On The Fly

In this episode, what a 70-year-old sci-fi mystery teaches us. Welcome back to On the Fly. I’ve been looking for a clear way to explain how we should be handling Artificial Intelligence today. I finally found the answer hidden in a book I just finished. The twist? It was written more than seventy years ago. Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel was published in 1954, when a computer filled an entire room, consumed enough electricity to dim the neighborhood, and had roughly the computing power of today's microwave. Yet Asimov set his story nearly 3,000 years in the future—a world where humanity lives in sprawling enclosed cities (New York) and depends on advanced technology for nearly every aspect of daily life. The remarkable part isn't how much of the technology he imagined. It's how accurately he predicted us. In Asimov's future, society struggles with the introduction of highly sophisticated humanoid robots powered by "positronic brains." Naturally, a lou...

In this episode, Fascination . . . Why do people experience boredom? Have you ever pondered this question? I searched my dictionary for the word “bored," but it appears to have no meaning. Or maybe someone tore that page out? Anyway– Some may argue, "Come on, be realistic; surely there are moments when you can't find anything engaging to do." Obviously, we all experience times every day when we sit and stare with a glassy gaze, contemplating our world. When you decide to schedule some free time, I challenge you to pick up a book outside your usual reading habits. Lately, I've been intrigued by Isaac Asimov's short stories from the book Nightfall, which I mentioned in last week's On the Fly podcast.   Today, I read the 1954 story “It's Such a Beautiful Day." The story is set in a futuristic society (2117) where transportation is primarily done through teleportation devices called “Doors." The tale follows Dickie Hanshaw, a young boy who ...