TechnoSlipstream

Aug 19 2024 35 ep. 21 mins 11
TechnoSlipstream Podcast artwork

Kendall Giles is an electrical and computer engineering professor who writes at the intersection of science, technology, and culture. In this podcast he takes deep dives into research, books, news, and articles with a focus on exploring the complex and powerful technologies being developed and released into the world with sometimes beneficial but often unintended consequences.

  Technology
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AI and Consciousness

Aug 19 2024 34 mins  
In TechnoSlipstream podcast episode 35 we consider whether advanced AI models like LLMs are conscious, what it takes for AI to be conscious, and what it would take for us to know whether or not an AI is conscious.Join to support the show and for exclusive content, including episode notes, scripts, and other writings: patreon.com/kendallgiles.

The Computer Creation Myth

Dec 29 2022 24 mins  
In TechnoSlipstream Podcast episode 34 we examine the creation myth of the digital computer by doing a deep dive into the book Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe by George Dyson.Join to support the show and for exclusive content, including episode notes, scripts, and other writings: patreon.com/kendallgiles

History of Silicon Valley Part 2

Oct 18 2022 18 mins  
How true are the myths and legends of Silicon Valley? To help us answer that question, starting with this episode, in a special two-part podcast series we'll work our way through the book The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America written by Margaret O'Mara.Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/kendallgilesJoin to support the show and for exclusive content, including episode not

History of Silicon Valley Part 1

Sep 21 2022 19 mins  
How true are the myths and legends of Silicon Valley? To help us answer that question, starting with this episode, in a special two-part podcast series we'll work our way through the book The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America written by Margaret O'Mara.Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/kendallgilesJoin to support the show and for exclusive content, including episode not

Public Interest Technologies

Aug 23 2022 27 mins  
"Public interest technology" is a growing field made up of those interested in developing technologies that serve the public good, such as those for the government and non-profits. So in Episode 31 we'll do a deep dive into the book Power to the Public: The Promise of Public Interest Technology by Tara McGuinness and Hana Schank.

The Remarkable History of Risk

Jul 31 2022 18 mins  
Given the temptations around each one of us in the world and the decisions we need to make in our lives about what paths to take regarding future events it might at least be worthwhile to try to get a better understanding of risk, and so in Episode 30 I wanted to do a deep dive on exactly that--the history of and just what do we mean by risk. We'll do this by diving into the book A

Responsible Machine Learning

Jul 11 2022 26 mins  
In Episode 29 we focus on the issues with the software engineering people, practices, and technologies currently used to create flawed machine learning and artificial intelligence systems. We'll do this by doing a deep dive into the book Responsible Machine Learning by Patrick Hall, Navdeep Gill, and Benjamin Cox.Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kendallgilesJoin to support th

Living in the Infosphere

Jun 22 2022 26 mins  
In Episode 28 we'll be looking at what philosopher Luciano Floridi calls the "infosphere". You may have heard of the "biosphere"--all the ecosystems on earth that support biological life. The infosphere then is the environment that supports information, which is another term for reality, if you look at today's reality from an informational perspective. Thus, in The Fourth Revolutio

Towards a Revolutionary Mathematics

Jun 05 2022 24 mins  
In Episode 27 we will try to better understand the importance of the metaphysics for the statistics we use to power our machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms by doing a deep dive on the book Revolutionary Mathematics: Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, and the Logic of Capitalism by Justin Joque.Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kendallgilesJoin to support

Why Virtues are Important in a Technological World

May 18 2022 26 mins  
In Episode 26 we will do a deep dive into Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting by Shannon Vallor. This book is an expansion on the ideas she developed in her article "Moral Deskilling and Upskilling in a New Machine Age: Reflections on the Ambiguous Future of Character" that we explored back in Episode 7. This book argues the importance of vir