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The Thrill and the Drop: A First Date Rollercoaster

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Manage episode 466583457 series 2564186
Content provided by Pushkin Industries. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Pushkin Industries or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

Leah Washington and her new boyfriend Joe Pugh are on their first day out together. They're at Alton Towers theme park, where they've chosen to ride the "Smiler" rollercoaster: a terrifying tangle of track that loops and swoops through a world-record 14 inversions. Leah and Joe are seated right at the front of the train and, as they reach the highest point of the ride, they steel themselves for the drop. But then, quite suddenly, the ride stops.

Down on the ground, the computer system that controls the rollercoaster is warning that another carriage is out on the track, right in the path of Leah and Joe's train. The engineers are certain the computer is wrong...

Algorithms are often faster and cleverer than humans, and they can help us avoid accidents. But computers can make mistakes. When should we trust our own heads, instead of the machine?

For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  continue reading

179 episodes

Artwork
iconShare
 
Manage episode 466583457 series 2564186
Content provided by Pushkin Industries. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Pushkin Industries or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

Leah Washington and her new boyfriend Joe Pugh are on their first day out together. They're at Alton Towers theme park, where they've chosen to ride the "Smiler" rollercoaster: a terrifying tangle of track that loops and swoops through a world-record 14 inversions. Leah and Joe are seated right at the front of the train and, as they reach the highest point of the ride, they steel themselves for the drop. But then, quite suddenly, the ride stops.

Down on the ground, the computer system that controls the rollercoaster is warning that another carriage is out on the track, right in the path of Leah and Joe's train. The engineers are certain the computer is wrong...

Algorithms are often faster and cleverer than humans, and they can help us avoid accidents. But computers can make mistakes. When should we trust our own heads, instead of the machine?

For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  continue reading

179 episodes

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