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Future Perfect explores provocative ideas with the potential to radically improve the world. We tackle big questions about the most effective ways to save lives, control new and potentially dangerous technology, and address world poverty to create a more perfect future. Good Robot is a new series about AI from Unexplainable and Future Perfect.
Produced by Vox and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Future Perfect

A new series about AI from Unexplainable and Future Perfect
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Introducing: Good Robot

Before AI became a mainstream obsession, one thinker sounded the alarm about its catastrophic potential. So why are so many billionaires and tech leaders worried about… paper clips?

Good Robot was made in partnership with Vox’s Unexplainable team. Episodes will be released on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

For more, go to vox.com/goodrobot

Support Future Perfect by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
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Good Robot #1: The Magic Intelligence in the Sky

When a robot does bad things, who is responsible? A group of technologists sounds the alarm about the ways AI is already harming us today. Are their concerns being taken seriously?
This is the second episode of our new four-part series about the stories shaping the future of AI.

Good Robot was made in partnership with Vox’s Unexplainable team. Episodes will be released on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
For more, go to vox.com/goodrobot
Support Future Perfect by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good Robot #2: Everything is not awesome

A simple parable about a drowning child sparks a moral revolution. Can AI help us do the most good in the world?

Good Robot was made in partnership with Vox’s Unexplainable team. Episodes will be released on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
For more, go to vox.com/goodrobot
Support Future Perfect by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good Robot #3: Let's fix everything

What can we actually do as our world gets populated with more and more robots? How can we take control? Can we take control?

This is the final episode of our four-part series, Good Robot.
Good Robot was made in partnership with Vox’s Unexplainable team. 
For more, go to vox.com/goodrobot
Support Future Perfect by becoming a Vox Member today: vox.com/members
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good Robot #4: Who, me?

Explore provocative ideas with the potential to radically improve the world. Vox’s Dylan Matthews tackles big questions about the most effective ways to save lives, fight global warming, and end world poverty. Dylan looks at ways that bills in Congress, actions in your everyday life, and everything in between can help bring about a more perfect future. 
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Introducing Future Perfect

In 2016, Dylan Matthews donated his kidney to a complete stranger. He didn’t think he was doing anything really extreme or remarkable. He was just trying to do the most good he could. Dylan was taking part in a movement called effective altruism, a community that tries to maximize the good you do. In our first episode, we’ll explore the idea of effective altruism, why making our charities more effective matters, and what giving a bodily organ looks like in practice. ––– Further reading: More on Dylan’s kidney donation Peter Singer’s case against the Make a Wish Foundation More of Vox’s effective altruism coverage ––– Discover more podcasts from Vox here. 
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How to save a stranger's life

Karianne Jackson was working for the North Dakota prison system in 2015 when a trip to Norway changed her life. There, she saw a prison with no bars and no uniformed guards. Instead, prisoners lived in small cottages with common areas, private bedrooms, even kitchens with real cups, real dishes, and real knives. And she started thinking: What if I could make the US prison system a bit more like that? ––– Further reading: Jessica Benko in the New York Times on the "radical humaneness" of Norway's Halden Prison Dashka Slater in Mother Jones on Karianne Jackson's "Norway experiment" in North Dakota Vox’s German Lopez explains mass incarceration in the United States More of Vox’s effective altruism coverage ––– Discover more podcasts from Vox here. 
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How to make prisons more humane

Lithium is a potent drug used to treat bipolar disorder, but it’s also the third element in the periodic table, and you can find tiny amounts in most drinking water. Scientists have discovered something remarkable: In areas where the tap water has more lithium, fewer people seem to die by suicide. That raises a big question: Should we put small amounts of lithium in the drinking water? Can we afford not to? ––– Further reading: Anna Fels’s op-ed “Should We All Take a Bit of Lithium?” in the New York Times Nassir Ghaemi and colleagues review the evidence on trace lithium and suicide, homicide, crime, and dementia A recent study casting doubt on the trace lithium/suicide prevention link Jesse Hicks explains the fluoride controversy for the Science History Institute Jesse Hicks explains trace lithium, for Vice More of Vox’s effective altruism coverage ––– Discover more podcasts from Vox here. 
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How our drinking water could help prevent suicide

When volcanoes erupt, they spray particles into the atmosphere that cool the planet for a bit. As we get closer and closer to truly catastrophic global warming, more and more scientists are wondering whether a similar approach, called solar geoengineering, could be necessary. If it works, solar geoengineering could buy us some time to cut emissions and get our act together. If it doesn’t, the climate could be irreparably disrupted. No pressure. ––– Further reading: Brad Plumer explains the basics of geoengineering at Vox Umair Irfan walks through a new study on the limits of geoengineering The Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment, led by Harvard professor Frank Keutsch, seeks to learn more about the likely effects of solar geoengineering without actually doing it Gernot Wagner and his colleague David Keith make the cautious case for taking solar geoengineering seriously in the Wall Street Journal More of Vox’s effective altruism coverage ––– Discover more podcasts from Vox here. 
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Good Robot #4: Who, me?

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