The Escaped Sapiens Podcast

The Science of Propaganda | Oliver Boyd-Barrett | Escaped Sapiens Podcast #23 (Part 1)

This episode of the podcast focuses on the effects of developments in science and technology on our society - and in particular on the science of propaganda. I speak with Professor Oliver Boyd-Barrett from Bowling Green State University about the influence that social media, cyber warfare and hacking, bot armies, troll farms, and other technologies have on the spread of disinformation and misinformation throughout our society. Who is it that really wields power in the world? Note: At 01:41:50 Oliver introduces a thought experiment in which he describes the western view of the treatment of Uyghur's in China's Xinjian province as being a product of western propagandists. Oliver wishes to make clear that this is a thought experiment and that he is unable to say with certainty that the Xinjiang narrative actually is such a product. Oliver wrote an article on this topic in which his concerns and uncertainties are better articulated, which can be found here:
►Watch this episode on Youtube:  https://youtu.be/QkO29wwiEt0 
►https://citizentruth.org/the-uyghur-question-struggling-to-monopolize-the-narrative/
►Find out more about Oliver's work here: https://www.bgsu.edu/arts-and-sciences/media-and-communication/faculty-and-staff/oliver-boyd-barrett.html ►Oliver's books can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/102104.Oliver_Boyd_Barrett

The Science of Propaganda | Oliver Boyd-Barrett | Escaped Sapiens Podcast #23 (Part 2)

This is part two of an interview with Oliver Boyd-Barrett. This episode of the podcast focuses on the effects of developments in science and technology on our society - and in particular on the science of propaganda. I speak with Professor Oliver Boyd-Barrett from Bowling Green State University about the influence that social media, cyber warfare and hacking, bot armies, troll farms, and other technologies have on the spread of disinformation and misinformation throughout our society. Who is it that really wields power in the world?
►Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KdS5epaoYGY
►Find out more about Oliver's work here: https://www.bgsu.edu/arts-and-sciences/media-and-communication/faculty-and-staff/oliver-boyd-barrett.html ►Oliver's books can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/102104.Oliver_Boyd_Barrett

Survival at Sea, Human Endurance and Ingenuity | Steve Callahan | Escaped Sapiens Podcast #22

Steve Callahan is an inventor, sailor, Naval architect, and author. In 1981 Steve lost `Napoleon Solo', a ship he designed and built, during a storm in the mid Atlantic, and spent the next 76 days adrift on an inflatable rescue boat. Steve very kindly agreed to share his story. We discuss the event itself, but also the way that it has shaped his view of the world, and subsequently coloured his life - from further world travels and sailing, to working on set of `The Life of Pi'. This is a conversation that ranges from the gritty realism of eating raw sea birds to survive, to touching philosophical thoughts about life and facing adversity.
►Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/doyhLBmOAyk
►Find out more about Steve here: https://www.stevencallahan.net/schome.html ►Steve's book `adrift' can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618257322/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwstevencall-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399353&creativeASIN=0618257322

Deep Fakes and Manipulated Media | Matthew F. Ferraro | Escaped Sapiens Podcast #21

Matthew F. Ferraro is an attorney and former intelligence officer who writes widely on national security and legal issues. Matt is currently a counsel at the international law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, and a visiting fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University. (The views Matt expressed here are his own.) In this episode of the podcast we discuss the development of deep fake technology from a policy and legal standpoint. What impact does deepfake technology have on the spread of disinformation and misinformation? What are the implications of this new technology for the balance of global power? Does manipulated media only have malicious uses or might it be used as a tool for good? What policy and legal frameworks are being implemented to ensure a positive outcome?
►Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/RwVMo7wwZUU
►Information about Matt's work can be found here: https://www.wilmerhale.com/en/people/matthew-ferraro
►Matt's personal website can be found here: http://matthewfferraro.com/
►At 0:36:20 Matt discusses a news story which can be found here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/syrian-electronic-army-hackers-attack-guardian-twitter-accounts-8597629.html

Environmental pragmatism and living a good life | Tim Flannery | Escaped Sapiens Podcast #20

