The Vulcartist, who's taken the name of a Vulcan trickster character, talks about her art, as well as linguistics and the importance of science fiction.

Derek Tyler Attico has won the Star Trek short fiction contest more than once, and recently published The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko. We talk with him about how his writing practice, the universes he's written in, and how his writing connects to his passion for justice.

What does our favorite science fiction get right about the universe as we know it, and what does it get wrong? Listen to Rufus Cochran, Dr. Mohamed Noor, and Dr. Paul Kwiat as they talk about artificial intelligence, quantum computing, the nature of evolution, and other places science intersects with our favorite science fiction.

All of fiction, and especially science fiction, revolves around balancing the need to make characters believable. Science fiction adds in an additional challenge - creating characters who are different from what the readers expect, sometimes in surprising ways. Listen to Dr. Mohamed Noor, Maurice Broaddus, John Scalzi, and Dr. James McGrath discuss their work in creating worlds that capture our imagination and our attention.

When we talk about a hopeful future, Utopia is often the word that comes to mind. Is that the vision we should be striving for, though? Is it even possible to create a state in which everything is perfect? Importantly, is it possible to make things perfect for everyone? Or are utopias for some inevitably created out of suffering for others?

The word Protopia refers to a vision of of the future in which today is better than yesterday, at least a little bit. In the article coining the word, futurist Kevin Kelly asks us to name a single science fiction future that is both plausible and desirable. Is Star Trek that example? This panel will discuss the possibilities of protopia.

Afrofuturism is about not only critiquing the present, but working towards a future that we all want to experience. While some of the live session recording was lost, this episode captures the second half of the conversation, and includes information about the history of Indianapolis, how the Khprew Institute is working towards shaping the future, and why so many science fiction stories include just a little sprinkle of eugenics in their flavoring.

AI is often depicted as a way to find answers to questions. Is this the same as finding truth? Are our current AI technologies structured to find truth? Or are they designed to do something different, and how does that affect their functionality and how they are (and how they should be) used?

This episode was recorded during our live event in November of 2023, and is a part of our series on the Humanities of Artificial Intelligence. This series was awarded an Action Grant by Indiana Humanities, and received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

AI isn't sentient -at least not yet. But what would it mean to our systems if that changed? When would (and when should) our legal system begin to recognize the rights of non-human intelligence? What would that change for humans, and for other intelligent beings?

This episode was recorded during our live event in November of 2023, and is a part of our series on the Humanities of Artificial Intelligence. This series was awarded an Action Grant by Indiana Humanities, and received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.