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A critical look at new technologies, new approaches and new ways of thinking, from politics to media to environmental sustainability.

Future Tense

Sometimes, despite the hype, despite extensive funding, and despite clever and ingenious thinking, good ideas fail. Or at least don’t live up to their initial promise. There are lessons to be learnt and interesting anecdotes to be told. In this episode we look at four future-focused projects that have never really taken off: Google Glass, solar roads, space tourism and hyperloop technology. 

Original broadcast on November 24, 2024.

Guests

Dr Paul Sutter – Astrophysicist, SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, New York 

Sarah Marquart – freelance journalist, editor of From Quarks to Quasars

Andrew Hawkins – Transportation editor, The Verge 

Quinn Myers – Chicago-based journalist and author 'Google Glass'

Whatever happened to...?

This is the program’s final episode and, as such, we look back over the past 17 years. What did the future look like back in 2009 when the show first aired? What have been the major trends during that time? Which predictions came to fruition and which didn’t? And what cautions do our guests have as we look ahead? 

Guests

Mica Sifry – US-based writer and editor 

Neema Singh Guliani – lawyer and policy expert 

Cory Doctorow – Canadian-British blogger, journalist and sci-fi author 

Professor Michael Mann – climatologist and geophysicist 

Associate Professor James Dyke - Earth Systems Science, University of Exeter 

Assistant Professor Sven Brodmerkel – Faculty of Society and Design, Bond University 

Professor Quassim Cassam – Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick 

Associate Professor Laura D’Olimpio – School of Education, University of Birmingham 

Effy – chatbot user 

Professor Frank Pasquale – Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School

A Future Tense retrospective

How many of the articles you see on the internet are actually written by AI, not by humans? We'll give you a figure based on the latest research. Also, why is Google moving away from its well-established search-engine algorithm in favour of AI-generated summaries; The importance of remembering that urban planning isn't just about buildings, it's about people and spaces; And how digital technology is opening up a new relationship between humans and animals.

Guests

Megan Morrone – Tech editor, Axios 

Dr Collin Jennings – academic and author 

David George Holm – architect and author 

Dr David Roberts - Associate Professor of Computer Science, North Carolina State University 

Sari – the most adorable, black cat

Is AI really taking over the internet?

Designing a futuristic city is a fraught task — a mixture of ambition, state of the art technology, inevitable budget blowouts and the need to not just inspire, but awe. We get an update on the progress of two mega metropolises — Xiongan in China and Neom in Saudi Arabia. Also, how a better understanding of the brain can help deter future conflicts.

Guests

Dr Andrew Stokols — Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, Singapore Management University

Eliot Brown — London-based reporter, Wall Street Journal

Dr Nicholas Wright — Neuroscientist, University College London and Georgetown University

A tale of two futuristic cities

The global Covid 19 lockdown may seem like an eternity ago, but the threat of another full-scale pandemic has never resided. Scientists warn that as the Arctic permafrost continues to melt ancient viruses and bacteria are gradually being freed from the ice. The risks are significant, but researchers are working to identify potential threats and better prepare the world for future pandemics. Uppermost in many minds is the need to ensure future global cooperation in the event of another zoonotic outbreak. 

Original broadcast on March 26, 2023.

Guests

Dr Christine Prat – Director of Operations, European Virus Archive 

Dr Jean-Michel Claverie – Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Aix-Marseille University 

Dr Aaron Bernstein – Director, The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Ancient viruses, new threats

Negotiations over a global treaty on microplastics have broken down. So, where to from here for one of the world's biggest environmental threats? We also get an update on new efforts to clean-up the cement production industry; and we look at AI chatbots and the increasing role they're playing as sources of advice and emotional support.

Guests

Dr Pratik Sachdeva — Senior Data Scientist, D-Lab, University of California, Berkeley

Dr Shababa Selim — Senior Technology Analyst, IDTechEX

Professor Paul Fennell — Professor of Clean Energy, Imperial College London

Professor Jill Newby — Clinical psychologist, The Black Dog Institute, University of New South Wales

Microplastic removal and decarbonising cement

It's exactly three years since ChatGPT burst onto the scene. In that short period of time the process of academic assessment has been in upheaval. Across the world educators are trying to address how students should be assessed and whether AI can be used for more than just helping a student to cheat. But a growing number of education researchers say the real emphasis should be on promoting critical thinking and ensuring future students learn how to learn.

Guests

Professor Dragan Gasevic — Head of the Centre for Learning Analytics, Monash University

Professor Neil Selwyn — School of Education, Culture and Society, Monash University

Professor Rupert Wegerif — Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

Professor Phillip Dawson — Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University

Learning how to learn in the age of generative AI

In this programme we hear three thoughtful perspectives on the threat digital technologies pose for democracy. Henry Farrell from Johns Hopkins University argues disinformation must be tackled at a group level, not an individual one. Philosopher, John Tasioulas, says modern representative democracy is too easily corrupted by big tech. And AI specialist, Marcus Beard, introduces us to the phenomenon he calls "slopaganda".

Guests

Professor John Tasioulas — ethicist and immediate former Director of the Institute for Ethics and AI, University of Oxford

Professor Henry Farrell — Political Scientist, Johns Hopkins University

Marcus Beard — Digital, disinformation and AI specialist, Fenimore Harper Communications

Further information

Henry Farrell - We're getting the social media crisis wrong

John Tasioulas - The classical key to the AI revolution

Disinformation, digital tech and democracy

Long before AI dominated the media hype-cycle, self-driving cars surfed the hyperbolic wave. But fully automated vehicles have now been a long time in development, long enough that we've decided it's time for an update. So, how advanced is the technology and where is the demand? We also find out about consumer attitudes toward the "driver-assist" technologies that are now routinely fitted into modern cars. Surprise, surprise, it seems not everyone wants to be told how to drive.

Guests

Associate Professor Abdesalam Soudi — Sociolinguist, Department of Linguistics, University of Pittsburgh

Professor Michael Milford — Director of the Centre for Robotics, Queensland University of Technology

Associate Professor Milad Haghani — Principal Fellow in Urban Resilience & Mobility, University of Melbourne

Sönke Iwersen — Co-author of "The Tesla Files". Journalist for German business newspaper Handelsblatt

Getting up to speed with autonomous vehicles

While technology platforms increasingly dictate the way we write and converse, language is being modified to fight back, to subvert the platforms. In this show we examine the growth of "algospeak". And if you want to know how we'll all be communicating in the future, just listen to the way teenage girls speak, because young women lead the ongoing development of language.

Original broadcast on July 7, 2024

Guests

Dr James Cohen – Assistant Professor, Media Studies, Queens College, City University of New York

Dr Sali Tagliamonte – Professor of linguistics and Chair of the Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto

Philip Seargeant – Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, Open University UK

Further information

Philip Seargeant's book "The Future Of Language"

Technology and language — a dynamic relationship

Clive Thompson has invented a new search tool called the Weird Old Book Finder. It's about… finding weird old books, what else? It's also about embracing serendipity and breaking free of algorithmic shackles. Also, why the development of Google Glass was both a cautionary tale and a punchline; and the vulnerabilities of super fast finance.

Embracing serendipity and breaking free of algorithmic shackles

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