Tim Flannery is a Mammologist, palaentologist, environmentalist, conservationist, and explorer. He was named Australian humanist of the year in 2005 and Australian of the year in 2007. Tim served as chief commissioner of the Australian Climate Commission and is currently leading the Climate council. He has discovered more than 30 mammal species, and and discovered cretaceous fossils that that extended the Australian mammal fossil record back 80 million years. In 2018 Tim played a key role in putting an end to a 91 year old cycle of killings in the Solomon islands. In this episode of the podcast we discuss first contact with indigenous tribes, tribal ceremonies, discovering species, climate change, the value of money, and how to have a good life.
►Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9rMXtmlRpJE
►Find out more about Tim's work at the Climate Council here: https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/author/tim-flannery/
►A list of Tim's books can be found here: https://groveatlantic.com/author/tim-flannery/
►Find out more about Tim's work as a professorial fellow at University of Melbourne here: https://www.climatecollege.unimelb.edu.au/speaker/prof-tim-flannery

Space Junk | Jonathan McDowell | Escaped Sapiens Podcast #19

Jonathan McDowell is an astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who studies black holes, quasars and X-ray sources in galaxies, as well as supporting the development of data analysis software for the X-ray astronomy community. In addition to his research Jonathan runs `Jonathans Space Report', which is a newsletter that has been running since 1989 that reports on recent space launches, International Space Station activities and space craft developments. In this episode of the podcast Jonathan discusses space junk, where it comes from, why it is a problem, and possible solutions for cleaning it up.

►Watch this episode on Youtube:
https://youtu.be/BMdw1VueAiw

►Check out Jonathan's space report here:
https://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/jsr.html

►Find out more about Jonathan's research here:
https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/people/jonathan-mcdowell

►Visit Jonathan's personal website here:
https://planet4589.org/jcm/index.html

The Missing Science of Men‘s Reproductive Health | Rene Almeling | Escaped Sapiens Podcast #18

Rene is an Associate Professor of Sociology, History of Medicine, American Studies, and Public Health (Health Policy) at Yale university. Her research focuses on gender and medicine. We discuss the historic lack of research attention in men's reproductive health, and the impact this has had, and continues to have on the individual lives of men, as well as on health policy and research funding.
►Watch this episode on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/KXrifZYXvjw

►Find out more about Rene's research here:
https://sociology.yale.edu/people/rene-almeling Further information, including

►information about Rene's two popular books can be found here:
https://www.renealmeling.com/

Xenobots - Robots or Synthetic Life? | Josh Bongard | Escaped Sapiens Podcast #17

On this episode of the podcast I speak with Professor Josh Bongard who is one of the inventors of Xenobots. We discuss their development, their potential applications, and the moral and philosophical implications of their creation.

►Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3B5WnPoXXpQ
►Check out Josh's staff page at the University of Vermont for more information:
https://www.uvm.edu/cems/cs/profiles/josh_bongard

Deanna Barch: How do our brains work? | Escaped Sapiens Podcast #16

Deanna Barch is a professor of psychology, radiology, and psychiatry at Washington University. Deanna is a key contributor to the Human connectome project, which aims to build a network map of the anatomical and functional connectivity within the healthy human brain, as well as to produce a body of data that will facilitate research into brain disorders such as dyslexia, autism, Alzheimer's disease, and schizophrenia. We discuss what is known about the way that our brain are connected, and the impact of stress and trauma on brain development.

More information about Deanna's work can be found here: https://psych.wustl.edu/people/deanna... https://sites.wustl.edu/ccplab/people...

Information about the Human Connectome Project can be found here: https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/

Steve Furber: Simulating the Human Brain | Escaped Sapiens Podcast #15

How good is our understanding of the human brain, and how close are we to being able to simulate it? In this episode Steve Furber discusses SpiNNaker, an artificial neural network realized in hardware that incorporates over one million processor cores, and which is designed to simulate 1% of the neurons in the Human brain.

 

Find out more about Steve's work here: https://apt.cs.manchester.ac.uk/people/sfurber/ Follow him on twitter here: https://twitter.com/furbersteve?lang=en