Best Robotics Interviews Creative Process Original Series Podcasts (2025)

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How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave with Poet MAYA SALAMEH 38:26

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17d ago38:26

38:26

“Poetry is like one of the great loves of my life, and I think it's probably the longest relationship I'll ever have. I read a lot of poetry. I also wrote these short stories even when I was pretty young, like in second grade, and the stories kept getting shorter and shorter. My family used to go to Damascus in Syria and Lebanon every summer for th…

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Art is a Fundamental Element of Life - Gallerist HANNAH BARRY on a Life in Art 34:58

17d ago34:58

34:58

“There's something fundamental about the value of art and culture. Not just being integrated for vocational reasons, but because the experience of art and having a cultural element in one's life brings enjoyment, learning, relief, or any of the many experiences and feelings that art provides. I think this is quite fundamental as an element of life.…

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Empire of AI: Dreams & Nightmares in Sam Altman's Open AI with KAREN HAO 43:40

22d ago43:40

43:40

“My book is called Empire of AI because I'm trying to articulate this argument and illustrate that these companies operate exactly like empires of old. I highlight four features that essentially encapsulate the three things you read. However, I started talking about it in a different way after writing the book. The four features are: they lay claim…

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Healing, Connection & Creativity in the Age of AI - ETGAR KERET on Why We Need Stories in Times of Crisis - Highlights 19:13

28d ago19:13

19:13

“I feel that when you don't tell your story, it's as if you have a limited existence. We can always have some kind of choice, but I'm saying that the story we choose may be the most crucial choice that we make, because this story will affect all the other choices.” Etgar Keret is one of the most inventive and celebrated short story writers of his g…

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AI & Finding Humanity Through Storytelling w/ Author & Filmmaker ETGAR KERET 1:08:23

28d ago1:08:23

1:08:23

“When I write my stories, I don't want to solve things in life. I just want to persuade myself that there is a way out. Maybe I am in a cell, maybe I'm trapped. Maybe I won't make it, but if I can imagine a plan for escape, then I'll be less trapped because at least in my mind, there is a way. I think that my parents are survivors. They always talk…

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What's Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis (Copy) (Copy)

1M ago

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“One day, I woke up with this concept of oil being tied up in our lives in ways that we don't talk about. It’s sort of a value-theoretical approach to climate change and the climate crisis. Something that's impersonal and goes to the root of our entire social metabolic structure.” In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor Davi…

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Building a Vital Earth for Everyone with President of Environmental Defense Fund’s EDF Action DAVID KIEVE 46:32

1M ago46:32

46:32

“I think my role and where I'm most comfortable is focusing on the economic harms that the choices this administration is making will limit access to affordable, clean energy. Affordable energy overall, and that they will wind up harming the American people. EDF is standing up and fighting the Trump administration in court every single day. We beli…

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Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ & the Capitalism of the Far Right with QUINN SLOBODIAN

2M ago

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“The origin was really trying to make sense of that 2016-2017 moment and to ask whether the alt-right was, as we were being told, a return to the 1930s, a kind of awakening of the sleeping beast of white supremacy armed in the streets in the United States. There are many explanations, but I decided to take this kind of curious route in with the dis…

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What Do We Do with the One Life We’re Given? - Scientists, Writers, Philosophers & Changemakers Share their Stories 16:09

2M ago16:09

16:09

In this time of rapid technological change, how do we hold onto our humanity? How do stories, traditions, and community help us find meaning in loss and face an uncertain future? How can science, art, and spirituality open new pathways to understanding ourselves and the human experience? PAUL SHRIVASTAVA (Co-President of The Club of Rome) discusses…

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AI, UFOs, Perception & Reality with Artist, Geographer, Author TREVOR PAGLEN - Highlights 14:14

2M ago14:14

14:14

“If we look at the entire history of the human experience, if you saw some text or you heard some spoken language, you could 100 percent reliably infer that there was a human who created that. Our experience of having that text or that image generated for us is very akin to the experience of a magic trick, and we sort of pre-subconsciously want to …

