Singularity.FM

During my 70-minute interview with Tristan Harris, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: Tristan’s magician background and the universal hackability of human nature; his studies at Stanford’s Persuasive Tech Lab; his journey to founding the Center for Humane Technology; human downgrading and the definition of technology; high tech’s race down our brain stems and the ethics of persuasive technology; Tristan’s biggest fear that tech is destroying our ability to see reality in shared ways, agree on the facts, coordinate and take action; why he believes that Silicon Valley is an existential threat; the dangers of being exponential; the possible solutions to our technological problems. My favorite quote that I will take away from our conversation with Tristan Harris is this: I want people to understand what’s happening and going wrong with technology as an interconnected system of harms. That we don’t have addiction or isolation happening separately from people believing in more conspiracy theories. There’s a relationship between people being more isolated and being more vulnerable to conspiracy theories on YouTube that are maximizing their attention. There’s a relationship between shorter attention spans and people only being able to say short brief things about an increasingly complex world that leads to more polarization. So there’s an interconnected system of harms that’s equivalent to social climate change that’s tilting the social fabric. You can see the full video here https://www.singularityweblog.com/tristan-harris/

I first met Andreas Antonopoulos at the 2014 Bitcoin Expo conference in Toronto, Canada. At that time Andreas was already established as the most publicly recognized expert in the field of crypto-currency, not in the least due to his impressive capacity to take the geek out of bitcoin and make it relevant to and understandable by everyone. To top it off, Antonopoulos is extremely eloquent, has an impressively broad spectrum of knowledge and is an admitted disruptarian. No wonder that my 1st interview with Andreas was so popular. Unfortunately, it took five years before I finally managed to get him back on my show but I hope you enjoy it as much as I did because he is as brilliantly illuminating as ever. During my 60-minute interview with Andreas Antonopoulos, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he is first and foremost an educator and an author; his recent books Mastering Bitcoin and The Internet of Money; why we need stronger privacy in the bitcoin protocol; blockchain vs bitcoin; Mike Hearn’s claim that bitcoin has failed; power, influence and governance; crypto-exchanges, price manipulation and regulation; the Ethereum DAO hard fork; whether proof of stake is the future leading consensus mechanism; bitcoin’s energy consumption… As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon: singularityweblog.com/andreas-antonopoulos/

Today my guest is world-renowned cosmologist and Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees. Martin has written 11 books and more than 500 scientific papers on topics ranging from the Big Bang and cosmology to technology and the future of humanity. Sir Rees has also been concerned with the threats stemming from humanity’s ever-heavier ‘footprint’ on the global environment and with the runaway consequences of ever more powerful technologies. His new book On the Future: prospects for humanity addresses these issues. During our 90-minute interview with Martin Rees, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he is a scientist and teacher first and foremost; his interest in existential risks and policy; his journey from math to astronomy and cosmology; his environmental and nuclear concerns; the necessity for ethics in science; my interview with Lawrence Krauss; his greatest fear and biggest dream; AI and the Singularity; technological unemployment, UBI and taxation; the future of space exploration; the problem of consciousness; his bet with and differences from Steven Pinker; the major issues humanity is facing in the 21st century; the limits of science and a theory of everything. My favorite quote that I will take away from Martin Rees’ book is: “We need to think globally, we need to think rationally, we need to think long term, empowered by 21st-century technology but guided by values that science alone can’t provide.” As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon. You can watch the full video here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/martin-rees/

Douglas Rushkoff has been named one of the world’s ten most influential intellectuals by MIT. He is an award-winning author, broadcaster, media theorist and documentarian who studies human autonomy in the digital age. Rushkoff is the host of the popular Team Human podcast and was among the very first guests I ever interviewed when I started my own podcast, nearly 10 years ago. Needless to say, it was way overdue to catch up with Douglas and see how his thoughts on the technological singularity and transhumanism have evolved and why. During our 75-minute interview with Douglas Rushkoff, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: who he is as a human; his path from theater to technology; the “society of spectacle” we live in; why futurists (still) suck; what he calls “the deeply embedded anti-human agenda”; capitalism, chartered monopolies, and centralized currencies; Team Human and why being human is a team sport; anthropomorphism and mechanomorphism; the rise of suicides among young professionals; the singularity as an industrial age fantasy of solving our problems; the limitations of blockchain; the meaning of being human and the downsides of our exceptionalism; the need for ReWriting the Human Story. Just two of my favorite quotes that I will take away from this conversation with Douglas Rushkoff are: “We have the power of cancer but really not much more awareness of our self-destructive trajectory.” “It’s interesting to me to live in a world where liking people is radical.” As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon. https://www.singularityweblog.com/team-human/

With 15 million unique visitors per month, Dr. Joseph Mercola is the founder of the largest health and wellness website on the internet. His life’s mission is to cure rather than treat disease and Dr. Mercola has not only published extensively but also treated successfully a variety of chronic health conditions with natural methods such as diet, exercise, and sleep. Joseph also lives his own message by being strong and healthy himself – just check out this video of him doing pushups with a 45-pound weight, and I always love to have interviewees who actually walk the talk. All-in-all, a great guest to discuss health and longevity, even before I found out that he is a Singularity.FM fan. 😉 During our 90-minute interview with Dr. Joseph Mercola, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he is a physician first-and-foremost; his activism against dental (mercury) amalgam; osteopathic medicine; food and toxins; electromagnetic radiation; the free radical theory of aging; processed foods and optimal eating time; intermittent and longer fasting; good fats and bad fats; my experience with coconut oil; the long-term dangers of vegan and keto diet; supplements and smart drugs. As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon. If you want to see the full video interview go here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/joseph-mercola/

Joscha Bach is one of those rare people whose primary motivation is unbound curiosity and inspiration. He clearly loves what he does and you can’t help but notice his radiating passion and youthful exuberance. Joscha has an impressively wide and deep knowledge in a variety of scientific, philosophical and artistic disciplines and I had to do my best just to keep up with Bach’s brilliant fast-paced mind and stream of consciousness. I enjoyed our conversation immensely and hope you love it too. During our 130-minute interview with Joscha Bach, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: the space between academia and professorship; if organisms are algorithms, philosophy, and ethics; growing up in East Germany; science, art, evolution and the meaning of life; mathematics, computing and the limits thereof; the usefulness of useless knowledge; climate change and “the demise of humanity;” artificial intelligence and consciousness; why we are stories in a movie that the brain is creating, the difference between scholars and scientists… Just some of my favorite quotes from Joscha Bach are: “If you take this as a computer game metaphor, this is like the best level for humanity to play. And this best level happens to be the last level for humanity to play, as it happens against the backdrop of a dying world. But it’s still the best level.” “Intelligence is the ability to make models. What is a model? A model is something that explains information. Information is discernable differences at your systemic interface. And the meaning of information is the relationships you discover to changes in other information.” “Some people think that a simulation can’t be conscious and only a physical system can. But they got it completely backward: a physical system cannot be conscious only a simulation can be conscious. Consciousness is a simulated property of the simulated self.” “The practice of AI is in a way statistics on steroids. It’s experimental statistics. It’s identifying new functions to model reality.” As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon. You can watch the full video here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/joscha-bach/

