The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott

In this episode I’m continuing my series on human enhancement. I’ve previously interviewed Guilia Dominijanni on her experiments on how people adapt successfully to adding a third robotic arm. Technology continues to advance in robotics, computing, and brain-machine interfaces opening a huge pandora’s box on the potential for future enhancements. To explore this I’m going to chat with a distinguished author who has explored the issue in depth. Joel Garreau is an explorer of culture, values, and change. He has published several books, including The Nine Nations of North America. Edge City: Life on the New Frontier, and Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies—and What It Means to Be Human. A long-time reporter and editor at The Washington Post, Joel is now Professor of Culture, Values and Emerging Technologies Emeritus at Arizona State University. Joel has served as a Future Tense Fellow at New America in Washington, D.C., and a fellow at Cambridge University, Oxford, the University of California at Berkeley and George Mason University and a Science Journalism Laureate at Purdue. He was a long-time member of Global Business Network, the pioneering scenario-planning organization, and is the troll of a small forest in the foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge. Support the podcast at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Join the Facebook discusssion @TheRationalView

In this episode I want to return to the theme of critical thinking. How can we teach people to immunize their minds? In the past I’ve interviewed two of the co-founders of the Mental Immunity Project, Andy Norman and Lee McIntyre to get their feedback on how to fight the pandemic of misinformation and disinformation that we are fed on social media. The Mental Immunity Project is an effort to vaccinate the minds of the public against viral misinformation. Today I’m interviewing the third co-founder of the project to learn about her work in fighting for a Rational View. Melanie Trecek-King is the creator of Thinking Is Power, an online critical thinking resource. She is an Associate Professor of Biology at Massasoit Community College, where she teaches a general-education science course designed to teach critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy.  As a speaker and consultant, she promotes her "teach skills, not facts" approach to fellow science educators, and assists organizations in achieving their goals through better thinking. The enthusiastic support of my listeners is what keeps me pumping out new and interesting content. Please consider becoming a patron at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Add your inputs on Facebook @TheRationalView #TheRationalView #podcast #criticalthinking #mentalimmunity #bias #disinformation

2023 was a big year for the perception and advancement of nuclear power not only in Canada, but globally. In this episode I am interviewing friend of The Rational View and fellow podcaster Dr. Chris Keefer to reminisce about the work his group, Canadians for Nuclear Energy has accomplished in the past year. Chris Keefer is an emergency physician, medical simulation educator, nuclear energy advocate and podcaster. He is the President of Canadians for Nuclear Energy and the Director of Doctors for Nuclear Energy and the host of the Decouple Podcast. Support the podcast at https://patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Give me your feedback on Facebook @TheRationalView Twix @AlScottRational Instagram @The_Rational_View #TheRationalView #podcast #nuclearenergy #candu #greenenergy #atomicenergy   

This episode is a Rational View review of 2023, and an outlook for 2024. Happy New Year! 2023 was a big year for yours truly in that I uprooted my family and moved to a new city, and I apologize for the interruptions that this entailed. I’ve finally gotten settled in my new home and it’s time to take stock and make new plans. If you are interested learning about The Rational View and are in need of a quick overview of last year's podcasts to decide where to start in then you've come to the right place. If you are a long-time listener, then I hope you enjoy reminiscing with me about the past year and are looking forward to a new year filled with more learning and evidence-based exploration of important issues. #TheRationalView #podcast #2023 #overview

