Changesurfer Radio

Is the technology of the future more radical than the technology of the past? Alison Gopnik provides some historical perspective.

Dr. J. talks to Richard Samson, a futurist, author of a number of books on human potential and director of the EraNova Institute. In Mind over Technology, Mr. Samson argues that, as machines automate routine physical and intellectual labor, human beings will be able to enhance their unique human capacities to find new niches in the economy. (First broadcast March 20, 2004)

Dr. J. chats with Erik Helzer (Dept of Psychology, Cornell University) co-author of the paper “Dirty Liberals!: Reminders of physical cleanliness influence moral and political attitudes” in Psychological Science. They discuss the growing literature on the ways that political attitudes are driven by disgust sensitivity, and by disgust priming such as bad smells and sticky hands. Listen also to the 2004 Changesurfer interview with Martha Nussbaum about her book Hiding from Humanity: Disgust,...

James Hughes, IEET Executive Director, speaking at the August 5, 2004 Faith, Transhumanism and Hope Symposium, Trinity College, University of Toronto. (and yes, seven years later I’m still working on that book…)