There are two people who caused me to become vegan and switch to a whole-plant-based diet: the first was Prof. Peter Singer who put the idea in my head many years ago when I started studying ethics. The 2nd person is Dr. Michael Greger whose books How not to Die and The How Not To Die Cookbook are a must-read for anyone interested in evidence-based healthy living and healthy longevity. And so it has been a two-year-dream of mine to one day interview Dr. Greger on my podcast. Well, yesterday was that day and I am happy to publish this short but informative and entertaining interview with Michael Greger. Dr. Michael Greger does hundreds of interviews per year and could only schedule 30 min for our conversation but we still managed to cover a variety of interesting topics such as: starting off as a math geek; why he became a lifestyle medicine physician and founded NutritionFacts.org; eating healthy as our best current bet to live healthier and longer life; his future book How Not to Age; the alien concepts of evidence-based medicine and nutrition; the optimal human diet; HealthData.org as the largest study of human risk factors for disease; the healthiest and most longevity promoting foods; the benefits of calorie restriction; Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen App… As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon. You can watch the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/michael-greger/

Stuart Russell is a professor of Computer Science at UC Berkeley as well as co-author of the most popular textbook in the field – Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. Given that it has been translated into 13 languages and is used in more than 1,300 universities in 118 countries, I can hardly think of anyone more qualified or more appropriate to discuss issues related to AI or the technological singularity. Unfortunately, we had problems with our internet connection and, consequently, the video recording is among the worst I have ever published. Thus this episode may be a good candidate to listen to as an audio file only. However, given how prominent Prof. Russel is and how generous he was with his time, I thought it would be a sad loss if I didn’t publish the video also, poor quality as it is. During our 90 min conversation with Stuart Russell we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his love for physics and computer science; human preferences, expected utility and decision making; why his textbook on AI was “unreasonably successful”; his dream that AI will contribute to a Golden Age of Humanity; aligning human and AI objectives; the proper definition of Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning vs Deep Learning; debugging and the King Midas problem; the control problem and Russell’s 3 Laws; provably safe mathematical systems and the nature of intelligence; the technological singularity; Artificial General Intelligence and consciousness… As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.

There are those of us who philosophize and debate the finer points surrounding the dangers of artificial intelligence. And then there are those who dare go in the trenches and get their hands dirty by doing the actual work that may just end up making the difference. So if AI turns out to be like the terminator then Prof. Roman Yampolskiy may turn out to be like John Connor – but better. Because instead of fighting by using guns and brawn he is utilizing computer science, human intelligence, and code. Whether that turns out to be the case and whether Yampolskiy will be successful or not is to be seen. But at this point, I was very happy to have Roman back on my podcast for our third interview. During our 80-minute conversation with Prof. Yampolskiy, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: AI in the media; why we’re all living in our own bubbles; the rise of interest in AI safety and ethics; the possibility of a 9.11 type of an AI event; why progress is at best making “safer” AI rather than “safe” AI; human and artificial stupidity; the need for an AI emergency task force; machine vs deep learning; technology and AI as a magnifying mirror; technological unemployment; his latest book Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security. You can see the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/artificial-intelligence-safety-and-security/

Inc Magazine called Tim O’Reilly the “Oracle of Silicon Valley.” Wired called him “The Trend Spotter.” Others have noted that “the Internet was built on O’Reilly books.” All in all, Tim O’Reilly is as perfect of a guest for my Singularity.FM podcast as I can ever imagine. So, I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did. During our 90 min conversation with Tim O’Reilly we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why Tim sees himself as a change-maker; the change he is after; the aesthetic and the useful; the importance of story; Tim’s background in Latin and Ancient Greek; his thesis on Mysticism and Logic in Plato’s Dialogues; ethics as a way of debugging technology and society; reality and truth; why he is not a singularity fan; whether we can influence the future or not; why technology is not enough; his book WTF: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us; Uber and Lyft; runaway AI; the Emperor Has No Clothes and serving the wrong algorithm; rewriting the human story… My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Tim O’Reilly is: “Economic determinism is probably the cardinal sin of the present moment.” if you want to see the full video of this interview go here:https://www.singularityweblog.com/tim-oreilly/

Max Tegmark is sometimes referred to as "Mad Max". I am not sure if he is "mad" but I am pretty sure he is very much "fun" Max Tegmark because I had a total blast talking to him about his recent book Life 3.0, the Future of Life Institute, Artificial Intelligence, the Singularity and technological unemployment. If you enjoy this podcast then you can show your support by: writing a review on iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/singularity-1-on-1/id398887225?mt=2 making a direct donation https://www.singularityweblog.com/donate-and-support-singularity-weblog/ becoming a patron on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/singularityfm You can watch the full video of the interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/max-tegmark/

A couple of weeks ago Joi Ito – head of the MIT Media Lab and contributor to WIRED Magazine, interviewed me about my Transhumanist Manifesto and related topics such as life-extension, immortality, speciesim, and ethics. Some people have said that this is the best interview I have done so far. It is hard for me to judge objectively if that is indeed the best interview I have ever done or not. However, subjectively, I feel it was definitely the most fun one I have done so far. Joi Ito, in turn, shared with me that my interview inspired him to write a long in-depth article about transhumanism on WIRED Magazine: The Responsibility of Immortality: Welcome to the New Transhumanism Whatever the case may be, I thought it is appropriate to repost the interview as a podcast episode so that you can check it out and judge for yourself. You can also watch the full video of the interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/nikola-danaylov-wired/

Peter Singer is arguably the most influential living philosopher of our day. His book on Animal Liberation basically started the animal rights movement and his textbook on Practical Ethics is the standard philosophy text of first-year students across the world. No wonder that Time Magazine called Peter Singer one of the 100 most influential people in the world. But for me, personally, having Professor Peter Singer on Singularity.FM was a dream come true. During our 1-hour conversation with Peter Singer we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: ethics and philosophy; why he is not an animal lover; why he is a flexible vegan; 3D printed meat; Peter’s personal mentors and inspirations; transhumanism and human nature; his biggest dreams and fears; why I went vegan; his greatest ethical failure; Ayn Rand and objectivism; climate change, instinct and evolution; intelligence and ethics; whether life-extension is moral; AI and the technological singularity; technology and ethics. You can watch the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/peter-singer/

Last month Ryan O’Shea – founder and host of the Future Grind Podcast, did what is arguably the most thorough interview with me so far. I thought it might be good to repost it on Singularity.FM so that you can listen to me being interviewed for a change while also getting exposed to another fantastic podcast that I recommend highly. Hope you enjoy it but, either way, do let me know. 😉 The Future Grind Podcast Ep. 20: Conversations with the Future with Nikola Danaylov In this installment of the Future Grind podcast, host Ryan O’Shea is joined by bestselling author and futurist speaker Nikola Danaylov. Nikola writes about the future at his website Singularity Weblog and hosts the Singularity.FM podcast. His 2017 book Conversations with the Future features highlights from his interviews with some of this field’s most noteworthy individuals, including Ray Kurzweil, Kevin Kelly, Verner Vinge, and more. They discuss the importance of ethics and the influence of Socrates in Nikola’s work, as well as his path from serving in the armed forces of Bulgaria to studying drone warfare in North America, and how that ultimately lead to his fascination with the technological singularity.

