The Importance of Receptivity in Communication

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In some sense, we human beings inevitably are closed off in our own way, right? We're in our heads. Our eyes or senses are perceiving the reality around us differently from the people around us inevitably. And I'm not sure about that reality thing. But isn't it the premise, for example, of Judaism that there is such a thing as a direct openness to reality?

In the early 1900s, the philosopher Henry Adams expressed concern about the rapid rate of social change ushered in by new technologies, from the railways to the telegraph and ultimately airplanes. If we transpose Adams's concerns onto the power of artificial intelligence--a power whose rate of acceleration would have exceeded his wildest dreams--you might feel a bit uneasy. Listen as philosopher Jacob Howland of UATX speaks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about why too much leisure is at best a mixed blessing, and how technology can lead to intellectual atrophy. They also speak about the role of AI in education and its implications for that most human of traits: curiosity. Finally, they discuss Howland's biggest concern when it comes to outsourcing our tasks, and our thinking, to machines: that we'll ultimately end up surrendering our own liberty.