Kari Byron Interview

Q1: Your book has the Tagline “Why Crash and Burn when you can Crash and Learn”. This is great life advice, Why do you think so many kids & adults feel that failure is not an option? PS I love failure, I do it all the time

Kari: Failing sucks. We try so hard, it is work to take a breath and learn from our mistakes. For me, it has become liberating to embrace failure. Every time I fall down and survive, I get a little stronger.

Q2: Mythbusters was a phenomenal show and really helped bring science and the scientific method into the forefront for the public. Do you think the humour and playfulness of the show helped get this across, & should more be done to incorporate humour/playfulness into science reporting/communicating?

Kari: I learned to really love science on the show. I have always been an artist and fostered my curiosity by getting my hands dirty. When we approached science like art, I fell in love. I was having so much fun and the audience was along for the ride. I like to think of Mythbusters like the cheese sauce on broccoli. It tastes so good that you didn’t realize you were eating a vegetable.

Q3: Artificial Intelligence seems to be coming along in leaps and bounds. Do you think AI developers should adhere to an ethics board like most regular science research have to?

Kari: I have never had a fear of AI. This question made me google “AI and ethics”, so thanks for propelling me into that rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. hahaha

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN THE MAGAZINE