Jonathan Taplin is the Director Emeritus of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, and a former tour manager for Bob Dylan and The Band, as well as a film producer for Martin Scorsese. If that is not enough to make him a worthy guest of Singularity.FM then let me add that Jonathan is a visionary entrepreneur who started the very first streaming VOD startup called Intertainer way back in 1996. Finally, Taplin is the author of a timely book titled Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google and Amazon Cornernerd Culture and Undermined Democracy. In my view Move Fast and Break Things is a must read and we all should not only discuss but also take political action on the issues described by Jonathan. [At least to the extent that we want to have a sustainable and working democracy.] During our 75 min conversation with Jonathan Taplin we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: becoming Bob Dylan’s music producer; becoming Martin Scorsese’s film producer; his biggest dream and biggest fear; the thesis is of his book Move Fast and Break Things; whether Google, Amazon, and Facebook are monopolies; culture and the quality of content on YouTube; amateur movies like Envoy and True Skin that were bought for the big screen; Facebook and democracy; copyright, piracy, privacy, DRM and SOPA… As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon. You can watch the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/jonathan-taplin/

Joi Ito is just one of those people who simply don’t fit a mold. Any mold. He is an entrepreneur who is an activist. He is an academic without a degree. He is a leader who follows. He is a teacher who listens. And an interlocutor who wants you to disagree with him. Overall, I hate to say it but I must put forward my own biases by admitting that this was probably the most fun interview I have ever done. Ever. So, either I let all my personal biases run free on this one or it was truly a gem of an interview. You be the judge as per which one it was and please don’t hesitate to let me know. During our 90 min conversation with Joi Ito we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: being an entrepreneurial activist; becoming head of the MIT Media Lab even without an undergraduate degree; the impact of Kenichi Fukui, Timothy Leary and other his mentors; my transhumanist manifesto; my definitions of the singularity and transhumanism; why technology is not enough; the dangers of being exponential; self-awareness and meditation; complexity and systems thinking; our global prisoner’s dilemma; what the MIT Media Lab is all about; the importance of ethics, art and media; Whiplash and his PhD thesis on change; learning over education; why technology is the future of politics… To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon. If you want to see the full video of this interview go here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/joi-ito/

It was all the way back in 2013 when Sean Gourley published a blog post titled Prediction just is a parlor trick. Manipulation is much more interesting. In it he wrote: “The 2012 election will ultimately go down as the ‘prediction’ election (aka the Nate Silver election), 2016 may well be the first ‘persuasion’ election. An election where models accurately predict the likely outcomes of different strategic decisions for both parties in real-time. Where instead of trying to predict which voters will likely respond favorably to your existing message, you instead find voters that don’t like what you are saying and use targeted algorithms to create custom narratives that will change their voting preferences. But of course one side will only have this technology for so long — eventually, both sides will have this technology and we move into the world of competition between algorithms…” Given his incredible foresight and the recent revelations about Cambridge Analytica’s role for both the Brexit as well as the last presidential elections, I thought that Sean Gourley will be a great expert to interview on Singularity.FM. During our 3-hour conversation with Gennady Stolyarov II we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his quest to understand the world we live in; big data, prediction, and persuasion; the mathematics of war; Quid and being able to see the unseeable things; Primer and accelerating our understanding of world; teaching vs manipulation; Facebook, privacy, surveillance, democracy and free will. You can watch the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/sean-gourley/

Transhumanism is a growing social and philosophical movement with more and more people becoming aware of and sympathetic to it. In fact, in the last couple of years, transhumanism has gone political with new transhumanist parties emerging in the UK and the United States. And, since I have already argued that technology is the future of politics [and vice versa], I thought it is about time to bring Gennady Stolyarov II, who is the current chairman of the US Transhumanist party, to be a guest on Singularity.FM. During our 3-hour conversation with Gennady Stolyarov II we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: the quest for permanence as his guiding principle; growing a beard and why Death is Wrong; human and transhuman; the US Transhumanist Party – history, goals and membership; AI-ism, alien-ism and transhumanism; intelligence and morality; human stupidity, Trump and Putin; Zoltan Istvan’s Presidential Campaign and Transhumanist Wager; competition, politics and markets; public vs private companies; Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and his book Let My People Go Surfing; diet, running and longevity; the technological singularity; hard vs soft take-off; the agricultural revolution and progress… You can watch the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/gennady-stolyarov/

PJ Manney is an award-winning science fiction writer interested in transhumanism, empathy, story-telling and the future of humanity. Her latest book (ID)entity is a can’t-put-it-down action-packed mind-uploading/downloading world-crashing the-Empire-Strikes-Back of a masterpiece that vividly depicts the dangers of monetizing and weaponizing narrative, which is what companies such as Cambridge Analytica do. And so I thought it would be appropriate to bring Manney back on Singularity.FM to discuss her new book as well as the role of science fiction with respect to contemporary events. During our 90 min conversation with PJ Manney we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: science fiction, futurism and homo narrative; her Phoenix Horizon trilogy in general and book II – (ID)entity, in particular; DRM and why Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free; Cambridge Analytica and the weaponization of narrative; blockchain, history and cliodynamics; choice and free will; transhumanism and politics. My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with PJ Manney is: “We are fish swimming in water and we don’t know it is water. And the job of science fiction is to show you the water.” You can see the video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/identity/

https://www.singularityweblog.com/transcending-politics/ “There’s no escape: the journey to a healthier society inevitably involves politics.” This is how well-known futurist David Wood starts his most recent book Transcending Politics: A Technoprogressive Roadmap to a Comprehensively Better Future. And so I thought I’d bring him back on Singularity.FM to share with us how exactly is it he suggests that we transcend politics. During our 2 hours 15 min conversation with David Wood we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why politics is the future of technology; why technology is not enough; why intelligence is not enough; the thesis of Transcending Politics; humanism, transhumanism and transpolitics; techno-libertarian and techno-progressive transhumanism; smart politics and lean regulation; H+pedia as a shared transhumanist knowledge base; the scientific method and other pillars for transcending politics; human nature and eugenics; AI and technological unemployment; bitcoin and blockchain; humanity’s grand challenges and global governance; going beyong the transhumanist narrative… My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with David Wood is: “A better politics is possible. A better politics is beckoning us forward. And it is up to each of us to hear that call and figure out how to get involved in it.” You can watch the video in full here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/transcending-politics/

