SparkDialog

You’ve probably seen them. You’ve probably used them. Popular in Gmail and other messages platform like Slack or LinkedIn, they provide you with handy, if bland, suggested replies. Just a quick click sends a response, and you are on your way to sailing through your email inbox. But are smart replies really all that they are cracked up to be?

These “smart replies” are generated by an AI that parses through millions (billions?) of emails, calculating appropriate responses it can offer to you. Clicking on one of these pre-written responses might save you a second or two, but using them might give the impression that you don’t care that much. They might even homogenize us as a society, and can even be affecting how we think and how we interact with each other.

Today we’re talking to Jess Hohenstein. Jess is a PhD candidate working in the Robots in Groups Lab in Cornell University. She focuses on how AI mediates our communication and its affect on us humans.

Patrons of the podcast will be given the chance to play around with software that Jess and her group developed that utilizes smart replies. More information can be found on the Patreon page.

Some of the background music you heard are clips from:

WHEN THE SKY TURNS BLUE by BOCrew
Link: http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/BOCrew/31685
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Truth? by onlymeith
Link: http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/onlymeith/38010
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Kalte Ohren (septahelix remix) by septahelix
Link: http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/septahelix/59527
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Plucked Contemporary Boom by Kara Square
Link: http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/mindmapthat/43975
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Blue Like Venus by spinningmerkaba
Link: http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/jlbrock44/35724
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The post Ep 80: Smart Replies Aren’t So Smart – with guest Jess Hohenstein appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.

When it comes to the teaching of science, one of the most controversial topics is evolution, and one of the most controversial areas where it is taught is the deep south of the United States.  Teaching evolution in the south has been challenging.  Teachers skip it, and those that do teach it at best have students boycott their class, and at worse get serious pushback from parents, students, and administration.  Many students never learn this critical piece of scientific curriculum.  And according to state legislatures of many states in the south, “creation science” needs to be taught along with evolution.

How do we deal with this tricky situation?  Some scientists approach it this way: drown the students in facts.  Tell them they need to put their religion aside for the time being, or worse, that their religion is wrong.  Tell them science is the only way to see the true nature of the world.

But if you’re talking to someone who is deeply religious, someone whose religion is a huge part of their life, this approach is doomed to failure.

There must be a better way.

Today, I’m talking to Dr. Amanda Glaze-Crampes.  Amanda grew up in the deep south, loving science.  But when her science teacher skipped the chapter on evolution, she knew something was up.  Now, she is an Assistant Professor at Georgia Southern University and a specialist in evolutionary biology.  She does something very unique – exploring how best to teach evolution to evangelical Christians, what misconceptions they may have, explore any areas of distrust, and give them a place to learn without judgement.  She also shows that not every scientist is atheist – in fact, many religious are scientists, and learning science does not mean you have to give up your faith.

You can follow Amanda @EvoPhd.

Patrons of the podcast will be given some bonus content where Amanda talks more on her experiences. More information can be found on the Patreon page.

Some of the background music you heard are clips from:

Forgotten Land by Doxent Zsigmond

Still Pickin by Kevin MacLeod

Falling In by Psykick

Burning The Micro Waves by spinmeister

Little Candle by Stefan Kartenberg

Quiet the Mind Instrumental by Mr. Pepino

The post Ep 79: Evolution in the South – with guest Dr. Amanda Glaze-Crampes appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.

Listeners, I can say with about 100% certainty that you are being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (unless you were on the German TV show Big Brother).  I bet your world has been turned upside down.  I just want to say – you’re not alone.

Today I bring you just a short message.  I hope in two weeks I can get a normal episode to you.

In the meantime, stay safe and sane, and remember, we’re all in this together.

Patrons of the podcast will be given some bonus content on how to stay sane (and maybe even entertained) during this time. More information can be found on the Patreon page.

The post Ep 78: This Is Not A Normal Podcast Episode appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.

More than one million people live in poverty in this world, and many of those are malnourished.  Meanwhile, the population of the world keeps increasing.  Simply cutting down forests to make more farmland is not the solution to feed the world = as deforestation leads to increasing climate change and more and more species going extinct.  It looks like we have exceeded the capacity of this planet.

But is that really true?  What if I told you we could feed 10 billion people, maybe more?  This is completely plausible, as long as we understand the boundaries of our planet, which affect how we fertilize, grow, transport, and even eat food.

Today’s guest is Professor Dieter Gerten.  Dieter is a geographer and a hydrologist and the Head of the Working Group “Terrestrial Safe Operating Space” at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.  He is also a professor for Global Change Climatology and Hydrology at the Humboldt University of Berlin.  Dieter talks about how if we understand our planet’s boundaries, it’s possible to feed the world so no one has to go to bed hungry again.

Check out the bonus material for patrons of the podcast and learn how you can help feed the world at patreon.com/sparkdialog!

Some of the background music you heard were clips from Ianiscus by Javolenus, Guitalele’s Happy Place by Stefan Kartenberg, The Stars Look Different by spinningmerkaba, Two Pianos by Stefan Kartenberg, Jazzy Sax, Guitar, and Organ at the club by Admiral Bob, I Have Often Told You Stories by Ivan Chew (all licensed under CC by 3.0.).

