Computing Up

Latest Episodes:

Channeling Hari Seldon for Safer and Fairer AI - Computing Up 38th Conversation Aug 01, 2020

Show notes

Computer scientists Emma Brunskill of Stanford and Phil Thomas of UMass Amherst join Michael and Dave in a four-way discussion of safety and fairness in AI and machine learning.

[The primary paper discussed, Preventing undesirable behavior of intelligent machines, is by Philip S. Thomas, Bruno Castro da Silva, Andrew G. Barto, Stephen Giguere, Yuriy Brun, and Emma Brunskill, and can be accessed for free via paper in Science ]

Jenna Burrell Has Some Thoughts - Computing Up 37th Conversation Jul 06, 2020

Show notes

Michael and Dave talk with UC Berkeley sociologist Jenna Burrell about topics ranging from algorithmic fairness and transparency, to anthropology and epistemology, to viral tweets and why small is beautiful.

[Title image courtesy of Jenna Burrell]

Cranky About Theory - Computing Up 36th conversation Jun 07, 2020

Show notes

Dave hates theory. Michael disagrees.

Catching up with Peter Winkler - Computing Up 35th conversation May 03, 2020

Show notes

Michael and Dave talk with mathematician, computer scientist, and puzzle maker Peter Winkler, about topics ranging from randomness to free will, and combinatorics to Sleeping Beauty, and John Horton Conway to Erdős number 1. And don't miss the bonus puzzle!

Conway's (first) Princeton Lecture

[Title photo courtesy of Peter Winkler]

Artificial Death - Computing Up 34th Conversation Apr 01, 2020

Show notes

Michael and Dave talk about pandemic models and simulation journalism, programming languages, and what people really want.

Washington Post's simulator is here

The Multilevel Michael Frank - Computing Up 33rd Conversation Mar 01, 2020

Show notes

Michael and Dave talk to Brown University neuroscientist Michael J Frank about topics from brains and minds, to engineering and machine learning, to dopamine and Parkinson's disease and New Age woo.

Melanie Moses Scales Up - Computing Up 32nd Conversation Feb 01, 2020

Show notes

Computer scientist and biologist Melanie Moses joins Michael and Dave in a conversation ranging from biology nerds vs computing nerds to the future of justice in the United States, with a whole lot of scaling along the way.

Michael Carbin Computes the Winning Ticket & More - Computing Up 31st Conversation Jan 01, 2020

Show notes

Michael Carbin, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, joins Michael and Dave to discuss neural net lottery tickets, computing with uncertainty and more.

[Cover photo courtesy of Michael Carbin]

Zander Furnas on Politics as Computation - Computing Up Thirtieth Conversation Dec 01, 2019

Show notes

Zander Furnas helps Dave get a clue about political science, in theory and in practice -- from authoritarianism to democracy, and from Congressional staffer's incentives to Elizabeth Warren's plan for lobbyists, and whether there's hope for society after all.

[Background image by www.GAUPERphoto.com used by permission of Zander Furnas]

Living Computation and Society - Computing Up Twenty-Ninth Conversation Nov 02, 2019

Show notes

Dave and Michael revisit the meaning of life (the subject of the second Computing Up conversation) in the context of politics and society and human destiny.

[Photo by Jeffrey Lee on Unsplash]

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected