Humans vs. Machines with Gary Marcus

83
Technology #104

Human beings are living longer than ever. Thanks to advances like vaccines, antibiotics, pasteurized milk and clean water, we’ve added more than 30 years to the average lifespan over the last 120 years. That’s more than was added in the previous 10,000 years combined. More recently, enormous progress has been made in our treatment of deadly conditions like heart disease and cancer, with mortality rates for each dropping by double digits. Now science is tackling a new challenge: Can we cure aging itself? In pursuit of this holy grail, longevity research has gone from a sleepy backwater to a multi billion dollar field, populated — yes — by plenty of hucksters, but also by Nobel laureates. The goal is to find out what causes us to age and what we can do to slow it down, or maybe even reverse it altogether. Could tweaking the right molecule buy us 20 more years, or are we maxed out? Can older brains be re-wired to function like younger brains? Do any so-called biohacks actually work? These are some of the questions we are tackling in this season of The World as You’ll Know It: The Future of Aging. With leading scientists in the fields of biology, neuroscience and medicine, we’ll look at the cutting-edge of aging research and what living longer could mean for all of us.

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  • Murelega
    Oh how are the mighty fallen.
    I really enjoyed this show. Interesting guests, civil conversation, fascinating ideas. But then… Marcus tells us that we should expand this wonderful idea of being non-binary to other things besides gender identity. Sure, Jan. Gender identity is the product of a bogus, specious, incoherent ideology… and you want to take it as your model for thinking about stuff. Stick to computers and AI and leave the difficult stuff to us feminists, Gary love.
  • JoeMac7345
    Very interesting and accessible
    The host does an excellent job of extracting the most relevant information in a layman’s terms. One criticism—in the episode on self-driving cars, it seems like a pretty big oversight not to compare rates of self-driving car accidents to regular accidents. Isn’t a central issue how the two compare? And how much better do self-driving cars need to be than humans on average before we’re willing to accept some risk with self-driving cars?
  • JoelG Marietta
    Incredibly valuable podcast
    Gary Marcus is doing a great job of cutting through the hype and asking under-explored questions about AI. The show is professionally produced and enjoyable. Looking forward to more…
  • Uymky
    Rage against the machine?
    In the self driving car episode I missed a comparison with how many accidents are caused by human drivers in different situation. I think it’s likely that already today on a very long highway drive, you are safer with an AI than a human who might fall asleep behind the wheel.
  • Clossala
    Great information from real experts
    These podcasts deliver solid and fascinating information from experts who really know what they are talking about. and the information is of the sort we citizens really need to know.
  • karacutie21
    Awesome podcast - hard to find out about it
    Great podcast with stuff I want to hear about. When I look up David Wallace-wells podcast on google I get a bunch of other podcasts he’s been on but not this main one. Also when I look up his name on apple podcasts site it doesn’t come up. That’s due to their stupid limited search functionality but still. Had to rewind Ezra’s podcast to figure out the name of this one. This needs to be promoted better, really.
  • 1.3.5.8.13.21
    Amazing Podcast
    Came here looking to learn a little more about what the future looks like and was pleasantly surprised to hear experts speaking so bluntly on these issues. It truly is n amazing podcast and a breath of fresh air
  • bdoles
    Breathe of fresh air
    So nice to hear intelligent people talking again. Like being at a great dinner party. Thank you.
  • vuwere
    Refreshing
    Very detailed and informative Q and A. Can educate and clarify our current Democracy and faceta there of.
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