Singularity.FM

It has been almost 5 years since I originally published my 23andMe DNA Test review where I concluded that it was right for me. I also asked you to seriously consider if it may or may not be right for you too. And so, if you still have not considered the risks, the benefits and the costs of doing a DNA test, then today’s episode is for you. I was very fortunate to get an interview with Emily Drabant Conley – research scientist and director of business development at 23andMe. And Dr. Conley was very forthcoming and generous in replying to and addressing a variety of issues related to genetic testing in general and 23andMe in particular. So check out the interview and consider how it may relate to or be useful for you. During our 45 min conversation with Emily Drabant Conley we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: her background in neuroscience and professional responsibilities at 23andMe (aff); her dream of personalized medicine; the types of information costs and benefits that 23andMe provides; the FDA “seize and desist letter”; how we get “accurate” and “actionable” DNA data; the choice to know or not to know your genes; privacy, hacking and who owns your genetic data; the benefits of full genome testing as well as a huge database system; accessing your raw data and 23andMe’s open API; reading, interpreting and eventually writing DNA… You can see the video here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/emily-drabant-conley-23andme/

The first time I saw Dr. Gabor Forgacs was at last year’s fantastic Idea City conference in Toronto and, after his passionate presentation on bio-printed suffering-free leather, I knew that I will have to find a way to get him on my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. Dr. Forgacs is a theoretical physicist turned tissue-engineer turned entrepreneur. His companies are pioneering 3D bio-printing technologies that will produce tissues for medical and pharmaceutical uses, as well as for consumption, in the form of meat and leather. During our 45 min conversation with Gabor we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his journey from theoretical physics into bio-printing and entrepreneurship; the founding and goals behind Organovo and Modern Meadow; bio-printing of human organs, meat and leather; “cultured” vs “in-vitro” vs “Frankenstein” meat; his greatest dream… My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Dr. Forgacs is: “Dream, dream, dream! […] We live in a time when it is really difficult to say: “This is impossible!””

Steve Omohundro is a scientist, professor, author, and entrepreneur who has a Ph.D. in physics but has spent decades studying intelligent systems and artificial intelligence. His research into the basic “AI Drives” was featured in James Barrat’s recent book Our Final Invention and has been generating international interest. And so I was very happy to get Dr. Omohundro on my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. During our 1 hour conversation we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his personal path starting with a PhD in physics and ending into AI; his unique time with Richard Feynman; the goals, motivation and vision behind is work; Omai Ventures and Self Aware Systems; the definition of AI; Rational Decision Making and the Turing Test; provably safe mathematical systems and AI scaffolding; hard vs soft singularity take-offs…

This is the first out of a series of 3 sci fi round-table interviews with Ramez Naam, William Hertling and Greg Bear that I did last November in Seattle. It was produced by Richard and Tatyana Sundvall and generously hosted by Greg and Astrid Bear. After two previous low tech interviews, it was about time to give Ramez Naam the proper video quality that his work deserves. Ramez is a public speaker, futurist and an author of some of my most favorite science fiction action-thrillers. During our 1 hour conversation we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: fiction vs non-fiction; the deeper impact he wants to achieve with his work; the meaning and function of science fiction; the Nexus, Crux and (upcoming) Apex trilogy; More Than Human and Transhumanism; AI and the technological singularity; whole-brain simulation, IBM’s SyNAPSE and The Human Brain Project; the likelihood of war between humans and post-humans; Big Brother and technological unemployment… My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Ramez Naam is: “The future isn’t set in stone! The shape that it takes depends quite a lot on the choices that we make as individuals and as a society. […] The future can be even better if we can make the right choices together!”

Brad Feld is an entrepreneur and a popular popular blogger. He is also the author of The Startup Series of books such as Startup Life. But Brad is best known for being a unique type of a technology Venture Capitalist who has invested in more than 200 different companies throughout his career. And so I was very excited to have Feld on my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast, where my hidden agenda was to ask him more non-traditional questions than the ones he usually gets asked. During our 1 hour conversation with Brad Feld we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his take on the technological singularity and merging of man and machine; the chances of a terminator type of a future; death, mind uploading and indefinite life-extension; the preconditions for and the future of venture investing; the origins of Feld’s interest in AI and robotics; whether AI companies have a competitive advantage or not; the companies he is most excited about; Brad’s take on Bitcoin; popular misconceptions about Venture Capitalists and his aspirations to be a Yoda-like type of an investor; capitalism and technological unemployment… My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Brad Feld is: “Be optimistic! As we look forward into the future, if we are optimistic and try lots of things, and recognize lots of things will fail, lots of things will be messy, lots of things will be uncomfortable, lots of things will generate fear and there will be lots of mistakes. But I think if we stay fundamentally optimistic and approach technological innovation and the movement of all this stuff through society in a positive way, I think we’ll end up in a much more positive way, we’ll have much more positive outcomes.”

Today I just want to take a minute and say “Thank You!” Thank you, because without you there will be no Singularity Weblog. Thank you, because without you there will be no Singularity 1 on 1. Thank you, because without you I can call myself neither a blogger nor a podcaster. Thank you, because without your support, comments and criticisms, I would have neither the means nor the motivation to continue doing my work. Thank you for giving me a reason and always being there for me. Thank you!

Last October I traveled to Vermont to visit the Terasem Movement Foundation and speak to its managing director Bruce Duncan. I first met Bruce at the Idea City conference in Toronto where he shared the stage together with Bina 48. Needless to say I was impressed by both of them and thus I couldn’t refuse an invitation to visit Terasem headquarters and interview Mr. Duncan in person. During our 40 min conversation with Bruce we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: the Terasem Movement Foundation – its name and its mission; Bina 48 and what Duncan has learned from her about being human in general and himself in particular; the Lifenaut project of capturing your mind file; the 2 Terasem Hypotheses; BNA‘s and Beme‘s; Fleshism and Terasem’s feature sci fi film To Be: The Era of Flesh is Over; mind uploading and immortality… My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Bruce Duncan is: “There is no better author of your story than you!”

