our definitions of intelligence and understanding.Scientific discovery as embodied and intuitive – Jurado highlights that real science often begins in the gut, in a kind of embodied intuition before it becomes formalized. This challenges the myth of science as purely rational or step-by-step and instead suggests that hunches, sensory experience, and emotional resonance play a crucial role.Proteins as computational objects – Proteins aren't just biochemical entities—they're shaped by information. Their structure, function, and folding dynamics can be seen as computations, and tools like AlphaFold are beginning to unpack that informational complexity in ways that blur the line between physics and code.Human alignment is messier than AI alignment – While AI alignment gets a lot of attention, Jurado points out that human alignment—between scientists, institutions, and across cultures—is historically chaotic. This reframes the AI alignment debate in a broader evolutionary and historical context, questioning whether we're holding machines to stricter standards than ourselves.Standing on the shoulders of evolutionary processes – Evolution is not just a backdrop but an active epistemic force. Jurado sees scientists as participants in a much older system of experimentation and iteration—evolution itself. In this view, we're not just designing models; we're being shaped by them, in a co-evolution of tools and understanding.

Bitcoin and crypto meet AI!!! But how??? Well it turns out that these worlds meet in the area of hardware: p2p hardware to be exact! The buzzword tossed around is “computational data markets” (CDMs).  This is the world of where hardware meets software demands in a p2p environment.   Do we want information markets centralized??? Of… The post Merging Bitcoin and AI: How P2P Hardware is Powering Decentralized Computation [VIDEO] appeared first on The Crypto Vigilante.

Support the show to get full episodes, full archive, and join the Discord community. Gabriele Scheler co-founded the Carl Correns Foundation for Mathematical Biology. Carl Correns was her great grandfather, one of the early pioneers in genetics. Gabriele is a computational neuroscientist, whose goal is to build models of cellular computation, and much of her focus is on neurons. We discuss her theoretical work building a new kind of single neuron model. She, like Dmitri Chklovskii a few episodes ago, believes we've been stuck with essentially the same family of models for a neuron for a long time, despite minor variations on those models. The model Gabriele is working on, for example, respects the computations going on not only externally, via spiking, which has been the only game in town forever, but also the computations going on within the cell itself. Gabriele is in line with previous guests like Randy Gallistel, David Glanzman, and Hessam Akhlaghpour, who argue that we need to pay attention to how neurons are computing various things internally and how that affects our cognition. Gabriele also believes the new neuron model she's developing will improve AI, drastically simplifying the models by providing them with smarter neurons, essentially. We also discuss the importance of neuromodulation, her interest in wanting to understand how we think via our internal verbal monologue, her lifelong interest in language in general, what she thinks about LLMs, why she decided to start her own foundation to fund her science, what that experience has been like so far. Gabriele has been working on these topics for many years, and as you'll hear in a moment, she was there when computational neuroscience was just starting to pop up in a few places, when it was a nascent field, unlike its current ubiquity in neuroscience. Gabriele's website. Carl Correns Foundation for Mathematical Biology. Neuro-AI spinoff Related papers Sketch of a novel approach to a neural model. Localist neural plasticity identified by mutual information. Related episodes BI 199 Hessam Akhlaghpour: Natural Universal Computation BI 172 David Glanzman: Memory All The Way Down BI 126 Randy Gallistel: Where Is the Engram? 0:00 - Intro 4:41 - Gabriele's early interests in verbal thinking 14:14 - What is thinking? 24:04 - Starting one's own foundation 58:18 - Building a new single neuron model 1:19:25 - The right level of abstraction 1:25:00 - How a new neuron would change AI

