PODCAST · technology
Computing Up
by Dave Ackley
Conversations about computation writ large, with Michael Littman and Dave Ackley.
Episodes
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Benjamin J. Kuipers: On Space and Time and GOFAI - 78th Conversation
Ben Kuipers, emeritus professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan (🔗, 🔗, 🔗), joins Michael and Dave in a nerdly yet accessible conversation on topics ranging from Good Old-Fashioned AI, to how we understand space and time, to ethics and trust in...
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Efficiency, Resilience, & Robustness With Moshe Vardi - 77th Conversation
Moshe Vardi (🔗, 🔗, 🔗), the Karen Ostrum George Distinguished Service Professor in Computational Engineering at Rice University, and a multi-award-winning force in theoretical computer science, joins Michael and Dave in a wide-ranging conversation about robustness and resilience in computer...
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Computing Then And Now with Joy Lisi Rankin - 76th Conversation
Dr. Joy Lisi Rankin (🔗, 🔗, 🔗, 🔗), an author, historian, and academic, joins Michael and Dave in a fast conversation about the history of computing and its systemic biases from the '60s to the techbros of today, and much more. [Cover based on an image used by permission of Joy Rankin] Note…
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Collecting Cognition with Steve Sloman - 75th Conversation
Cognitive scientist and psychologist Professor Steve Sloman of Brown University (🔗, 🔗, 🔗) joins Michael and Dave in a fun romp through connectionism, collective cognition, the illusion of understanding, and much more. Also, Dave illustrates his illusion of understanding of a bicycle in a true...
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Manon Revel: Is Democracy a Comma in History? - 74th Conversation
Manon Revel (🔗, 🔗, 🔗), an Employee Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, joins Michael and Dave for a conversation about the past, present, and future of democracy, and ways to understand it in both computational and practical terms. [Thumbnail based…
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Martha White: Sparse is Rich - 73rd Conversation
Martha White, associate professor of Computing Science at University of Alberta (🔗, 🔗) joins Michael and Dave in a conversation about AI, system prediction and control, the power of sparse representations, and many aspects of machine learning from new mathematical theory to the absolutely...
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Rich Sutton Brings Reinforcements - 72nd Conversation
Computer scientist Rich Sutton, FRS (🔗, 🔗, 🔗), a quiet giant of machine learning, joins Michael and Dave in a sprawling conversation touching on reinforcement learning, a hopeful view of AI, the importance of ideas, and a host of other topics. [Thumbnail image used courtesy of Rich Sutton]
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The Living Computation Theory of Everything - 71st Conversation
Michael interviews Dave about his recent video (YouTube) on a 'theory of everything'. The conversation begins with Michael praising Dave for finally doing some theory, and descends from there.
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Oren Etzioni All Over - 70th Conversation
Oren Etzioni, founding CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at University of Washington, (🔗, 🔗, 🔗) joins Michael and Dave in a conversation that ranges all over, from AI hype and language models to alignment and existential risk and...
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Beautiful Messiness with Jonathan Frankle - 69th Conversation
Jonathan Frankle, the new Chief Scientist - Neural Networks at Databricks (🔗, 🔗, 🔗), joins Michael and Dave in a fast conversation about topics ranging from AI risks and fairness to the problems of Computer Science education to the beautiful messiness of modern deep learning. [Thumbnail based…
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Love Hate Writing - 68th Conversation
Michael and Dave talk about their love and hate relationships with writing, in the context of Dave's foray into publishing "Companionate Caring" and Michael's upcoming MIT Press book "Code to Joy". (This conversation is Part 2 of Where The Hell Have Michael & Dave Been?)
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Busy Busy / Let's Blame AI - 67th Conversation
Michael and Dave catch up on where the hell they've been for the last couple months. (Mostly it's about busy, but Dave wants to blame everything on AI.)
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Michael Levin TAMEs Life - 66th Conversation
Michael Levin (🔗, 🔗, 🔗) is the director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, and Distinguished Professor of Biology and Vannevar Bush Chair, among several other roles. In this episode he talks with Michael and Dave about computing writ very large indeed, with topics ranging from...
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The Understandable Cynthia Rudin - 65th Conversation
Cynthia Rudin, the Earl D. McLean, Jr. Professor of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Statistical Science, Mathematics,and Biostatistics & Bioinformatics at Duke University (🔗, 🔗, 🔗), joins Michael and Dave for a fast and feisty conversation about how to make machines we…
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Vukosi Marivate: Deep Learning Africa - 64th Conversation
Vukosi Marivate, Associate Professor of Computer Science and ABSA UP Chair of Data Science at the University of Pretoria (🔗, 🔗, 🔗), joins Michael and Dave for a discussion of AI and machine learning research across Africa and around the world, and the challenges of centralization and…
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Andrew Davison's grand SLAM - 63rd Conversation
Andrew Davison is Professor of Robot Vision (🔗) at Imperial College London, and leads the Dyson Robotics Laboratory (🔗). Andrew invented the SLAM algorithm for robot mapping and navigation, and as this fast conversation makes clear, Dave and Michael are both big fans. [Thumbnail based on image...
