(Photo credit @juliusdrost)
On Sunday, I was listening to the latest episode of ‘This American Life’ - one of my *favorite* podcasts for its fantastic ability to tell unique stories. I like to visualize the narrative arc included in each episode (and in each ‘act’ within the episode). This episode’s title was ‘The Magic Show’ and I enjoyed hearing the backstory for how magic tricks are constructed -- and how crucial story-telling is for a mind-blowing magic trick. I remember experimenting with a magic kit as a kid -- and I loved showing off my (clumsy) ability to make a scarf disappear from my hand. Good career coaches are a bit like magicians -- helping you pull together seemingly disparate aspects of your background until -- poof! -- a compelling pitch appears. But as any good magician will tell you -- you need to practice over and over and over...and sometimes you drop the ball instead of palming it.
#random
I highly recommend listening to The Magic Show podcast episode - a completely enjoyable way to spend an hour and might even spark some long-dormant magical yearnings.
#techtopic
Sometimes, tech innovations can seem like magic. Fifty-odd years later, the Apollo 11 moon landing is considered both a magic moment and a feat of technological and scientific innovation. I am also continually impressed by the new feats achieved by AI. After ‘listening’ to thousands of recorded coughs, an AI can now diagnose covid19 from just the sound of a cough (and even for those who are asymptomatic!) Not only are balloons bringing internet to rural areas of the world...but an AI has been developed to allow a Loon balloon to take in wind speed & direction inputs and raise or lower the balloon accordingly. AI also recently solved a 50-year-old biology challenge known as the ‘protein folding problem’ -- helping biologists determine how and why certain proteins fold themselves into certain shapes. Behind all of these seemingly magical feats is ridiculous amounts of hard work.
While I don’t want to lose the awe and wonder behind many tech innovations, I know more people in the general public need to understand the narrative behind the “magic.” If people don’t understand how drones work and the software that runs them is developed, then we could end up unknowingly subverting our own privacy interests with AI-powered police drones recording our moves. A lack of understanding about how automated systems are developed can cause us to be unaware that these same systems may be excluding the poor from basic services, jobs and housing. Or we can be fooled into thinking a blog is being written by a human when it was really by an college kid’s AI.
Tech is increasingly pervasive in all aspects of our society -- and that means we have an individual responsibility to see what’s behind the curtain and the ‘tech magicians’ also need to show us how their tricks are developed (like my favorite YT illusionist Zach King!).