Godfrey Reggio is an inventor of a film style which creates poetic images of extraordinary emotional impact for audiences worldwide. Reggio is prominent in the film world for his Qatsi trilogy – Koyaanisqatsi: Live Out of Ballance, Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation, and Naqoyqatsi: Life as War, essays of visual images and sound which chronicle the destructive impact of the modern world on the environment. Thanks to my friend Tom Lowe, I was very fortunate to attend the premiere of Godfrey’s latest film – Visitors. In my view Visitors is one of those fundamentally important films that one simply has to watch. If you are fortunate enough to see the film the way I did – in glorious 4k and accompanied by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra live performance of Philip Glass’ original music score, then I guarantee it will be a movie experience like no other. And chances are that it will touch and move your heart even if it doesn’t do so for your head. I would also suggest that you must go and watch at least Reggio’s first film – Koyaanisqatsi. [If you can also see Visitors it will be even better.] Otherwise it is unlikely you will get many of the references we are discussing during the interview. At any rate, during our 1 hour conversation with Godrey Reggio we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he is a refugee from another period who had the opportunity to live in the middle ages; the guiding principle behind his life and work; why and how he got interested in film-making; his Qatsi trilogy as another way of seeing the world and how it was adopted by popular culture such as MTV; Visitors and shooting both 4k and Black-and-White; the evolution of Reggio’s ideas and his take on the technological singularity… My most favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Godfrey Reggio is: “It’s our behavior that determines the content of our mind. […] We become what we do; we become what we see; we become the routine that we are a part of…”

Dr. Frank J. Tipler is a physicist and cosmologist perhaps best known for concepts such as the Omega Point or The Cosmological Singularity. He is a professor of mathematical physics at Tulane University and the author of books such as The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, The Physics of Immortality and The Physics of Christianity. During our 1 hour conversation with Dr. Tipler we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he is both a physics imperialist and fundamentalist; the cosmological singularity, the technological singularity and the omega point; his personal journey from Christian fundamentalism through agnosticism and atheism and back to theism and Christianity; why most physicists are good atheists and bad scientists; immortality; determinism and whether God plays dice with the universe; mind-uploading and [Quantum] consciousness… The most interesting quote that I will take away from this interview with Frank J. Tipler is: “If the laws of physics be for us, who can be against us?!”

Dave Asprey is founder of The Bulletproof Executive as well as a Silicon Valley investor and technology entrepreneur who spent 15 years and over $300,000 to hack his own biology. He lost 100 pounds without counting calories or excessive exercise, upgraded his brain by more than 20 IQ points, and lowered his biological age while learning to sleep more efficiently in less time. I first heard of Dave from my friend PJ Manney who highly recommended Asprey for my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. After such an endorsement I was certain that the Bulletproof Executive will not disappoint. However, I never suspected that, after our conversation, a total coffee fanatic like me would end up changing his morning routine and become an upgraded coffee fan. [It’s been 5 days since the interview was recorded and the results were so impressive that my wife couldn’t help it but join me in the bulletproof coffee morning routine.] During our 1 hour conversation with Dave Asprey we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: biohacking and the bulletproof executive brand; interval training and electrical stimulation; Asprey’s experience as a technology executive; the bulletproof diet and upgraded coffee; the ethical and health implications of the paleo and vegan diets… My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Bulletproof Executive Dave Asprey is: “Hack the environment to hack yourself and you can reach levels of performance never imagined.”

David Pearce is a British utilitarian philosopher who promotes what he calls The Hedonistic Imperative. David is also a co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association and a vegan who argues that we (or our future posthuman descendants) have a responsibility not only to avoid cruelty to animals within human society but also to alleviate the suffering of animals in the wild. During our 85 minute conversation with David Pearce we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why in his view philosophy is mostly a matter of temperament; Utilitarianism as his choice of flavor; why he decided to be a vegan; defining and measuring sentience; his definition of transhumanism and why philosophy has largely ignored it; The Abolitionist Project; the importance and impact of suffering; The Hedonistic Imperative; whether killing other humans can be permissible under extreme circumstances; Buddhism; his take on the technological singularity, mind uploading and the Hameroff/Penrose model of consciousness… My favorite quotes that I will take away from this interview with David Pearce are his two definitions of transhumanism: “Technical solution to an ethical problem.” “The use of technology to overcome biological limitations.”

Dr. Noam Chomsky is a famed linguist, political activist, prolific author and recognized public speaker, who has spent the last 60 years living a double life – one as a political activist and another as a linguist. His activism allegedly made him the US government’s public enemy number one. As a linguist he is often credited for dethroning behaviorism and becoming the “father of modern linguistics” (and/or cognitive science). Put together his accomplishments are the reasons why he is often listed as one of the most important intellectuals of the 20th century. And so I was very much looking forward to interviewing him on Singularity 1 on 1. Unfortunately our time together was delayed, then rushed and a bit shorter than anticipated. So I was pretty nervous throughout and messed up some of my questions and timing. Never-the-less, I believe that we still had a worthy conversation with Dr. Chomsky and I appreciate the generous though limited time that he was able to grant me. During our 30 minute conversation with Noam Chomsky we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: the balance between his academic and his political life; artificial intelligence and reverse engineering the human brain; why in his view both Deep Blue and Watson are little more than PR; the slow but substantial progress of our civilization; the technological singularity… My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Dr. Chomsky is: “What’s a program? A program is a theory; it’s a theory written in an arcane, complex notation designed to be executed by the machine. What about the program, you ask? The same questions you ask about any other theory: Does it give insight and understanding? These theories don’t. So what we’re asking here is: Can we design a theory of being smart? We’re eons away from doing that.”

There are 3 individuals who have had the most impact on what I’ve been doing for the past 5 years: Ray Kurzweil – who helped me to see deeper into the exponential growth and disruptive nature of technology; Seth Godin – who inspired me to pick myself and begin my journey into blogging and podcasting despite the potential for failure, and fail I did. And, finally, my wife Julie – who is the main reason why I’ve persisted when, on numerous occasions, I have felt like giving up. Thus it is a dream come true to have the privilege to steal 45min out of Seth Godin’s busy live just for me and you. And so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Please have in mind that this was not intended to be one of the usual conversations on the usual topics that Seth often gives. So if this is what you were looking for then you are better off to go read any one of Godin’s fantastic books because regardless of which one you pick you can’t go wrong. Whether successful or not, this conversation was intended to be different by covering a variety of topics that Seth doesn’t speak often about. Those topics include but are not limited to: what is to be human and how technology changes both the meaning and the question; art and doing work that matters; technological unemployment and basic income; transhumanism, life-extension and hubris; ai and the technological singularity; consciousness and free will; abundance, scarcity, industrialism and capitalism.

For 20 years James Barrat has created documentary films for National Geographic, the BBC, Discovery Channel, History Channel and public television. In 2000, during the course of his career as a film-maker, James interviewed Ray Kurzweil and Arthur C. Clarke. The latter interview not only transformed entirely Barrat’s views on artificial intelligence, but also made him write a book on the technological singularity called Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era. I read an advance copy of Our Final Invention and it is by far the most thoroughly researched and comprehensive anti-The Singularity is Near book that I have read so far. And so I couldn’t help it but invite James on Singularity 1 on 1 so that we can discuss the reasons for his abrupt change of mind and consequent fear or the singularity. During our 70 minute conversation with Barrat we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his work as a documentary film-maker who takes interesting and complicated subjects and makes them simple to understand; why writing was his first love and how he got interested in the technological singularity; how his initial optimism about AI turned into pessimism; the thesis of Our Final Invention; why he sees artificial intelligence more like ballistic missiles rather than video games; why true intelligence is inherently unpredictable “black box”; how we can study AI before we can actually create it; hard vs slow take-off scenarios; the positive bias in the singularity community; our current chances of survival and what we should do…

