released 7/21/2023

Inspired by current concerns about A. I. and the release of Christopher Nolan’s new film about J. Robert Oppenheimer, Ken Myers shares some paragraphs from Langdon Winner‘s seminal book, Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought (MIT Press, 1977) and from Roger Shattuck‘s Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography (St. Martin’s Press, 1996). An interview from Volume 24 with Shattuck is also retrieved.

(31 minutes)

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You can read excerpts from Roger Shattuck’s Forbidden Knowledge in two of our Sound thinking posts. Here Shattuck describes something of the inner struggles of J. Robert Oppenheimer as the consequences of the Manhattan Project became more evident. And here, Shattuck reflects on the fact that historical figures who are often regarded as great have frequently exhibited “an overweening resolve to reach beyond limits, particularly limits on knowledge, even at the risk of harming others.”

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