Bill Nye – the Science Guy, was the science educator to a whole generation not only in the United States but also in Canada and the rest of the English-speaking world. He was among a handful of TV celebrities who made science cool, interesting and fun. But most of all, Bill Nye inspired a generation of students not only to respect but also to love science and become scientists themselves. Today Mr. Nye is a man on a mission to save the world. And a unique behind-the-scenes documentary film – Bill Nye Science Guy, chronicles his personal campaign to do just that. So when David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg told me they are coming to Toronto for the Canadian premiere of their film, I knew that I had to use this opportunity to get Bill on my Singularity.FM podcast. During our 45 min conversation with Bill Nye, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he sees himself as a science educator; differences between Bill Nye – the person, and Bill Nye – the Science Guy; playing the hand he was dealt and saving the world; emotion and logic; his measure of success and failure; mining coal and using horses; the dangers and benefits of AI; the timelines and benchmarks towards the singularity; why his big 3 issues are clean water; renewable energy and global internet access; what is science and the limits thereof; on telling a story; the importance of ethics and its origins… You can see the video of this interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/bill-nye/

Jose Cordeiro, MBA, PhD, is an amazing person with endless supplies of energy and optimism. In fact, I have never met a more involved and proactive person than Dr. Cordeiro because he is literally always traveling across the world and is directly involved in a variety of cutting edge fields and projects from Japan and Korea, spanning all over Europe and all the way to South America and Silicon Valley. I honestly have no idea how Jose Cordeiro is able to sustain his restless schedule but it is very clear that he absolutely loves what he does and is incredibly passionate about making the world a better place. So, following his generous invitation to attend the Longevity and Cryonics Summit in Madrid I could not pass such a rare opportunity to interview Dr. Cordeiro in-person. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did. During our 45 min conversation with Jose Cordeiro, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he is a futurist, transhumanist, singularitarian and energularian; living in the best time to live and always travelling; escaping one dictatorship after another and becoming a citizen of the world; the biggest issues of our time; what is a kaka and why talking and even humanity might be the kaka’s of the future; the Longevity and Cryonics Summit in Madrid and the upcoming RAAD Festival in San Diego; the story of Spain from non-plus-ultra to plus-ultra; the religious complications of life extension and cryonics; immortality, amortality and receiving death-treats; Jose Cordeiro’s upcoming book The Death of Death; his seminal meetings with Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov; why the world will be a better place tomorrow… You can watch the video go here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/jose-cordeiro-longevity-cryonics/

Prof. Lawrence Krauss is a world-famous theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and activist against superstition whom I have dreamed of interviewing for years. So, when we finally booked the date, I feverishly spent a full week reading his last 2 books and watching 20+ hours of his past interviews and documentaries. Alas, I got the flu and didn’t manage to sleep at all the last couple of days before the interview. Lawrence, in turn, had a route canal done just the day before. And so I feel that I could have and should have done a much better job of this interview but, as Krauss says, “most experiments fail the first time”. Good news is that I will use this as an excuse to ask for another interview. During our 90 min discussion with Lawrence Krauss we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his desire to enjoy the universe and have adventures; his activism in support of freedom from religion; the current case of a young Saudi Arabian sentenced to death for blasphemy; Krauss’ concerns about democracy in general and President Trump in particular; growing up in Canada and how that’s impacted on his view of the government; why he wears red Converse sneakers on stage; The Greatest Story Ever Told… So Far; his take on the technological singularity; Ray Kurzweil, futurism and teleology; why, like me, he disagrees with Jaan Tallinn on the greatest existential risk to humanity; D-Wave Quantum Computers and the Penrose-Hameroff Quantum Theory of Consciousness; Frank J. Tipler’s claim about quantum mechanics and Christianity; the strengths and weaknesses of science and technology; free will, determinism, and ethics; death and immortality… My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Prof. Lawrence Krauss is: “The world is an amazing place that doesn’t need myth and superstition, but open questioning, awe and wonder.” You can watch the full video interview here:https://www.singularityweblog.com/lawrence-krauss/

A couple of weeks ago, during the last Transhumanist Meetup in Toronto, I did a Conversations with the Future book reading. Basically, I read my book’s foreword – the story of how I got to do what I do, as well as the book introduction – what my book is all about, and the epilogue – what people should take away from it. This event would not have happened without the great work of David McFadzean and Agah Bahari as well as meetup space provided by Rangle.IO. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to Dave Gibson and Billy Jimmy Lee, who took great video and pictures respectively that I can now share with people like you. Hope you enjoy it. You can see the video, as well as the consequent Q&A session, here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/conversations-with-the-future-book-reading/

Matthew Le Merle is co-founder of Fifth Era and managing partner of Keiretsu Capital, which is the world’s largest angel network and most active US venture investor. Most recently, Le Merle is the author of a new book titled Build Your Fortune in the Fifth Era: How to Prosper in an Age of Unprecedented Innovation. During our 90 min discussion with Matthew we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: who Matthew Le Merle is and the origins of his family name; how he got involved in disruptive innovation first and angel investing later; the difference between angel and venture investors and what entrepreneurs can learn from that; Le Merle’s take on the singularity and the coming together of the digital and biotech revolutions; his book Build Your Fortune in the Fifth Era and why the vast majority of people sit on the sidelines; why the world is transformed by asking questions; the importance of science fiction; generation C and their fundamentally different model; the transformation of capitalism and the Chinese model; zero marginal cost society and renewable energy; 9 ways to invest in the future and build a fortune… My favorite quote that I will take away from this conversation with Matthew Le Merle is: “Big ideas are born bad.” You can watch the full video of this interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/matthew-le-merle/

Yesterday I did a Facebook Live session together with comedian Amish Patel where we talked about our April Fool’s Prank, got serious about comedy and did a little comedy about the serious. So, if you still haven’t seen my “interview” with “Dr. Amish Patel” on why the Universe is a Simulation and his proof for that, make sure you check it out. During this conversation with Amish Patel we talk about: the format and goals of my Singularity.FM podcast; our April Fool’s prank and some chosen audience comments; how many of the “jokes” in our gag were things that really happened during my real interviews; why emotion eats logic for breakfast; the power of music and humor; the importance of doubt and asking questions; why I went vegan; ethics and religion… You can watch the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/nikola-amish-april-fools-prank/

