Robotic Future – David Ewing Duncan
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 October 2019
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
David Ewing Duncan, journalist, researcher, and author of many books, including the celebrated, Talking to Robots: Tales from Our Human-Robot Futures, provides an interesting overview of his work and life.
Duncan's written work is focused on new discoveries and their many important implications in the life sciences. He has a particular interest in artificial intelligence and robotics. Duncan has authored ten books, and they have been published in 21 languages to date.
Duncan talks about his background in writing and media in general. He gives an overview of his book, Talking to Robots: Tales from Our Human-Robot Futures. He provides details on the topics his book covers, including how robot and AI systems are built, what they say about us as a society and as creators, and what we might expect in the bold new future that is coming. As an author he takes a visionary look into possible futures—24 possible visions of human-robot futures to be exact. Duncan contemplates a future, with highly-detailed, incredible scenarios, considering the concept of Politician Bots, Teddy Bots, Warrior Bots, and even Sex Bots—all based in technology and in respect to how the future will adapt to our creations.
Duncan talks about smart technology, discussing where we are now in society in terms of utilizing technology such as Uber and others. He explains the ways that we interact with robots, and the importance of bringing ethics and morality into the development. Duncan expounds upon his view of where we are heading in terms of programming of systems, government regulation, etc. He provides his thoughts on the various kinds of bots that could exist in the near future. Duncan provides information about the subtle issues that relate to robotics, such as companionship. As he explains, many people like to connect with technology as a means of communicating or connecting, but the irony is we often connect with our technology more intimately than we do with real humans.
Duncan is a renowned science journalist for print, television, and radio and a regular contributor to Vanity Fair, Wired, The New York Times, Atlantic, and many others. In addition, he has been published in Fortune, Discover, National Geographic, Newsweek, and Outside. And Duncan was a special correspondent and producer for ABC's popular show, Nightline, amongst his many other accomplishments.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the Future Tech Podcast with Richard Jacobs. |
| 0:09.0 | Future Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, |
| 0:11.8 | Stem Cells, 3D printing, gene editing, |
| 0:14.6 | Bitcoin, blockchain, the microbiome, quantum computing, virtual reality, and exploring space |
| 0:21.0 | are much closer than you might think. |
| 0:23.0 | In fact, many early versions of these technologies are in play right now, |
| 0:27.0 | and the companies that are using these technologies |
| 0:30.0 | for the focus of this podcast. |
| 0:32.0 | My goal for you, the listener, is to learn from these |
| 0:34.4 | podcasts. You may very well learn something that may change the course of your life |
| 0:38.2 | for the better, steer you towards a new career, or give you insight into |
| 0:42.4 | addressing a thorny medical problem. |
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| 0:58.0 | Thank you. Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Future Tech and Future Neck Health |
| 1:08.5 | podcast. I have David Ewing Duncan. He's a best-selling author of many books and he's got a lot going on. |
| 1:15.9 | So when speaking to him about his bio, I realize if I give the bio I'll probably screw it up. |
| 1:21.2 | The bio is so expansive and covers so many cool things that it's |
| 1:24.7 | better to let him give it. So if you don't mind David, thanks for coming and please give |
| 1:29.1 | listeners the portion of the bio that would be relevant for them today. |
| 1:33.0 | Hey, well, thank you for having me. |
... |
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