February 8, 2018 7:18 pm

Season 9 of StarTalk Radio Premieres Friday with “The Evolution of Personal Technology” with Neil deGrasse Tyson and YouTube Star Marques Brownlee

To kick of Season 9 of StarTalk Radio we’re exploring how personal technology has impacted society and culture. Neil deGrasse Tyson sits down with tech vlogger and YouTube star Marques Brownlee, known for his YouTube channel “MKBHD.”

Neil is joined in studio by comic co-host Chuck Nice and Clive Thompson, tech journalist and author of Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better to break down his interview with Marques and to investigate the technological evolution.

You’ll hear about Marques’ beginnings in the tech vlogging community, when he noticed that people were really starting to watch his videos, and what tech he’s really excited about for the future.

You’ll also hear from the other side. With Marques being only 22 years old, Neil, Chuck, and Clive weigh in on what it’s like living in a completely connected world when they can remember a time before the internet. Our trio also ponders the privacy relationships and struggles between users and big companies like Google, Facebook, and SnapChat.

One on my favorite parts of the episode was the discussion on Moore’s law. Moore’s 1965 law, in a rough explanation, basically observes that computing power, as defined by the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits, doubled every two years while also getting smaller. (Now they’re being made at the atomic level.) We’re now seeing quantum effects begin to impact functionality. One reason I find this exciting is that we’ll have to invent new ways to make things faster and better without getting smaller, and it allows for exciting experimentation once we start delving into how quantum effects impact technology.

All that, plus, Neil and company discuss the benefits, dangers, and future of self-driving cars, facial recognition software, and much more!

Please join us tomorrow night for The Evolution of Personal Technology, with Marques Brownlee at 7pm ET right here on our website, as well as on our channels on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you’re an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free at 7pm, too.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Ian Mullen