Dr. Stuart Hameroff is a Professor of Anesthesiology and Psychology, and Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona. Together with British quantum physicist Sir Roger Penrose, Hameroff is the co-author of the controversial Orch OR model of consciousness. I first met Dr. Hameroff at the recent GF2045 conference where the usually mild-mannered Ray Kurzweil went out of his way to make it abundantly clear that the Orch OR model is totally wrong. Others called it “speculative,” “non-testable” and “unscientific”. By now both Stuart and Roger must have become accustomed to such attacks, and I have developed a lot of respect for the calm but firm way they are daring to stand their ground. Furthermore, if the Orch OR model were to be correct, then, there will be profound implications on variety of fields and disciplines such as medicine, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, quantum physics and philosophy. And so I decided to bring Dr. Hameroff on Singularity 1 on 1 where we can confront the controversy head-on. During our 1 hour conversation with Stuart we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: how he got interested in studying consciousness and the definition thereof; why understanding anesthesia is the route to understanding consciousness; the hard problem of consciousness; why the brain is more than a classical computer; how Hameroff reached out to Roger Penrose after reading The Emperor’s New Mind; the Orch OR model and why the vast majority of scientists are disdainful of it; the best ways of proving or disproving the Hameroff/Penrose model and the most important implications if it is indeed correct; out-of-body experiences, quantum souls, afterlife, and reincarnation; Hinduism and Buddhism; cryonics and chemical brain preservation; Stuart’s upcoming paper [together with Roger Penrose] where they will review and present new evidence in support of the Orch OR theory. Some of the most memorable quotes that I will take away from this interview are: “Consciousness is the most important thing there is!” “Assuming that a neuron is a bit-like [computer] firing ON or OFF is a tremendous insult to neurons.” “Most scientists can’t explain consciousness in the brain, so they can’t say that consciousness out of the brain is impossible.” “Consciousness is the music of the Universe.”

It has been almost two months since I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Dr. Natasha Vita-More at her family house in Scottsdale, Arizona. Vita-More has been at the fore-front for several decades and her projects such as Primo Post Human have lead the NY Times to call her “the first female philosopher of transhumanism.” Thus I was very happy to do my first in-person interview with Natasha and discuss her ideas about Whole Body Prosthetic and Substrate Autonomous, Networked Avatar Bodies by Design. During our 36 min conversation with Dr. Vita-More we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: her whole body prosthetic project; backing up the body as well as the mind; “back-casting” her vision and ultimate goals; the problem of identity in moving from one substrate to another; the timeline and scientific break-throughs in robotics, artificial intelligence and cognitive neuroscience necessary to make the whole body prosthetic a reality; consciousness and quantum mechanics; the reception of the Transhumanist Reader; dealing with skeptics and whether the world is ready for transhumanism and radical life-extension…

Robert Scoble is a Liaison officer for Rack Space, social media phenomenon, technology pundit with huge following, a journalist who has done thousands of interviews and a man who “always tries to have the front row seat on technology.” Needless to say, I was very happy to have Scoble on Singularity 1 on 1. And, while I may disagree with him about the inevitability of Big Brother and not heeding George Orwell’s 1984 warning, I totally agree with him that it doesn’t mean we have to resist the future. [Just to steer it better…] During our 1 hour conversation with Scoble we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: the short story of how he got to be where he is today; how he got his scobleizer moniker; his position at Rackspace and why it is among the coolest jobs in the world; his personal goals and motivation; why Google Glass is radically different and new; privacy, security, big brother and surveillance; his upcoming book The Age of Context; his take on the technological singularity… My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Robert Scoble is: “The future is sacrosanct. We should serve the future!”

Stelarc is a world renown body installation visual artist who has pushed the boundaries with his performances for more than four decades. His art has extruded the body beyond its physical limitations and created strong reactions around the world. Though strictly speaking he doesn’t consider himself to be a transhumanist, he also doesn’t mind being labeled a transhumanist artist. Stelarc has been on my guest wish list since the very beginning of my podcast and I was very happy to interview him on Singularity 1 on 1. During our 80 min conversation with Stelarc we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: whether his first love was art or technology; the story behind his attempt to “extrude” the body beyond its physical limitations; changing his name to Stelarc; his inspiration, motivation and goals; transhumanism and the philosophically problematic value judgments of enhancement and improvement; what is art and the new mediums thereof; his 3rd ear, the misconceptions and the risks surrounding it; if the body is obsolete; his take on the technological singularity… My two favorite quotes that I will take away from this interview with Stelarc are: “I think as artists we are really in the business of generating contestable futures; possibilities that can be examined. Often they would be discarded. Sometimes they may be appropriated.” “If you want to imagine a future, any future, you have to factor the unpredictable. Otherwise it is not a future.”

Dr. Geordie Rose is a founder and Chief Technology Officer at D-Wave Computers. I met Geordie at the IdeaCity conference in Toronto where he made an impassioned presentation about D-Wave and quantum computing. Needless to say, as soon as Dr. Rose stoped speaking I rushed to ask him for an interview. As it turns out Geordie is already a fan of Singularity 1 on 1 and isntantly said that he would be happy to do it. As a father of three kids and the CTO of a trail-blazing quantum computing company, Dr. Rose is a very busy person. Yet somehow he was generous beyond measure in giving me over two hours for an interview with the apparent desire to address as many of mine and the audience’s questions as possible. During our conversation with Geordie Rose we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: how wrestling competitively created an opportunity for him to discover Quantum Mechanics; why he decided to become an entrepreneur building computers at the edge of science and technology; what the name D-wave stands for; what is a quantum computer; why fabrication tech is the greatest limiting factor towards commoditizing quantum computing; hardware specs and interesting details around Vesuvius – D-Wave’s latest model, and the kinds of problems it can compute; Rose’s Law as the quantum computer version of Moore’s Law; how D-wave resolves the de-coherence/interference problem; the traditional von Neumann architecture behind classical computer design and why D-Wave had to move beyond it; Vesuvius’ computational power as compared to similarly priced classical super-computers and the inherent difficulties in accurate bench-marking; Eric Ladizinski’s qubit and the velodrome metaphor used to describe it; the skepticism among numerous scientists as to whether D-Wave really makes quantum computers or not; whether Geordie feels occasionally like Charles Babbage trying to build his difference engine; his prediction that quantum computers will help us create AI by 2029; whether the brain is more like a classical or quantum computer; how you can apply for programming time on the two D-wave quantum computers; his take on the technological singularity… My three favorite quotes that I will take away from this interview with Geordie Rose are: “Think about the Long Term and don’t pay all that much attention to the issues of the day.” “Machine learning is progressing faster than you think and will become more broadly available on shorter timescales than you might have hoped.” “Becoming involved is not impossible! “

Roman V. Yampolskiy is an Assistant Professor at the School of Engineering and Director at the Cybersecurity Lab of the University of Louisville. He is also an alumnus of Singularity University (GSP2012) and a visiting fellow of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI). Dr. Yampolskiy is a well known researcher with a more holistic point of view, stressing the perils as much as the promises of exponential technology. Thus I was happy to bring him on Singularity 1 on 1 to try and bring some balance to our views of the future. During our conversation with Roman we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: our shared experience of growing up behind the Iron Curtain; his personal motivation and main goals; why he disagrees with Marvin Minsky on the progress made in Artificial Intelligence; why he loves the “brute force” approach to AI; the Turing Test and its implications for humanity; Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics; Hugo de Garis and the Artilect War; Samuel Butler and Ted Kaczynski; his upcoming book Artificial Superintelligence: A Futuristic Approach; the chances for a “soft” or “hard” take-off of the technological singularity…