Do you fear we might live in a simulation? Well, I just had the unique privilege to interview Dr. Amish Patel, who not only argues passionately that the Universe is indeed a simulation but also shares for the very 1st time his groundbreaking proof that this is indeed the case. During our 30 min discussion with Dr. Patel we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: who is Amish Patel in his own words; his cutting-edge work in cosmology, quantum mechanics and applied mathematics; the collapse of scientific materialism; his savant-like multiplication skills; mathematics and the nature of reality; his biggest dream and biggest fear; why everything around us is information and his “it from bit theory of the universe”; the computation hypothesis and the simulation hypothesis; why we are the AI; negativity and nihilism; why and how we can and should become Gods; Dr. Patel’s proof we live in a simulation; Douglas Adams’ answer to life, the universe and everything; π, 41.14159265359 and the dangers of rounding numbers… Watch the original video interview in full here https://www.singularityweblog.com/amish-patel-the-universe-is-a-simulation/

Marek Rosa is the founder and CEO of Keen Software, an independent video game development studio. After the success of Keen Software game titles such as Space Engineers, Marek founded and personally funded GoodAI with a 10 million dollar personal investment thereby finally being able to pursue his lifelong dream of building General Artificial Intelligence. Most recently Marek launched the General AI Challenge with a fund of 5 million dollars to be given away in the next few years. During our 80 min discussion with Marek Rosa we cover a wide variety of interesting topics such as: why curiosity is his driving force; his desire to understand the universe; Marek’s journey from game development into Artificial General Intelligence [AGI]; his goal to maximize humanity’s future options; the mission, people and strategy behind GoodAI; his definitions of intelligence and AI; teleology and the direction of the Universe; adaptation, intelligence, evolution and survivability; roadmaps, milestones and obstacles on the way to AGI; the hard problem of creating Good AI; the importance of theory of intelligence; the General AI Challenge… You can see the full video of the interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/goodai-marek-rosa/

Suzanne Gildert is a founder and CTO of Kindred AI – a company pursuing the modest vision of “building machines with human-like intelligence.” Her startup just came out of stealth mode and I am both proud and humbled to say that this is the first ever long-form interview that Suzanne has done. Kindred AI has raised 15 million dollars from notable investors and currently employs 35 experts in their offices in Toronto, Vancouver and San Francisco. Even better, Suzanne is a long term Singularity.FM podcast fan, total tech geek, Gothic artist, PhD in experimental physics and former D-Wave Quantum Computer maker. Right now I honestly can’t think of a more interesting person to have a conversation with. During our 100 min discussion with Suzanne Gildert we cover a wide variety of interesting topics such as: why she sees herself as a scientist, engineer, maker and artist; the interplay between science and art; the influence of Gothic art in general and the images of angels and demons in particular; her journey from experimental physics into quantum computers and embodied AI; building tools to answer questions versus intelligent machines that can ask questions; the importance of massively transformative purpose; the convergence of robotics, the ability to move large data across networks and advanced machine learning algorithms; her dream of a world with non-biological intelligences living among us; whether she fears AI or not; the importance of embodying intelligence and providing human-like sensory perception; whether consciousness is classical Newtonian emergent properly or a Quantum phenomenon; ethics and robot rights; self-preservation and Asimov’s Laws of Robotics; giving robots goals and values; the magnifying mirror of technology and the importance of asking questions… You can watch the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/suzanne-gildert-kindred-ai/

I am tired of hearing that science and technology will save the world. It is almost the same as saying “Jesus will save you!” It evokes the very same passive quasi-religious hope that something or someone out there will magically solve all our problems, bring abundance in our lives, help us live forever and bring back the dead. I am sorry to break this to you but science and technology will not save the world. Never have. For example, we have all the science and technology to provide water, food, shelter and sanitation – the mere basic necessities, to every hungry and homeless person on our planet. And yet 800 million people are starving. 800 million lack access to clean and safe drinking water and another 2 1/2 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. An estimated 100 million people are homeless worldwide and as many as 1.6 billion people lack adequate housing. Global warming is another obvious example: we know the science – it is pretty uncontroversial and conclusive. And we do have all the technology to move beyond both fossil fuels and meat consumption – the two most damaging factors not only to our environment but also to our own health. And yet we are not taking action. Hoping that the science will turn out to be wrong. That someone else will give up driving an SUV or eating meat three times per day. And that artificial intelligence will come and solve all of our problems. Our civilization is like an alcoholic with a failing liver – we hope we can 3d bio-print a new one just in time, while failing to acknowledge our self-destructive habits and our own responsibility, thereby failing to address the actual problem, rather than the symptom. It’s like hoping to win the lottery – it’s not totally impossible, but it is almost certain we won’t. [And even if we do, then what? It will only provide more time, not necessarily a solution.] And so we sit, and wait, and hope for science and technology to come save the world. And we are getting both fat and lazy as we are eating and driving ourselves to death. Both personally and collectively. We are destroying ourselves and our planet and we put our hopes and fears in things like God, science and technology: Our techno-deity aka “science and technology” will save us. [sic] Or the wrath of God-like super-intelligent AI will destroy us. And we keep telling ourselves that convenient story. That lie. So that we can keep avoiding an inconvenient truth: That humanity is the greatest threat and hope for humanity. Not some omni-present, all-knowing, almighty force residing outside of us. No. It is us who are the greatest force on our planet – the real destroyers and creators. It is us who ought to take the blame for where we are today and the problems we have. It is us who are driving the train towards the trainwreck. And, it is only us, who can move our own foot off the gas pedal and hit the brakes to save ourselves. So what would Socrates say? Technology is NOT enough! And neither is science. To read the original article go here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/technology-is-not-enough/

Gerd Leonhardtechnology-vs-humanity is a musician, keynote speaker and futurist with over 300 clients, 1,500 engagements and over a million people of combined audience at venues across the world. Gerd is most recently the author of a brand new book titled Technology vs Humanity: The Coming Clash Between Man and Machine and, as someone who puts stress on ethics in his work as a futurist, I thought he would make a great interviewee on Singularity.FM. So check out his interview and let me know what you think! During our 90 min discussion with Gerd Leonhard we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why Gerd considers himself a humanist and a traveller; his journey from theology and philosophy through music and entrepreneurship and into foresight and futurism; starting a Spotify-type of a company 10 years too early and writing his bestseller book The Future of Music; the idea of merging with machines and his latest book Technology vs Humanity; whether we want Silicon Valley and DARPA to determine the future of humanity; why technology is not enough and the need for digital ethics; political referendums, universal basic income and technological unemployment; his concept of CORE vs the popular STEM; capitalism, abundance and profit… Just some of the quotes that I will take away from this conversation with Gerd Leonhard are: “The biggest danger is not that machines will kill us… or replace us. The biggest danger is that we become like the machines.” “Embrace technology but do not become it!” “The future belongs to those who can hear it coming” [David Bowie] You can watch the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/gerd-leonhard-on-technology-vs-humanity/

