April 5, 2020 7:55 pm

Monday, Neil deGrasse Tyson Answers Questions on Robots with Chuck Nice and Kate Darling, PhD

One of the lessons quarantine has taught me is the value of being self-sufficient. Now, being self-sufficient in modern times is vastly different from, you know, hunting with a spear and creating fire for myself. But what will self-sufficiency look like in the future? Will humans need to be self-sufficient or will we end up like the “humans” in WALL-E – floating around in chairs while robots tend to our every need. We’re here to investigate.

On this week’s episode of StarTalk Radio, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice are together again with robot ethicist Kate Darling, PhD. Kate’s recent appearance on our episode C-3PO and the Rise of Robots, with Anthony Daniels, was so good we had to have her back for more. On this episode, we’re answering your fan-submitted Cosmic Queries about the relationship between humans and robots.

We start with one of the most iconic ideas in robotics – the Turing test. The Turing test is a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, a human. We discuss why a machine doesn’t have to be intelligent but only has to pass as intelligent. Kate tells us how chatbots can trick or manipulate the test to work in their favor. And, if a machine passes this test, is it entitled to the same rights as a human?

Find out why robots might be granted rights before animals, even though the conversation around both is very similar. We discuss what defines a robot. You’ll learn about the “think-sense-act paradigm.” We investigate why we project human emotions onto robots. You’ll also learn if robots will replace therapy animals, or if they’ve started to already.

Discover more about humanity’s resistance to automation. We ponder which jobs can be automated. Can a human pre-program a surgery to be done by a robot? Have we done this already? Lastly, we explore whether Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics are still accurate. All that, plus, you’ll hear why WALL-E is Kate’s favorite robot movie.

Please join us tomorrow for Cosmic Queries – Humans and Robots at 3pm ET right here on our website, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you’re a StarTalk+ Patron or an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free at 3pm, too.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
-Ian Mullen