Rationally Speaking #167 - Samuel Arbesman on "Why technology is becoming too complex"

Rationally Speaking Podcast

New York City Skeptics

Society & Culture, Skepticism, Science, Philosophy

4.6 • 787 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2016

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the technology we rely on every day becomes increasingly sophisticated, it's getting to the point where it's too complicated to understand -- not just for individual users, but for any human at all. In this episode, Julia talks with complexity scientist Samuel Arbesman, about his new book Overcomplicated: Technology at the Limits of Comprehension, why these unprecedented levels of complexity might be dangerous, and what we should do about it.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we begin today's episode of Rationally Speaking, I have a short announcement.
0:04.1	If you've been following my former co-host, Professor Massimo Pilucci,
0:07.9	you may have noticed that he's been speaking and writing and thinking a lot about the philosophy of stoicism and how to lead a stoic life.
0:15.6	Well, if that peaks your interest, next month, Massimo is hosting an annual conference of stoicism in New York City. That's on
0:22.2	October 15th, and it's called Stoicon. So if you're interested in acquiring an unconquerable
0:28.4	mind and a will of steel, or at least a little bit of tranquility, I suggest you check it out.
0:33.9	The site is how to be a stoic. wordpress.com slash stoiccon. We'll link to that on the podcast
0:40.3	website. And at that site, you can read the full lineup of the day's events and register.
0:46.5	So that's Stoicon, October a presentation of New York City Skeptics dedicated to promoting critical thinking, skeptical inquiry, and science education. For more
1:11.9	information, please visit us at NYCsceptics.org.
1:23.9	Welcome to Rationally Speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense.
1:29.8	I'm your host, Julia Galeff, and with me is today's guest, Sam Arbisman.
1:34.4	Sam is a complexity scientist and currently the scientist in residence at Lux Capital.
1:41.1	He's also the author of the books The Half Life of Facts, which we discussed on this show a few
1:45.7	years ago. And more recently, the book Overcomplicated, Technology at the Limits of Comprehension.
1:52.0	Sam, welcome back to rationally speaking. Thanks so much. Great to be back on the show.
1:56.3	So a complexity scientist is, what is a complexity scientist?
2:01.7	So complexity science is essentially – it's a scientist who is focused on studying complex
2:07.1	systems. And so complex systems are really – it's any sort of system that has a huge
2:13.0	number of diverse parts that all interact in often complicated ways.
2:19.0	And so that sounds super abstract.
2:22.9	And so really what is it turns out it can be, it can kind of cut across many different domains.
	...

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