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 To the Best of Our Knowledge

A Four Part Series from TTBOOK!

PRI
Public Radio International

WPR
Wisconsin Public Radio

 

 
spacer from Wisconsin Public Radio  


PART ONE: OUR COMPUTERS

Program 09-03-22-A

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Imagine a child in Uruguay, who lives in a village with no electricity and no running water. Now imagine giving that young girl her very own solar-powered laptop with a satellite link to the internet. People used to tell Nicholas Negroponte his dream of a hundred-dollar laptop would never work. Today, hundred dollar laptops are changing the lives of children and adults in third world countries all over the planet. We’ll meet Negroponte in this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge. We’ll also meet some video game visionaries and get a glimpse of our cyborg future.

SEGMENT 1:

We hear how some first grade children in Madison, Wisconsin, are getting acquainted with their first computers, then hear Anne Strainchamps speak with Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop Per Child, a non-profit association. Negroponte is the co-founder of the MIT Media Lab and is out to change the world by giving laptops to kids in places too remote to have electricity.

SEGMENT 2:

We hear a mashup featuring the work of hiphop musician DJ Spooky and musician Gregg Gillis, who goes by the stage name "Girl Talk." Also, Lawrence Lessig is one of the founders of Creative Commons and the author of "Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy." He tells Steve Paulson that our current copyright law is far too restrictive and stifles creativity. Also, video game designer Jason Rohrer tells Anne Strainchamps about his game "Passage," which is about mortality, not just an adrenalin rush.

SEGMENT 3:

Sherry Turkle is the author of the classic "The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit" and she's the founder and Director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. She talks with Jim Fleming about the ways in which we are already developing relationships with personal robotic devices from cellphones and iPods to toys like the Furby and My Real Baby. Also, James Hughes is a sociologist, an ordained Buddhist monk, and Executive Director of the World Transhumanist Association. His book is "Citizen Cyborg." Hughes tells Steve Paulson that he looks forward to the day when we figure out how to merge our human flesh with our computer technology.

 

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 09-03-22-A.

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Books & CDs:

Lawrence Lessig, Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (The Penguin Press)

Sherry Turkle, Simulation and Its Discontents: Design, Technology, Business, Life with Essays by William J. Clancey, Stefan Helmreich, Yanni A. Loukissas and Natasha Myers (MIT Press)
Sherry Turkle, The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (MIT Press)
James Hughes, Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond To The Redesigned Human Of The Future (Basic Books)

Websites:

Clips:

Music:

Distribution dates:
week of 12/06/2009 - hour 2
week of 03/22/2009 - hour 1
click HERE for timings and cues

 Listen!

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org
     


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