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John Twelve Hawks - 62nd Conversation
Reclusive New York Times best-selling author John Twelve Hawks (🔗, 🔗 , 🔗) joins Michael and Dave to discuss problems of the world today and possibilities of the world tomorrow -- including AI risks, technological centralization, machines acting like people and people acting like machines, sex...
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Peter Norvig: AI Then And Now - 61st Conversation
Peter Norvig 🔗, who literally (co)wrote the book 🔗 on Artificial Intelligence in the 1990s, talks with Michael and Dave about how the field has changed over the years, AI fairness and ethics, what is a symbol, and much more. [Cover image based on "Peter Norvig in 2019 at the Interval" 🔗 ,...
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Minds, Brains, & Morals with Oriel FeldmanHall - 60th Conversation
Oriel FeldmanHall, Brown University assistant professor and director of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Lab (🔗, 🔗), joins Michael and Dave in a wide-ranging discussion starting with what reinforcement learning does and doesn't mean -- and she turns the tables to ask what computer…
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Agency IoT Loyalty - 59th Conversation
Michael and Dave tackle the big questions and settle two of them: Is Agency A Zero Sum Game? Why Do (Internet of) Things Suck? How Can We Turn Computation Away From Centralization? [Image of ancient Philips Hue Controller operating without internet access, used by permission of Dave the owner]
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James Tompkin Does Visual Computing Research - 58th Conversation
James Tompkin 🔗, assistant Professor of Computer Science at Brown University 🔗, joins Michael and Dave to talk about visual computing research writ large, with topics ranging from the relevance of traditional computer graphics in the era of machine learning, to differentiable rendering and…
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Ellie Pavlick: As Artificial Intelligence Meets Natural Language - 57th Conversation
Ellie Pavlick, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Brown University (🔗) and Research Scientist at Google AI (🔗), joins Michael and Dave in a quick discussion of the remarkable new large AI language models. Topics range from what is and isn't known about the models, and by them, to if or...
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Andrew Critch on AI - 56th Conversation
Andrew Critch (🔗), a mathematician, AI researcher, organizer and activist (cofounder 🔗, researcher 🔗, cofounder 🔗), joins Michael and Dave for a fast-moving fifty minutes about existential risks (and opportunities) of AI and other technologies, the limits of intelligence, and the importance…
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What is the Self Image? - 55th Conversation
Dave tries to explain why he thinks the best way to understand people and other living things is via computation and programming languages, via codebases and code transmissions. Michael tries to help Dave sound slightly sane. [Image based on still frame from "We Are Coders"]
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Bad Ideas and Dangerous Thoughts with Fiery Cushman - 54th Conversation
Fiery Cushman @fierycushman, professor of psychology at Harvard University 🔗, joins Michael and Dave in a wonderful conversation about morality seen both cognitively and computationally, with topics ranging from trolley problems and fake guns to the wisdom of the ancestors and the hubris of...
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Neil Lawrence All Over the Map - 53rd Conversation
Neil Lawrence (home, @lawrennd), the DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge, joins Michael and Dave for a rollicking hour discussing everything from cybernetics to machine learning, from oil rigs to New Jersey shopping malls, from inconsistent scientific reviewing…
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Carla Brodley: From Machine Learning to Inclusive Computing - 52nd Conversation
Carla Brodley, professor and Dean of Inclusive Computing at Northeastern University (link), talks to Michael and Dave about applying Machine Learning to real problems from computer security to medicine, and how to move the needle for diversity, equity, access, and belonging in Computer Science...
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Karen Levy Keeps On Trucking - 51st Conversation
Karen Levy, assistant professor in Information Science at Cornell University, joins Michael and Dave in a conversation ranging from AI, law, and smart contracts to CB radio, Road Dog Trucking, and Santa's narcs.
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Anita Nikolich: From Three Letter Agency to AI Security - 50th Conversation
Anita Nikolich, Director of Research and Technology Innovation at the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences (webpage), joins Michael and Dave in a conversation ranging over decades and disciplines, from computer network security and the DEFCON hacker conferences to creating games...
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More than Games with Michael Bowling - 49th Conversation
Michael Bowling, professor of Computer Science at the University of Alberta, talks with Michael and Dave about robots playing robots at soccer, and how a computer program beat professional poker players at heads-up no-limit Texas Hold'em, and what it all means. [Image courtesy of Michael Bowling]
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The Embodied George Konidaris - 48th Conversation
Michael and Dave talk to George Konidaris, assistant professor and director of the Intelligent Robot Lab at Brown University, about building generally intelligent robots, or anyway trying, and the importance of both embodiment and abstraction in artificial intelligence. [Title image courtesy of...
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Mike Lesk: Data Scientist OG - 47th Conversation
Rutgers Professor Michael Lesk talks to Michael and Dave about everything from computing and information retrieval in the 1960s, to railroad signaling and recognizing giraffes, to the difference between astronomers and computer scientists, to Colonial Pipeline and the real AI challenge. [Title...
