For today’s episode, we look to the future with an eye to politics, tech, society, and humanity. First, Greg Palast stops by the studio as part of his three-day visit to Madison for the 18th annual Fighting Bob Fest. He outlines his opposition to siting F-35 jets in Madison—or anywhere—and briefly talks Trump, 2020, and voter suppression.
Then, media scholar Benjamin Peters gives us a little Artificial Intelligence 101—where this technology came from, what it looks like today, and why it neither promises a utopian future nor portends a dystopian one, complete with robot overlords. Throughout the hour, he makes the case for why questions about AI are really questions about our shared human values.
Greg Palast is the author of several New York Times bestsellers including The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse. He has done investigative reporting for BBC Television, The Guardian, Democracy Now!, and Rolling Stone. He directed the film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of the Stolen Election, available here.
Benjamin Peters is Hazel Rogers Associate Professor and Chair of Media Studies at the University of Tulsa and affiliated fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. He is the editor of Digital Keywords: A Vocabulary of Information Society and Culture (Princeton University Press, 2016) and author of How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet (MIT Press, 2016). He is currently working on a book on how tech became “smart” in the Cold War.
The Progressive and The Cap Times present Fighting Bob Fest 2019 Kickoff Event tonight, Friday, September 6 at 7:00 PM at the Barrymore Theatre (2090 Atwood Ave). Featured speakers include: Greg Palast, John Nichols, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Rep. Chris Taylor, Ruth Conniff, Bill Lueders, Raging Grannies, and Norman Stockwell. The event is free and open to the public. More information available here.
To learn more about the opposition to siting F-35s at Truax and read summaries of the National Guard’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), you can visit Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin’s website.
The public comment period on the EIS runs from now until September 27. You can submit your comments online here.
There will be a public meeting about the F-35 program on Thursday, September 12 at the Exhibition Hall at the Alliant Energy Center. An open house will be held from 5:00–6:30 PM. The National Guard Bureau and representatives of the 115th Fighter Wing will give a formal presentation from 6:30–8:00 PM. More information available here.