Autonomous trucking has long promised a more efficient, scalable future for freight. But making it real requires more than bold ideas—it takes precision, discipline, and a deep understanding of operations.In this episode of Building Better, Brandon Bartneck talks with Dr. Xiaodi Hou, founder and CEO of Bot Auto. They explore how Bot Auto is approaching Level 4 autonomous driving, the importance of cost per mile as a success metric, and what it means to build a lean, high-performing team in a complex industry.Xiaodi shares how his leadership style has evolved, why collaboration is more powerful than competition, and why being realistic—and still optimistic—matters more than hype.About Building Better:Building Better with Brandon Bartneck focuses on the people, products, and companies creating a better tomorrow, often in the transportation and manufacturing sectors. Previously called the Future of Mobility podcast, the show features real, human conversations exploring what leaders and innovators are doing, why and how they're doing it, and what we can learn from their experiences. Topics include manufacturing, production, assembly, autonomous driving, electric vehicles, hydrogen and fuel cells, leadership, and more.About Bot Auto:Bot Auto is a Level 4 autonomous trucking company offering Transportation as a Service (TaaS) through its AI-driven autonomous truck fleet. Founded by Dr. Xiaodi Hou, Bot Auto combines visionary leadership, top-tier engineering talent, and industry expertise to revolutionize the transportation industry. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, the company aims to create lasting impact by expanding transportation capacity, integrating with existing freight networks, and addressing the driver shortage while minimizing disruption.About Xiaodi Hou:Dr. Xiaodi Hou is the Founder and CEO of Bot Auto, and an internationally recognized expert in autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision. He holds a Ph.D. in Computation and Neural Systems from Caltech and a Bachelor's in Computer Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Before founding Bot Auto, he co-founded TuSimple and served as CTO and CEO. His work has been featured in Wired, Forbes, and TechCrunch, and he has spoken at events such as Web Summit and Nvidia's GTC.Key Takeaways:Bot Auto is building for long-term success in autonomous trucking, not short-term hypeCost per mile (CPM) is a better metric than miles per intervention (MPI)Operational execution is critical for scalable autonomyThe tech ecosystem is maturing, but real-world integration still requires nuanceA small, agile team with deep focus can outperform a larger oneIndustry collaboration builds trust and accelerates progressPublic perception and trust are just as important as technical progressChapters:Introduction to Bot Auto and Autonomous TruckingThe Vision Behind Bot AutoUnderstanding the Ecosystem and TechnologyOperational Challenges in Autonomous DrivingOrganizational Structure and Team DynamicsCost Per Mile vs. Miles Per InterventionLeadership Evolution and Industry PerspectiveThe Future of Autonomous DrivingLinks & Resources:Learn more about BOT Auto: Company WebsiteConnect with Xiaodi Hou: LinkedInShow Notes: brandonbartneck.com/buildingbetter/xiaodihouConnect with Building Better:Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts

We find ourselves in a pre-paradigmatic moment in which our technology has outpaced our theories of what to do with it. The task of philosophy today is to catch up. Benjamin Bratton is a Professor of Philosophy of Technology and Speculative Design at University of California, San Diego and the Director of Antikythera, an cross-disciplinary think tank researching the philosophy of computation supported by Berggruen Institute. In his Long Now Talk, Bratton takes us on a whirlwind philosophical journey into the concept of Planetary Computation — a journey that began in classical Greece with the story of the Antikythera mechanism, the analog computer that gave his think-tank its name. But his inquiry stretches far beyond antiquity — back to the very origins of biological life itself and forward to a present and future where we must increasingly grapple with artificial life and intelligence. Show notes: https://longnow.org/ideas/a-philosophy-of-planetary-computation/

Podcast guest 1292 is Dr. Avi Loeb, theoretical physicist, astrophysicist,  head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University's — Black Hole Initiative. He is also director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). His latest book is called interstellar which we talked about and more.Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Starshttps://amzn.to/3UiewVIJoin this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_c8KysI2G9rAbNyD1dVd6g/joinCONTACT:Email: jeff@jeffmarapodcast.comTo donate crypto:Bitcoin -  bc1qk30j4n8xuusfcchyut5nef4wj3c263j4nw5wydDigibyte -  DMsrBPRJqMaVG8CdKWZtSnqRzCU7t92khEShiba -  0x0ffE1bdA5B6E3e6e5DA6490eaafB7a6E97DF7dEeDoge  -  D8ZgwmXgCBs9MX9DAxshzNDXPzkUmxEfAVEth. -   0x0ffE1bdA5B6E3e6e5DA6490eaafB7a6E97DF7dEeWEBSITEwww.jeffmarapodcast.comSOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeffmarapodcast/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeffmarapodcast/Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jeffmaraP/JeffMara does not endorse any of his guests' products or services. The opinions of the guests may or may not reflect the opinions of the host.

