This Creation of Our Genius

01/28/19 • 26 min

As long as we've been self-aware, we've desired companionship. And yet, we are not enough for one another; we hunger for something more - something that folklore, imaginary friends, and now technology have attempted to satisfy. Today, we stand at a crossroads beyond which is a future full of artificial lives. What kinds of minds will we create for ourselves? And what kind of future will those minds make for us?

Links

"The Measure of a Man," Season 2, Episode 9 of Star Trek: The Next Generation
Her
"Be Right Back," Season 2, Episode 1 of Black Mirror
THX 1138
The confession scene in THX 1138
"When her best friend died, she rebuilt him using artificial intelligence."
The tablets on Star Trek: The Next Generation were called PADDs
...and there were a lot of them

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

MD by r beny
But Enough About Me, Bill Paxton, by Chris Zabriskie
Cities Sleep Like Seeds by r beny
The Sea's Sullen Green by r beny
Empty Grinds by r beny
Glisten by r beny

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Links

"The Measure of a Man," Season 2, Episode 9 of Star Trek: The Next Generation
Her
"Be Right Back," Season 2, Episode 1 of Black Mirror
THX 1138
The confession scene in THX 1138
"When her best friend died, she rebuilt him using artificial intelligence."
The tablets on Star Trek: The Next Generation were called PADDs
...and there were a lot of them

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

MD by r beny
But Enough About Me, Bill Paxton, by Chris Zabriskie
Cities Sleep Like Seeds by r beny
The Sea's Sullen Green by r beny
Empty Grinds by r beny
Glisten by r beny

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

How to Get Your Time Back

The more time passes, the faster it feels it's moving. It's an illusion, of course, but does that really matter? If you feel like it's moving faster, it might as well be. The shrinkiness of time is part of the human condition. But the secret you may not know is that you can slow it down. You can get your time back. Here are eight ways...

Links

"Life is Short," by Paul Graham
The boiling frog phenomenon\
My preferred notebook
Deep Work, by Cal Newport

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

Morning Colorwheel, by Blue Dot Sessions
Machination, by Blue Dot Sessions
Our Digital Compass, by Blue Dot Sessions
Basin, by r beny
Ecrins Eurorack Ambient, by r beny
Cold Summers, by Blue Dot Sessions
Full Blossom of the Evening, by r beny

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Computer World

There are very few people left on Earth for whom the world isn't shaped by computers or seen through their screens. But does it have to be this way? In this episode, we'll explore how screens — and the images they reveal — are just as much a manifestation of the world from which they come as they are the raw materials of a story about the next one: the future...

Links

The IBM Portable PC 5155
Blade Runner - Opening Scene
Human Progress Landscape, the not-so-good student animation I made in 2003, but for which I still retain some fondness
The machine I used to make it: the Sony VAIO Digital Studio
Jony Ive's magical voice for Apple marketing
you may have noticed some sound from the Tron Lightbike Scene
The Matrix "What is Real?" scene
keen listeners and sci-fi aficionados will have noticed sounds from the Nostromo boot sequence in Alien
you may have also noticed some sound from The Lawnmower Man's disconnecting scene
What Technology Wants, by Kevin Kelly
The last clip you heard came from WarGames - The WOPR introduction scene

Music

With the exception of a brief sample from a live performance of Kraftwerk in 1978, all music used in this episode was independently produced and shared with Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use by Able Parris of kamuter.

Stratosfear, by kamuter
Discovery, by kamuter
the robots (live), by Kraftwerk
Frequency, by kamuter
Terraform, by kamuter
Interrogation, by kamuter

Some of My Favorite Independent Media

Robin Sloan is a writer and self-styled media inventor who constantly inspires me by independently producing short stories and "odd-shaped internet projects." His latest workspace is called Year of the Meteor, where he's writing a regular newsletter and producing some interesting zine-like media. Robin and his partner Kathryn Tomajan also independently produce California extra virgin olive oil under the label: Fat Gold
Desert Oracle is a pocket-sized field guide (and radio show) to the fascinating American deserts: strange tales, singing sand dunes, sagebrush trails, artists and aliens, authors and oddballs, ghost towns and modern legends, musicians and mystics, scorpions and saguaros! Independently produced by Ken Layne.
Mysterious Universe is my favorite podcast about the weird, the strange, the paranormal, and the metaphysical independently produced for over a decade in Sydney, Australia. You can support them by listening and becoming a member of their Plus Club.
Logic Magazine is a print magazine about technology that publishes three times per year and maintains an intentionally small digital footprint.