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How AI is Shaping Perception, How Deception is Sculpting Our Reality with Artist TREVOR PAGLEN 55:26

2M ago55:26

55:26

“There's a word for this brain rot, right? I think that's very real. There are studies coming out now that are showing that the more and more of our cognitive labor we offload to AI systems, the less creative we become, the less critical we become, and the less of our human faculties for reason we use. There's something sad about that, but there’s …

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Revolutionizing Investment Strategies with Carbon Tracker - MARK CAMPANALE - Highlights 11:11

2M ago11:11

11:11

“We're living in a fascinating time, and unfortunately, to an extent, Europe and, very much so, North America are trying to hold onto the past while other parts of the world, like China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, are looking to the future. As an Italian citizen and an English citizen, I feel that we’ve left ourselves behind and that others are taki…

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Can Finance Revolutionize Climate Action? with MARK CAMPANALE, Founder of Carbon Tracker 45:54

2M ago45:54

45:54

“Carbon Tracker is a non-profit financial think tank focused on change and the energy transition. I set it up because I spent 20 years working in the financial world, and I noticed that a lot of coal, oil, and gas projects, even with all the evidence we know about climate change, were getting financed through banks and the stock market. It was almo…

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Abolish Silicon Valley—How to Liberate Technology from Capitalism 48:54

2M ago48:54

48:54

“Abolishing Silicon Valley means freeing the development of technology from a system that will always relegate it to a subordinate role, that of entrenching existing power relations. It means designing a new system that isn't deluged in the logic of the bucket. It means liberating our worlds from the illegitimate ring of capital. Perhaps this sound…

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Life As No One Knows It - Exploring AIR Aspen with NICOLA LEES - Highlights 9:04

2M ago9:04

9:04

“For us, I think it really is about trust and commitments, and I don't think that has necessarily changed over the years. As we work on that, obviously, we are very much invested in how we can engage an audience and spark the curiosity that people are looking for. The most important thing often is how we can spark that curiosity in ourselves. As a …

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Writing, AI & The Future of Humanity w/ VIET THANH NGUYEN 15:29

3M ago15:29

15:29

“As a writer, I do believe that art and literature in and of themselves are important. I'm going to keep on writing novels, and one of the most important reasons why is because, as you mentioned, language is crucial. Part of the way that states and authoritarian regimes exercise their power is not just through physical violence and intimidation, bu…

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The First Artist-Led Global Summit & The Future of Museums - NICOLA LEES, Director, Aspen Art Museum 46:04

3M ago46:04

46:04

“It's a complicated time to think about how we can slow down, be still, and bring a brilliant group of people together to do something that feels purposeful and can be productive. It's a moment where things are moving so fast. When I brought up the idea of a hinge generation, I think it's impossible to know how we will look back and reflect on this…

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‘Genius’ Entrepreneurs, Technofacists & Phobic Misogynists with BECCA LEWIS

3M ago

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“I think I've always been interested in the far-right end of technology, or I should say for several years that’s what I’ve been studying. However, I kept feeling that gender was understudied in these elements. When I was studying the alt-right online, the focus more than anything else was frequently on white nationalism and the racial dynamic. The…

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Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America From Around the Globe w/ NATASHA HAKIMI ZAPATA 54:55

3M ago54:55

54:55

“ It's a really dangerous time we're living through, and I do think that when we talk about these progressive policies, a huge problem in the US is that we still have a lot of stigma left over from the Cold War that keeps us from really great ideas because they're branded as socialist or communist. And I’ve seen, in the time I've been a journalist …

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AI, Universities & Student Surveillance in the Digital Age - LINDSAY WEINBERG & ROBERT OVETZ 50:59

4M ago50:59

50:59

In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with Lindsay Weinberg and Robert Ovetz about the use of Artificial Intelligence in higher education. Under the guise of “personalizing” education and increasing efficiency, universities are increasingly sold on AI as a cure to their financial ills as public fund…

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THE DREAM HOTEL with LAILA LALAMI 41:38