The post Ep 77: Yes, It’s Possible To Feed The World – with guest Prof. Dieter Gerten appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.

It sounds crazy when you say it out loud.  Meteors are rocks from SPACE burning up in the atmosphere.  How did people ever figure THAT out?  Today, I’m talking about the history of meteor showers and discussing the fascinating journey of how people finally figured out what meteors were.   From those initial moments of terror of ancient cultures when they saw stars rain down from the sky like snow to the advent of the camera – what did people think meteors were throughout history?  And how did they finally figure out that they were from space?  I’ll also talk about the history-changing meteor shower of 1833 – during which 200,000 meteors fell during the course of the 9 hour storm.  That got everyone’s attention – from Joseph Smith to Abraham Lincoln to Harriet Tubman.

I did a lot of fascinating research on the history of meteor showers to put this episode together, so check out the references if you want to learn more!

Patrons of the podcast can also check out the beautiful gallery of meteors as well as learn about the next meteor shower coming up.

References

The Early Years of Meteor Observations in the USA

The Origin and Evolution of Meteor Showers and Meteoroid Streams 

How Ancient Cultures Explained Comets and Meteors

The Curious History of the Lyrid Meteor Shower

Wikipedia – Meteor Shower

Wikipedia – 1763 Great Meteor

Wikipedia – Meteoroid 

Wikipedia – Leonids 

The First Meteor Shower on Record

The Greatest Meteor Show of All Time

Meteor Showers and Shooting Stars: Formation, Facts, and Discovery

Leonid MAC

Some of the background music you heard were clips from Ethereal Space by snowflake, Between Worlds by Aussens@iter, Nanyang Journey By Ivan Chew, B34 by zikweb, and Dark Woods II by Ivan Chew (all licensed under CC by 3.0.).

The post Ep 76: How We Found Out Meteors Are Actually Little Rocks From Space Burning Up In The Atmosphere appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.

Are you looking forward to self-driving cars? Perhaps you love taking the curves of the road yourself, but more likely, you would relish a commute where you could read or catch up on the latest episode of “Mandalorian“.  But do you trust your self-driving car to get you to your destination safely?  What happens if there is a pedestrian in the way?  Would your car choose to protect your life over the pedestrian?  What if it was your child in the self-driving car?

Whether it’s your self-driving car, your smart speaker at home, or algorithms that decide if you are going to apply for a loan, we have to have a certain amount of trust in artificial intelligence.  But what does trust in AI look like?  And how is it different than the trust you have in an “unthinking” machine, like your washing machine, or another person?

Today on the podcast we welcome Dr. David Danks.  David is the Thurstone Professor of Philosophy and Psychology and the head of the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University.  He looks at what happens when humans and technology interact, particularly when that technology is given autonomy.  From everything from autonomous weapons systems to self-driving cars to algorithms that control so much of our lives – can we trust AI?

Patrons of the podcast will be given access to a bonus podcast episode where David talks further on some surprising ways that self-driving cars may affect society. More information can be found on the Patreon page.

Some of the background music you heard were clips from SUNBIRDS by BOCrew, Chapstick by Bradley27, Undercover by Karstenholymoly, The Sun Smiles on Lightsail 2 by Gurdonark, and SkyDub by Psykik (all licensed under CC by 3.0.).

The post Ep 75: From Self-Driving Cars to Autonomous Weapons Systems – Can We Trust AI? – with guest Dr. David Danks appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.

The statistics are staggering.  One million species are close to extinction.  No ecosystem is left untouched.  Corals in the sea, forests on a windy bluff, jungles, deserts.  The biodiversity of the Earth is declining at worrying rates.

What is causing this decline? Is it due to climate change, pollution, over-exploitation of resources, or something else? And what can we do about it?

To understand nature’s decline, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services , also known as IPBES, compiled a report.  The report is over one thousand pages long and contains the knowledge of over 450 authors from 50 countries.  It draws upon the knowledge of scientists, ecologists, economists, governmental agencies, and even aboriginal people to understand the biodiversity crisis.  

Today we are talking to three of the authors of this paper.

Dr. Kai Chan is a professor at the University of British Columbia in the Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability. Kai was a Coordinating Lead Author for the solutions and pathways chapter of the IPBES Global Assessment.

Dr. Pamela McElwee is an associate professor of human ecology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. She is an environmental anthropologist who has done extensive work in tropical Asia on human vulnerability to environmental change and the impacts of sustainable development policies.

Dr. Alex Pfaff is a Professor of Policy, Economics and the Environment at Duke University. His research examines how economic development and the environment affect each other and what that implies for best policies.

You can follow Kai at @KaiChanUBC, Pamela at @pammcelwee, and check out Alex’s website.

Looking for a way to make a difference?  You can also sign this petition which can act as an encouragement so that we will see the types of big-level change we need in our society to make a change.

Some of the background music you heard were clips from solar fractal by Quarkstar, reNovation by airtone, Chords For David by Pitx, nightRain by airtone, (all licensed under CC by 3.0.) and Too Cool from https://filmmusic.io by Kevin MacLeod  (https://incompetech.com) licensed under CC BY 4.0.

