This week’s episode of Wiretap with Jonathan Goldstein on CBC Radio One features conversations with Howard Chackowicz, Dr. Noel Sharkey, Dina Goldstein, Gregor Ehrlich and Caroline (Carolyn?) Warren. Also, meet Johnny 2.0 – a machine that does it all: monologues, interviews, conversations with Jonathan’s mother…everything!

Listen to an MP3 of “The Answering Machine” by clicking here.

The story read by Jane Lewis called “Spirals” from David Eagleman’s Sum: Forty Tales of the Afterlives kind of reminds me of a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The premise of the story is that our creators are “dimwitted, obtuse creatures” that, upon greeting us after death, simply ask, “Do you have answer?” Of course, we don’t have the answer (It’s not 42  this time) and we all learn a little bit about the increasingly complex machines that we build in order to understand our own existence.

Jonathan Goldstein 2.0 is also a pretty impressive machine – he successfully gives a positive reference for Howard as he applies for a job as a bank manager. It almost inspires me to make my own, which isn’t unheard of. Johnny 2.0 also seems to be pretty infatuated with mustache sandwiches and makes a jab at the running joke about Johnny 1.0 not having been breast fed.

So, give it a listen. I posted up a summary of “The Answering Machine” which you can check out. But I’m also going to overhaul the episode listings pages here soon. Stay tuned.

Here’s the summary from the CBC Website:

This week on WireTap, Howard launches “Johnny 2.0″, a monolog machine that can stand in for Jonathan when he goes on vacation. Plus a conversation with Dr. Noel Sharkey, professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, and “Spirals”, a short story from David Eagleman’s book Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives.