Monday, April 09, 2012

Sentient Developments Episode 2012.04.09

Sentient Developments Podcast for the week of April 9, 2012. Topics discussed in this week's episode:
  • My recap of the Moral Brain conference
  • A review of the attention my Dyson Sphere article is getting
  • A summary of my recent appearance on the al-Jazeera show, The Stream
Tracks used in this episode:
  • Orbital: "Straight Sun"
  • Bear in Heaven: "The Reflection of You"
  • Modeselektor: "Berlin"
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Monday, April 02, 2012

Sentient Developments Episode 2012.04.02

Sentient Developments Podcast for the week of April 2, 2012.
Topics for this week's episode: J. Hughes on democratic transhumanism, personhood theory, and AI; making brains: reverse engineering the human brain to achieve AI; Ben Goertzel and Eliezer Yudkowsky on the Singularity and timelines for AI; could a computer virus merge with a human virus?; and transhumanism meets the 'intelligence principle.'

Tracks used in this episode:
  • Meshuggah: "Behind the Sun"
  • Modeselektor: "Green Light Go"
  • Boards of Canada: "Aquarius"
  • Grimes: "Eight"
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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Sentient Developments Episode 2012.03.26

Sentient Developments Podcast for the week of March 26, 2012.
Topics for this week's episode: How to build a Dyson sphere in five (relatively) easy steps, how to take over the Galaxy with self-replicating probes, the Fermi Paradox, and the Simulation Argument.


Tracks used in this episode:
  • Beach House: "Myth"
  • Keep Shelly in Athens: "Our Own Dream"
  • Rose Cousins: "One Way"
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Monday, March 19, 2012

Sentient Developments Episode 2012.03.19

Sentient Developments Podcast for the week of March 19, 2012.
Topics for this week's episode: Raising IQ with creatine and Double N-Back Training, the red meat scare, destroying asteroids with nukes, re-engineering humans to deal with climate change, the Fermi Paradox, and the ongoing perils to democracy.

Tracks used in this episode:
  • Soft Metals: "The Cold World Waits"
  • The Knife: "Marble House"
  • Zed's Dead: "Pyramid Song" (remix)
  • Evy Jane: "Sayso"
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Monday, March 12, 2012

Sentient Developments Episode 2012.03.12

Sentient Developments Podcast for the week of March 12, 2012.
Topics for this week's episode include the perils of Active SETI, the possibility of downloading something nasty from ET, why virtually everyone is wrong about alien threats, Nick Bostrom's claim that we are underestimating existential risks, and the 'create the future' myth.

Tracks used in this episode:
  • School of Seven Bells: "Lafaye"
  • Long Distance Calling: "Into the Black Wide Open"
  • Ulrich Schnauss: "Made of Sky"
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Monday, March 05, 2012

Sentient Developments Episode 2012.03.05

Sentient Developments Podcast for the week of March 5, 2012.
Topics for this week's episode include the Turing Test, artificial consciousness, and machine ethics; Avi Rubin's recent TED Talk on our increasingly hackable world; nootropics, cognitive liberty and limits to the biolibertarian impulse.


Tracks used in this episode:
  • Frankie Rose: "Interstellar"
  • Pallbearer: "Foreigner"
  • Teengirl Fantasy: "Cheaters"
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Monday, February 27, 2012

Sentient Developments Episode 2012.02.27

Sentient Developments Podcast for the week of February 27, 2012.
Topics discussed in this week's episode: PETA's lost case against SeaWorld and their next steps, addressing the potential perils of radical memory enhancement, the increasing role of AI in healthcare and medicine, and rethinking cosmetic enhancements.

Tracks used in this episode:
  • Cloud Nothings: "Separation"
  • Ulrich Schnauss & Mark Peters: "Long Distance Call"
  • Burial: "Loner"
  • Porcelain Raft: "Drifting in and Out"
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Monday, February 20, 2012

Sentient Developments Episode 2012.02.20

Sentient Developments Podcast for the week of February 20, 2012.
Topics discussed in this week's episode: Moral enhancement and cognitive enhancement (featuring insights from Peter Singer and Allen Buchanen), progressivism and the potential for transhumanism (featuring clips from James Hughes and Robert Sawyer), and an update on PETA's case against SeaWorld.

Tracks used in this episode:
  • Air: "Sonic Armada"
  • Zammuto: "F U C-3PO"
  • Shinsuke Matsumoto: "Kou"
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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Sentient Developments Episode 2012.01.30

Sentient Developments Podcast for the week of January 30, 2012.
This week's episode is devoted entirely to my paper (co-authored with Robert Bradbury and Milan Cirkovic) that was recently published in JBIS, "Dysonian Approach to SETI: A Fruitful Middle Ground?"

Tracks used in this episode:
  • "Oxygene II": Jean Michel Jarre
  • "Main Titles: Theme to the Bounty": Vangelis
  • "B. Aldrian": Harald Grosskopf
  • "Wheel of the Year": Advisory Circle
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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Sentient Developments Episode 2012.01.23

Sentient Developments Podcast for the week of January 23, 2012.

In this week's episode I talk about the new mathematical study which reveals that our Galaxy should have been colonized by now, why Canadians are considering a ban on prenatal gender information, the growing gender imbalance, the latest on the lab-mutated avian flu, why whales are people, health tips to avoid cognitive decline, and why the sex-chip may not be such a good idea.

Tracks used in this episode:
  • Alcest: "Autre Temps"
  • SBTRKT: "Pharoahs"
  • Lower Dens: "Nootropics"
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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Sentient Developments Episode 2012.01.16

Sentient Developments Podcast for the week of January 16, 2012.

In this week's episode I talk about the assassination of an Iranian nuclear physicist and how scientists are increasingly coming to be seen as military targets. In addition, I discuss the Stuxnet worm, the devastating potential for solar storms, EMP, and botulinum attacks.

Tracks used in this episode:
  • Sepalcure: "Pencil Pimp"
  • Todd Terje: "Snnoze 4 Love"
  • Harald Grosskopf: "Synthesist" (Blondes remix)
  • The Reflecting Skin: "Traffikers"
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Sunday, January 08, 2012

Sentient Developments Episode 2012.01.09

Sentient Developments Podcast for the week of January 9, 2012.

In this week's episode I talk about my renewed focus on diet and exercise now that the Christmas season is now over. In addition, I rank the most powerful forces in the universe, I discuss the recent work done by a Dutch lab to modify the bird flu, and I offer an alternative perspective on the potential for complete nuclear disarmament.

Tracks used in this episode:
  • Phantogram: "Don't Move"
  • Thee Oh Sees: "The Dream"
  • Soft Metals: "Psychic Driving"
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Sunday, January 01, 2012

Sentient Developments Episode 2012.01.02

Sentient Developments Podcast for the week of January 2, 2012.
This week's episode is themed around animal enhancement. Topics discussed include the recent film Rise of the Planet of the Apes, human-and-animal video game interaction, the ethics of animal uplift, and the recent report in the U.S. declaring chimps largely unessential as research subjects.

Tracks used in this episode:
  • Panda Bear: "Scheherazade"
  • Antlers: "Rolled Together"
  • Snowman: "Snakes and Ladders"
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