Are we entering a "Dark Age of Science?" Recent controversies involving phenomena in our universe that include the ongoing debate over dark matter and dark energy, as well as the existence of what some astronomers call "dark comets", have led to controversy about our perspectives on the cosmos... but to what end? Further, are recent cultural and societal events in the world spelling doom for science, including efforts to determine whether we're alone in the universe?  Joining us this week on The Micah Hanks Program is Avi Loeb, the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, where since 2007 he has been Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Center for Astrophysics. He is founder of The Galileo Project, and author of books that include Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth and Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars. Avi joins us to discuss his latest work, the search for ET, scientific dogma, and much more.  Have you had a UFO/UAP sighting? Please consider reporting your sighting to the UAP Sightings Reporting System, a public resource for information about sightings of aerial phenomena. The story doesn't end here... become an X Subscriber and get access to even more weekly content and monthly specials. Want to advertise/sponsor The Micah Hanks Program? We have partnered with the AdvertiseCast to handle our advertising/sponsorship requests. If you would like to advertise with The Micah Hanks Program, all you have to do is click the link below to get started: AdvertiseCast: Advertise with The Micah Hanks Program Show Notes Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode: NEWS: Introducing the 'Woolly Mouse': Colossal Unveils Latest Breakthrough in De-Extinction Technology   Rodent for dinner? US residents encouraged to eat invasive nutria STAND UP FOR SCIENCE: Official Website for “Stand Up for Science”  SCU CONFERENCE: 2025 SCU Conference  AVI LOEB: Avi Loeb | Department of Astronomy  DARK AGES: The Dark Age of Science. Names do not constitute knowledge COMMENTARIES: Avi Loeb's Essays on Medium  BOOKS: Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars TEXTS: How Did the First Stars and Galaxies Form? The First Galaxies in the Universe Life In The Cosmos: From Biosignatures To Technosignatures BECOME AN X SUBSCRIBER AND GET EVEN MORE GREAT PODCASTS AND MONTHLY SPECIALS FROM MICAH HANKS. Sign up today and get access to the entire back catalog of The Micah Hanks Program, as well as “classic” episodes, weekly “additional editions” of the subscriber-only X Podcast, the monthly Enigmas specials, and much more. Like us on Facebook Follow @MicahHanks on X. Keep up with Micah and his work at micahhanks.com.

We take you deep inside the hidden core of the new bubble: data centers. After 10 years exploring data farms in America, Singapore and beyond, Anthropologist Steven Gonzalez Monserrate published his paper “The Cloud Is Material: On the Environmental Impacts of Computation and  …

Welcome back, loyal readers. First off, we had another strong week, with 18 new subscribers joining, thanks to Sunday, Sarah, Gotelé, Loque, Coree, Claire, Elizabeth, Lauren, Marina, Imma, Patricia, Beth, Mahesh, Olga, Heriberto, Leer, and Melissa. Thank you for trying Article Club, and I hope you like it here.This week's issue is dedicated to our article of the month. For all of you who are interested, we'll be reading, annotating, and discussing “Radicalized,” by Cory Doctorow. You'll learn more about the piece below, but here are a few tidbits:* It's a fictional novella written in 2019 about a man who becomes radicalized after his health insurance denies his claim. Sound familiar?* I read this piece in December, the week after all-things-Luigi Mangione* Mr. Doctorow‘s writing is fast-paced and his details eerily prescientSound compelling? If so, you're invited to join our deep dive on the article. We're meeting up to discuss the piece on Sunday, March 23, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. All you need to do is click the button below to sign up.

