Singularity.FM

Ken Hayworth is the president of the Brain Preservation Foundation and a strong proponent of chemical brain preservation. During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Ken we talk about a variety of topics such as: his background in electron-microscopy and how he got interested in it; the motivation behind his work; his skepticism towards curing ageing and mind uploading; his optimism for suspended animation in general and chemical brain preservation in particular; his interesting article Killed By Bad Philosophy; the procedure for chemical brain preservation and the differences to cryonics… My favorite quotes from Hayworth is: “Brain preservation is the logical lifeboat that people have access to today.” “Our grandparents had the technology to preserve the precise neural circuitry of their brains for long‐term storage. The best science of our grandparent’s era stated unequivocally that this unique patterning of neural circuitry was the seat of the self; in it was written all memories, skills, and personality. Our grandparents seemed to grasp the quickening pace of technology, and understood that full brain scanning and simulation was around the corner. Why then did grandpa and the rest of his generation reject brain preservation and mind uploading as a means of overcoming death?” And, after considering the evidence, our grandchildren will come to the sad conclusion that we were killed by our “bad philosophy” – no matter how clear the science was, we simply could not really accept the fact that we were physical machines.”

Jack Andraka is the miracle whiz kid that came up with a totally unique pancreatic cancer detection test that takes 5 minutes to administer, costs 3 cents, is non-invasive, has been 100% accurate in blind trials, is 168 times faster and 26,000 times cheaper than the current gold standard. During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Jack Andraka we talk about a variety of topics such as: the inspirational story behind his cancer test; his competing for the Tricorder X-Prize foundation award; his progressive views on education, healthcare, the internet and business. My favorite quotes from Andraka: “You don’t need a degree from a pretigious university to have your ideas valued.” “If a fifteen-year-old, who didn’t even know he had a pancreas at the beginning of this project, could find a new way to detect pancreatic cancer, just imagine what you can do.” Well done Jack! At 16 you are already a total inspiration. Can’t wait to see what’s next for you. Watch out for this whiz kid! We are sure to hear his name again.

This is the second time that I interview Ramez Naam for my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. Last time we talked about Naam’s interesting background, professional experience and award-winning book More Than Human. During our second conversation with Ramez we talk mainly about his novel Nexus: Mankind Gets an Upgrade. We also cover a variety of related topics such as: the difference between fiction and non-fiction; the major issues Mez wanted to bring attention to; the potential for global Giga War between Terrans and Cosmists; why fear is the path to Big Brother totalitarianism; prisoner’s dilemma and the militarization of science; weak brain-to-brain communication, Buddhism, empathy and neuruoscience; the technological singularity and exponential growth…

Lincoln Cannon is not only a software engineer with degrees in philosophy and business but also the president of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. In my first interview with him we talked about the compatibility between Mormonism and Transhumanism. In this special edition of Singularity 1 on 1 we debate whether science and religion are mutually exclusive – as I believe, or complementary – as Cannon argues that they are. So, check out our friendly discussion and judge for yourself but don’t shy to let me know what you think.

Gary Marcus is not only a professor in psychology but also a computer scientist, programmer, AI researcher and best selling author. He recently wrote a critical article titled Ray Kurzweil’s Dubious New Theory of Mind that was publsihed by The New Yorker. After reading his blog post I thought that it will be interesting to invite Gary on Singularity 1 on 1 so that he can talk more about his argument. During our conversation with Gary we cover a wide variety of topics such as: what is psychology and how he got interested in it; his theory of mind in general and the idea that the mind is a kluge in particular; why the best approach to creating AI is at the bridge between neuroscience and psychology; other projects such as Henry Markram‘s Blue Brain, Randal Koene‘s Whole Brain Emulation, and Dharmendra Modha‘s SyNAPSE; Ray Kurzweil’s Patern Recognition Theory of Mind; Deep Blue, Watson and the lessons thereof; his take on the technological singularity and the ethics surrounding the creation of friendly AI…

Lincoln Cannon is one of those people who break the mold. He is not only a software engineer with degrees in philosophy and business but also the president of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. So if, like me, you thought that Mormon Transhumanism is an oxymoron, you should put your presumptions away and give Lincoln the chance to explain why this is not the case. Then you can judge for yourself. During our conversation with Cannon we cover a wide variety of topics such as: the history and purpose behind the Mormon Transhumanist Association; the story of how Lincoln discovered the technological singularity and transhumanism; what is Mormonism and how it is compatible with both of the above; the relationship between Mormonism, science and technology; the historicity of the Book of Mormon; being feminist, intellectual or gay and how that relates to being Mormon and/or transhumanist…

Last Night I did a one hour interview for FastForward Radio by the Speculist. During our conversation with hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon I covered a few topics such as the personal story behind the start of SingularitySymposium.com, SingularityWeblog.com and Singularity1on1.com. I also talked about technology in general and the singularity in particular and shared for the very first time my “technology is a magnifying mirror” thesis for a book I am thinking of writing in 2013. Program Synopsis: Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon welcome blogger, futurist, and fellow web broadcaster Nikola Danaylov (AKA “Socrates”) to FastForward Radio. Nikola reports daily about major trends in science, technology, and society which indicate big changes to come. He also discusses these changes with some of the world’s most fascinating people on his podcast, Singularity 1 on 1.