Joseph Carvalko is a lawyer with many decades of experience who bravely sued the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States for deserting a POW in Korea. Carvalko is also an engineer and inventor with 10 patents in fields spanning bio-medicine, electronics and the financial services. Joseph is the author of an interesting and very well researched book titled The Techno-Human Shell: A Jump in the Evolutionary Gap, as well as a poet, jazz pianist and a cyborg. And so it wasn’t hard to see that Carvalko would make a great guest for Singularity 1 on 1 the moment I met him. During our conversation with Joseph we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his unique path to starting up a legal practice as a trial lawyer; how and why he sued the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States, and his consequent book We Were Beautiful Once; the story of how he himself became a cyrborg as the genesis for The Techno-Human Shell; whether copyright and patents hurt or promote progress; NSA surveillance programs such as PRISM; the Turing Test and legal rights for Artificial Intelligence; his take on the technological singularity…

Last month I had the privilege of visiting Max More at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Alcor is a non-profit organization founded in 1972 and located in Scottsdale, Arizona. It is the world leader in cryonics, cryonics research, and cryonics technology. [Cryonics is the science of using ultra-cold temperature to preserve human life with the intent of restoring good health when technology becomes available to do so.] During our visit CEO Dr. More walked us through the Alcor facilities as well as the process starting after clinical death is proclaimed, through the cooling of the body and its vitrification, and ending in long term storage. My selfish reason for visiting was making sure that my big bald head fits well in the neuro-patient’s storage containers. Thus I was happy that Max explained the differences between neuro and whole body preservation and showed us the cryo-tanks where 117 patients are in long term storage. After our video tour of Alcor CEO Max More was kind enough to take another 25 minutes and answer some questions. During our conversation with Max we discuss: general affordability and prices for Alcor; long-distance membership and why minimizing cooling delays is critical for optimum body preservation; preserving pets; chemical brain preservation; the importance of preserving the neuron’s micro-tubules; the potential for X-prize-type of a competition for minimizing tissue damage and improving preservation; the relationship between cryonics and transhumanism. My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Max More is: “Cryonics is critical care medicine taken to the next step.”

Peter Joseph is a musician, film-maker and social activist best known as the man behind the Zeitgeist film trilogy and the founder of the Zeitgeist movement. Peter’s films have become a counter-culture phenomenon on the internet and have had millions of views. He has not shied away from controversy and has dared to push a strong vision for the future. Eventually his audience turned into a global movement aimed at replacing capitalism with a radically new social system based on a Resource Based Economy (RBE). And so I was very happy to have Peter Joseph on my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast in order to discuss and debate his past work, his vision of our future and his proposed solutions. During our 75 minute conversation with Peter we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he sees himself as a social critic and an optimist; his goals and motivation; Zeitgeist – the meaning, the movies and the movement; the major projects Peter is currently working on – e.g. the Global Redesign Institute; the schism between the Zeitgeist movement and the Venus Project; my take on the film trilogy and Peter’s logic for structuring his argument the way he did; the measure and meaning of progress; the natural world and being in sync with it; RBE, Capitalism, sustainability and central planning; the role of Artificial Intelligence within the Zeitgeist vision of the future; Peter’s take on the technological singularity…

This Wednesday I was very privileged to interview Dr. Ann Cavoukian. Dr. Cavoukian is the information and privacy commissioner of the province of Ontario (Canada) as well as the creator and foremost global champion of the privacy by design philosophy. She has been one of the most vocal proponents of privacy and the fact that it doesn’t have to come at the price of security or innovation. And so, I was very happy to visit the privacy commissioner’s office and interview her for Singularity 1 on 1. During our 45 minute conversation with Dr. Ann Cavoukian we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why privacy is vital for freedom; her background as an Armenian born in Egypt; her personal goals and motivation; why privacy and security (or technological innovation) is not a zero-sum game; the main responsibilities and legal powers of the privacy commissioner’s office; privacy by design as the proactive/preventative default solution to positive sum outcomes; the seven founding principles of privacy by design; NSA’s PRISM program, surveillance by design and false positives; why metadata is more important and revealing than content; why she believes that we owe a debt of gratitude to people such as Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange; whether enhanced privacy helps or hurts a company’s bottom line; Digital Rights Management (DRM) and open source software; the internet of things and privacy by design; what we can do to fight for and protect our own privacy… My favorite quotes that I will take away from this conversation with Dr. Cavoukian are: “Privacy knows no borders: we have to protect privacy globally or we protect it nowhere!” and “Have hope! […] Challenge the view that privacy is dead! […] Uphold privacy and know that you can have it. Know that we must have it! We must have privacy and freedom – that’s what it means to be human.”

Nigel Ackland claims he is an ordinary man. But, after seeing the emotional impact he had on the audience at GF2045, I have to disagree with him. His speech titled Ordinary… Extraordinary. Life with a Bionic Arm was in my view by far the most moving of all the conference presentations. And so, I knew instantly that I have to interview Nigel on my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. During my conversation with Ackland we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: Nigel’s traumatic accident and consequent depression; the crude prosthesis he had to struggle with and the fortunate connection with RSL Steeper; his bebionic hand – the cost, availability and operation thereof; why the major benefits of his bionic arm are psychological; the impact and importance of shaking hands; why and how the Paralympic games may become more interesting than the Olympics; whether people will eventually volunteer to get advanced prosthetics to enhance their abilities; why sensory feedback is necessary for full functionality…

Marvin Minsky is often called the Father of Artificial Intelligence and I have been looking for an opportunity to interview him for years. I was hoping that I will finally get my chance at the GF2045 conference in NY City. Unfortunately, Prof. Minsky had bronchitis and consequently had to speak via video. A week later, though still recovering, Marvin generously gave me a 30 min interview while attending the ISTAS13 Veilance conference in Toronto. Hope that you enjoy this brief but rare opportunity as much as I did! During our conversation with Marvin Minsky we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: how he moved from biology and mathematics to Artificial Intelligence; his personal motivation and most proud accomplishment; the importance of science fiction – in general, and his take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – in particular; the Turing Test; the importance of theory of mind; the Human Brain Project; the technological singularity and why he thinks that progress in AI has stalled; his personal advice to young AI researchers…

A few weeks ago I got interviewed on the Futurology Podcast. During my one hour conversation with show host Jason Peffley we discuss a number of topics such as: how I got to do blogging and podcasting; my time and take on Singularity University in particular and education in general; the wait-and-see vs the proactive approach to the future; the definition of the technological singularity; slow vs hard take-off scenarios; whether I am a futurist or not; my favorite singularity books; the political and economic reality in the US; why life extension technology is so exciting; why I hate Prometheus; pessimism vs optimism… Here is the original podcast description written by Jason Peffley: “Instead of running through the top 5 links, this episode is dedicated to interviewing Nikola Danaylov. His site (singularityweblog.com) is periodically discussed here and his podcast has featured some of the biggest names in technology. Nikola has also studied at the Singularity University. He now makes his living by blogging, podcasting, and attending singularity related events around the world.”

