Ed Finn - Thoughtful optimism, intellectual voyaging, and a Center for Science and the Imagination

Ed Finn might be best described as an imaginer. The rest of the many things that he is and does kind of fall into place with that foundation. He started and for the past decade has been Director of the unexampled Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter (06:20)
• Specialization vs generalization (07:00)
• N Katherine Hayles (12:00)
• We have never been modernby Bruno Latour (19:00)
• Franco Moretti (24:15)
• Center for Science and the Imagination (26:15)
• "Innovation Starvation" by Neal Stephenson (28:00)
• Meeting Neal Stephenson (31:40)
• Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future co-edited by Ed Finn (33:30)
• Thoughtful optimism and hope (36:30)
• Adjacent possible (38:00)
• David Foster Wallace "This is water" (41:00)
• Collaborative Imagination: A methodological approach (42:30)
• What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing by Ed Finn (48:20)
• Effective computability (50:00)
• Halting Problem (50:30)
• Turing Machine (50:30)
• Curriculum of the future (57:30)
  • "Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid" by Jonathan Haidt (58:20)
• Flourishing Salons with the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (01:03:00)
• Lightning Round (01:04:00): 
  • Book: The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
  • Passion: travel and the fine art of hospitality
  • Heart sing: veteran's imagination project and K-12 futures literacy
  • Screwed up: conference calls
• Find Ed online:
  • Center for Science and the Imagination
  • Twitter: @zonal
  • Website
• 'Five-Cut Fridays’ five-song music playlist series  
  • Ed’s playlist