The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Being human in the age of AI

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Will AI change what it means to be human? Sean Illing talks with essayist Meghan O'Gieblyn, author of God, Human, Animal, Machine, a book about how the way we understand human nature has been interwoven with how we understand our own technology. They discuss the power of metaphor in describing fundamental aspects of being human, the "transhumanism" movement, and what we're after when we seek companionship in a chatbot.

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area

Guest: Meghan O'Gieblyn, essayist; author

References: 

  • God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning by Meghan O'Gieblyn (Anchor; 2021)
  • The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil (Penguin; 1999)
  • The Sociology of Religion by Max Weber (1920)
  • "Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness" by David Chalmers (1995)
  • The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes (1976)
  • "Routine Maintenance" by Meghan O'Gieblyn (Harper's; Jan. 2022)
  • "Babel" by Meghan O'Gieblyn (n+1; Summer 2021)
  • The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky (Simon & Schuster; 1986)
  • Job (Old Testament), 38:1 – 42:6
  • "The Google engineer who thinks the company's AI has come to life" by Nitasha Tiku (Washington Post; June 11, 2022)
  • The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1880)
  • "Will AI Achieve Consciousness? Wrong Question" by Daniel Dennett (WIRED; Feb. 19, 2019)


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    This episode was made by: 

    • Producer: Erikk Geannikis
    • Engineer: Patrick Boyd
    • Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall

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