Future Tense

Artificial intelligence, it turns out, has a heavy human backend — they're called "data labellers"; they mostly live in developing countries, and there are ethical questions about their pay and work conditions. So, why aren't we talking more about them? Also, Google and other search companies have begun replacing hyperlinks with AI summaries. It's a move seemingly in line with our AI obsessed times, but what will it do to the tapestry of the internet? And will it simply make online information even harder to verify?

Guests

Dr Zena Assaad — Senior lecturer, School of Engineering, Australian National University

Professor Toby Walsh — Laureate Fellow and Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence, University of New South Wales

Dr Collin Jennings — writer and academic

Further information

Collin Jennings' article: A linkless internet

Does the spirit of the "Futurist" movement live on today in the likes of Elon Musk and America's intrigue of techno-oligarchs? The Italian poet and fantasist Flippo Tommaso Marinetti almost died in a car crash, and out of that experience was born the "Futurist" movement. It went on to inspire the fascism of Benito Mussolini with an energetic emphasis on disruptive technology, conflict and creating an authoritarian future.

Guests

Annalee Newitz — Journalist and author

Dr Jonathan White — Professor of politics, London School of Economics

Further information

Jonathan White’s article - How Trump and the new right came to ‘own’ the future – while apparently exploiting the past | Jonathan White | The Guardian

Annalee Newitz’s article – How futurism took an abrupt right turn in the 20th century

Does modern economic thinking act as a roadblock to change? Economists Kate Raworth and Rainer Kattel certainly think so. The alternatives they propose involve acknowledging limits not just obsessing about growth. And a caution from design and management expert Raz Godelink – it always pays to be skeptical when big business puts on the sustainability suit. 

Guests

Kate Raworth – Economist and co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab 

Raz Godelnik – Associate Professor of Strategic Design and Management at the School of Design Strategies, Parson's School of Design 

Rainer Kattel – Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London 

It certainly feels like a very shouty world. But have we really reached a new low point in civility? And, if so, where to from here?

We examine what civility really entails and how it can help foster cooperation but also lead to the submission of minorities.

And did you know that even the design of our urban spaces can shape and limit acts of civility? So, how can we make our cities more sociable?

Guests

Dr Eduardo Sadoval — Social Roboticist, UNSW

Dr Saara Liinamaa — Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Guelph. Also, co-investigator, Sociable Cities Project

Rafi Kohan — US-based freelance writer and author

Dr Keith Bybee — Professor of Law and Political Science, Syracuse University

Further information

Rafi Kohan - Trash Talk: The Only Book About Destroying Your Rivals That Isn’t Total Garbage

Keith Bybee - How Civility Works

When a company CEO can be paid 1,000 times the average employee's salary it's probably time to take a long hard look at wealth inequality. And those calling for the rich to pay more aren't always the ones you'd expect – Patriotic Millionaires is a group of mega rich individuals demanding greater, not lesser taxation. Then there's the Dutch philosopher urging ordinary citizens to put a cap on their own personal wealth. She calls her approach Limitarianism. Also, Rewilding the Internet – how to purify an online environment made toxic by monopolistic capitalism.

Original broadcast on June 21, 2024.

Guests

Dr Ingrid Robeyns – author, philosopher and Chair in Ethics of Institutions, Ethics Institute, Utrecht University (The Netherlands)

Robert Guest – Deputy Editor, The Economist

Morris Pearl – Chair of the Board, The Patriotic Millionaires

Professor Jean-Etienne Joullie — EMLV Business School, Paris

Maria Farrell – Writer and keynote speaker on technology and the future

Further information

Ingrid Robeyns: Limitarianism, The Case Against Extreme Wealth

Robert Guest: The fallacious case for abolishing the rich

Maria Farrell: We need to rewild the Internet

Listen to Future Tense - Managerialism and our obsession with hierarchy

Are we really facing an attention crisis? Historian, Daniel Immerwahr, has his doubts. In fact, he says ours is an era of obsession as much as distraction and of zeal as much as indifference. Also, the paradox of certainty: we crave it, argues the University of Alberta's, Timothy Caulfield, even though it's so easy to fake.

Guests

Daniel Immerwahr — author and Professor of History, Northwestern University and a contributing writer at The New Yorker

Timothy Caulfield — author and Professor of law, University of Alberta

Professor Gloria Mark — data scientist and psychologist, Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine

Further information

Timothy Coulfield: The Certainty Illusion. What You Don't Know and Why It Matters

Daniel Immerwahr's article on Attention

They're cheaper and safer than their lithium counterparts, they're easier to scale-up, and they can hold power for much longer than conventional batteries, so why aren't flow batteries better known? The technology has been under development for decades, but enthusiasts now say they're finding their place in the sun. Also, why more and more cargo companies are turning to wind-power; and do developing countries need to rethink their approach to off-grid power.

Guests

Emeritus Professor Maria Skyllas-Kazacos — School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, University of New South Wales

Emily Mahoney — Researcher, Malapit Lab, Northwestern University (US)

Adjunct Associate Professor Jens Noack — Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland

Associate Prof Paul Munro — Associate Professor in Human Geography, The Environment and Society Group, University of New South Wales

Gavin Allwright — Secretary General, International Windship Association

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is opening-up its storeroom, turning the back end of the operation into a public resource. It's about attracting new patrons, but it's also about accountability, the Museum's managers have declared. Across the Western world museums are having to reexamine their mission and redefine the relationship they have with the public they're meant to serve. We explore why and how. We also look at the balance that's being struck between the physical artefact and its digital equivalent.

Guests

Tim Reeve — Deputy Director, Victorian and Albert Museum, London

Dan Hicks — Professor of Contemporary Archaeology, Oxford University

Karin de Wild — Assistant Professor in Contemporary Museum and Collection Studies, Leiden University (The Netherlands)

Kylie Message-Jones — Professor of Public Humanities, ANU Humanities Research Centre

A series of massive underground tombs for nuclear waste are currently under construction. They've taken decades to plan and build and they're designed to house the world's nuclear waste for millennia to come. So where are they being built? How safe will they be? And how to devise a toxic waste warning sign that will make sense to people living tens of thousands of years from now?

Also, the latest research on how climate change is beginning to impact on internal migration within countries.

Guests

Mark Piesing — a UK-based freelance journalist

Dr Shastra Deo — Nuclear semiotics expert and author, School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland

Professor Raya Muttarak — Professor of Demography, University of Bologna (Italy)

Lisa — a climate-concerned resident of South-east Queensland

Further information

Mark Piesing's article: How to build a nuclear tomb to last millennia

Terms like "Gen Z", "Boomer" and "Millennial" are popular, but they have no basis in science. Demographers and social scientists are now pushing back. Generational labelling, they argue, is akin to Astrology and while politicians, journalists and media influencers find them irresistible, they actually promote pseudo-science, sew social division and can reinforce prejudicial stereotypes. So why are generational labels so popular?

Guests

Professor Bobby Duffy — Director of the Policy Institute, King's College London. Author of The Generation Myth.

Professor Philip Coen — Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland

Professor Crystal Abidin — digital anthropologist and ethnographer of vernacular internet cultures, Curtin University

Professor David Costanza — Professor of Commerce, University of Virginia

Further information

Philip Coen’s open letter to Pew Research Center on generation labels 

Pew Research Center's response