4M ago41:38

41:38

What happens when the state, with the pretext of protecting public safety, can detain indefinitely certain individuals whose dreams seem to indicate they may be capable of committing a crime? Set in a precarious world where sleep-enhancing devices and algorithms provide the tools and formulae for making one’s unconscious a witness to one’s possible…

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The Evolutionary Brain - DR. FERNANDO GARCÍA-MORENO on Creativity & Survival 48:35

4M ago48:35

48:35

We are working in the lab to understand this moment in development, which is called phylotypic. This is something that has been known for over a hundred years. When you see many vertebrate embryos at this early embryonic time point, all embryos look very, very similar. We are extrapolating these ideas to the brain. We have seen that at this time po…

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JARON LANIER on Tech, Music, Creativity & Who Owns the Future - Highlights 13:29

6M ago13:29

13:29

“What I meant when I said there is no AI is that I don't think we serve ourselves well when we put our own technology up as if it were a new God that we created. I think we confuse ourselves too easily. This goes back to Alan Turing, the main founder of computer science, who had this idea of the Turing test. In the test, you can't tell whether the …

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AI, Virtual Reality & Dawn of the New Everything w/ JARON LANIER, VR Pioneer, Musician, Author 49:13

6M ago49:13

49:13

“AI is obviously the dominant topic in tech lately, and I think occasionally there's AI that's nonsense, and occasionally there's AI that's great. I love finding new proteins for medicine and so on. I don't think we serve ourselves well when we put our own technology up as if it were a new God that we created. I think we're really getting a little …

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How Can AI-moderated Deliberation Cure the Ills of Democracy? JAMES FISHKIN - Highlights 14:02

6M ago14:02

14:02

“The three ills of democracy that I propose to address with this method, which we've perfected over the last several decades. Democracy is supposed to make some connection with the "will of the people." But how can we estimate the will of the people when everyone is trying to manipulate it?” James S. Fishkin holds the Janet M. Peck Chair in Interna…

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How can we meet the Climate Accords thru Environmental Credit Solutions? with BILL FLEDERBACH 50:50

6M ago50:50

50:50

How can we meet the Paris Climate Accords through Environmental Credit Solutions? Bill Flederbach is the President & CEO of ClimeCo and is a respected leader in the global environmental commodities market. Following his favorite motto, “To make a difference each day and always do the next right thing,” Bill has created scalable Greenhouse Gas reduc…

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How Can AI be Part of Bringing Deliberative Democracy to the Masses? w/ JAMES S. FISHKIN 49:08

7M ago49:08

49:08

“Deliberative democracy is itself, when properly done, a kind of democracy that can speak to the interests of a community. And we need that all over the world.” James S. Fishkin holds the Janet M. Peck Chair in International Communication at Stanford University where he is Professor of Communication, Professor of Political Science (by courtesy), Se…

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The Imagination Emporium with Fmr. VP of Innovation & Creativity at Disney DUNCAN WARDLE 28:19

7M ago28:19

28:19

How can we free our minds to cultivate curiosity, innovation, and creativity in our daily lives? In this age of AI, where creative tasks are increasingly being performed for us, what is intelligence? And what is the future of education? Duncan Wardle was Vice President of Innovation and Creativity at Disney and has helped organizations like Apple, …

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The Hidden Humans Behind Artificial Intelligence & the Sociopathology of Elon Musk 59:27

7M ago59:27

59:27

In this episode on Speaking Out of Place podcast Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with Sarah T. Roberts about the hidden humans behind Artificial Intelligence, which is reliant on executives and business managers to direct AI to promote their brand and low-level, out-sourced, and poorly paid content managers to slog through masses of images, words…

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Art, Technology & Society with Author T.C. BOYLE 11:35

8M ago11:35

11:35

“What I have done in my career is just try to assess who we are, what we are, why we are here, and how come we, as animals, are able to walk around and wear pants and dresses and talk on the internet, while the other animals are not. It's been my obsession since I was young. I think if I hadn't become a novelist, I might have been happy to be a nat…

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On Regulating the Attention Market & Prevent Algorithmic Emotional Governance w/ FABIEN GANDON & FRANCK MICHEL 11:34

