The Stories We Tell Our Robots

Dr. Tobias Wilson-Bates raises the question about how tech businesses manage big change, particularly when they've gone from a Silicon Valley favorite to public enemy number one (ahem, Facebook). Darien discusses the concept of business pivots and why they have such value for later stage startups and even mature companies that are striving to continue to maintain their market shine.

Why does every major story of startup success seem to involve some major setback, even a failure. Darien and Dr. Tobias Wilson-Bates discuss the prevalence of failure narratives in tech startups and why it's easy to find historical examples, but always hard to see one as it happens. Toby raises the prospect that our view of failure may be perpetuating problems in tech, while Darien is happy to hold on to any myth that helps him push through, regardless of its validity.

Is art solely a human pursuit? Darien and Toby seek to answer this question by inviting former potter and current lead technologist Peter Kaiser to join the discussion. Peter shares his own experiences producing art and technology, and talks about the close link between these two fields. Toby asks whether a robot can produce art with a soul, and Darien just wonders whether robot art will actually sell.

As salacious details begin to emerge in the scandal of Cambridge Analytica, the predictive analytics company that has brought new scrutiny to the collection and use of "psychographic" profiling, Dr. Tobias Wilson-Bates and Darien attempt to predict what this means for the future of big data prophets (and profits). Toby finds a connection to "Oedipus at Colonus" (the "Return of the Jedi" of the Oedipus series). Darien wonders whether Cambridge Analytica might finally have made data analysis just a little bit sexy.

Dr. Tobias Wilson-Bates and Darien kick off their Two Guys and a Garage series, which explores the role that origin stories play in the world of technology and business. First stop: genesis stories. Darien breaks down the origin story formula into its core components, and Toby looks at how Charles Dickens used origin stories long before the rise of tech startups to establish his own business advantages.

Is the secret to racial equality just better technology? And can the technology of cinema be the path to a new, more powerful, more harmonious representation of black cultural identity. Dr. Tobias Wilson-Bates and Darien invite resident film scholar Dr. Candice Wilson to weigh in on the representation of black technology in the box office hit Black Panther and the complicated role of film as a technology for defining cultural representation.

To explore the new and rapidly changing world of virtual reality, Darien and Toby invite Stefan Muirhead to join the conversation. As founding principal and head of strategy at Ignition72, a digital firm that develops custom virtual reality experiences, Stefan gives his perspective on where virtual reality is coming from, where it's going, and the potential impact of the technology. Darien and Toby then discuss whether virtual reality will lead us to grand epiphanies and a broader social commitment, just like Scrooge, or whether we'll all just retreat to our rooms to live our own digital lives.

The robots are watching us. But who's watching the watchers? And could that be a problem?

Toby and Darien discuss whether John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost" might mean for how we assign responsibility for robots gone awry. Toby sees the apocalypse right around the corner. Darien just hopes he can still get a decent cappuccino.

Does predicting the future help us change it? Forecasts vary.

Why Dr. Tobias Wilson-Bates has fallen for a robot. And why Darien hasn't.

One coin to rule them all, and in the blockchain bind them

Are we not satisfied? Why our news wants to please us, and is that making us more miserable?

Why are these companies collecting so much of our information, and should we thank them for it?

Why do airline tickets always seem to get more expensive right when you need to buy them?