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Ep 11: Singularity & Superheroes

Micah Redding, Amy Gaskin

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Posted on 2015-12-14 18:00:00

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Micah and Amy discuss the disruptiveness of the Singularity, the creepiness of robots, the awesomeness of superheroes, and the importance of origin stories.

• Some nerdiness about the [literal mathematical singularities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_(mathematics)) at the center of black holes
• vs the metaphorical singularities we will be talking about the rest of the time
• Moore's Law and the technological singularity
• Cultural change and the cultural singularity
• The Intern and the shifting expectations around job and career in a time of accelerating change
• The images we have in our minds when we talk about the singularity. Mine is a vortex, Amy's is a golden tetrahedron.
• It's a Wonderful Life, and our images of God. A kid who envisioned God as a slice of pizza.
• Isaac Asimov, the 3 Laws of Robotics
• Battlestar Galatica and AI
• Biomimicry & insectoid vs humanoid robots
• Plastic, metal, and why the robots of the future will be more biological
• The transformations of secular transhumanism vs the more extreme transformations of Christianity
• The uncanny valley and why we're creeped out by dolls and clowns
• Ultron and why we envision artificial intelligences as sociopaths
• The assumption that AI can't have compassion
• Why Stephen Hawking should be working harder on his comedy
• The singularity as rapture of the nerds, and Ray Kurzweil's coming paradise
• The creator of Minecraft and living in a world without conflict
• Alexander the Great lamenting that there were no more worlds left to conquer
• Heaven is not the end of the road. It's stepping up to the next challenge.
• Jeanine Thweat-Bates and her talk on cyborgs, superheroes, and the importance of origin stories
• Blast from the Past and the emotional drive behind Science & Technology
• Don Miller's Blue Like Jazz, Micah's appearance as an extra, and how you can be the Pope that the world needs now

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