Man vs Machine

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

History, Science, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Society & Culture

4.6 • 44.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2017

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Are new ideas and new inventions inevitable? Are they driven by us or by a larger force of nature? In this episode, we look at the things we make—from spoons to microwaves to computers—as an extension of the same evolutionary processes that made us. And we may need to adapt to the idea that our technology could someday truly have a mind of its own.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Wait, you're listening.
0:03.1	Okay.
0:04.4	All right.
0:05.6	Okay.
0:07.0	All right.
0:08.5	You're listening to Radio Lab.
0:11.4	Radio Lab.
0:11.9	From W. N. Y.
0:13.9	C.
0:14.8	See?
0:14.9	Yeah.
0:18.8	Hey, I'm Chad Abumrad.
0:20.4	I'm Robert Krollwitch.
0:21.6	This is Radio Lab, and today...
0:22.8	It's man versus machine.
0:24.8	It's a smackdown between technology.
0:27.3	And humans, of course.
0:29.0	It's machines versus man.
0:30.5	Yes, where, like, the machines maybe have minds and the humans.
0:34.8	Well, maybe mimic machines.
0:36.5	Yeah.
0:36.8	And first up, actually, I want to tell you about a band that I discovered. I didn't just discover them. I discovered them a while ago. But it is still, it remains, actually, one of the coolest things I've heard in years. Actually, you know this band. I mean, maybe you don't know that you know them, but we've used them in a few shows. Remember the piece we did in the Bliss show about the perfect snowflake? Yes. We use them there. Oh. Remember the story about the artist who weaponized his own blood? Yes, Bart and Benish. We used them there too. So in a subtle way, I have already been exposed to them. That's what I'm saying. Although I am quite certain you will hate their music. I could be wrong about that. Well, I will be as generous as I know possibly how to be. The band is called Don of Midi. Dawn of what? Of Midi. M-I-D-I. Do you know what MIDI is? No. It's sort of like a computer language for music. Like in my studio at home, I have a bunch of synthesizers and various things. They all talk to
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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