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Closing Triangles with Tina Eliassi-Rad - 46th Conversation
Professor Tina Eliassi-Rad of Northeastern's Network Science Institute talks with Michael and Dave about topics ranging from graph structures and machine learning to AI ethics and the nature of democracy. [Title image courtesy of Tina Eliassi-Rad]
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Glum About Tech - 45th Conversation
Dave is feeling glum about technology -- and by extension about the impacts of computer science, the exploitation of science in general, and the hope for sustainability and truth in society. Michael helps sort it all out.
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Computing Penguins with Heather Lynch - 44th Conversation
Michael and Dave talk to Heather J. Lynch, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University, about awards and leaving physics, about saving penguins and the planet, and more.
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Heather Lane Beyond Academia - 43rd Conversation
Heather Lane, machine learning researcher and senior architect at athenahealth, joins Dave and Michael in a talk of many things, of the thermodynamics of life, of the US healthcare industry and life after academia, of coming out as transgender.
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Fil Menczer: From Artificial Life To Social Bots - 42nd Conversation
Fil Menczer, professor and director of the Observatory on Social Media at Indiana University, joined Michael and Dave on the day after the 2020 USA presidential election. Fil revealed how his 1990s Artificial Life research set the stage for his current work, focusing not just on the facts of...
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Jeff Bigham: Humanizing AI - 41st Conversation
Jeff Bigham, an Associate Professor at Carnegie-Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, joins Michael and Dave in a wide-ranging discussion of human-computer interactions, AI threats and opportunities, and systems and organizations made of both computers and humans. [Episode transcript...
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The Reward Function and the Structure of Meaning - 40th conversation
Michael and Dave discuss the meaning of the reward function, and its consequences for AI and human society.
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Entering Hyperspace - 39th Conversation
Dave tries to explain his "We are coders" approach to cognition to Michael, as part of developing the second lecture in the "Introduction to Classical Hyperspace" series. First lecture
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Channeling Hari Seldon for Safer and Fairer AI - Computing Up 38th Conversation
Computer scientists Emma Brunskill of Stanford and Phil Thomas of UMass Amherst join Michael and Dave in a four-way discussion of safety and fairness in AI and machine learning. [The primary paper discussed, Preventing undesirable behavior of intelligent machines, is by Philip S. Thomas, Bruno...
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Jenna Burrell Has Some Thoughts - Computing Up 37th Conversation
Michael and Dave talk with UC Berkeley sociologist Jenna Burrell about topics ranging from algorithmic fairness and transparency, to anthropology and epistemology, to viral tweets and why small is beautiful. [Title image courtesy of Jenna Burrell]
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Cranky About Theory - Computing Up 36th conversation
Dave hates theory. Michael disagrees.
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Catching up with Peter Winkler - Computing Up 35th conversation
Michael and Dave talk with mathematician, computer scientist, and puzzle maker Peter Winkler, about topics ranging from randomness to free will, and combinatorics to Sleeping Beauty, and John Horton Conway to Erdős number 1. And don't miss the bonus puzzle! Conway's (first) Princeton Lecture…
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Artificial Death - Computing Up 34th Conversation
Michael and Dave talk about pandemic models and simulation journalism, programming languages, and what people really want. Washington Post's simulator is here
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The Multilevel Michael Frank - Computing Up 33rd Conversation
Michael and Dave talk to Brown University neuroscientist Michael J Frank about topics from brains and minds, to engineering and machine learning, to dopamine and Parkinson's disease and New Age woo.
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Melanie Moses Scales Up - Computing Up 32nd Conversation
Computer scientist and biologist Melanie Moses joins Michael and Dave in a conversation ranging from biology nerds vs computing nerds to the future of justice in the United States, with a whole lot of scaling along the way.
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Michael Carbin Computes the Winning Ticket & More - Computing Up 31st Conversation
Michael Carbin, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, joins Michael and Dave to discuss neural net lottery tickets, computing with uncertainty and more. [Cover photo courtesy of Michael Carbin]
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Zander Furnas on Politics as Computation - Computing Up Thirtieth Conversation
Zander Furnas helps Dave get a clue about political science, in theory and in practice -- from authoritarianism to democracy, and from Congressional staffer's incentives to Elizabeth Warren's plan for lobbyists, and whether there's hope for society after all. [Background image by...
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Living Computation and Society - Computing Up Twenty-Ninth Conversation
Dave and Michael revisit the meaning of life (the subject of the second Computing Up conversation) in the context of politics and society and human destiny. [Photo by Jeffrey Lee on Unsplash]
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Conversations about computation writ large, with Michael Littman and Dave Ackley.
HOSTED BY
Dave Ackley
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Computing Up have?
Computing Up currently has 79 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Computing Up about?
Conversations about computation writ large, with Michael Littman and Dave Ackley.
How often does Computing Up release new episodes?
Computing Up has 79 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Computing Up?
You can listen to Computing Up on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Computing Up?
Computing Up is created and hosted by Dave Ackley.
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