Esther Dyson, whose bio defies summarization (and who happens to be sister of previous guest George Dyson), discusses Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and Spike Jonze’s Her. We discuss the substance of life, bioethics, why our senses aren’t always reliable, institutions and culture, predatory business models, child labor, mortality, building communities, and gardening versus carpentry.

A few notes and links related to conversation:

• Wellville, the nonprofit Esther founded to to achieve long-term, equitable, community wellbeing
• Two-phase commit protocol
• Google AI search tells users to glue pizza and eat rocks
• The Gardener and the Carpenter by Alison Gopnik
• Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia by Joshua Yaffa
• Exit, Voice, and Loyalty by Albert O. Hirschman
• The Order of Time by Carlo Rivelli
• Steve Jobs’s 2005 commencement address at Stanford