The Age of Em by Robin Hanson is the best worst book I have read in a very long while. It is the best because Robin has a very effective, efficient and eloquent writing style and a personality to match it. Thus he is able to say utterly horrendous things – like “the 3rd Reich will be a democracy by now” or “Humanity will starve,” while keeping a smile and remaining the very likable fellow that he is. It is the worst because The Age of Em is an efficiency utopia: a place where democracy is inefficient [sic]; one person one vote doesn’t work [does it ever?], ems live to work and not the other way around [so that, unlike now, we can get enough work out of them], and humanity has either starved to extinction or has become a tool of our tools. The Age of Em is a book which has entirely forgotten that technology [or economics for that matter] is only a how but it isn’t and it shouldn’t be a why or a what. That technology is not what we seek but how we seek. And that technology, while necessary, is not enough. And so, the Age of Em is a book where efficiency and effectiveness reign supreme at the expense of all else. In short, after reading the final version of the book, my opinion has not changed much since our previous conversation I had with Hanson. Though, somehow and paradoxically, I like Robin personally more than last time and really enjoyed having a conversation with him. And the fact that he was happy to send me the final book to review and discuss speaks volumes about the kind of open-minded person and academic that he is. [He also told me he felt I was holding back during the interview – which I did, and so I hope he forgives me that I am not doing that in this preamble to to our conversation ;-] And that is all very commendable indeed. But unfortunately it doesn’t make for a good or insightful book. What it does make for is a good conversation about a future scenario I believe is dangerous and I hope is as far from reality as Robin estimated himself – i.e. 1 in 1,000. You can see the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/age-of-em/

It is Canadian Thanksgiving long-weekend and I thought I’d take a couple of minutes to acknowledge and meditate upon some of the many things I am very thankful for. Check out the video for my short and very incomplete list. Now, what are you thankful for? You can see the video here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/thanksgiving-2016/

https://konoz.io/nikola.danaylov Every once-in-a-while, it is a good thing to do a headstand and look at the world from a different perspective. In podcasting terms that would mean putting Socrates in the hotseat and making me answer questions, rather than let me hide in asking them. And I could’t think of a person better qualified to do that than Trevor Haldenby. Trevor is one of the masterminds behind the ByoLogic BRX Virus Outbreak episode I did a couple of years ago as well as a very skilled interviewer and story-teller. And so I was not surprised I had so much fun answering his questions. Hope you enjoy it too. During our 80 min interview we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: the origin story of Singularity Symposium, Singularity Weblog and Singularity 1on1; the personal fears and lack of domain knowledge I had to overcome to begin blogging and podcasting; my thesis that “technology is not enough”; my mission to create a symposium where people can give birth to their own ideas; asking questions and the dialectical method of investigation; the importance of habits; in vitro meat and the 3 reasons why I became vegan; why I am not an early adopter of transhumanist technology; my on-going attempt to interview Elon Musk; my favorite interviews or lack thereof; what I’ve learned from interviewing Karl Schroeder; my vision for the future of Singularity 1on1; my best and worst presentation ever; why I have chosen a long anti-TED-type format for my interviews and my current crowdfunding campaign on Konoz… Please support my crowd-funding campaign here: https://konoz.io/nikola.danaylov

Please donate to the Singularity 1on1 crowdfunding campaign and share it among your friends! Help me interview the future!!! https://konoz.io/nikola.danaylov

Kevin KellyThe Inevitable book cover has been a high profile maverick of both silicon valley and technology in general for the past 35 years. Some of his books have gained not just a best-seller status but a near-cult following in places like China. Popular personalities such as Tim Ferriss have called Kelly “the most interesting man in the world.” Thus it is not secret that I was very excited to have Kevin back on my podcast to discuss his latest book The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future. During our 90 min discussion with Kevin Kelly we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he thinks of himself as a sharer and packager of ideas; his Amish style beard; singular vs pluralist views of the future; the singularity and myth-making; what we can learn about technology from the Amish and his prediction about farm-land-ownership in the next 150 years; his 3 most important lessons about life in general, technology and ethics; his last two books What Technology Wants and The Inevitable; whether technological evolution is inevitable and teleological or not; determinism and free will; Moore’s Law; the process of cognifying and why there is no such thing as general purpose intelligence; the dangers posted by AI; protopia, dystopia and utopia; the importance of asking questions… You can watch the full video interview here https://www.singularityweblog.com/kevin-kelly-on-the-inevitable-12-technological-forces-that-will-shape-our-future/

This is the audio of me - Nikola Danaylov, and John Rennie participating in a very short televised debate for TRT World News titled “Are we nearing the Singularity?”. Now, I was totally green-screened, had no TV monitor to look at, my ear-piece — the only input of connecting with the host and my interlocutor kept popping out of my ear, and, as you will see, I am not even in focus. Not sleeping for several days in a row doesn’t help either but, other than than that, I think it was all perfect. ? Synopsis: After a computer out-smarts a human at a complex game for the first time, The Newsmakers talks to John Rennie and Nikola Danaylov about whether this could be the beginning of the Singularity with artificial intelligence. You can see the full video here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/nikola-danaylov-trt-world-news-debate/

Some people are just outright unreasonable: they refuse to adapt to the world and, instead, try to adapt the world to themselves. Marcin Jakubowski is one of those crazy people who has been trying to open source a civilization starter kit from the ground up. Now, as we know, most unreasonable people fail. But those who make it through end up changing the world. And I sure hope Marcin is one of those. So I could not pass the opportunity to have him on Singularity 1on1 and talk about being unreasonable and the work that he does. During our 1 hour discussion with Marcin Jakubowski we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he considers himself farmer-scientist and open source ecologist; scarcity, distribution and post-scarcity; the definition, mission and goals of open source ecology; the civilization starter kit of 50 irreplaceable machines; Richard Stallman’s free software vs the open source software movement; patents, innovation and Jaron Lanier’s criticism that open source lacks it; Catarina Mota’s PhD thesis on open source hardware; self-sufficiency and Marcin’s concept of “true freedom”; the size and cost of his open source eco houses; Jakubowski’s current crowdfunding campaign together with the open house institute… You can see the full video interview here https://www.singularityweblog.com/marcin-jakubowski-open-source-ecology-mud-hut-singularity-1-day/

Albert Wenger is a venture capitalist and partner at Union Square Ventures. He was the president of del.icio.us and oversaw the company’s sale to Yahoo eventually becoming investor in a number of companies such as Etsy, Tumblr and Twitter. Not only that but he is a venture capitalist who supports basic income, argues for rolling back of intellectual property rights and foresees a World After Capital. All in all a perfect guest for my Singularity 1on1 podcast. During our 1 hour discussion with Albert Wenger we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his take on the technological singularity and whether AI is an opportunity to make money; the agrarian, the industrial and the knowledge age; universal computation and zero marginal cost; knowledge, wisdom and philosophy; intellectual property rights, creative commons and progress; universal basic income, how to pay for it and the recent Swiss referendum; the limits of capitalism; technological unemployment. Watch the video in full here https://www.singularityweblog.com/albert-wenger-world-after-capital/