In this episode I am returning to a topic that has become a favourite for pundits and trolls, and that is carbon dioxide. The near doubling of the atmospheric concentration of this colourless odourless gas has been identified by scientists as contributing to an accelerating heating of the biosphere that has significantly affected the climate.  As a by-product of one of our most lucrative industries, the burning of fossil fuels, CO2 has gained a lot of friends.  And because of that it is the subject of a targeted disinformation campaign, becoming headline political news.  This is a job for The Rational View. Bärbel Hönisch grew up in Germany and studied at the Universities of Bielefeld and Bremen, as well as the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven. She received her Diploma in Biology in 1999 and her PhD in Natural Sciences in 2002. After moving to the US, she held academic positions at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, the City University of New York at Queens College, the State University of New York in Stony Brook, and Bremen University. She joined the faculty of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University in 2007. She is interested in the effect of global carbon cycle perturbations on climate and the oceans, in particular past variations of seawater acidity and its relation to atmospheric CO2. As she was originally trained as a marine biologist, her research includes culture experiments with living marine calcifiers to validate proxies for past environmental conditions. She applies the resulting calibrations to reconstructing seawater carbonate chemistry and atmospheric CO2 variations through Earth history. Over the past 7 years she has led a consortium of paleo-CO2 proxy experts to compile, vet and modernize published paleo-CO2 estimates over the Cenozoic. Support the podcast at https://Patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Facebook @TheRationalView Twitter @AlScottRational

In this episode I am starting on a new interest—I want to talk about the emerging field of human enhancement.  Technology is allowing us to modify our bodies in ways that people only dreamed of in the past. We’ve discussed genetic enhancements in previous episodes, but in this thread I want to dig into the state of the art of and ethics of alterations, additions, and modifications. Giulia Dominijanni is a Ph.D. student at the Neuro-X-Institute and School of Engineering of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Neutouch International Training Network alumna. Her research focuses on developing bidirectional Human-Machine Interfaces for augmenting physical abilities, particularly through control strategies and sensory feedback approaches for extra robotic limbs aimed at human augmentation. Her doctoral studies included a visiting period at University College London and the University of Cambridge, where she studied the impact of a feet-controlled extra thumb on body representation and biological lower limbs abilities.  She holds a Master of Science in Bionics Engineering from the University of Pisa and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, and a Bachelor's degree in Clinical Engineering from La Sapienza University of Rome. Support the podcast at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Let's discuss bionic enhancements on facebook @TheRationalView Insta @The_Rational_View Twix @AlScottRational #TheRationalView #podcast #bionics #humanenhancement #prostheses #ethics

This episode is a re-release of a much earlier episode (#11). While I'm busy moving houses I wanted to follow on the theme of my last episode on preserving an inspiring and beautiful natural resource for future generations: the vista of the universe. Please enjoy my discussion with friend, amateur astronomer and dark sky enthusiast Rob Dick. Amateur astronomer and long-time RASC member Rob Dick is CEO of the Canadian Scotobiology Group, and CTO of EcoLights and a lecturer at the University of Ottawa. “For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream”: Vincent Van Gogh. Give me your feedback on Facebook @TheRationalView Twix @AlScottRational Instagram @The_Rational_View #TheRationalView #podcast #darkskies #scotobiology #Astronomy #lightpollution 

In this episode I’m returning to the insidious advance of light pollution and what we can all do to bring back the night sky. I’m now in Guelph Ontario and the municipality is considering introducing a light pollution by-law. If you also would like to see the stars at night from a population centre, this episode will help you to understand the issues and the best approaches to combatting the tragedy of the commons that is unabated artificial light at night. My guest today is Mr. Jim Goetz, a retired soldier with an interest in astronomy. He is the Vice President of the Kitchener-Waterloo Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. His current interest is the promotion of the coming Total Solar Eclipse on April 8 next year. Support The Rational View at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Share your opinions on Facebook @TheRationalView Twix @AlScottRational #TheRationalView #podcast #darkskies #lightpollution #bylaws 

Andy Vasily, host of Run Your Life podcast, discusses the nexus between artificial intelligence, learning, and sports psychology with Dr. Al Scott. They talk about consciousness, intelligence, training neural networks, the role of novelty in memory and performance, pitfalls of overthinking, and the interaction between consciousness and learning.

In this episode I’m going to go on a bit of a Rational Rant. It’s a pet peeve of mine, and probably of yours too, but today I’m jousting at the windmill of excessive banking fees and lack of customer service. So be prepared to let off some steam for a cathartic ride through the wonderful world of our banking system as I get back a little of what they take from us all. #TheRationalView #podcast #banking #gouging #justice #customerservice #service