{"id":551,"date":"2026-05-13T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/?p=551"},"modified":"2026-05-07T20:01:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T00:01:32","slug":"lived-experience-synthetic-logic-the-illusion-of-moral-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/2026\/05\/lived-experience-synthetic-logic-the-illusion-of-moral-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Lived Experience, Synthetic Logic: The Illusion of Moral AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Author and journalist Michael Pollan characterizes our era as the &#8220;Second Copernican Shock,&#8221; a civilizational turning point where the boundary between human empathy and algorithmic calculation is increasingly blurred. From AI companions like ElliQ providing &#8220;virtual hugs&#8221; to the elderly, to &#8220;moral machines&#8221; tasked with navigating life-and-death dilemmas, we are entering a global experiment in the outsourcing of ethics and accountability<strong>.<\/strong> As we delegate our conscience to systems that exist outside the weight of consequence\u2014systems not haunted by regret nor soothed by redemption\u2014are we experiencing a dangerous &#8220;ethical de-skilling&#8221;? And if so, what are the consequences?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Join us for a conversation with Dr. Robert Sparrow, Professor of Philosophy, and Associate Investigator in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society at Monash University,\u00a0 and founding member of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hosted by:<\/strong> Alexa Raad and Leslie Daigle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/morningoverview.com\/michael-pollan-warns-humanity-is-on-the-brink-of-a-radical-shift\/#google_vignette\">Michael Pollan warns humanity is on the brink of a radical shift<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/11\/magazine\/senior-citizens-robot-companion.html\">She\u2019s 85, and Her Roommate Is a Robot<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s00146-020-01132-6\">Why machines cannot be moral<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/ethics-and-international-affairs\/article\/robots-and-respect-assessing-the-case-against-autonomous-weapon-systems\/D3FBB27E12F68AAF399EAE966A4EC827\">Robots and Respect: Assessing the Case Against Autonomous Weapons Systems<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf\">Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/press.armywarcollege.edu\/parameters\/vol53\/iss1\/10\/\">Minotaurs, Not Centaurs: The Myth of Human-AI Teaming<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The views and opinions expressed in this program are our own and may not reflect the views or positions of our employers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_8363\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-551-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/techsequences\/content.blubrry.com\/techsequences\/20260325-RobSparrow.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/techsequences\/content.blubrry.com\/techsequences\/20260325-RobSparrow.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/techsequences\/content.blubrry.com\/techsequences\/20260325-RobSparrow.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/techsequences\/content.blubrry.com\/techsequences\/20260325-RobSparrow.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/?powerpress_pinw=551-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/techsequences\/content.blubrry.com\/techsequences\/20260325-RobSparrow.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"20260325-RobSparrow.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/techsequences\/id1509826111?mt=2&amp;ls=1\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_itunes\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Apple Podcasts\" rel=\"nofollow\">Apple Podcasts<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/6BgXkvatS6UgsTsJVi7BJE?si=N7tlTeOkTlOrg3Ysco2nbw\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_spotify\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Spotify\" rel=\"nofollow\">Spotify<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/subscribeonandroid.com\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_android\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Android\" rel=\"nofollow\">Android<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author and journalist Michael Pollan characterizes our era as the &#8220;Second Copernican Shock,&#8221; a civilizational turning point where the boundary between human empathy and algorithmic calculation is increasingly blurred. From AI companions like ElliQ providing &#8220;virtual hugs&#8221; to the elderly,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[49,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-49","category-ai-2"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/TS-PodcastHeaders-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":552,"href":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions\/552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techsequences.org\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}