Episodes
-
Sometimes, despite the hype, despite extensive funding, and despite clever and ingenious thinking, good ideas fail. Or at least don’t live up to their initial promise. There are lessons to be learnt and interesting anecdotes to be told. In this episode we look at four future-focused projects that have never really taken off: Google Glass, solar roads, space tourism and hyperloop technology.
Original broadcast on November 24, 2024.
Guests
Dr Paul Sutter – Astrophysicist, SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, New York
Sarah Marquart – freelance journalist, editor of From Quarks to Quasars
Andrew Hawkins – Transportation editor, The Verge
Quinn Myers – Chicago-based journalist and author 'Google Glass'
-
This is the program’s final episode and, as such, we look back over the past 17 years. What did the future look like back in 2009 when the show first aired? What have been the major trends during that time? Which predictions came to fruition and which didn’t? And what cautions do our guests have as we look ahead?
Guests
Mica Sifry – US-based writer and editor
Neema Singh Guliani – lawyer and policy expert
Cory Doctorow – Canadian-British blogger, journalist and sci-fi author
Professor Michael Mann – climatologist and geophysicist
Associate Professor James Dyke - Earth Systems Science, University of Exeter
Assistant Professor Sven Brodmerkel – Faculty of Society and Design, Bond University
Professor Quassim Cassam – Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick
Associate Professor Laura D’Olimpio – School of Education, University of Birmingham
Effy – chatbot user
Professor Frank Pasquale – Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School
-
Missing episodes?
-
How many of the articles you see on the internet are actually written by AI, not by humans? We'll give you a figure based on the latest research. Also, why is Google moving away from its well-established search-engine algorithm in favour of AI-generated summaries; The importance of remembering that urban planning isn't just about buildings, it's about people and spaces; And how digital technology is opening up a new relationship between humans and animals.
Guests
Megan Morrone – Tech editor, Axios
Dr Collin Jennings – academic and author
David George Holm – architect and author
Dr David Roberts - Associate Professor of Computer Science, North Carolina State University
Sari – the most adorable, black cat
-
Designing a futuristic city is a fraught task — a mixture of ambition, state of the art technology, inevitable budget blowouts and the need to not just inspire, but awe. We get an update on the progress of two mega metropolises — Xiongan in China and Neom in Saudi Arabia. Also, how a better understanding of the brain can help deter future conflicts.
Guests
Dr Andrew Stokols — Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, Singapore Management University
Eliot Brown — London-based reporter, Wall Street Journal
Dr Nicholas Wright — Neuroscientist, University College London and Georgetown University
-
The global Covid 19 lockdown may seem like an eternity ago, but the threat of another full-scale pandemic has never resided. Scientists warn that as the Arctic permafrost continues to melt ancient viruses and bacteria are gradually being freed from the ice. The risks are significant, but researchers are working to identify potential threats and better prepare the world for future pandemics. Uppermost in many minds is the need to ensure future global cooperation in the event of another zoonotic outbreak.
Original broadcast on March 26, 2023.
Guests
Dr Christine Prat – Director of Operations, European Virus Archive
Dr Jean-Michel Claverie – Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Aix-Marseille University
Dr Aaron Bernstein – Director, The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
-
Negotiations over a global treaty on microplastics have broken down. So, where to from here for one of the world's biggest environmental threats? We also get an update on new efforts to clean-up the cement production industry; and we look at AI chatbots and the increasing role they're playing as sources of advice and emotional support.
Guests
Dr Pratik Sachdeva — Senior Data Scientist, D-Lab, University of California, Berkeley
Dr Shababa Selim — Senior Technology Analyst, IDTechEX
Professor Paul Fennell — Professor of Clean Energy, Imperial College London
Professor Jill Newby — Clinical psychologist, The Black Dog Institute, University of New South Wales
-
It's exactly three years since ChatGPT burst onto the scene. In that short period of time the process of academic assessment has been in upheaval. Across the world educators are trying to address how students should be assessed and whether AI can be used for more than just helping a student to cheat. But a growing number of education researchers say the real emphasis should be on promoting critical thinking and ensuring future students learn how to learn.
Guests
Professor Dragan Gasevic — Head of the Centre for Learning Analytics, Monash University
Professor Neil Selwyn — School of Education, Culture and Society, Monash University
Professor Rupert Wegerif — Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
Professor Phillip Dawson — Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University
-
In this programme we hear three thoughtful perspectives on the threat digital technologies pose for democracy. Henry Farrell from Johns Hopkins University argues disinformation must be tackled at a group level, not an individual one. Philosopher, John Tasioulas, says modern representative democracy is too easily corrupted by big tech. And AI specialist, Marcus Beard, introduces us to the phenomenon he calls "slopaganda".