Thad Starner is a wearable computing pioneer who coined the term “augmented reality” and a Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also a technical lead on Google Glass – a self-contained wearable computer. And so I was very excited to interview Prof. Starner for my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. During our conversation with Thad we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: how he coined the term augmented reality (AR) and the definition thereof; what is wearable computing and how it is different from AR; Google Glass – its major breakthroughs, popular apps, misconceptions and implications; Starner’s other cutting-edge projects such as the passive haptic learning mobile music touch glove; his personal advice for young augmented reality designers and developers; Vernor Vinge‘s Rainbows End and the technological singularity…

Daryl Oster is an inventor and engineer who wants to bring space travel to Earth. The idea is called ET3 – Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies. Oster is the CEO of ET3 and his company “uses an open consortium business model to share information resulting in co-operative benefits.” The goal is nothing less but building a radically new high-speed global network of transportation that will be cheap to use and maintain; safe not only for passengers but also for the environment; accessible to and affordable for everyone on Earth; quiet and fast (with speeds eventually reaching 4,000 mph). During my conversation with Daryl Oster we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: what is ET3 and how did it come to be; how, by removing friction, evacuated tube transport will bring space travel to Earth; why automating ET3 is easier than automating robot cars; the optimum degree of vacuum required to achieve highest efficiency of transportation; the costs associated with the R&D and building the network; ensuring safety and dealing with malfunctions; why evacuated tube transport is cheaper and better than the alternatives; Daryl’s unique business model; current state of development and projects both in the USA and abroad; why the major obstacles are political and legal and not technological; the biggest misconceptions about ET3; why innovators are the ones with knife wounds on their backs; why the greatest benefits of the project are social; the technological singularity…

Chris Lewicki is the president and Chief Asteroid Miner at Planetary Resources – the first company that plans to locate and mine asteroids for water and precious metals. The company is backed by a number of billionaires and space enthusiasts such as director James Cameron, Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, X Prize founder Peter Diamandis and billionaire Ross Perot Jr., along with a number of other incredible minds. As Michio Kaku once put it: “You can’t go wrong if you put together a bunch of billionaires and NASA scientists.” And so I was very excited to interview Chris Lewicki for Singularity 1 on 1. During my conversation with Lewicki we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: how Chris got inspired to work on space exploration; his teenage “deviation” into rock-and-roll music; science fiction, Star Trek and Star Wars; Planetary Resources and its mission; the ARKYD series of spacecraft and their current kickstarter project; the importance of building a community; the company vision timeline; the potential for space war; artificial intelligence and the technological singularity… My two favorite quotes that I will take away from this conversation with Chris Lewicki are: “In space it’s not about the distance; It’s really about the energy.” and “Stop reading about it and start doing it!”

Prof. Chris Hables Gray is someone whose work on both war and the cyborg is a must read for anyone interested in those topics. I have followed Gray’s work for over 10 years and have read at least 3 of his books. So when I discovered that Chris will be one of the speakers for the upcoming ISTAS2013 conference in Toronto, that I can’t wait to attend this June 27-29, I decided to use it as an excuse to get him for an interview on Singularity 1 on 1. During my conversation with Chris Hables Gray we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: how Chris got interested in issues related to war and cyborg; the definition of cyborg and why the term has been actively avoided by both NASA and the US military; the difference between a drone and a robot; cyborg society and the politics thereof; why cyborgization is as overdetermined as it is a political process; human nature, nurture, competition and cooperation; Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto; mind-reading, mind-control and neuro-marketing; philosophy and death; transhumanism and the technological singularity; artificial intelligence and hubris; Gray’s upcoming book on Infoisms… My favorite quote that I will take away from this conversation with Chris Hables Gray is: “We need good citizenship, strong citizenship like Socrates had when he went and risked his life to fight for Athens. […] We can’t be just people who vote. […] We must be really engaged citizens like our hero Socrates and risk all, risk our lives to make the world better – for our children and our friends.”

Ori Inbar developed a passion for augmented reality (AR) ever since he realized that it will change every aspect of life and work we can think of. This realization has motivated him to become an industry start-up entrepreneur, a founder of a not-for-profit organization, an event organizer and a recognized speaker on topics related to augmented reality. Thus I was very happy to get him for an interview on Singularity 1 on 1. During my conversation with Ori Inbar we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: the story behind his passion and motivation for augmented reality; the past and the present definition of augmented reality; differences between augmented reality, virtual reality and real reality; major applications for AR; the dangers and costs of militarization; Ori’s favorite augmented reality devices; issues of privacy, advertising and big brother; “wearing” vs “not-wearing” and Vernor Vinge‘s Rainbows End; the three laws of augmented reality design; Ogmento and AugmentedReality.org; transhumanism and the technological singularity… My favorite quote that I will take away from this conversation with Ori Inbar is: “When you think of any aspect of life or work, augmented reality is completely going to change how we do it.”

Jacque Fresco is a futurist, inventor, social engineer, visionary and technician, best known for the Venus Project. In his Future By Design documentary about Fresco’s life and ideas, Emmy winning filmmaker William Gazecki called the 97-year-old Jacque “a modern day Da Vinci.” Others have called him “a new Buckminster Fuller.” Now, I have to admit that I really like Jacque as a person – he just seems to have a unique combination of wisdom, life experience, sense of humor and personal humility. I also admire his multi-disciplinary accomplishments and his seemingly never-ending enthusiasm and scientific curiosity. This, however, doesn’t mean that I agree with him on everything that he says or proposes, and you would see a few of those moments during our 72 minute interview. At any rate, best thing you can do is to watch the interview in full, read Jacque’s book – The Best That Money Can’t Buy, and judge for yourself. During my conversation with Jacque Fresco we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: how he sees himself; scarcity and money as the root of all evil; the Venus Project; the need for unambiguous language; why he claims that most people are “unsane”; whether philosophers are bullshitters; the clash of civilizations and the nation state; education and the scientific method; the modern culture of bread and spectacles; resource based economy; Ray Kurzweil, artificial intelligence and the technological singularity; the Zeitgeist movement; Ayn Rand and objectivism; death and cryonics… My favorite quote that I will take away from this conversation with Jacque is: “Study the meaning of science and apply its methods to the social system!”

Amon Kalkin is a cognitive scientist, electronic artist and founder of Zero State. He is 40 years old, born in New Zealand and living in the UK, where he spends his time raising a young family and gardening when he isn’t working to create a sphere of influence for positive futurist values. During my interview with Amon Kalkin we cover a variety of topics such as: what is Zero State - its genesis, history and future goals; the importance of starting with first principles and the meaning of positive social change; if and how libertarianism and anarchism relate to Zero State; transhumanism and the technological singularity; starting a transhumanist micro-state… My favorite quote from Amon Kalkin is short and simple but a powerful one: “Reject Apathy!”

