The Singularity Saints Podcast

The second of the new Faster Than the Future mini-casts. With only five minutes, I’ll race the clock to share stories of science and technology. Some will be of great importance, some of fascinating interest, some just odd, but all will be fast.

Stories:

• Twitter to start labeling deepfakes but sets high bar for removal
  • https://www.cnet.com/news/twitter-to-start-labeling-deepfakes-but-sets-high-bar-for-removal1/
• Elon Musk promotes Texas ‘career day’ as SpaceX files paperwork for Starship flight as early as March
  • https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/04/elon-musk-promotes-texas-career-day-as-spacex-files-paperwork-for-starship-flight-as-early-as-march/
• An AI helps uncover secret sketches by Leonardo da Vinci
  • https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7967235/AI-helps-discover-hidden-drawings-Leonardo-DaVinci-mapping-faint-zinc-traces-old-canvas.html
• Artist tricks Google Maps into recording traffic jam with 99 cellphones and a wagon
  • https://abcnews.go.com/International/artist-tricks-google-maps-recording-traffic-jam-99/story?id=68754956
• LG Electronics is withdrawing from Mobile World Congress due to coronavirus
  • https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/4/21123169/lg-electronics-mwc-2020-cornavirus-cancel-withdraw-outbreak-concern
• Chemists Discovered the Structure of a Key Influenza Protein – Breakthrough Could Lead to Flu Treatment
  • https://scitechdaily.com/chemists-discovered-the-structure-of-a-key-influenza-protein-breakthrough-could-lead-to-flu-treatment/

Find us online at:

Facebook: fb.me/SGSTPodcast

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SGSTPodcast

Intro and outro music: Cosmic Pluck from Vycroft. ( https://freesound.org/people/vykroft/ )

Countdown music: Epic Game Music by klavo1982. (https://freesound.org/people/klavo1985/)

As the year 2020 gets off to a fresh start, we launch new The Faster Than the Future mini-casts. With only five minutes, I’ll race the clock to share stories of science and technology. Some will be of great importance, some of fascinating interest, some just odd, but all will be fast.----more----

Stories:

• Meet Trump’s New 5G Czar
  • https://www.lightreading.com/mobile/5g/meet-trumps-new-5g-czar/d/d-id/756490
• MLB Will Use Robot Umpire System in Spring Training
  • https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/rob-manfred-mlb-will-use-robot-umpire-system-in-spring-training/ar-BBZdOmD
• Betelgeuse, a Supergiant Star, May be About to Blow
  • https://www.inverse.com/science/62284-betelgeuse-star-s-dimming-sparks-death-is-imminent
• GM Will Spend $2.2 Billion to Build Electric and Autonomous Vehicles at Detroit Plant
  • https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/27/21083356/gm-cruise-ev-av-production-announcement-detroit-hamtramck-origin

Find us online at:

Facebook: fb.me/SGSTPodcast

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SGSTPodcast

Intro and outro music: Cosmic Pluck from Vycroft. ( https://freesound.org/people/vykroft/ )

Countdown music: Epic Game Music by klavo1982. (https://freesound.org/people/klavo1985/)

Advancements in technology are aimed at making life safer, easier, and more enjoyable. Could we end up surrendering something in the process; moral agency and personal responsibility? And what might that trade get us?

----more----

Topics:

• The Singularity Saints Podcast celebrates its first birthday!
• First Things: Algorithm Religion by John Waters
  • https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/12/algorithm-religion
• John Waters a Neo-Luddite?
  • https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/phone-texts-send-wrong-message-1.1295731
• Autonomous Vehicles and decision making with moral weight
• Willingly surrendering moral agency to artificial intelligence
• AI versus human driving capabilities
• AI versus human values in decision making
• Benefits in the aggregate versus consequences in the specific
• Computer Weekly: How Soon Will We Be Driving Autonomous Cars by Zach Emmanuel
  • https://www.computerweekly.com/news/450429466/How-soon-will-we-be-driving-fully-autonomous-cars
  • Predictions of Andrew Lee, Octo Telematics
• Who or what bears legal responsibility for the actions of AI?
• Defining moral agency
  • https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/moral-agent
• Assessing moral agency and human relations
• Foundations for moral responsibility
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Moral Responsibility
  • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-responsibility/
• Moral responsibility and power
• Good Samaritan laws and Duty to Rescue laws
• Moral responsibility and freedom
• Surrendering moral responsibility to something that cannot have moral agency
• Death caused by Robots
• Think Artificial: The First Humans Killed by Robots
  • http://www.thinkartificial.org/aesthetics/the-first-human-killed-by-a-robot/
  • Robert Williams and Kenji Urada
• Government views on responsibility of autonomous vehicles
• Wired: Feds Say They'll Count Computers As Human Drivers by Alex Davies
  • https://www.wired.com/2016/02/feds-say-theyll-count-computers-as-human-drivers/
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s letter to Google
• Robert Kane on moral responsibility
  • https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-responsibility/
• Social outcomes of ethical abdication to AI
• Laws and the ideals of justice
• Crimes without perpetrators
• Forbes: A Robot Really Committed A Crime: Now What? By Ryan Calo
  • https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancalo/2014/12/23/a-robot-really-committed-a-crime-now-what/#74760e6d6e55
• Social policy shaped by trusting AI

