RadCasts

Warning: This episode contains strong language.

Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a Minneapolis resident, on Saturday. It was the second fatal shooting by federal agents in the city during protests against a ramped-up immigration enforcement effort by the Trump administration.

Devon Lum, from the Visual Investigations team, and Ernesto Londoño, who covers the Midwest, explain how the shooting unfolded and what may come next.

Guest:

• Devon Lum, a New York Times reporter working on the Visual Investigations team.
• Ernesto Londoño, a reporter for The New York Times based in Minnesota, covering news in the Midwest.

Background reading: 

• Timeline: A moment-by-moment look at the shooting Mr. Pretti.
• Here’s what we know about the shooting.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

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Adam Rutherford and guests discuss intelligence, genetics and the nature of reality. How are scientific advances in AI, cognitive science and genetics changing our understanding of the material world and what it means to be human?

Adrian Woolfson argues that we must transform biology into programmable engineering material. To do this, we must decode the generative grammar of DNA, the language of life itself, so we might create or change genomes – possibly including our own. In his book, 'On the Future of Species Authoring Life by Means of Artificial Biological Intelligence' he imagines a future where - we grow houses rather than build them; smartphones are living; clothing has opinions; all human knowledge fits into a speck of DNA; disease is a thing of the past; and the human lifespan is dramatically extended.

What can we learn by combining cognitive science and artificial intelligence? In The Emergent Mind, a new book co-authored by Gaurav Suri, looks at how a data-driven neural network can create thoughts, emotions, and ideas – a mind – in both humans and machines alike. He argues that if we want to understand intelligence then we should look at the concept of neural network, the framework inspired by the human brain that lies behind Artificial Intelligence. He explains a new idea 'emergence' - and what it may mean.

Joanna Kavenna's latest novel, Seven is a satire about a game without rules. It encompasses encounters with philosophy, artificial intelligence and dreams, poetry and the natural world. The plot travels through time and space, in a world without boundaries and where nothing can be pinned down and everything is in flux. It raises questions about how much we can truly know about reality.

Producer: Ruth Watts