Guests
Professor John Tasioulas — ethicist and immediate former Director of the Institute for Ethics and AI, University of Oxford
Professor Henry Farrell — Political Scientist, Johns Hopkins University
Marcus Beard — Digital, disinformation and AI specialist, Fenimore Harper Communications
Further information
Henry Farrell - We're getting the social media crisis wrong
John Tasioulas - The classical key to the AI revolution
-
Long before AI dominated the media hype-cycle, self-driving cars surfed the hyperbolic wave. But fully automated vehicles have now been a long time in development, long enough that we've decided it's time for an update. So, how advanced is the technology and where is the demand? We also find out about consumer attitudes toward the "driver-assist" technologies that are now routinely fitted into modern cars. Surprise, surprise, it seems not everyone wants to be told how to drive.
Guests
Associate Professor Abdesalam Soudi — Sociolinguist, Department of Linguistics, University of Pittsburgh
Professor Michael Milford — Director of the Centre for Robotics, Queensland University of Technology
Associate Professor Milad Haghani — Principal Fellow in Urban Resilience & Mobility, University of Melbourne
Sönke Iwersen — Co-author of "The Tesla Files". Journalist for German business newspaper Handelsblatt
-
While technology platforms increasingly dictate the way we write and converse, language is being modified to fight back, to subvert the platforms. In this show we examine the growth of "algospeak". And if you want to know how we'll all be communicating in the future, just listen to the way teenage girls speak, because young women lead the ongoing development of language.
Original broadcast on July 7, 2024
Guests
Dr James Cohen – Assistant Professor, Media Studies, Queens College, City University of New York
Dr Sali Tagliamonte – Professor of linguistics and Chair of the Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto
Philip Seargeant – Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, Open University UK
Further information
Philip Seargeant's book "The Future Of Language"
-
We build more and more homes for growing urban populations. But doing so without providing much needed amenities doesn't serve our suburbs and the people who live in them. It risks confounding social isolation and urban sprawl. There's also climate change to consider. In a heating world, how do we plan our suburbs to deal with higher temperatures? Are the cities and suburbs of the future going to be livable for our children and our children's children?
Rob Kelly investigates
Guests
Andrew Crowe — Demographer for Australian Bureau of Statistics
Dr Annette Kroen — Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University
Professor Sebastian Pfautsch — Professor of Urban Planning and Management at Western Sydney University and co-lead in People-centred Sustainable Precinct Design at the Urban Transformations Research Centre
Dylan Reid — Urbanist, editor, writer and co-founder of Spacing Magazine
-
The remote Canadian island of Oikiqtaruk is disappearing fast, but its cultural and environmental heritage is being captured in digital form. We talk to those involved in the project about its ambition and their success to date. Also, recreating long lost cultural artefacts. For the Madrid-based organisation Factum Foundation it's a journey of reconnection — a way that future generations can celebrate and cherish the character of their past.
Guests
Richard Gordon — Senior Park Ranger, Herschel Island-Qikiqtaruk Territorial Park, Canada
Professor Peter Dawson — Dept. of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary
Adam Lowe — Director of Factum Arte and founder of Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation
Further information
Factum Foundation
Digitally Preserving Herschel Island-Qikiqtaruk Territorial Park
-
Australian rooftops are resplendent with solar panels, but sustainability expert, Martin Brueckner, warns the popular notion that we're rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuels is deceptive. When you add Australia's fossil fuels exports to our domestic energy usage, he says, it's clear that "decarbonisation is yet to begin in earnest". Also, whatever happened to the dream that Australia could become a world leader in Green Hydrogen production?
Guests
Alison Reeve — Energy and Climate change Program Director, Grattan Institute
Adjunct Associate Professor Madoc Sheehan — Researcher, James Cook University
Professor Matthew Hill — Head of Materials Science and Engineering, Monash University
Professor Martin Brueckner — Pro Vice Chancellor Sustainability, Murdoch University
-
Globalisation isn’t what it used to be thanks to the legacy of the Covid-19 lockdown and, more recently, Donald Trump’s weaponisation of tariffs. But while it’s often given a bad rap, globalisation is about more than just trade, it’s also about the international exchange of ideas and talent. So, is it dying, withering or simply transforming?