For the Church

• Godlike trust in AI and idolatry
• God and moral neutrality
• Moral responsibility in Old Testament
• Making a place to discuss these issues
• Christian citizen’s influence on public policy

Looking Ahead

• Sweating electronics for temperature control
• https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/mobile-phones-in-the-future-could-sweat-to-keep-cool-thanks-to-a-perspiring-material-just-three-times-as-thick-as-a-human-hair/ar-BBZdPW8

Passages Referenced

• Psalm 97:10
• Psalm 5:4-6
• 1 Timothy 2:3-6
• Exodus 21:33-34

Facebook: fb.me/SGSTPodcast

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SGSTPodcast

Intro and outro music: Cosmic Pluck from Vycroft. ( https://freesound.org/people/vykroft/ )

“For the Church Segment” transition music: Marketing from Skibka Music. (

Merry Christmas, from the Singularity Saints Podcast!

Space may be the final frontier, but what technology will be required to really get us out there, beyond our solar systems and out among the stars. What emerging technology will shape the future of space exploration? Part 1 of 2.

----more----

Topics:

• Entering a new age of space exploration
• BBC: Space 2020: What does the future hold?
  • https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150128-space-2020-what-happens-next
• Returning to the Moon
• Private Space travel
• The Moon as a new jumping-off point
• NASA: NASA to Return Humans to the Moon
  • https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-to-return-humans-to-the-moon
• AI and space exploration
• The International Society of Optics and Photonics: Artificial Intelligence and Space Exploration
  • https://spie.org/news/op19-sunday-plenaries?SSO=1
• AI and the search for exoplanets
• AI and probes
• AI/Machines and the limits of the human body
• Autonav for Mars Rover
• NASA: Leave the Driving to Autonav
  • https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/20147/leave-the-driving-to-autonav/
• Singularity Hub: AI Is Kicking Space Exploration Into Hyperdrive
  • https://singularityhub.com/2018/10/07/ais-kicking-space-exploration-into-hyperdrive-heres-how/
• The search for stromatolites on Mars
• Searching for water and life on Jupiter’s Europa
  • https://europa.nasa.gov/
• AI and medical care for astronauts
• AI and terraforming
• BioCarbon Engineering and drone planting
• Mining in Space
• BBC: The truth about asteroid mining
  • https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160103-the-truth-about-asteroid-mining
• Independent: Asteroid mining made legal after Barack Obama gives US citizens the right to own parts of celestial bodies
  • https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/asteroid-mining-made-legal-after-barack-obama-gives-us-citizens-the-right-to-own-parts-of-celestial-a6750046.html
• 2015: U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act
• MIT: How the asteroid-mining bubble burst
  • https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/06/26/134510/asteroid-mining-bubble-burst-history
• Issues and challenges of asteroid mining in the near future
• Space Tourism
• Popular Mechanics: Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne Rocket Is Ready for Its First Full Flight Test
  • https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a32600712/virgin-orbit-launcherone-rocket/
• Life in the universe
• Eurpoa Clipper’s search on Jupiter’s moon
• The Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox
• Singularity Hub: Where Is Everyone? 4 Possible Explanations for the Fermi Paradox
  • https://singularityhub.com/2019/09/02/where-is-everyone-4-possible-explanations-for-the-fermi-paradox/

Stick around for Part 2, with out For The Church Segment and the Looking Ahead Segment

Facebook: fb.me/SGSTPodcast

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SGSTPodcast

Intro and outro music: Cosmic Pluck from Vycroft. ( https://freesound.org/people/vykroft/ )

“For the Church Segment” transition music: Marketing from Skibka Music. ( https://freesound.org/people/SkibkaMusic/ )