The Challenge of Driverless Cars Goes Far Beyond Safety

While engineers devise systems narrowly focused on safety, no one is grappling with the moral and enivornmental quandaries driverless cars pose.

By Samantha Maxwell | January 16, 2019 | Automation, Community, Environment, Ethics, Safety, Transportation | Autonomous Vehicles, Cities, Climate Change, Community, Driverless Cars, Emissions, Morality, Safety, Sprawl, Walkability

Is it Time to Separate Science From Technology?

While science and technology are usually paired in modern discourse, the false relationship hides ulterior motives.

By Olufemi Terry | May 30, 2018 | Culture, Knowledge, Philosophy, Religion, Society | Against the Grain, Agriculture, Climate Change, Daniel Kahneman, Darwin, David Keith, Ecomodernism, Elizabeth Kolbert, Elon Musk, Evolution, Extinction, Geoengineering, Inequality, Innovation, Inquiry, Intelligent Design, James C. Scott, Mars, Military-Industrial Complex, Obesity, Peter Thiel, Religion, Science, Sedentarism, Steven Pinker, Techno-optimism, Techno-utopians, Technology, Thought

Portland Becomes First US City to Stop Fossil Fuel Expansion

Responding to powerful grass-roots activism, Portland’s government passed a law, recently upheld by the Oregon Court of Appeals, to arrest further construction or expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in the city.

By Kevon Paynter | March 7, 2018 | Community, Environment, Government, Health, Law | 350.org, Activism, California, Carbon Dioxide, Chevron, Civil Disobedience, Climate Change, Climate March, Energy, Environmentalism, ExxonMobil, Fossil Fuels, Idaho, Kayaktivism, Natural Gas, Oil, Oregon, Pipelines, Political Action, Portland, Propane, Renewable Energy, Shell, Washington, Willamette River

How Climate Change Could Affect Culinary Culture

Climate change is already affecting agriculture. What will this mean for iconic food items that help define cultures? Can we gracefully adapt?

By Samantha Maxwell | August 2, 2017 | Agriculture, Culture, Environment, Food | Abby van den Berg, Agriculture, Canada, Chocolate, Climate Change, Coffee, Foliage, Food Collapse, Georgia, Global Warming, Identity, Lane Orchards, Maple Syrup, Maple Trees, Modernity, New England, Peaches, Pesticides, Pests, Proctor Maple Research Center, Timothy Perkins, Tom Okie, Tradition, Vermont, Water Shortages

Podcast #13: Julie Brigham-Grette, Climate Scientist

Julie Brigham-Grette has been studying climate history for decades; she gives it to us straight about what’s happening in the Arctic with warming and sea-level rise.

By Mo Lotman | July 19, 2017 | Environment, Podcasts | Alaska, Antartic, Arctic, Bering Strait, Chukchi Sea, Climate Change, Climate Record, Climate Science, Environment, Glaciation, Global Warming, Greenland, Ice Cores, Larsen Ice Shelf, Melting, Rob DeConto, Russia, Sea Ice, Sea Level, Sediment

Podcast #1: Lee Spector and the future of AI

Computer Scientist Lee Spector sits down with The Technoskeptic for a wide-ranging discussion about artificial intelligence, the dangers and benefits of machine learning, and what it means to be human.

By Mo Lotman | July 15, 2015 | Artificial Intelligence, Podcasts, Society | AI, Amazon, Automation, Climate Change, Consciousness, Evolutionary Computation, Lee Spector, Machine Learning, Netflix, Ray Kurzweil, Stephen Hawking, Stuart Armstrong, Subscriber