8M ago11:34

11:34

“The fact that technologies are being used and combined to capture our attention is concerning. This is currently being done with no limitations and no regulations. That's the main problem. Attention is a very private resource. No one should be allowed to extract it from us by exploiting what we know about the human mind and how it functions, inclu…

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PAY ATTENTION: A Call to Regulate the Attention Market & Prevent Algorithmic Emotional Governance 1:00:38

8M ago1:00:38

1:00:38

AI competes for our attention because our attention has been commodified. As our entire lives revolve more and more around the attention economy, what can we do to restore our autonomy, reclaim our privacy, and reconnect with the real world. Computer scientist Fabien Gandon and research engineer Franck Michel are experts in AI, the Web, and knowled…

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Are We Witnessing the Decline of the American Empire? RICHARD D. WOLFF - Highlights 11:54

8M ago11:54

11:54

“The position of the United States in the world, economically and politically, is the weakest it has been in my lifetime. I was born in the middle of the 20th century, so I have watched the rise of the American empire and the success of American capitalism in the second half of the 20th century. However, over the last 20 years, I have watched that …

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Understanding Capitalism with RICHARD D. WOLFF - Co-founder of Democracy at Work 47:33

8M ago47:33

47:33

When capitalism stops serving the needs of the people, what can we do to create a fairer more equitable society? What can we learn from China's success and economic growth? Are we witnessing the decline of the American Empire and what comes next? Richard D. Wolff is the co-founder of Democracy at Work and host of their nationally syndicated show Ec…

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Who Defends the Defenders? UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders MICHEL FORST 12:44

9M ago12:44

12:44

“My mandate focuses on the protection of those trying to protect the planet. Protection of defenders is my main topic. When I'm speaking to states or companies, it's always related to cases of defenders facing threats, attacks, or penalization by companies or governments, like the recent case of Paul Watson (founder of Sea Shepherd) in Denmark… Whe…

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AI & The Limits to Growth w/ Co-President of The Club of Rome PAUL SHRIVASTAVA 15:08

9M ago15:08

15:08

“I think AI is sort of inevitable in some ways. It is not very intelligent right now; it is probably closer to artificial stupidity, but it's a question of time before it becomes smarter and smarter. We need to tackle the right to use question and the value question now as it is developing. It can amplify both the positive possibilities as well as …

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Elon Musk, Putin's Russia, Murdoch's Fox News: How Billionaires Shape Our World with DARRYL CUNNINGHAM 42:02

10M ago42:02

42:02

What influence do billionaires have on politics, journalism, and the technology that shapes our lives? What drives people to seek absolute power, and how can we hold them accountable? Darryl Cunningham is a cartoonist and author of Science Tales, Psychiatric Tales, The Age of Selfishness, and Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and Powerful. Cunni…

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AI, Technology, Art & Culture - Artists, Philosophers, Economists & Scientists discuss the Future 11:06

10M ago11:06

11:06

How can we shape technology’s impact on society? How do social media algorithms influence our democratic processes and personal well-being? Can AI truly emulate human creativity? And how will its pursuit of perfection change the art we create? Daniel Susskind (Economist · Oxford & King’s College London · Author of Growth: A Reckoning · A World With…

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Photographer & Musician JULIAN LENNON on AI, Art, Empathy & Creativity 19:21

11M ago19:21

19:21

“I think a lot of joy comes from helping others. One of the things that I've been really focusing on is finding that balance in life, what’s real and what’s true and what makes you happy. How can you help other people feel the same and have a happier life? I think whatever that takes. So if that's charity, if that's photography, if that's documenta…

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Connecting with the Earth: Changemakers, Scientists, Writers & Educators on Regenerating Earth’s Ecosystems 11:38

11M ago11:38

11:38

How and when will we transition to a clean energy future? How have wetlands become both crucial carbon sinks and colossal methane emitters in a warming world? What lessons can we learn from non-human animals about living in greater harmony with nature? Richard Black (Author of The Future of Energy · Fmr. BBC Environment Correspondent · Director of …