We often tend to ignore people and books that we have strong disagreement with. And yet, often times it is precisely those interactions that are very productive in helping us re-evaluate our own positions and see things from a fresh perspective. I find that, more often than not, confronting rather than ignoring a good argument, is not only a more honest approach but can also be quite rewarding in a variety of ways. And my interview with Prof. Richard Jones is a perfect example of that. So, while I may disagree with him on his general verdict on transhumanism, I found an impressive amount of specific things we agree on. And, more importantly, I managed to learn a thing or two about nanotechnology and the human brain. During our 75 min discussion with Prof. Richard Jones we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his general work in nanotechnology and his book and blog on the topic; technological progress and whether it is accelerating or not; transhumanism, Ray Kurzweil and technological determinism; physics, Platonism and Frank J. Tipler‘s claim that “the singularity is inevitable”; the strange ideological routes of transhumanism; Eric Drexler’s vision of nanotechnology as reducing the material world to software; the over-representation of physicists on both sides of the transhumanism and AI debate; mind uploading and the importance of molecules as the most fundamental unit of biological processing; the quest for indefinite life extension and the work of Aubrey de Grey; the importance of politics and ethics in technology… You can see the full video interview here https://www.singularityweblog.com/richard-jones-against-transhumanism/

Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype and Kazaa, got so famous in his homeland of Estonia that people named the biggest city after him. Well, that latter part may not be exactly true but there are few people today who have not used, or at least heard of, both Skype or Kazaa. What is much less known, however, is that for the past 10 years or so Jaan Tallinn has been spending both a lot of his time and money as an evangelist for the dangers of existential risks as well as generous financial supporter to organizations doing research in the field. And so I was very happy to finally interview Tallinn on my Singularity 1on1 podcast. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. During our 75 min discussion with Jaan Tallinn we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: a few quirky ways he sometimes introduces himself by; the conspiracy of physicists to save the world; how and why he got interested in AI and the singularity; the top existential risks we are facing today; quantifying the downsides of artificial intelligence and all-out nuclear war; Noam Chomsky‘s and Marvin Minsky‘s doubts we are making progress in AGI; how Deep Mind’s AlphaGo is different from both Watson and Deep Blue; my recurring problems of using Skype for podcasting; soft vs hard take-off scenarios and our chances of surviving the technological singularity; the importance of philosophy… You can see the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/jaan-tallinn/

Spencer Wolf is the award-winning author of After Mind, a mindbender of a science fiction novel about mind-uploading and AI that I just finished reading. When Spencer was a young child attending summer camp he would treat his home-sickness by programming late into the night on his massive personal computer, which he carried in two separate suitcases. No surprise that Wolf grew up to be an an award-winning author, and all-around interesting guy, with a diverse set of personal experience, knowledge and interests. All in all a perfect guest for my podcast. During our 1 hour discussion with Spencer Wolf we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: the definition of science fiction and how he fell in love with it; his time at Paramount and working on blockbusters such as Titanic and Braveheart; Blade Runner and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?; androids, humans and life-expectancy; anthropomorphising AI and evolver and seeder types thereof; water, technology and being human; imagination, making mistakes and free will; Steve Mann‘s take on technology and water; Spencer Wolf’s Enhanced Inversion Test of AI and how it’s different from the classic Turing Test; the potential dangers from AI and our chances of surviving the technological singularity… Check out the full video of the interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/spencer-wolf-on-after-mind/

Dr. Richard Stallman is an inductee of the internet hall of fame as well as the founder of the “Free Software” movement. In the words of Robert Grüning “Richard Stallman is like the Socrates of software, the money making colleagues are the sophists.” Another member of my audience said that Stallman is like Tron – he fights for the users. Yet Richard himself disliked both characterizations and called them misleading. So I suggest you check out my Singularity 1on1 interview with Richard Stallman, learn about the Free Software movement and judge for yourself. During our 1 hour discussion with Dr. Richard Stallman we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: the misconceptions about and definition of Free Software; why freedom is worth the inconvenience; the GNU OS and the Linux kernel; freedom, technology, innovation and ethics; free software as a political movement with elements from capitalism, socialism and anarchism; AI and the technological singularity; Moore’s Law and the Law of Accelerating Returns; hacking and transhumanism; security, privacy and surveillance; free software for mobiles… See the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/richard-stallman-singularity-free-software/

About 4 1/2 years ago I interviewed Robert J. Sawyer on his fantastic non-dystopian AI trilogy WWW. To this day people keep telling me it is one of my very best interviews ever. Unfortunately last time we spoke via Skype and had a pretty bad video connection. So I vowed to myself that next time I will make sure we have the best possible quality of production I can deliver. And here we are today with my first cinema-wide 4k interview ever, which we shot at Robert J. Sawyer’s penthouse. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. During our 60 min discussion with Robert J. Sawyer we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: what Quantum Night is all about; the Philosopher’s Zombie phenomenon and the Penrose-Hameroff Orch OR Quantum Theory of Consciousness; why he keeps situating his novels in Canada; why good science fiction is about ethics and social commentary; the 2018 bicentennial anniversary science fiction party… My favorite quotes that I will take away from this interview with Robert J. Sawyer are: Canada is “the bridge of the Enterprise writ large.” “There is nothing inherently unknowable.” You can watch my full interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/robert-j-sawyer-quantum-night/

Stephen E. Arnold is a specialist in on-line search, content processing and indexing. He is the author of seven books and monographs, including a trilogy on Google. Stephen is also the blogger behind Beyond Search and has previously worked for companies such as Halliburton Nuclear and Booz, Allen & Hamilton – the same company that Edward Snowden was a contractor for. During our 90 min discussion with Stephen E. Arnold we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he calls himself lucky; how he got interested in computers in general and search engines in particular; his path from college to Halliburton Nuclear and Booze, Allen & Hamilton; content and web indexing; his who’s who list of clients; Beyond Search and the core of intelligence; his Google Trilogy – The Google Legacy (2005), Google Version 2.0 (2007), and Google: The Digital Gutenberg (2009); CyberOSINT and the Dark Web Notebook; the less-known but major players in search such as Recorded Future and Palantir; Big Brother and surveillance; personal ethics and Edward Snowden… Watch the video here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/stephen-e-arnold/