The post Ep 74: Is the Biodiversity of Earth Doomed? with guests Dr. Pamela McElwee, Dr. Kai Chan, and Dr. Alex Pfaff appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.

The newest seekers of immortality are on a radical quest: mind uploading.  These people think that it may be possible to take all of the information locked within the folds of creases of their brains and upload it to the internet.  Decoupled from their mortal bodies, they would be free forever. Free from suffering, free from pain, and free from death. It’s the ultimate step for the transhumanist.

This seems a bit far fetched, and perhaps it is.  Still, there are companies that seek to do exactly this.  And even great thinkers such as Stephen Hawking think it may be possible.

Today I’m joined by another great thinker, philosopher Dr. Michael Hauskeller.  Michael is a professor and the Head of the Philosophy department of the University of Liverpool in England.  He often grapples with concepts such as transhumanism, the philosophy of death, and today, talks to us about whether he thinks it’s possible to upload your mind to a computer.

Through this seemingly far-fetched concept of mind uploading, we delve into really deep philosophy such as what causes consciousness, what is the difference between the mind and the brain, and what fundamentally makes us human.

Check out Michael’s new book : The Meaning of Life and Death.

Some of the background music you heard were clips from https://filmmusic.io: Dreams Become Real, Skye Cuillin, and Dirt Rhodes by Kevin McCleod (https://incompetech.com) licensed under CC BY 4.0.  Other songs were clips from Melancholicose by Phazor and ukeSounds by airtone licensed under CC by 3.0.

The post Ep 73: Mind Uploading: The Key to Eternal Life? with guest Dr. Michael Hauskeller appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.

In 2015, the world came together and drafted the Paris Agreement.  We agreed to try to limit our emissions so that the overall global warming would not exceed two degrees.  An even more ambitious goal: warming would not exceed 1.5 degrees.  This doesn’t sound like much, but going over such a small increase on a global scale could be responsible for an increase in drought, wildfires, global weather patterns, and even entire nations disappearing under the rising ocean.

The bad news – we may have already passed the point of no return.  Reducing our emissions alone may not be enough to meet this goal.

But, there may be another way.  Today we’re talking to two scientists, Dr.Kári Helgason, a research project manager, and Dr. Bergur Sigfússon, a senior geoscientist, at Reykjavik Energy. Both are involved in an amazing project called CarbFix, whose goal is to actually reverse climate change.  CarbFix takes harmful gasses such as C02 and H2S that result from the production of energy, gases that would normally be released into the atmosphere.  Instead, CarbFix returns them underground, where they turn into rocks.  What’s more, this carbon-capture technology can be used to take preexisting greenhouse and toxic gases in the atmosphere and lock them in rocks as well.  When deployed on a large scale, this could actually help reverse climate change.

How does it work?  How much promise does this technology hold?  It’s a wonderfully exciting possibility – so let’s travel to Iceland to find how it all works!

You can follow the CarbFix project @CarbFix and the GECO Project @GecoProject.

Some of the background music you heard were clips from Spacial Winds by Kevin McCleod (https://incompetech.com) licensed under CC BY 4.0, Route 17 by djolliej licensed under CC by 3.0., SkyDub by Psykick licensed under CC by 3.0., I Dunno (Grapes of Wrath Mix) by spinningmerkaba licensed under CC by 3.0., and Start To Grow (cdk Mix) by Analog By Nature licensed under CC by 3.0.

The post Ep 72: Reversing Climate Change: Turning CO2 Into Rock – with guests Dr. Kári Helgason and Dr. Bergur Sigfússon appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.

Imagine that you have a mystical experience that changes your life.  Perhaps you see the face of Jesus, Muhammad, or Buddha.  Perhaps you feel the Universe pouring out love into your being.  Or perhaps you just feel immense peace.

Now imagine that this experience is actually the result of an epileptic seizure.  This is the case for many who undergo this unique type of seizure.  Instead of having a seizure that affects the parts of the brain that control muscle movements, their seizures affects different parts of their brain, leading to intense mystical experiences.  For epileptics with  mystical experiences, these experiences can be profound, life changing, and difficult for others to truly understand.

What causes these seizures?  What do they feel like?  Does having a scientific explanation detract from, or add to these experiences?

Today on the podcast we are joined by Dr. Joseph Tennant.  Joseph is a cultural psychologist specializing in the study of religion and morality. He has previously worked in the areas of epileptics with mystical experiences, mixed-methods research, and moral judgement among evangelicals and atheists in the US.

You can follow Joseph on Twitter @josephtennant.

Many thanks to our voice actor who played the part of Fyodor Dostoyevsky in this podcast, Andrey Shredder.  Some of the background music you heard were clips from Winding Into Gone by Dirk Ködderitzsch feat_Köddi licensed under CC by 3.0., and Virtutes Instrumenti, Lost Time, Black Vortex, Gymnopedie No. 1, and Day of Chaos by Kevin McCleod (https://incompetech.com) licensed under CC BY 4.0.

The post Ep 71: Epileptics with Mystical Experiences – with guest Dr. Joseph Tennant appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.