Episode 30: The Politics of Genetics, Virtual Reality, and a Sound Castle in New Jersey

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2016

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As scientists learn more about how genes affect everything from hair color to sexual orientation and mental health, we’re faced with moral and political questions about how we allow science to intervene in the genetic code. In this episode, Siddhartha Mukherjee, the author of the new book “The Gene: An Intimate History,” talks with David Remnick about the intimate and global implications of modern genetic science, and speaks frankly about his own family history of mental illness. Plus, we visit the studio of a leading sound-effects artist, and a virtual-reality team struggles to make a V.R. experience that lives up to the hype.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Virtual reality seeks to allow us to interact with the computational world as a seamless thought sphere. Hi, my name is Reggie Watts, and you are listening to The New Yorker Radio Hour.
0:23.0	And I'm here to talk to you about... Hi, my name is Reggie Watts, and you are listening to The New Yorker Radio Hour.
0:23.0	And I'm here to talk to you about virtual reality.
0:26.7	Virtual reality should be a lot of fun.
0:29.5	Virtual reality should be weird and colorful, emotional, demoralizing, not distracting. every single human being that has ever been born and has died.
0:41.7	Something really strong and sincere candy bar that really satisfies, yet feels as though I'm being healthfully rejuvenated.
0:51.6	Well, a thought sphere is human consciousness, whether it's synthetic or
0:59.0	organic. Collective consciousness continues to evolve collectively agreed upon as functioning
1:05.5	in a certain way. Virtual reality should never, ever be not in existence.
1:12.8	Virtual reality should never at all costs, nor ever, or ever try to never, in avoidance
1:18.8	of trying to, become stronger than what it is.
1:23.2	Never, ever should it, never would it, it's already strong enough.
1:26.8	Never ever would be.
1:28.2	Should virtual reality be about subject matter like fruit, small people, or rock formations?
1:36.7	To me, that's kind of the point.
1:51.8	Whoa, the endlessly four-dimensional Reggie Watts, comedian, musician, and virtual reality connoisseur.
1:54.9	I'm David Remnick on this New Yorker radio hour.
1:59.0	We're going to get a couple of different opinions on virtual reality today.
2:02.6	If you follow technology at all, you've probably heard virtual reality hyped to death. And when it finally does arrive, will it be anywhere near as
2:09.7	big as anyone says? I don't know, but we're going to look into it.
2:25.0	Now, I don't think you can possibly overhype the work of Siddhartha Mukherjee.
2:34.8	His book about cancer, the emperor of all maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize, and for really good reason, it's a huge sweeping book that it's as, well, it's as good as science book as I've ever read. It really is. And his new book out just this week is called The Gene,
	...

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