While I personally loved the first half of The Transhumanist Wager and disliked much of the second, I am convinced that the novel is a must read for anyone interested in the future of our civilization. In my view the novel is full of interesting and controversial contradictions. For example, on the one hand Zoltan Istvan is a philosophically sophisticated author using elements from Plato’s Republic, Nietzsche’s Overman (Übermensch), Thomas Moore’s Utopia, Zen Buddhism and other eastern and western philosophies. On the other hand Zoltan has chosen to give us a kind of simplistic, Atlas Shrugged-style of a plot in its black-and-white depiction of an evil government and the lone hero who dares to stand up to it. Regardless of my personal views, however, I enjoyed reading the book and believe that it does a good job of mapping out the dangerous period that our civilization will have to navigate in the next several decades. During my interview with Zoltan Istvan we cover a variety of topics such as: what is the Transhumanist Wager; how and why he got interested in transhumanism; his protagonist Jethro Knights and some autobiographical elements of the novel; the potential for conflict between transhumanists and anti-transhumanists; Ayn Rand, objectivism and their impact on the Transhumanist Wager; competition, human nature and death; transhumanism and the technological singularity; the ideal state of Transhumania and the price we have to pay to accomplish it… My favorite quote that I will take away from Zoltan Istvan is “Morality is often defined by the amount of time we have left.”

Transhumanism is both misunderstood and feared. Ignorant people with an ideological agenda have gone as far as labeling it “the most dangerous idea.” Thus a comprehensive book – a Transhumanist Reader, documenting both the origins and the current state of transhumanist thought has been long needed. So, when I discovered that a new book aimed at accomplishing just that is being published, I knew I simply had to interview one of the editors. It is time to bring some basic intellectual clarity on the topic and who is better prepared to help us do that but Natasha Vita-More – “the first female philosopher of transhumanism”. Dr. Natasha Vita-More has already been a guest on Singularity 1 on 1. Her previous two interviews were both interesting and popular and I enjoyed talking to her about her life and work. This time our conversation is more focused on issues related to the publishing of The Transhumnist Reader.

Will Crockett is a photo innovator and web TV personality. He has more than 30 years as a commercial photographer with clients like Pfizer, Boeing, Hewlett Packard, Cadbury, United Airlines, TIME magazine and the US Pentagon. Crocket is also the man behind DiscoverMirrorless.com and ShootSmarter.com as well as a prototype test shooter for many camera manufacturers. [His early reviews were the main reason why I ended up buying a Panasonic GH3 camera to shoot my in-person interviews with.] During my interview with Will Crockett we cover a variety of topics such as: how and why he fell in love with photography; hybrid photography and the end of the DSLR; the benefits of mirrorless cameras; amazing features of future products coming to market the next 6 to 12 months; the proliferation of cameras and monitors and the impact thereof; intelligent resolution, face detection and face recognition; 3D imaging; future of professional photography; copyright and social media… My favorite Crockett quote that I will remember from our conversation is: “Think what people want and let’s go give it to them. Not what we can do and try and sell it to them.”

Matthew Putman is the most eclectic guest I have had on Singularity 1 on 1. Matthew is a PhD in applied mathematics and engineering, Professor at Columbia University, a Thiel fellowship mentor, entrepreneur, poet, jazz pianist, inventor holding patents in nano-imaging, film and theater producer and a cancer survivor. After spending over an hour talking to Putman I feel confident in saying that he is indeed an eclectic genius extraordinaire who is not afraid to embrace his humanity and follow his passions. So, while some of his friends have noted that Matthew’s eclecticism is “not the best route to target a Nobel prize”, they acknowledge that Putman is a lot of fun to be around. I can attest to the latter myself because I enjoyed very much having him on my show and am looking forward to our first face-to-face conversation. During my interview with Matthew Putman we cover a variety of topics such as: why he considers himself to be a producer, first and foremost; the contradiction between being a Thiel mentor and a Columbia University Professor; the present and future of education; the importance of experimentation; his work in polymers and semiconductors; nanotechnology and Nanotronics Imaging; Henry Markram’s Human Brain Project and other such initiatives; his fear of death and his personal struggle with cancer; his take on immortality and the technological singularity; determinism and free will.

James D. Miller is a professor of economics and, most recently, the author of Singularity Rising: Surviving and Thriving in a Smarter, Richer, and More Dangerous World. James is the second economist on Singularity 1 on 1 and he respects and agrees with much of Robin Hanson‘s conclusions. In my view, however, Miller’s book Singularity Rising ends up presenting a much richer, more diverse, more balanced, more interesting and, in some ways, more utopian future. [e.g. see his ideas about “honorable unemployment”] During our conversation with James D. Miller we cover a variety of topics such as: how he started studying theoretical physics but ended up in economics; academia, the technological singularity and Miller’s definition thereof; his recent book Singularity Rising; “honorable unemployment”; the Fermi paradox and our civilization’s chance of surviving; neurofeedback and other cognitive enhancements used by James; capitalism, freedom and radical changes in the economic system.

Yesterday I went to speak to a class of grade 12 students from the Newtonbrook Secondary School in Toronto. I have been looking forward to this opportunity to challenge and be challenged by the next generation of bright young minds, and was not going to be prevented from going there, be it by a Canadian winter storm of by any other of life’s tragedies. Needless to say, I enjoyed speaking to the students very much and hope that they benefit from talking to me as much as I did talking to them. My Talking Points for Newtonbrook Secondary School: Newtonbrook Secondary SchoolI want to begin today by acknowledging your teacher Hermine Steinberg – Hermine doesn’t know what I am going to say today and she probably wouldn’t approve some or much of it. What she certainly knows is that she is taking a risk by inviting me here. And, from my life experience I know that you risk, you take a chance only if you care about something or someone. So I want to recognize her and tell you that you are lucky to have a teacher who is willing to risk for you, because she really cares. Who am I and why am I here today? My name is Nikola Danaylov aka Socrates. I am the blogger behind SingularityWeblog.com and the host of the Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. I get about 50,000 unique visitors per month and have had over half a million downloads of my show. Two summers ago I was very fortunate to be one of very few people who had the opportunity to go to Singularity University which is located on NASA’s Ames Campus in Mountain View, California. There I met some of the most incredible people in the world such as Steve Wosniak, Ray Kurzweil, Peter Diamandis, Aubrey de Grey and astronaut Dan Barry and had the chance to visit companies like Google, Facebook, Cisco, Tesla and many others. But enough about me. I am here to talk about you! One of the big questions in schools today is: Are students Bored or Apathetic?! My hypothesis is that students are bored. Just like I was bored when I was in school. So for the next 40 min or so I will throw some of today’s biggest ideas at you to find out if I am right or wrong. After I am done we will start a conversation where you can say what you think and how you feel. So, let’s start our conversation with education: the thing about education is that it holds a promise. A promise that was probably told to you by both your parents and by your teachers. “Do your school work, get good grades in your classes and you will get a good job and a good life.” Well, I am here to tell you that your school grades don’t matter that much. In fact, they don’t matter at all. Let me give you 2 examples: Bob McDonald and Jack Andraka. So, in short, I don’t care that you barely passed or even failed biology or chemistry. You can still reinvent the meaning and the scope of biology, chemistry or anything else you put your mind to it. As someone who spent a long time in school and has had a few academic awards, I have come to discover that success in school doesn’t mean success in life – neither personally nor professionally. Education is historical i.e. to say it is retrospective in nature. It is about the past. But what I am here for is to propose that we must look to the future. And so: Why talking about the future is as important, if not more, than talking about history?! Let me give you 2 reasons... read the rest at: https://www.singularityweblog.com/socrates-at-newtonbrook-secondary-school/

