Jonathan Mugan on The Curiosity Cycle

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Jonathan Mugan is not only a computer scientist specializing in machine learning and AI but also a father of three and the author of The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion. Since this is one of the few good books on the topic that I am aware of, I thought I’d bring Jonathan on my podcast so that we can dive deeper into the issues surrounding child education in an age of accelerating change.

During our 30 min conversation with Mugan we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his journey from the “soft” half of knowledge – arts, into the “hard” half – science; his book The Curiosity Cycle; building smart robots and educating children; why he focused on “curiosity” rather than “intelligence” and “cycle” rather than a “score”; tips for teaching your kids in the most effective manner, dealing with automation and technological unemployment…

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Who is Jonathan Mugan?

Dr. Jonathan Mugan is a computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence and machine learning. He is the author of The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion. Dr. Mugan received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin. His thesis was centered in developmental robotics, which is an area of research that seeks to understand how robots can learn about the world in the same way that human children do. Dr. Mugan also held a post-doctoral position at Carnegie Mellon University, where he worked at the intersection of machine learning and human-computer interaction (HCI) as a member of the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory. His work focused on enabling devices such as smart phones to learn a user’s privacy preferences. He received his B.A. in Psychology and his M.B.A. from Texas A&M University. He has three children.