Listen to Future Tense - How to start your own golden age
Guests
Professor Richard Baldwin – International Economics, IMD Business School, Switzerland
Professor Nick Bisley – International relations, La Trobe University
Guy Miller – Chief Market Strategist and Economist, Zurich Insurance Group
Ariel Kastner - Head of Geopolitical Agenda, World Economic Forum
-
The European Union is implementing a groundbreaking new tax: a carbon border tax. It's meant to prevent distortions between countries with differing emissions standards and so to reduce emissions. But will it work? The same can be asked about the International Maritime Organisation's proposed new carbon levy on shipping. Also on the show, an update on the Great Green Wall — China's mass-tree-planting project; and measuring stress in trees to improve resilience.
Guests
Associate Professor Anna Trugman — Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara
Honorary Professor Peter Bridgewater — Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies, Australian National University
Professor Michael Brear — Director, Melbourne Energy Institute, University of Melbourne
Dr Sanjay Patnaik — Director, Center on Regulation and Markets, Brookings Institute
-
Existential risks to human life abound, from the threat of nuclear Armageddon; to an uninhabitable planet; or an AI-induced apocalypse. Understanding such risks and how we can best respond to them is the preoccupation of S. J. Beard. But the Cambridge University researcher also speaks of "existential hope", a way of addressing our fears without the doom and despair. Also, Monash University's, Neil Selwyn, makes the call for what he terms "digital degrowth" — decoupling our online world from the shackles of consumer capitalism.
Guests
Dr S. J. Beard — Senior Research Associate, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Cambridge University
Professor Neil Selwyn — Faculty of Education, Monash University
Further information
S.J. Beard - Existential Hope
Neil Selwyn - Digital Degrowth: Radically Rethinking our Digital Futures
-
We're now halfway through the UN-designated "Ocean Decade" — new research initiatives have been launched, and global cooperation has been strengthened as scientists work to learn more about our oceans and to harness their potential in the fight against adverse climate change. But there are still questions to be answered:
How firm are the commitments made under the Ocean Decade arrangement?Why are many countries still lagging behind in ratifying the "High Seas" treaty?And what will a reduction in US funding mean for ongoing ocean research?
Also, the ocean-going drones deployed to improve climate monitoring; and a new system for helping ships navigate more efficiently.
Guests
Julian Barbiere — Head of the Marine Policy and Regional Coordination Section, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, UNESCO; also Ocean Decade Coordinator
Dr Meghan Cronin — Research Oceanographer, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory; and co-chair of the Observing Air-Sea Interactions Strategy (OASIS), an endorsed programme of the UN Ocean Decade
Dr Shane Keating — Associate professor, University of New South Wales; also founder of the company CounterCurrent
Dr Sarah Lothian — Senior lecturer and Academic Barrister, Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, University of Wollongong
Further information
UN Ocean Decade
Sarah Lothian — Marine Conservation and International Law, Legal Instruments for Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction
-
Humans have an evolutionary bias toward seeking convenience, experts say. But what happens when the desire for convenience becomes a dominant social and economic expectation? Future Tense explores the hidden costs of convenience for the environment and the economy. Making things too easy can in fact be bad for you.
Guests
Alison Angus — Head of Practice – Innovation Research, Euromonitor
Dr Paul Harrison — Director of MBA Programme, Deakin University. Unit Chair of Consumer Behaviour, Department of Marketing, Deakin Business School
Sloan Wilkins — Founder and Financial Coach, Everyday Money Live
Dr Alex Curmi — Consultant psychiatrist
Chris Williams — Founder and Chief Executive, ISB Global
-
Policing has always embraced new technologies and Artificial Intelligence is, of course, the flavour of the month. Working out when and why it should be used is crucial, according to law enforcement specialists. What’s also important is ensuring appropriate human oversight.
Future Tense - The creeping militarisation of our police
Guests
Dr Marion Oswald – Professor of Law, Northumbria University
Philip Lukens – Former Police Chief, Alliance, Nebraska. Data-driven policing analyst
Dr Nick Evans – Lecturer and researcher, Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies, University of Tasmania
Dr Terry Goldsworthy – Associate Professor in Criminology, Bond University
-
How real is the link between Artificial Intelligence and increased productivity? Jon Whittle from the CSIRO, one of Australia's leading science agencies, has been examining the latest research. He helps us sort facts from fiction. Also, literacy and problem-solving skills have taken a dive in many developed countries — could an over-reliance on technology be part of the problem? And why understanding the literary style "Magic Realism" could help in developing better regulation for AI.
Guests
Jovan Kurbalija — Executive Director, Diplo Foundation
Professor Jon Whittle — Data61 Director, CSIRO
Andreas Schleicher — Director for Education and Skills, OECD
- Show more