Yesterday I spoke at this year’s edition of the annual Podcamp Toronto at Ryerson University. Since people often ask me for tips on podcasting, I decided to record my presentation so that it is always available to anyone interested in knowing how I started or what in my view are the most important elements for a successful podcast. The presentation was filmed by my friend and budding photographer Josh Glover, who was using my own Panasonic GH3 with the 25mm Leica Summilux. Fifteen Steps Towards Your Podcasting Success: Socrates at the 2013 Podcamp Toronto 1. Start with the end in mind? Start with why? Not for the money. Love it. To learn. To prepare. To change the world. To make a difference. 2. Do your homework and start with the right foundation! How do you do that? Learn from the best! Studying mediocrity only produces more mediocrity. Success leaves traces. The breadcrumbs are there. All you need to do is find them and follow the path. For example, in terms of blogging I learn from and follow Seth Godin, ProBlogger, Copyblogger, David Risley, John Chow and Smart Passive Income. If you are a total beginner you should start with BecomeABlogger.com. This is a fantastic free video course where all you need to do is provide an email address and get the training videos straight into your inbox. To learn about podcasting check out PodcastAnswerMan.com and especially his free online course Learn How To Podcast. To learn video blogging see Gideon Shalwick and especially his free Rapid Video Blogging ebook. 3. Buy your own domain and build your online hub there. Never use third party hosts such as TypePad, Blogger, WordPress.com, PodBean or Libsyn. This way you will have full control over your own content while building domain equity, looking professional and even saving money. I suggest hover.com – to register your domain, and then ZippyKid.com – to host your own wordpress site. For audio hosting I use and recommend Amazon S3. For video hosting you can use YouTube or Vimeo. 4. Start an Email List as soon as you start blogging or podcasting. This is and will remain to be your most valuable asset. I personally use MailChimp and love it. Plus it’s free for users with less than 2,000 subscribers. You really can’t beat that. 5. Choose your recording device: If you are tight on money then you can start with your iPhone or any other smart phone. I personally started my podcast with the Blue Yeti microphone but after the first 2 or 3 episodes switched to the Rode Podcaster Kit which comes with the desk arm and the shock mount. I am very happy with the Rode and don’t plan to change it any time soon. In case you plan to do any field recording, and want better quality than what your phone can give you, you should look at the Zoom H1. If you have a bigger budget, and want to go for excellent audio quality and many features such as XLR inputs, I recommend TASCAM DR-100mkII. I have used this device too and know it is absolutely top notch. Read the rest at: https://www.singularityweblog.com/15-steps-towards-your-podcasting-success-socrates-at-podcamp-toronto-2013/

Ayesha Khanna is the co-founder of the Hybrid Reality Institute and co-author of Hybrid Reality book for Kindle. During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Ayesha Khanna we discuss a variety of topics such as: women and technology; whether men are from Mars and women from Venus; her book Hybrid Reality and what she calls the hybrid age; smart cities; the philosophy and politics of technology; big brother and hacktivism; government policy, higher education and unemployment; technological progress and freedom; her recent start-up Urban Intel… In addition to the title, my two most favorite quotes from Ayesha are: “The hybrid age is a new sociotechnical era that is unfolding as technologies merge with each other and humans merge with technology – both at the same time.” “I want people to stop talking about statistics and start talking about human beings.”

My second interview with economist Robin Hanson was by far the most vigorous debate ever on Singularity 1 on 1. I have to say that I have rarely disagreed more with any of my podcast guests before. To be even more clear, I believe that it is ideas like Robin’s that may, and often do, have a direct impact on our future. And so I am very conflicted. Ever since I finished recording my second interview with Hanson I have been torn inside: On the one hand, I really like Robin a lot: He is that most likeable fellow, from the trailer of The Methuselah Generation: The Science of Living Forever, who like me, would like to live forever and is in support of cryonics. In addition, Hanson is also clearly a very intelligent person with a diverse background and education in physics, philosophy, computer programming, artificial intelligence and economics. He’s got a great smile and, as you will see throughout the interview, is apparently very gracious to my verbal attacks on his ideas. On the other hand, after reading his book draft on the Em Economy, I believe that some of his suggestions have much less to do with social science and much more with his libertarian bias and what I will call “an extremist politics in disguise.” So, here is, the way I see it, the gist of our disagreement: I say that there is no social science that, in between the lines of its economic reasoning, can logically or reasonably suggest details such as: policies of social discrimination and collective punishment; the complete privatization of law, detection of crime, punishment and adjudication; that some should be run 1,000 times faster than others, while at the same time giving them 1,000 times more voting power; that emulations who can’t pay for their storage fees should be either restored from previous back-ups or be outright deleted (isn’t this like saying that if you fail to pay your rent you should be shot dead?!)… Merging theater masksSuggestions like the above are no mere details: they are extremist bias for Laissez-faire ideology while dangerously masquerading as (impartial) social science. During the 2007 OSCON conference Robin Hanson said: “It’s [Bias] much worse than you think. And you think you are doing something about it and you are not.” I will go on to claim that Prof. Hanson himself is indeed a prime example of exhibiting precisely such a bias, while at the same time thinking he is not. Because not only that he doesn’t give any justification for the above suggestions of his, but also because, in principle, no social science could ever give justification for issues which are profoundly ethical and political in nature. (Thus you can say that I am in a way arguing about the proper limits, scope and sphere of economics, where using its tools can give us any worthy and useful insights for the benefit of our whole society. That is why the “father of economics” – Adam Smith, was a moral philosopher.) I also agree with Robin’s final message during out first interview – namely that “details matter.” And so it is for this reason that I paid attention and was so irked by some of the side “details” in his book’s draft. The quote that I will no doubt remember, that frankly shocked me and I totally hate and find completely abhorrent: “The Third Reich will be a democracy by now!” (Yes, you can give Robin the benefit of the doubt for he said this in the midst of our vigorous argument. On the other hand, as Hanson says – “details do matter.”) So, my question to you is this: Is Robin Hanson’s upcoming book on the Em Economy social science or extremist politics in disguise?!

