Rachel Beijones' Next to Normal

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I saw an extraordinary performance of Next to Normal at the Kennedy Center a few years ago with Rachel Bay Jones, who's a musical performer. She had a cold, I could sense some challenges in her vocalization or singing, but she was magnificent. It requires an unbelievable vulnerability on stage. They have mentioned before at the intermission, it was total silence in the theater. People were so emotionally overwhelmed by this.

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.