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AI & The Pathway to Flow with Neuroscientist, Fmr. Dancer DR. JULIA CHRISTENSEN 16:52

11M ago16:52

16:52

“So, syncopation is now the big thing. It will induce people to groove and to like your music more. So let's have a lot of syncopation inside your music and you'll sell a lot. By chasing superficial beauty, which is what AI gives us at the moment, it aims for perfect outcomes. Not that anything these models produce is perfect, because how do you ev…

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Tech, The Future of Energy & Navigating Our Environmental Future 12:31

12M ago12:31

12:31

Have we entered what Earth scientists call a “termination event,” and what can we do to avoid the worst outcomes? How can we look beyond GDP and develop new metrics that balance growth with human flourishing and environmental well-being? How can the 15-minute city model revolutionize urban living, enhance health, and reduce our carbon footprint? Eu…

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Social Media, Democracy & Economic Inequality w/ Philosopher ARASH ABIZADEH 10:24

12M ago10:24

10:24

How is economic inequality undermining our democratic systems? In what ways is social media reshaping political landscapes and democracy? Can we design political institutions that adapt to rapid social and technological changes while remaining stable? How is journalism critical for the health of our democracies? Arash Abizadeh is the R.B. Angus Pro…

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AI, Technological Progress & the Growth Dilemma w/ Economist DANIEL SUSSKIND - Highlights 13:06

1y ago13:06

13:06

“The running theme in all of my work has been technology. The first book that I co-authored with my dad was published in 2015. The second book I wrote was A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond, published in 2020, just before the pandemic began. My new book Growth: A Reckoning is about growth, but also technological…

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Growth: A Reckoning with Economist DANIEL SUSSKIND 56:48

1y ago56:48

56:48

How can we look beyond GDP and develop new metrics that balance growth with human flourishing and environmental well-being? How can we be more engaged global citizens? In this age of AI, what does it really mean to be human? And how are our technologies transforming us? Daniel Susskind is a Research Professor in Economics at King's College London a…

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The Human Smart City: Balancing Ecology & Economy with CARLOS MORENO - Highlights 14:22

1y ago14:22

14:22

“This is the difference between a technological smart city and a real human smart city towards a 15-minute city as the expression of a human-centered urban approach. This is our challenge for the next decades and our target, to humanize our cities. The Olympic Games in Paris have shown the world that it is possible to recreate, to regenerate a real…

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The 15-Minute City: A Solution to Saving Our Time & Our Planet with CARLOS MORENO 38:28

1y ago38:28

38:28

How can the 15-minute city model revolutionize urban living, enhance wellbeing, and reduce our carbon footprint? Online shopping is turning cities into ghost towns. We can now buy anything anywhere anytime. How can we learn to stop scrolling and start strolling and create more livable, sustainable communities we are happy to call home. Carlos Moren…

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Neuroscience, AI & The Future of Humanity - DR. BEN SHOFTY - Highlights 17:34

1y ago17:34

17:34

“I'm one of the people who believe that anything that we as human beings can imagine will eventually happen. So, if somebody has raised the question possibility of having brain implants that augment the brain and generate additional functions, I feel like it will eventually happen. There are a lot of private companies, like Elon Musk's Neuralink an…

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The Neuroscience of Creativity with DR. BEN SHOFTY 49:09

1y ago49:09

49:09

Where do creative thoughts come from? How can we harness our stream of consciousness and spontaneity to express ourselves? How are mind-wandering, meditation, and the arts good for our creativity and physical and mental well-being? Dr. Ben Shofty is a functional neurosurgeon affiliated with the University of Utah. He graduated from the Tel-Aviv Uni…

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What is good design? How AI is Shaping Our World? - SCOTT DOORLEY & CARISSA CARTER - Co-authors of Assembling Tomorrow - Highlights 21:08

1y ago21:08

21:08

“The way we understand the world and how the world actually works is just not mapped perfectly. That kind of leads to problems because we don't know exactly what we're doing in the world. We can't see all the repercussions of the things we create until later on. One silver lining about the technologies we're creating is that technologies like AI co…