Humans Need Not Apply

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2012

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You are one-of-a-kind, unique, indispensible… oh, wait, never mind! It seems that computer over there can do what you do … faster and with greater accuracy. Yes, it’s silicon vs. carbon as intelligent, interactive machines out-perform humans in tasks beyond data-crunching. We’re not only building our successors, we’re developing emotional relationships with them. Find out why humans are hard-wired to be attached to androids. Also, the handful of areas where humans still rule… as pilots, doctors and journalists. Scratch that! Journalism is automated too – tune in for a news story written solely by a machine. Guests: Clifford Nass - Social psychologist at Stanford University and Director of the Communication Between Humans and Interactive Media Lab Tom Jones - United States astronaut, space consultant, and veteran of four Space Shuttle flights Chris Ford - Business director at Pixar Animation Studios Eric Van De Graaff -Cardiologist at Alegent Health James Bennighof - Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, and professor of music theory at Baylor University in Texas Kathy Abbott - Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor for Flight Deck Human Factors at the Federal Aviation Administration Kristian Hammond - Co-founder, Narrative Science Descripción en español First aired November 22, 2010. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
0:04.2	I'm Matt Kaplan, the host of Safeguarding Sound Science, Evolution Edition.
0:09.6	Evolution is the unifying principle of biology, yet it still breeds controversy a century
0:15.3	and a half after Charles Darwin.
0:17.7	Join us as we meet the passionate researchers and communicators who are expanding our knowledge
0:23.0	and fighting to keep good science in our schools and politics. Subscribe to Safeguarding Sound
0:29.3	Science on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you like to listen. Anything you can do, I can do better.
1:11.9	I can do anything better than you. Oh, you can. In the musical, Annie Get Your Gun, the duet is between a woman and a man. Two humans. But the updated version might have a silicon twist. Anything you can do, I can do better, I can do anything better than you. No, you can. Yes, I can. Yes, I can. No, you can't. Yes, I can. Anything you can be, I can be. Okay, we know computers can do. Okay, we know computers can calculate and crunch data much faster than we mere mortals. That's not news. But what about they're taking on roles that up to now, we figured absolutely required a human touch, teachers, doctors? And other roles, literally. How long before a digital actor
1:17.3	wins an Oscar? I'm Molly Bentley. I'm Seth Shostak, and its humans need not apply on big
1:22.6	picture science. Pilots, astronauts, drivers, journalists, find out which of these jobs still require metabolizing
1:29.5	protoplasm, and those where human beings might be phased out.
1:38.4	When I met with Clifford Nass, he was talking to his computer.
1:45.0	Which isn't so unusual. a lot of us do that.
1:47.0	But perhaps it's most fitting for a social psychologist
1:50.0	who's written a book called The Man Who Lied to his Laptop.
1:53.0	And there's a lot of information packed just into the title.
1:56.0	The Man Who Lied to his laptop.
1:58.0	Well, it tells us that there's an interaction between the man and his laptop,
2:02.2	but also because the man is lying to it, it's an emotional connection because we only tell lies.
2:07.9	To entities that perceive truth.
2:09.8	Are we ready for perceptive emotional relationships with computers?
2:13.3	Things move faster if you talk to the computer.
	...

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