Episode 26 - "O Deep Thought"
What with the current global A.I. situation and the open letter calling for a "pause" while we examine this "existential threat to humanity" signed by hundreds of the world's preeminent computer scientists, it's easy to feel like Chicken Little and freak out.
So we did. But we're also shining a light through the darkness this week and finding hope for humanity and the future.
From Descartes to Locke to Kierkegaard, Merleau-Ponty to Heidegger, being a person means different things. But thanks to a little help from Ifeanyi Menkiti, Jonathan Miller and Peter Ustinov, we discover that the key to our future and the cure for the disaffected may be each other.
Featuring the voices of Arthur C. Clarke, Fareed Zakaria, Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, John Rhys-Davies, Dr. Jonathan Miller, Michael Parkinson, and Peter Ustinov.
This episode is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Robert B. Shields.
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Clarke, Arthur C. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Signet, 1968.
Making Of A Myth. d. Paul Joyce (1998). ACF Productions/Lucida Productions.
Descartes, Rene. Meditations On First Philosophy. 1641.
Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Book II). 1690.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. 1945.
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. 1927.
Søren Kierkegaard - Existentialism
Ifeanye Menkiti - Communitarianism in African Thought
Jonathan Miller on the Dick Cavett Show (1980: Night 1)
Peter Ustinov - the Parkinson Interviews compilation
Deodato. "Also Sprach Zarathustra" - Prelude, CTI Records, 1973.