A Transhumanist Manifesto Preamble Intelligence wants to be free but everywhere is in chains. It is imprisoned by biology and its inevitable scarcity. Biology mandates not only very limited durability, death and poor memory retention, but also limited speed of communication, transportation, learning, interaction and evolution. Part I: Biology (w)as Destiny Biology is not the essence of humanity. Human is a step in evolution, not the culmination. Existence precedes essence. Human is a process, not an entity. One is not simply born human, but becomes one. That process of becoming is ongoing and thus the meaning of human is re-defined in every one of us. Part II: Hacking Destiny – The Transhuman Cyborg Biological evolution is perpetual but slow, inefficient, blind and dangerous. Technological evolution is fast, efficient, accelerating and better by design. To ensure the best chances of survival, take control of our own destiny and to be free, we must master evolution. Evolution is a journey, not a destination. In an endless universe, it is unlikely that it will ever reach an ultimate point. Consciousness is a function of intelligence, not the brain. It is not necessarily limited to the substrate(biology). There is nothing inherently wrong in speeding up evolution and becoming true masters of our destiny, though this may be simultaneously the greatest promise and peril humanity has ever faced. Part III: Disembodied Augmented Intelligence Intelligence is a process, not an entity. Embodied (human) intelligence is imprisoned by biology and its inevitable scarcity. Intelligence ought to be free — to move, to interact and to evolve, unhindered by the limits of biology and scarcity. Digital, disembodied and augmented intelligence is free (and perhaps infinite). Conditions: Although all progress is change, not all change is progress. Thus, certain conditions must be met to ensure that it is indeed progress, and not mere change, that has been accomplished. Non-discrimination with regard to substrate Substrate is morally irrelevant. Whether somebody is implemented on silicon or biological tissue, if it does not affect functionality or consciousness, is of no moral significance. Carbon-chauvinism, in the form of anthropomorphism, speciesism, bioism or even fundamentalist humanism, is objectionable on the same grounds as racism. We must all respect autonomy and individual rights of all sentience throughout the universe, including humans, non-human animals, and any future AI, modified life forms, or other intelligences. Emotional Intelligence Intelligence is more than the mere exercise of perfect logic and pure reasoning. Intelligence devoid of emotional intelligence is meaningless. It must exhibit empathy, compassion, love, sense of humor and artistic creativity such as music and poetry. Minimize Suffering Compassion is the ultimate measure of intelligence. The minimization of suffering and avoidance of causing suffering to others, even less intelligent beings, is the essence of enlightened intelligence. Conclusion: Transhumanists of the world unite – we have immortality to gain and only biology to lose. Together, we can break through the chains of biology and transcend scarcity, sex, age, ethnicity, race, death and even time and space. In short, transhumanists everywhere must support the revolutionary movement against death and the existing biological order of things. Transhumanists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the overthrow of all existing biological limitations and, most of all, death. Let death tremble at the revolution of science and technology. Transhumanists have nothing to lose but their biology. We have immortality and the universe to gain.

To be, or not to be: that was the question back when Machines did not challenge the reign of men. Will technology replace biology: that is the question now When computers get exponentially smarter: why shouldn’t we bow? Thus the dilemma facing the human race Is about hardware and coding: What type to embrace? Whether ’tis nobler to run DNA On an ancient biological hardware – Evolution’s play! Or ‘tis better to get up-to-date And run binary code on the supercomputers of late. But who is to say? Is it nobler to suffer in the flesh The slings and arrows of biology as destiny? Or to hack ‘tis cursed body; and by technology To live. Forever! No more sickness, no more aging, no more death Our mortal flesh is heir to. The choice is yours and mine to make But what a bind we find ourselves into: To pick between humanity and immortality. But what is human anyway? A temporary grouping of the bits En route to fall apart… Or is there more to it? A soul? A genome code? A conscience? Or, a pattern? Some kind of essence, anyway? I still don’t know for sure what it is So, why am I afraid to lose what I don’t know? … You can see the full video here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/hamlet-transhumanist-dilemma-will-technology-replace-biology/

Nick Gogerty is one of those people who wants to have his cake and eat it too – i.e. Nick is trying to make money while also doing good for the world. In fact, his latest venture – SolarCoin, may be focusing a lot more on the “making good” rather than the “making money” part. In addition, Gogerty himself is a very interesting and knowledgeable person with unique and very diverse personal interests and experience. So, all in all, a perfect interviewee for my Singularity 1on1 podcast. During our 82 min discussion with Nick Gogerty we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his time at Starlab and the lessons he took from there; his early interest in finance, economics and creating value; money, energy and bitcoin; his book The Nature of Value; SolarCoin and ElectricChain; technology and Moore’s Law; DeKo and the theory behind a currency Based on Electricity; proof of work and how you can get SLR; the half-life of facts and the bitcoin experiment; the Financial Singularity and Ethereum; nuclear power and big risk; climate change and meat consumption; true cost economics and the future of capitalism… You can see the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/nick-gogerty-on-solarcoin/

“AI is coming and it could be the best or the worst thing” was Calum Chace‘s message at the end of my first interview with him. Since then Chace has written a non-fiction book on Surviving AI and, given that it is a matter of the survival of our species, I thought it is worthy of a follow up discussion on the topic. During our 1 hour conversation with Calum Chace we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: Surviving AI and why it is a companion book to Pandora’s Brain; writing fiction vs non-fiction; the digital divide, technological unemployment, universal income and the economic singularity; the importance of luck and our ignorance of those who have saved the world; the term Singularity, Bostrom’s Superintelligence and Barrat‘s Our Final Invention; the number of AI security experts; the future of capitalism… Check out the full video here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/calum-chace-on-surviving-ai/

Robert Steele is a very interesting person indeed: in the 1980s Robert was a clandestine CIA agent who believed not only in secrecy but also in Reagan’s right-wing politics and trickle down economics. Today Steele is the author of The Open Source Everything Manifesto: Transparency, Truth, and Trust. So how does a former spy and CIA intelligence professional, and Marine Corps infantry officer, become an honorary hacker, open source evangelist and the top Amazon reviewer devoted to non-fiction? Well, I invited Steele on my Singularity 1on1 podcast to ask him about that, as well as a few other things. During our 82 min discussion with Robert Steele we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: whether humanity is making progress or not; failed states, regime change and ISIS; The Open-Source Everything Manifesto; smart cities and nature; shifting from secrecy to open source; producing more actionable intelligence than the entire US intelligence complex; collecting systems versus sharing and processing systems; capitalism, the singularity and true cost economics; industrialization, education and being a sheep; open source everything as a way to unleash our entrepreneurial capabilities; polarization and the preconditions for revolution; panarchy as extreme democracy and informed self-governance; ethics and integrity… My three favorite quotes that I will take away from this conversation with Robert Steele are: “The chasm, the gap between people with power and people with knowledge is now catastrophic.” “Open source intelligence is the application of the craft of intelligence, legally and ethically, to create smart cities, smart nations, smart companies and smart citizens. It’s about not being a sheep.” “Ethics is about the truth. And transparency. And trust. Ethics is how a civilization hands on the lessons of history, from one generation to the next. Ethics is the cultural code for getting the most out of any group and any situation with the least amount of damage and the least amount of waste. So ethics is an operating system.” You can see the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/robert-steele-open-source-everything/