Cosmic Queries – The Joy of Tech

About This Episode

Love is in the air! Especially, but not limited to, our love of sports technology. On this episode of StarTalk Sports Edition, Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Gary O’Reilly and Chuck Nice answer your fan-submitted Cosmic Queries on the past, present, and future of sports technology. 

To help us understand all the concepts, ideas, and advancements happening in the sports tech world today, we’ve called in an expert – and it’s none other than Angela Ruggiero. Angela was an Olympic Gold Medalist with the United States Hockey team before moving on to become the CEO and Co-Founder of Sports Innovation Lab, a “technology powered market research firm focused on the intersection of sports and innovation with a focus on identifying trends and evaluating technology products and services that will drive the future of sport.” 

To start, we explore the development of quantum computing and whether it will have any impact on the sporting world. We discuss how computing is already helping NASCAR predict possible malfunctions with the cars and how this could further develop into preventing injuries. We investigate the use of biodata: how it’s being captured, what it can help us understand about athletes, and who owns the data once it’s out in the world. 

Find out how artificial intelligence is helping shape fan experience. Angela tells us about the importance of pleasing “fluid fans.” You’ll learn why, when sports teams build new stadiums, they’re building much more than a place to play the games. Could AI be used to call plays during the game? Could fans choose what plays to call? We ponder what the future fan experience looks like with the implementation of AI and Big Data. However, could AI and Big Data be seen as an unfair advantage to teams that aren’t able to incorporate them into their organizations?

We debate if athletes will require less talent in the future due to the advancements of sports tech. You’ll hear why the “Greatest of All Time” debate will be flawed no matter if it’s humans, computers, or both doing the debating. All that, plus, Angela shares why she thinks playing sports is one of the most impactful ways to learn and teach good human behavior. 

NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons and All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free.