An ecosystem can be described as all the interactions that occur between organisms and their physical environment. The processes acting within an ecosystem operate on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales and include both biotic and abiotic factors. Ecosystem engineers are those species that have a significant impact on the availability of resources to other species and can be responsible for the creation, maintenance, modification or destruction of an ecosystem. The introduction, or even removal, of such a species can have profound effects on both physical and biological elements of an ecosystem. Whilst we can recognise the impact of ecosystem engineers in modern systems (e.g. the introduction of an invasive species), we don't fully understand what happens when an entirely new ecosystem engineering behaviour evolves. This has undoubtedly happened numerous times throughout geological time with the Great Oxygenation Event and the Cambrian Substrate Revolution being notable examples. Joining us for this episode is Dr Tom Smith, University of Oxford, who has been using a computational approach to try to model what happens when an ecosystem engineer is introduced into an environment. The open access study is available to read here.

There are a lot of similarities between the 2016 and 2024 elections, but the media ecosystem we have today is fundamentally different from the ecosystem we had in 2015-2016, during the first stage of Donald Trump's political rise and the MAGA-morphosis of the Republican party. The Twitter and Facebook of that time are long gone, as are many of the methods of digital resistance that people employed on those platforms during the first Trump administration. The power and visibility dynamics on multiplying digital platforms, from TikTok to Truth Social, have rearranged dramatically since then, the “public sphere” is way more splintered, and our shared digital (and physical) spaces are decreasing. Moreover, the Big Tech oligarchs and private tech companies that profit from surveilling us and siloing us in algorithmically curated echo chambers have thrown their full weight behind Trump, and they will have even more power in a second Trump administration to shape our digital present and future.How are corporate, independent, and social media changing the terrain of politics today? What does digital activism look like in 2024, and can it be an effective means of resistance during a second Trump administration? TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez digs into these questions with world-renowned science fiction author, activist, and journalist Cory Doctorow.Cory Doctorow is the author of many books, including recent non-fiction titles like Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back, which he coauthored with Rebecca Giblin, and The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation. His latest work of fiction, The Bezzle, was published earlier this year by Tor Books. In 2020, Doctorow was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.Studio Production: David Hebden, Cameron GranadinoPost-Production: Cameron GranadinoHelp us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Sign up for our newsletterLike us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterDonate to support this podcast

Understanding how life began on Earth involves questions of chemistry, geology, planetary science, physics, and more. But the question of how random processes lead to organized, self-replicating, information-bearing systems is a more general one. That question can be addressed in an idealized world of computer code, initialized with random sequences and left to run. Starting with many such random systems, and allowing them to mutate and interact, will we end up with "lifelike," self-replicating programs? A new paper by Blaise Agüera y Arcas and collaborators suggests that the answer is yes. This raises interesting questions about whether computation is an attractor in the space of relevant dynamical processes, with implications for the origin and ubiquity of life.Support Mindscape on Patreon.Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/08/19/286-blaise-aguera-y-arcas-on-the-emergence-of-replication-and-computation/Blaise Agüera y Arcas received a B.A. in physics from Princeton University. He is currently a vice-president of engineering at Google, leader of the Cerebra team, and a member of the Paradigms of Intelligence team. He is the author of the books Ubi Sunt and Who Are We Now?, and the upcoming What Is Intelligence?WebsiteGoogle web pageGoogle Scholar publicationsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Would you want to live forever? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and author, inventor, and futurist Ray Kurzweil discuss immortality, longevity escape velocity, the singularity, and the future of technology. What will life be like in 10 years? NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://startalkmedia.com/show/could-we-someday-live-forever-with-ray-kurzweil/Thanks to our Patrons Johan Svensson, Galen J., Kellen Bolander, Sunshine, and Brian White for supporting us this week.(Originally Aired Tuesday, November 29 2022)