Join us for a Culturico podcast about the end of the world with historian of technology Zachary Loeb. We discuss the history of apocalyptic ideas and modern technological scepticism through the lens of his own academic work. This focuses on the Y2K scare or “millennium bug”, a collective fear of global computer systems becoming suddenly unable to distinguish dates correctly from midnight on January 1st, 2000, with catastrophic consequences. Although these fears never materialised, they tell the story of our global reliance on computing and resulting unease, both of which have only increased in the decades since. This fear has found expression in popular culture, which we use – for example through the sci-fi novels of William Gibson – to ask whether computer risk poses a tangible threat to governments, and whether it is possible to imagine a future with less computing.
The war in Ukraine: Prospects for peace, ramifications for world politics, with Alexander Gillespie
Unromantic, Political Art: An Interview with Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
The status of research for ALS patients
How to communicate science with Helen Pilcher
Conversation with Irish Poet Ciarán O’Rourke
The power of poetry: An interview with Zilka Joseph
How the far right in America influences far right movements worldwide
The influence of migrations on Kerala, India with Mohamed Shafeeq K.
The Aurat March in Pakistan
Computational topology and mathematics in politics and society with Kevin Knudson
Enacting vaccine equity with Ruth Faden
Physics and the frontiers of machine learning with David Berman
A pandemic memoir with Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee
The anti-vaccination movement on social media
The past, present and future of Syria with Iyad Yousef
Lives and dreams of Tighmert
The cultural role of individuals in the new millennium
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