This was the most unique and fun episode I’ve done in a while, and it starts in a very unexpected place…

With the art of clowning.

Strange I know, but stick with us, because we quickly connect that world to technology, robotics, and why it holds surprisingly powerful lessons for this moment in time; especially if we want to design intelligent, embodied systems that humans actually want to engage with.

Our guest today is Pasquale D’Silva, CEO of The Illusion of Life, a company building characters and personalities into robots to make them interesting, fun, warm, and worthy of trust.

This all starts with their partnership with Boston Dynamics, where they’ve taken the Spot robot dog and turned it into a character with a real personality, called Spark.

In this chat, we talk about the relationship between humans and machines, and explore all kinds of crevasses, including trust, presence, emotional intelligence, and why artists—not just engineers—may be the key to building joyful, human-centered robots.

If you’re curious about the future of human–machine interaction, you’re gonna love this one. It will stretch your imagination in all the best ways.

So with that, enjoy this episode with Pasquale D’Silva.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.dreammachines.ai