The Ars Technicast

In the second part of this two-part special edition of the Ars Technicast, we talk to Northrop Grumman's Richard Sullivan about the role of open systems in connecting what’s referred to as the "Joint Force," the combined and coordinated functioning of multiple service branches from the US and its international allies. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Join Ars Technica editors Sean Gallagher and Lee Hutchinson in this special AI-focused edition of the Ars Technicast, produced in cooperation with Darktrace. In this last of three episodes, we talk with ForAllSecure CEO David Brumley (who is also a professor at Carnegie Mellon) about adversarial AI—that is, using AI as both cyber weapon and cyber defense. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Join Ars Technica editors Sean Gallagher and Lee Hutchinson in this special AI-focused edition of the Ars Technicast, produced in cooperation with Darktrace. In this first of three episodes, we talk with NTT's Senior Director of Global Advanced Technology for Sport Tim Wade about how machine learning analytics are changing the nature of competitive sports. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Today we’re presenting the third installment of my conversation with Naval Ravikant about existential risks. In this segment, Naval and I move on from yesterday’s topic of AI risk to the dangers inherent in the rise of synthetic biology, or synbio. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week’s guest is Naval Ravikant. Naval is a renowned angel investor and entrepreneur. But our topic this week is something quite a bit darker than entrepreneurial finance. Specifically, it’s existential risk. This refers to a set of dangers which might, in a worst-case scenario, imperil humanity’s very existence. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Today we’re presenting the second installment of my interview with Sarah Parcak, a prominent founding figuring the emerging field of astroarchaeology. Sarah’s team may just have pinpointed a long-lost (and eagerly-sought) pharaonic capital. Satellite data helped them establish the Nile’s approximate course during the capital’s heyday—as well as the locations of settlement-friendly highlands. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Today we present the third and final installment of my interview with Chris Anderson. Today’s episode starts in the greener pastures that Chris’s startup, 3DR, found after Chinese behemoth DJI annihilated its drone manufacturing business. 3DR is now all about construction. We then explore Chris’s nuanced take on China as a competitive force. He’s extremely fair-minded, and even generous toward the company that all but liquidated his startup. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Our guest is Chris Anderson, who was the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine for twelve years—until he did something quite unusual for an editor and started a high-profile, venture-backed startup, 3D Robotics. Chris doesn’t have the background you might expect. For one thing, he dropped or failed out of multiple schools when he was young. For another, he played bass for R.E.M. (and there’s something of a twist to this fact—but you’ll need to hear to our conversation to find out what it is). Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Today, we start off discussing Sam’s first bestselling book, The End of Faith. It was inspired by September 11th attacks. Having recently spent ten years on his own self-styled spiritual journey, “I immediately recognized the spiritual intensity of that enterprise,” he recalls. Of Osama Bin Laden, Sam says, “He was not faking his belief. He believed what he said he believed, and it was only rational to take his stated beliefs at face value.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week my guest is Sam Harris: a neuroscientist turned bestselling author turned podcasting colossus. Sam has described his job as “thinking in public.” The uniqueness of Sam’s perspective is evidenced by his ability to trigger comparable gusts of outrage from both the left and the right (generally from the extremes of each camp). Also, he made Ben Affleck really angry on Bill Maher's show this one time. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Adam and I open today’s installment discussing techniques that mad scientists like him can use thwack the brain (legally, and safely, of course), so as to increase its neuroplasticity. We then talk about the limits of medical imaging—and the lamentable fact that this technology isn’t rocketing down a Moore’s Law-like curve. In closing, we discuss some of the newer things Adam’s lab is exploring. There’s some intriguing work connected to meditation. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

UC Irvine quantitative psychologist Don Hoffman presents his wildly counterintuitive theory on the nature of reality. We kick off today talking about what’s widely referred to as "the hard problem of consciousness." Don takes a highly contrarian approach to it. Next we discuss the eerie results of several hundred brain-splitting surgeries, which were performed a few decades back. We close by discussing of "panpsychism." Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Today’s guest is UC Irvine quantitative psychologist Don Hoffman. In today’s installment, he lays the foundation of this wildly contrarian worldview. An ardent Darwinist, Don argues that evolutionary forces will almost always favor perceptive systems that present a simplified, even dumbed-down take on reality. This is the start of a pretty wild ride, which I believe any curious mind will enjoy—even ones which fully reject Don’s perspective. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices