Jon Ronson goes into battle to reclaim his social media identity

Step into the machine with the first episode of our FutureFest podcast. Listen to hilarious stories, intriguing ideas, and unexpected experiences, involving humanity and machinery, fresh from the festival.
 
In this episode, author Jon Ronson considers the power of social media as he describes going into digital battle to reclaim his identity from a Twitter spam-bot.
 
We hear how it feels when a blind robot touches your face, along with learning the story of Blind Robot’s evolution from Louis-Philippe Demers and body>data>space, the team behind it.
 
And it turns out that sex and companion robots may outrank mechanical carers. Artist Anna Dumitriu explains what her research with the University of Hertfordshire found older people actually want from robots.
 
FutureFest is Nesta‘s weekend festival of radical ideas, compelling talks, and immersive experiences to inspire, excite and challenge perceptions of the future. The most recent festival took place in March 2015 in London.
 
Podcast presented by Emily Elias
 
To find out more about FutureFest, visit www.nesta.org.uk/futurefest
 
A transcript of this podcast can be found here:
www.nesta.org.uk/futurefest_podcast_transcript_1
 
This podcast features the following music:
Broke For Free - Melt 
Broke For Free - Fuck It
Steve Combs - Fine Without You (Remix)