8.09: Jurassic Park—Examined

Don’t go into science for the money: you will get killed by dinosaurs.

Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton (and the movie!)

We put dinosaurs mostly in the background and talk about what Crichton really wanted to discuss: the science/industrial complex, the limits of science to interpret or re-create nature, the limits of discovery, and disciplinary power.

• People trying to recreate mammoths in Siberia to fix … climate change?
• The world’s fastest supercomputer being used for climate simulations, among other things
• The wild tale of Anthony Levandoski’s self-driving cars corporate espionage
• Self-driving cars as a zero-sum game

We also mentioned the famous “you didn’t stop to consider whether you should…” quote in 6.11: Very Thoughtful Ethics Dogs.

Note that we’ve ended up changing plans since we recorded our Kurzweil episodes! We originally planned to read Simone Browne’s Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness, but decided to talk about our “background” reading so far!

• June: The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, Elizabeth Eisenstein
• July: Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness, Simone Brown

• “Pull Apart (feat. Samantha Eason)” by Summerooms
• “Winning Slowly Theme” by Chris Krycho

Many thanks to the people who help us make this show possible by their financial support! This month’s sponsors:

• Daniel Ellcey
• Douglas Campos
• Jake Grant
• Marnix Klooster
• Spencer Smith

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