“We’ve arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.”–Carl Sagan
Here Be Dragons, Science Technology and The Future of Humanity
by Olle Häggström
Technology. We certainly do depend on it. It does great things for us, but it also can annoy us and, indeed, has the potential to do us outright harm. In this episode of Seeking Delphi, I talk to author Olle Häggström about some of the existential risks that technology may pose to humanity. His book, Here Be Dragons, is a thorough examination of a wide ranging inventory of potential dangers, from the ones we currently know and worry about (climate change, nuclear war), to the ones that yet might be (bio terrorism, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence) ,and the ones Hollywood fantasizes about (alien invasion). Olle is a professor of mathematics at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden. I called him there to conduct the interview for this episode.
Links to relevant stories appear after the audio file and embedded YouTube video below. A reminder that Seeking Delphi is available on iTunes, and has a channel on YouTube. You can also follow us on Facebook.
Episode #6, Technology: The Good, The Bad, and The Existential 25:41
(YouTube slideshow)
Bigelow Aerospace plans to orbit lunar space station by 2020.
Blue Origin planning a lunar delivery service, a la Amazon.
Lawrence Berkeley lab doubles the number of materials potentially useful for solar fuels
Volkswagon unveils Sedric, its entry into the self-driving vehicle market. (It looks like a breadbox on wheels.)
Subscribe to Seeking Delphi on iTunes
Subscribe on YouTube
Follow Seeking Delphi on Facebook @SeekingDelphi
Follow me on twitter @MarkSackler
My apologies to all you educators out there. I just had to get that Woody Allen line in. It makes sense, though, that teaching something as fluid, changing and uncertain as the future requires creative tools to involve the student and develop the appropriate mindset. In episode #5 I talk with two individuals who are taking different approaches to the task.
Seeking Delphi™ 