Future Tense ABC listen

The rate of technological advancement in sport is unprecedented. From data analytics to robotic umpiring to smart equipment, technologies are reshaping what it means to achieve and compete. Even the International Olympic Committee has now developed an AI strategy. 

It's also big business with the sport industry conservatively estimated at around one per cent of global GDP.

So, when does ingenious innovation become cheating? And if technology pushes us past the point of physical capacity, why bother with human competitors at all?

Guests

Professor Sascha Schmidt – Director of the Centre for Sports and Management, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management

Louis Weston – Barrister and sports lawyer, Outer Temple Chambers, London

Dr John Holash – Assistant Professor, Faculty of Kinesiology, The University of Calgary

Robert Marchiori – CEO Cognizant Australia

Further information

21st Century Sports. How Technologies Will Change Sports in the Digital Age

International Olympic Committee - Olympic AI Agenda

Global media players now dominate the entertainment business and hold the whip-hand when it comes to accessing local news content. In this program we get an update on Meta's ban on Canadian news content, specifically how it's impacted production of serious news and what's been the public reaction. We also get a reality check on just how interested the giant US steaming services are in Australian content.

Guests

Aengus Bridgman – Director, Media Ecosystem Observatory (Canada)

Matthew Deaner – CEO, Screen Producers Association

Professor Anna Potter – Digital Media and Cultural Studies, Queensland University of Technology

Further information

When journalism is turned off: Preliminary findings on the effects of Meta’s news ban in Canada

Australian Television Drama’s Uncertain Future: How Cultural Policy is Failing Australians

NASA's new telescope will revolutionise the search for non-Earth based life. It's to be called the Habitable Worlds Observatory and will be powerful enough to peer into the atmosphere of planets outside of our solar system.

But if, or when, we do find evidence of a life form beyond our solar system what do we do next? And who should decide whether or even how we make contact? A new research hub at the University of Andrews is among those drawing up a plan.

Guests

Dr Megan Ansdell – Program Manager, Habitable Worlds Observatory, NASA

Professor Adam Frank – Astrobiologist and astrophysicist, University of Rochester, New York

Dr John Elliott – Computational linguist and Coordinator of the SETI Post Detection Hub, University of St Andrews

Professor Ian Roberts — Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge

While technology platforms increasingly dictate the way we write and converse, language is being modified to fight back, to subvert the platforms. In this show we examine the growth of "algospeak".

And if you want to know how we'll all be communicating in the future, just listen to the way teenage girls speak, because young women lead the ongoing development of language.

Guests

Dr James Cohen – Assistant Professor, Media Studies, Queens College, City University of New York

Dr Sali Tagliamonte – Professor of linguistics and Chair of the Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto

Philip Seargeant – Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, Open University UK

Further information

Philip Seargeant's book "The Future Of Language"

It's time to rethink what we mean by productivity, says work futurist, Dominic Price. What's important isn't output, but outcomes. And confusing the two, he says, is simply counter-productive! Also, benefit corporations — why many businesses are moving away from an obsession with profit at all cost; And why a compulsory savings model could help control inflation without raising interest rates.

Original broadcast on August 20, 2023

Guests

Ed Chambliss – founder and CEO, Best Friend Brands

Lachlan Kerwood-McCall – Economist, Australian National University

Jessica Lynd – Attorney and Senior Associate, International Trade Group, White and Case

Dominic Price – Work Futurist, Atlassian

When a company CEO can be paid 1,000 times the average employee's salary it's probably time to take a long hard look at wealth inequality. And those calling for the rich to pay more aren't always the ones you'd expect – Patriotic Millionaires is a group of mega rich individuals demanding greater, not lesser taxation. Then there's the Dutch philosopher urging ordinary citizens to put a cap on their own personal wealth. She calls her approach Limitarianism. Also, Rewilding the Internet – how to purify an online environment made toxic by monopolistic capitalism.

Guests

Dr Ingrid Robeyns – author, philosopher and Chair in Ethics of Institutions, Ethics Institute, Utrecht University (The Netherlands)

Robert Guest – Deputy Editor, The Economist

Morris Pearl – Chair of the Board, The Patriotic Millionaires

Professor Jean-Etienne Joullie — EMLV Business School, Paris

Maria Farrell – Writer and keynote speaker on technology and the future

Further information

Ingrid Robeyns: Limitarianism, The Case Against Extreme Wealth

Robert Guest: The fallacious case for abolishing the rich

Maria Farrell: We need to rewild the Internet 

Listen to Future Tense - Managerialism and our obsession with hierarchy