My Life with a Robot…and a Doctoral Student with Dr. William Barry
Dr. Russell Strickland [01:40:05]
That starts to take. The ethical problems that are associated with that for people is a big deal. And you talk about being a robot ethicist, but what about when someone can take a person’s likeness and put them in a film that they never set foot on the soundstage? They never uttered a line of the dialog. That’s going to be doable at some point. It probably is more or less doable now and it’s doable now. I don’t know if really realistically now or if they’re taking a little bit of the shine off because they don’t want to have have problems with some of the ethical things you could tell when Carrie Fisher was in the Star Wars movie, she was in the oh, gosh, what was it, the Rogue One movie at the end, apparently. So that was before she died. It was a young Carrie Fisher. And apparently she asked, like, where did you get that footage from? She thought it was her. She thought it was her, and it was this footage that they rescued that they repurposed in that way is what she thought. Remember that? She’s like that. It’s been so long ago now, you never did it. They they did it. And and when I forgot the guy’s name. But when Governor Tarkan showed up in that movie, I thought that that was very powerful because I happen to know he was dead. But I definitely remember…
Dr. William Barry [01:41:22]
Peter Cushing.
Dr. Russell Strickland [01:41:25]
Peter Cushing from the original movies, and they they did a pretty good job of convincing people that was how it was. You could tell it wasn’t him. And that’s what I’m wondering. Could they convince me that it was him? And I couldn’t tell and I just happened to know he was dead? Or do they still not have the technology quite there yet?
Dr. William Barry [01:41:44]
That’s why you do when you saw the deep now where they take you, Russell and I just make your mouth move. And then I could have you say whatever I want so you can just do things now. And it’s almost impossible to tell the difference. The key to that is looking at the eyes. I think that’s what gives it away, because, again, these are the things you learn when you’re around it. But just ended on this one line. When I’m helping, I’m teaching young kids. And when it comes up and I think this is very relevant to your thesis work you to be brave, to be new. And I really find that to be a saying that I’m willing to be brave, to be new because you have to be a physicist someday. You’re going to going to be much more multimedia in the future about more hyperlinks. I can see that it’s right now the thesis is very traditional. I mean, it’s still very much like a book and the future. Why wouldn’t you have me makes to say I did this interview. But I mean, it makes sense to me when I read a book. I love having wings to go, Oh, I’m in Italy. Where are you going from? It pops up I go. It makes the story so much more rich. Right? We’re not used to reading books that way, but I’m getting we’re used to hyperlinked books. And I now I, I get angry when I can’t get it. So I want to know what is it more about, where am I. So yeah. So that’s we need to really think that the world is going to change drastically and I think for the better in many ways. Right. But we’ve got, we’ve got to be, we’ve got to be where we’ve got to be conscious and we’ve got to keep in mind it’s about the dignity and sacredness of people. If we just remember to treat people with dignity and sacredness. Right. We’re going to we’re going to be OK. It’s when we lose that and we think about utility only that we get ourselves in a lot of trouble. And right now in our country, we’ve got a lot of big decisions to make about what it means to be. A dignified society. So her ethics are everyone respecting people, she would treat Donald Trump with respect if someone asked her about it and she said he’s a human being, he deserves to be treated. And the person got really angry about. And I go, listen, she’s deontological. No human life is to be disrespected. That’s not the role of technology. So if I put her in a prison with a mass murderer, she’s going to say, hey, a happy person, she’s going to try to get that person to get the goodness. I see that as a good thing. Someone in solitary confinement, why not a robot in that room that can put her arms to be playing chess? And if she won’t play, if you’re not playing well, that’s that’s a better thing than sitting in a cell by yourself 23 hours a day, which I think is inhumane. So technology can really help. I think I’m looking at in prisons and other places where they have no positive reinforcement. We could use technology in a way to really help people and hopefully, you know, become a better person. So there’s a lot of good come out of this as long as we keep asking questions. And that’s what we’re all about. I appreciate the conversation.
Dr. Russell Strickland [01:44:37]
I got five more questions based on what you just said. So that’s great.
Dr. William Barry [01:44:43]
You know what interview is? You have that little tight line and I love what you just said, but let’s just talk today and have an honest, open conversation.
Dr. Russell Strickland [01:44:52]
I want you to let folks know how they can continue this conversation with you. If anything’s resonated with them and they want to get in touch with Dr. Barry, what’s the best way to do that?
Dr. William Barry [01:45:01]
Yeah, DrBillyBarry B-I-L-L-Y B-A-R-R-Y DrBillyBarry.com. And there’s a place you could just send me an email and more than happy to do it. We’re doing outreach right now. If you know of any impoverished schools, don’t need to buy books or need to get anything going on zoom. Mria Bot and I do a book reading for the kids with their parents, especially since their home kids can meet a robot and talk to her. Absolutely no charge at all. Now, if you’re a wealthy school, I can call out, so we’re not going to go with that. But if you know of a school that’s really struggling right now and needs help, that’s that’s what we’re doing. So I’m more than happy to do that. Again, there’s no strings attached. We’ve done it for ninety thousand people out of it. And that’s an important part of what we’re doing is outreach to make the world a better place. So DrBillyBarry.com and I look forward to hopefully hearing some of your listeners about.
Dr. Russell Strickland [01:45:52]
And I’ve been so happy to have you here, Dr. Barry, because that notion of making the world a better place is the reason why I have a dissertation done, because I’ve talked to so many interesting folks who are working on their dissertations, who want to go out there and shine their light on the world. And the fact that you’re able to do that, having completed your dissertation, is it’s it’s a blessing to you, but also to the rest of the world. And I think that’s where this is so powerful. This is why I do what I do. So I appreciate it.
Dr. William Barry [01:46:24]
Looks like I hope a year from now we can hook up again when your show is big and your you’re syndicated and then I can come back and you can see about and should be walking around maybe by then. So yeah, you have to be a fan of your work. So thank you so much. It was an honor to be here.
Dr. Russell Strickland [01:46:39]
You’re welcome. Just a quick reminder to everyone. The this show, this episode today was brought to you by Dissertation Done. So if you’re if you’re on that dissertation journey, go to DissertationDone.com/done. Let’s see if it’s worth a talk to see if we can’t support you through it to the graduation a little sooner. And and if you’re elsewhere on your journey and you want to establish a bigger platform, go to DissertationDone.com/book. And let’s see if we can’t make you a published author and help you get your message out to the world and maybe share it with more people. So, again, Dr. Barry, thank you so much for being here.
Dr. William Barry [01:47:15]
Thank you. A great day.
Dr. Russell Strickland [01:47:17]
Same to you and everyone else. Have a great day and go out and live your unconventional life.
Outro [01:47:27]
This has been an unconventional life. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today’s episode, subscribe now to keep getting inspirational stories of unconventional lives as soon as they’re released. Until then, go out and live your best unconventional life.
