Ryan Scirocco is the spacesuit business development lead at Collins Aerospace. Collins, an RTX business, is, along with its partners ILC Dover and Oceaneering, developing a new generation of spacesuits for NASA. Ryan discusses everything that goes into keeping people alive in a freezing zero-gravity vacuum far outside the biosphere. Topics include: A spacesuit is a mini-spaceship Space: it wants to kill you Spacesuit history What’s new? No more mirrors! Testing spacesuits on the vomit comet The ISS, the Moon, and beyond Links: Collins Aerospace Completes Key Spacesuit Testing Milestone Space ..read more

Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses, in exquisite detail, the First Amendment problems with H.R. 7521, the House bill to ban TikTok. Topics include: Your First Amendment right to read crazy shit TikTok ban bros: throwing spaghetti at the wall Foreign broadcast-ownership rules: so passé “iT’S nOT sPEech, It’S CoNDuCt” H.R. 7521: Least. Tailored. Law. Ever. Banning media: it’s what the other guys do McCarthyism: so hot right now Links: A Breakdown of the Bizarre Factions Fighting Over the TikTok Ban Bill Tech Policy Podcast #344: TikTok and the First Amendment Tech Policy Podcast #368: How ..read more

Daphne Keller (Stanford Cyber Policy Center) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discuss the Supreme Court oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri (government jawboning of social media platforms) and the NetChoice cases (state content moderation laws). Links: Six Things About Jawboning The Lies the 5th Circuit Told You About the Government ‘Pressuring Social Media to Censor’ Tech Policy Podcast #350: When the Government Yells at Social Media FAQs About the NetChoice Cases at the Supreme Court, Part 1 FAQs About the NetChoice Cases at the Supreme Court, Part 2 The Long Reach of Taamneh: Carriage and ..read more

Samuel Hammond (Foundation for American Innovation) discusses his essays on “AI and Leviathan.” Can government institutions cope with the coming technological disruption of AI? Topics include: - AI’s trajectory - New Deal agencies in an AI world - Public Choice Theory vs. the AI juggernaut - Uber and micro-regime changes - Government as a network of smart contracts - Techno-totalitarianism vs. techno-feudalism - AI Renaissance city states? - Collapse as a feature, not a bug - A techno-optimist’s revealed preferences Links: AI and Leviathan: Part I AI and Leviathan: Part II AI and Leviathan: Pa ..read more

Byron Tau (NOTUS) discusses his new book Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State. Topics include: Some history: four generations of data brokers The continuing evolution of data collection and technological surveillance The great danger: data fusion / comprehensive data profiles Why won’t Congress regulate government data use? National security vs. privacy Should we fear a social credit system? Links: Means of Control NOTUS X: @ByronTau Tech Policy Podcast #337: China and Domestic Surveillance ..read more

Brandon Gorrell (Pirate Wires) joins the show to discuss The White Pill, his optimistic (and mind-blowing) newsletter covering “the frontiers of tech, science, space, and more.” Topics include:  Combatting the overwhelming negativity on social media.  Lasers are amazing. Why space exploration? Did the Big Bang really happen? The Pirate Wires brand — beautiful vibe! Breaking the New York Times / NPR decel monoculture. Advances in IVF. Links: The White Pill ..read more

It’s a big picture episode! One day (soon?), technology will enable convenient, low-cost gender transition. What does that say about human “nature”? What are the implications for society? What are (some) people getting so upset about? Jason Kuznicki (TechFreedom) joins the show to discuss. Gender as Essence and as Economic Choice Cosmos + Taxis issue on gender (including articles by Nathan P. Goodman and by Akiva Malamet and Mikayla Novak) Pacification (Jason’s Substack) Tech Policy Podcast #327: The Collapse of Complex Societies (2022 Big Picture Episode) Tech Policy Podcast #301: The Realign ..read more

Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Leigh Beadon (Techdirt) join the show to discuss their new report on the Internet’s (beneficial!) effect on art, entertainment, and culture. The Sky Is Rising: 2024 Edition Rather than Destroying Culture, the Internet Has Saved the Content Industries Filterworld Is a Confused Critique of Algorithms ..read more

Liza Goitein (Brennan Center) joins the show to discuss the FISA Section 702 surveillance program. Why is it so contentious? Why is it such a hot topic now? Why and how should it be changed? And what does the Fourth Amendment have to say about it? Liza explains! Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA): A Resource Page How Congress Learned to Live with Warrantless Surveillance (for Now) Tech Policy Podcast #339: Will Tech Swallow the Fourth Amendment ..read more

TechFreedom’s Ari Cohn and Corbin Barthold discuss whether AI is going to spark an “infocalypse,” bring about the “collapse of reality,” and destroy our elections. Is AI about to “flood” our “screens” with “misinformation” that’s “dangerous to democracy”? Notwithstanding these quotes from recent press stories, the answer is probably no. Ari’s Senate testimony What the Doomsayers Get Wrong About Deepfakes Scott Brennen + Matt Perault paper Tech Policy Podcast #358: Information Animals Fighting Information Wars Tech Policy Podcast #359: Your Right to Lie — With Jeff Kosseff ..read more