Building Tomorrow

Every new entertainment medium—from the 17th century novel to 21st century video games—has had its share of scolds who panic about the social implications. Those moral panics are always misguided, but entertainment can indeed shape its consumers. This week, Aaron, Paul, and Will debate the ways that video games, by engaging players with compelling narratives and giving them a feeling of player agency, can change peoples’ beliefs and values. Along the way, they discuss what features would make a game ‘libertarian’ and what makes games fun.

What is player agency in video games? Are video games a vehicle for narrative stories? What makes video games valuable? Do video games inspire youth to act a certain way in real life? Is Minecraft a libertarian video game? What kind of video game player are you?

Further Reading:

Video Games Should Always Let You Win, written by Aaron Ross Powell

As Gamers Age, The Appeal of Competition Drops The Most. Strategy is The Most Age-Stable Motivation, written by Nick Yee

6 Video Games Every Libertarian Should Play, written by Peter Suderman

Related Content:

Communicating Liberty Through Film and the Making Of “Freedom on Trial”, Free Thoughts Podcast

Introducing Libertarianism: A Reading List, written by Aaron Ross Powell

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DNA databases, which have long been used by amateur genealogists, have burst into the headlines as law enforcement uses them to solve cold case murders. For instance, detectives used an open source database called GEDmatch to catch the Golden State Killer, who murdered and raped dozens of women during the 1970s-80s.

Yet while solving crimes is obviously good, there are concerns about violations of genetic privacy. It is now possible to identify the overwhelming majority of Americans, without their consent, based on merely two DNA samples from second or even third cousins. That said, future applications of these databases could propel remarkable medical innovations such as personalized gene therapies and bioelectronics.

What are DNA databases designed to do? What are the privacy concerns associated with these databases? Are these databases more or less creepy than those of facial recognition? Which of these services are accessible to law enforcement? What is the panopticon, how does it apply to a DNA database? How is this any different than a fingerprint database?

Further Reading

“ ‘Genetic Informants’ and the Hunt for the Golden State Killer”, written by Matthew Feeney

The hunt for the Golden State Killer on GEDmatch.

Parabon Nanolabs is creating a DNA database specifically marketed for police.

How does the 4th Amendment work in the age of warrantless searching of DNA databases?

Carpenter v. United States

Oral Argument of Maryland v. King

Related Content

Decentralization and Privacy Are Inevitable — in Tech and in Government, written by Aaron Ross Powell

How New Technology is Changing Law Enforcement, Free Thoughts Episode

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The parliament of the European Union narrowly voted down legislation intended to control copyright violations on the internet. The sponsors of the legislation argued that multinational internet companies like Google were essentially stealing content from newspapers and publishers. Their proposed fix would have levied what critics called a “link tax” on hyperlinked content, making it prohibitively expensive for a program like Google News to aggregate news content. In addition, the rules would have essentially forced platforms like Youtube that rely on user-uploaded content, like Youtube, to put in place content filters to screen out copyrighted content. However, the expense of these filters and regulatory compliance would have, ironically, given the major companies an advantage over smaller startups, leading to a less competitive internet. In addition, the content filters would have accidentally excluded legitimate non-copyrighted material, including memes, parodies, and covers. Although this was European legislation, the legislation has implications for American regulatory policy, including the new SESTA/FOSTA rules.

Further Readings/References:

• In this article, Mike argues that this legislation would turn the internet into tv, “a limited broadcast medium only for those who are pre-checked by gatekeepers.”
• Any content filter will accidentally exclude legitimate conflict. Here Mike crunches the potential false positive rate.
• Paul has argued before that the SESTA/FOSTA legislation will have ill unintended consequences.
• One of the most important opponents of this legislation has been European Parliament member Julia Reda, representative of the Pirate Party.

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People may not really know what artificial intelligence is but they are convinced that it will either utterly destroy humankind or lead us into a utopian Singularity between man and machine. But, as philosopher Susan Schneider reminds us, there’s much we don’t know about artificial intelligence, including the nature of consciousness itself. And consciousness, while it may be hard to identify, entails significant ethical obligations, a point that any fan of the HBO show Westworld will quickly grasp. These kinds of questions have been the object of philosophical debate for millennia and it’s a line of inquiry that we should understand before, and not after, we program the first conscious artificial intelligence.

What does it mean to design a mind? What is the ‘problem of other minds’? Why does the consciousness of AI matter? Can machines be conscious? Do you think Androids are conscious? Would we ever have anything like a Westworld with true violence? How much do you replace and you are still you?

Further Reading:

Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind, written by Susan Schneider

‘Westworld’ Science Advisor Talks Brains and AI, written by Jeremy Hsu

Transcending the Brain? AI, Radical Brain Enhancement and the Nature of Consciousness, Susan Schneider at the Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

Spacetime Emergence, Panpsychism and the Nature of Consciousness, written by Susan Schneider

Related Content:

The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence is Best Left to Researchers, written by Ryan Khurana

Will Artificial Intelligence Take Your Job?, Building Tomorrow Podcast

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Cryptocurrency is, ultimately, science fiction. That isn’t an insult. It is science fiction in the sense that decades before you could set up a cold wallet, trade crypto, or hodler Bitcoin, the idea that one day there would exist a vast, distributed digital currency as an alternative to fiat money was a fiction, a thing that existed only in the imaginations of a handful of geeks, programmers, and weirdos. And it is science inasmuch as those same people, through generations of trial and error, actually made that fiction reality.

Professor Finn Brunton joins our show to discuss his latest book, Digital Cash, which is about those innovators—anarchists, socialists, libertarians, and everything in between—and the stories that they told, stories powerful enough to fabricate something worth billions of dollars out of nothing and, possibly, permanently transform the future of money for good or for ill.

How is digital data valuable? How do you find ways that can limit the ways that data can circulate? What does ‘passing current’ mean? What role does trust play in the exchange of currency?

Further Reading:

Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency, published by Princeton University Press & written by Finn Burton.

Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency, written by Finn Brunton

Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution, written by Rebecca L. Spang

Related Content:

The Future of Banking, written by Pascal Hügli

What’s in Your (Crypto) Wallet?, Building Tomorrow Podcast

Facebook Friends Libra, Building Tomorrow Podcast

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