Frank Moss

Frank Moss talks about how the researchers at MIT Media Lab are creating technologies that will greatly impact our lives over the next 25 years and reveals the highly unorthodox approach to creativity and invention at the Media Lab. In The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices: How the Digital Magicians of the MIT Media Lab Are Creating the Innovative Technologies That Will Transform Our Lives, Moss tells stories of people—from musicians to neuroscientists to visual artists to computer engineers—who are using Media Lab innovations to confront personal challenges.

Over the past 25 years, the MIT Media Lab has developed the technology behind a wide variety of devices, from e-book readers to robotic prosthetic limbs. The academics who call the Lab home work in a unique environment, where disciplines break down and professionals from diverse fields collaborate to create and innovate. Frank Moss was the Director of the MIT Media Lab from 2005 to 2010. He describes his experiences in his new book, "The Sorcerers and their Apprentices."

John is broadcasting from our partner station, WGBH, in Boston today. He's there to take part in the celebrations surrounding the 25th anniversary of the MIT Media Lab. 

Over the years a long list of new computer and digital technologies were developed there. Since then the lab has also become hugely prolific developer of medical technologies. Researchers at the lab have worked on projects as abstract as figuring out how to improve health care record keeping and as concrete as how to hybridize robotic technologies with prosthetics to improve the lives of veterans and civilians who've lost limbs.