Christine Peterson is not only the co-founder and past president of the Foresight Institute for Nanotechnology but also the person credited with coining the term open source software. More recently her interests have evolved to include longevity and life extension technologies and she is currently the CEO of Health Activator. During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Christine Peterson we discuss a variety of topics such as: how she got interested in nanotechnology and the definition thereof; how, together with Eric Drexler, she started the Foresight Institute for Nanotechnology; her interest in life extension; Dr. Drexler’s seminal book Engines of Creation; cryonics and chemical brain preservation; 23andMe and other high- and low-tech tips for improved longevity; whether we should fear nanotechnology or not; the 3 most exciting promises of nanotech; women in technology; coining the term “open source” and using Apple computers; the technological singularity and her take on it…

Dr. “George Church is one of the most brilliant scientists in the world,” says Steven Pinker on the front cover of Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves. Regenesis is the recent book that Church wrote together with Ed Regis, where the authors “imagine a future in which human beings have become immune to all viruses, in which bacteria can custom-produce everyday items, like a drinking cup, or generate enough electricity or biofuel to end oil dependency. Building a house would entail no more work than planting a seed in the ground…” These are just few low-hanging fruits that the tree of synthetic biology may provide for us. So why is it that some scared pundits are calling it “the most dangerous idea”?!… During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with George Church we discuss the above plus a variety of other topics such as: how he got interested in genetics and why he considers himself more of a technologist and inter-disciplinarian; the synthetic biology revolution of the past few years (beating Moore’s Law by a factor of 6); his views on religion; his dyslexia, high cholesterol and other mutations; 23andMe and DNA testing in general; the difference between genetics and synthetic biology; transhumanism, faith, mirror organisms and mirror humans; intellectual property rights and patenting living organisms; genomics and longevity… My two favorite quotes from Dr. Church are: “Inactivity and complacency are the most dangerous ideas… and assuming things will be fine if we do nothing.” “We should not assume things will stay the way they are. Or that inactivity is the right path.”

Today my guest is Doug Wolens. Doug is the lawyer-turned-documentarian whose most recent film is The Singularity. I have to say that neither Doug nor his film are what I expected. To paraphrase and add to one of the other iTunes film reviewers – what I was expecting was “Wohooo! Singularity!” But what I got instead was a surprisingly detailed critical examination of the notion of the singularity, by a very honest, open-minded and profoundly human and humanistic film-maker. And that made the whole experience uniquely better. During this Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Doug Wolens we discuss a variety of topics such as: how he decided to quit being a lawyer and become a documentarian film-maker and story-teller; growing up in the 60’s and getting inspired by the Apollo program; reading Ray Kurzweil‘s seminal book The Age of Spiritual Machines and deciding to make a movie about those ideas; the singularity, its definition and what the film is all about; Doug’s Socratic method of film-making and story telling; his 12-year-long struggle to produce, shoot, edit and distribute the movie; the things that inspired and surprised him the most during the making of The Singularity; his experience interviewing Ray Kurzweil… My two favorite quotes from Doug are: “Just because I am suggesting science as a means, it doesn’t get us to a scientific end. It gets us to a humanistic end.” “It is ultimately up to you – the viewer, you – the thinker in the world, to say: “This is right for me; this is how I want to live in this world.””

Robin Hanson is not just a well known economist with seminal work in prediction markets. He is also a physicist, philosopher and AI researcher. Besides being a polyglot he is also an extremely likable fellow and both of those make him very hard to argue against. Add up the fact that it’s been over a decade since my study of economics and you will get a better idea as to why I struggled to keep up with him during our conversation. Well, regardless of my poor performance, I have to say that I enjoyed talking to Hanson very much. So I plan to bring him back for a follow up interview where we can spend more time talking exclusively about his upcoming book on the economics of brain emulations. During this Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Robin we discuss a variety of topics such as: his wide spectrum of interests such as physics, phylosophy, economics and artificial intelligence; the general lack of academic engagement with issues related to the singularity; why cheap energy will not be a panacea to our problems or even a major boost to our economy; the singularity and his definition thereof; the two major ways to Artificial Intelligence; the economics of brain emulations (what he calls Ems)…

I know how hard it is start a podcast. So when budding podcasters ask me for an interview, I am always looking for reasons to say “Yes.” This is a re-post of my month-old interview for the Wow Signal Podcast recently started by Paul Carr. Since this is only the 3rd episode ever, the recording is still a bit rough around the edges. Never-the-less, I enjoyed talking to Paul and you might enjoy listening to it too. During our conversation with Carr we cover a variety of topics such as: transhumanism and the technological singularity; hard and slow take-offs and why I bet on the latter rather than the former; mind uploading and the two major criticisms thereof; pro-sports, performance enhancing drugs, Lance Armstrong and regulation; the Fermi paradox, our civilization’s chance of surviving and colonizing the universe… I end up the interview with one of my favorite quotes of all time: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” Geroge Bernard Shaw, “Maxims for Revolutionists,” Man and Superman, 1903 And so that is why I say: Go, be unreasonable!!! P.S. My comments about Lance Armstrong were made a few weeks before his Oprah interview, and during a period when Lance was still vehemently denying any doping whatsoever.

Bob McDonald is the national science correspondent and popular host of CBC’s radio show Quirks and Quarks. If you are Canadian it is virtually impossible that you have not seen or heard him on TV or radio for the past 30+ years. If you are not, then, you will be treated to some of his endless curiosity and infectious passion for science. During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Bob we discuss a variety of topics such as: the story behind his love for and inspiration by science; how a university drop-out got to be the best-known science correspondent in Canada and earn 6 doctorate degrees; his powerful but simple recipe for success; his unique encounters with Carl Sagan; his take on science and religion; the Fermi paradox; the technological singularity, mind uploading and virtual reality… My favorite quote from Bob McDonald is: “We understand biology down to molecules and atoms down to quarks. It’s amazing what we’ve found. We’ve looked out to the very far, and down to the very small. And we are on the verge of putting it all together into one big theory that tries to describe the whole thing.” The only bad news is that Bob had already done 5 interviews on that day and had very limited time to spend with me. The good news, however, is that I plan to use this as an excuse to get McDonald for another interview, exclusively focused on the technological singularity…

Prof. Chris Eliasmith is currently the director of the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience at University of Waterloo and the team-leader behind SPAUN – the brain simulation project that recently made news around the world. So, when I discovered that Eliasmith’s lab is just over an hour worth of driving from my place, I decided that I would take this opportunity to go talk to him in person. During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Chris we discuss a variety of topics such as: the story behind his desire to create a whole brain simulation; SPAUN (the Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network) and the hardware requirements to run it; whether SPAUN has thoughts and feelings and how would we know if it did; the ethical issues behind creating a brain-in-a-vat AI; the relationship between philosophy and engineering; his upcoming book How To Build A Brain; Eliasmith’s thoughts on Deep Blue, Watson, Blue Brain, SyNAPSE and Ray Kurzweil‘s How To Create A Mind; his take on the technological singularity… My favorite quote from Prof. Chris Eliasmith is: “We Have Not Yet Learned What The Brain Has To Teach Us!”