Future Tense Fiction: Could a Robot Be Your Dog’s Best Friend?

Slate Daily Feed

Slate

News, Society & Culture, Business

3.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2023

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this month’s episode of Future Tense Fiction, host Maddie Stone talks to Andrew Silverman about his short story “Furgen.” Tucker, the story’s canine protagonist, is the center of his owner Caro’s world. When Caro buys an A.I.-enabled dog trainer that promises to help both her and Tucker live their best lives, everything starts to fall into place—the A.I. takes care of Tucker when he’s sick, trains him to walk without a leash, and even helps Caro get a girlfriend. But as Tucker’s bond with the A.I. deepens, optimizing for their best lives starts to mean something much different than what Caro originally had in mind. After the story, Maddie asks Andrew about how his own experiences as a dog owner—and a pediatric neurologist—influenced the story. Plus, Maddie talks with canine behavioral scientist Clive Wynne, who wrote a response essay to Andrew’s story, about whether a dog could really fall in love with a robot. Guests: Andrew Silverman is a pediatric neurologist and the author of “Furgen.” Clive Wynne is a professor of psychology and director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University. He is also the author of Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You. Story read by Peggy O’Neal Podcast production by Tiara Darnell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is Future 10s Fiction, a podcast featuring stories about how technology could change tomorrow.
0:07.4	I'm Maddie Stone.
0:10.2	Andrew Silverman did what many people did at the beginning of the pandemic.
0:14.1	He adopted a dog, but the electronic device he bought to keep tabs on his puppy left
0:19.1	him wondering, in a world of increasingly sophisticated pet care technology, do our
0:24.3	furry companions actually need us to be happy?
0:27.5	At the end of the day, we still say we quote-unquote own dogs.
0:30.4	We can find them to crates, to train them.
0:33.8	We walk them around on leashes, so depending on your perspective, I think dogs are totally
0:38.4	entitled to higher levels of freedom, to higher levels of happiness.
0:42.2	On today's episode, we're bringing you a reading of Andrew Silverman's version.
0:46.6	Then, Andrew and Canine Behavioral Scientists Clive Win joined us to talk about how tech
0:51.7	is changing our relationships with our pets, and maybe even making us obsolete.
0:57.4	All coming up on Future 10s Fiction, stay with us.
1:28.1	This is Future 10s Fiction, I'm Maddie Stone, I'm a freelance journalist and the editor
1:44.3	of The Science of Fiction, a newsletter about how science and pop culture intersect.
1:50.1	Every month, Slate's Future 10s partnership with New America, an Arizona State University's
1:54.8	Center for Science and the Imagination, publishes a short story that explores how science
1:59.8	and technology will shape our future.
2:02.5	Now, we're bringing some of those stories to you in a podcast that includes a conversation
2:07.5	with the author or an expert in a related field.
2:10.8	Today's story is Virgin by Andrew Silverman.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.