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Mind Over Chatter: What did the Future look like in the Past?

Podcast by Joshua Nall, Caroline Bassett, Jonnie Penn, Nick Saffell, Naomi Clements-Brod, James Dolan

Mind over Chatter: University of Cambridge podcast. Episode 2: What did the future look like in the past?

We all have theories about what the future might look like. But what did the future look like in the past? And how have the advent of new technologies altered how people viewed the future? We talked with curator of modern sciences and historian of Victorian science Dr Joshua Nall, professor of Digital Humanities and director of Cambridge Digital Humanities Professor Caroline Bassett, and Junior Research Fellow in the history of artificial intelligence Dr Jonnie Penn in our attempt to understand how the future was thought of in the past. Along the way we discussed utopias and dystopias, the long history of science fiction, and how the future might come back to haunt us!

Mind Over Chatter, is the Cambridge University Podcast. One series at a time, the podcast features Cambridge researchers who break down complex issues into simple questions.This episode was produced by Nick Saffell, James Dolan and Naomi Clements-Brod. Annie Thwaite and Charlotte Zemmel provided crucial research and production support.

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