The Leonard Lopate Show
Too Smart?
Friday, December 14, 2007
Scientists and marketers are furiously working on smart products to improve our everyday lives - like navigation systems, and homes that anticipate their residents’ needs. A design expert tells us why you should be concerned about some of those new products. Also: brain chips that turn thought into action. Plus, the spiritual side of birdwatching. Men’s figure skating champion Brian Boitano. And Please Explain is all about the science of consciousness - from dreams to Freudian slips!
The Leonard Lopate Show is hosting a new listener photo project! Send us a photo of an object that has special meaning to you, and tell us the story behind the object. Find out how to submit here.
Concerns About the Design of Future Things
Designers and marketers are working on new smart technologies like advanced navigation systems, and homes that anticipate residents’ every need. Design consultant and computer science professor Donald A. Norman says that we should be concerned about some of these products. His new book is The Design of Future Things.
The Design of Future Things is available for purchase at amazon.com
Weigh in: Are you concerned about any aspects of smart technology? Would you want to live in a home that anticipated your needs?
A Brain Chip That Turns Thought Into Action
In 2005, with the help of a brain chip, a quadriplegic man used a robotic arm to pick up a piece of candy. The chip was the most sophisticated brain-computer interface ever tested in humans. And now it's on its way to becoming wireless. Leonard talks to the researcher who devised the chip, Dr. John Donoghue, Professor of Neuroscience at Brown University.
Learn more about the Donoghue Lab, Neuroscience Dept. at Brown
Sightings: Essays on Birdwatching
Author Sam Keen writes about the spiritual side of birdwatching in his new essay collection, Sightings.
Sightings Design of Future Things is available for purchase at amazon.com
Please Explain: The Science of Consciousness
When you see a blue flower, do you see the same blue flower that I do? When you feel cold is it the same sensation I feel? On Please Explain we look at the biology of consciousness...and what brain science reveals about who we are and how we experience the world around us.
Gerald Edelman is a Nobel Laureate, Director of The Neurosciences Institute, and author of many books about the neurobiology of consciousness including Wider Than the Sky. Christof Koch is Professor of Biology and Engineering at the California Institute of Technology and author of The Quest for Consciousness.
Call us at 212-433-9692 with your questions.
Wider Than the Sky is available for purchase at amazon.com
The Quest for Consciousness is available for purchase at amazon.com
Weigh in: What would you like to know about consciousness?
Learn about The Neurosciences Institute
Christof Koch's homepage
Brian Boitano’s Skating Spectacular
Men's figure skater Brian Boitano has won more professional titles than any other skater. His "Brian Boitano Skating Spectacular" features fellow champion skaters Dorothy Hamill, David Pelletier, and Viktor Petrenko, as well as the music of Barry Manilow. It airs Saturday, December 22 at 4 pm on NBC.
Brian Boitano’s official MySpace page
Previous Show
Windows 
Windows 
Windows 
Search current and archival WNYC broadcasts. More
Leonard Lopate lets you listen in on the best conversations in New York- now you can take a peek, too. See candid shots of Martha Wainwright, Amy Sedaris and more.
Start your Amazon shopping on WNYC.org and a portion of your total purchase goes to WNYC.
- The Brian Lehrer Show: Rent Destabilized (May 12, 2008)
- The Brian Lehrer Show: Meet Johnny Bunko (May 06, 2008)
- The Brian Lehrer Show: Out of the Shadows (May 12, 2008)
- The Leonard Lopate Show: John Turturro and Max Casella in “Endgame” (May 09, 2008)
- The Brian Lehrer Show: Private Apples, Public Teachers (May 05, 2008)