David Brin is not only a PhD in astro-physics but also an award winning, best selling science fiction author, perhaps best known for his uplift series of novels and, most recently, Existence. Originally, I was supposed to interview Brin in the summer. Unfortunately, I got a concussion the day before and thus had to delay it. David is a busy man so it took a while to book another date but eventually we did and I have to say that I very much enjoyed talking to and being challenged by him. During our conversation with Brin we cover a wide variety of topics such as: his interest in science fiction, writing and civilization; his novel The Postman which later became a feature film with Kevin Costner; his views on post-modernism, progress, ethics and objective reality; pessimistic versus optimistic science fiction; the self-preventing prophesy as the greatest form of science fiction (e.g. George Orwell’s 1984); his role of lead prosecutor in Star Wars on Trial and Yoda as one of the most evil characters; his latest novel Existence… My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with David Brin is: “What’s important is not me. And it’s not you. It’s us!” Correction: the Oedipus tragedy was written by Sophocles, not by Aristophanes as I say during the interview.

Jamais Cascio is one of the worlds top 100 thinkers according to Foreign Policy. He writes and speaks on a variety of topics from technology and global warming, to war, nuclear proliferation, ethics and sustainable development. Thus my goal was to discuss most of those topics for, in one way or another, they are relevant to our future. Unfortunately I got tangled up in our discussion of the singularity and we spent most of our time on that topic. The good news, however, is that I am planning to use this as an excuse and invite Jamais to come back again on Singularity 1 on 1. During our conversation with Jamais Cascio we cover a wide variety of topics such as: his personal story of becoming “an easily distracted generalist;” his undergraduate and graduate training in history, anthropology and political science; his views on the singularity community in general and the technological singularity and Singularity University in particular; his criticism that creators of new technology rarely consider the ethical and political implications of their inventions; what he means by saying “if I can’t dance, I don’t want to be a part of the singularity;” the benefits of irrationality and biology; mind uploading versus human augmentation; the lack of agency and assumed machine perfection as some of the most upsetting aspects of the singularity…

Tracy R. Atkins is not only a contributor to Singularity Weblog but also the author of a brand new singularity book titled Aeternum Ray. Aeternum Ray is rather unique because it is openly and whole-heartedly utopian in character. It is written in the epistolary literary tradition of classic science fiction works such as Frankenstein, and is structured as a mémoire – a series of letters from a father to his son. The book is also interesting from a technical point of view: It also comes in a Dyslexia edition which has been formatted to include a special typeface that may assist readers who have a developmental reading disorder (DRD or Dyslexia). The open source font – OpenDyslexic by Abelardo Gonzalez, utilizes weighting at the bottom of many characters in an effort to prevent letter inversion while reinforcing the line of text. This typeface modification technique has been shown to increase reading accuracy for some forms of DRD. During our conversation with Tracy R. Atkins we cover a wide variety of topics such as: his definition of the technological singularity; how Star Trek inspired Tracy to love science fiction and how Transcendent Man inspired him to write a singularity novel; growing up in a home that marveled in science and technology; what the title Aeternum Ray stands for and what the novel is all about; whether the future of humanity is digital or if there are benefits to biology; writing dystopia versus writing utopia; human nature and the potential for a pre-sigularity global war…

Dr. James Hughes is not only the executive director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) but also a well known book author and transhumanist. I enjoyed having him on the show and will probably ask him to come back. During our conversation with Dr. Hughes we cover a wide variety of topics such as: what is the IEET and what does it do; the story behind James’ interest in technology, policy, philosophy and bio/ethics; why transhumanist atheists are often drawn to Buddhism; his first book Citizen Cyborg and his upcoming Cyborg Buddha; transhumanism and his definition thereof; whether optimism is rational; the impact of artificial intelligence on transhumanism; James’ take on the technological singularity and our chances of surviving it; the benefits of biology; moral enhancement and animal uplift.

The first time that I looked at the The Alpha Centauri Project by Marco Santini, I was struck by the book’s dedication: "To he who explores new horizons, because knowledge doesn’t have limits, to he who tries new ways, because dreams become reality, to he who pursues brotherhood, because peace is not a chimera." Having read such an opening I knew that I have to talk to the author. So, when I decided to do a few interviews spotlighting good sci fi authors, who don’t receive the attention they deserve, I naturally thought of Marco. Santini – an Italian engineer and and MBA holder by training, has already released two books – The Alpha Centauri Project and Evolution: The Future. What is interesting here is that Marco makes his books available for free to everyone interested. Furthermore, his novels have been translated into five languages and are available in a number of different formats. Bellow you can watch my 20 minute conversation with Marco about his books and his views on science fiction, transhumanism and giving your work away for free. My favorite thought that I will take away from Marco is this: “Pessimistic scenarios can always exist. But with rationality – optimistic ones can be created!”

Ray Kurzweil‘s impact on my life in general but especially on what I have been doing for the past 3 or 4 years is hard to exaggerate. It is a simple fact that, if I haven’t read his seminal book The Singularity is Near, I would be neither blogging nor podcasting about exponential technologies, not to mention going to Singularity University. And so it was with great excitement and some trepidation that I went to interview Dr. Kurzweil in his office in Boston. Part of my trepidation came from some technical concerns: I wish I could buy a better camera. I wish I could hire a team of audio and video professionals so that I can focus on the interview itself. I wish I did a better job with the set up. I wish I had noticed that Ray’s lavalier mic has slipped out of its holder… The list is exponential. Still, if there is one thing that I’ve learned since I started podcasting is that we do get better. But it takes time. Meanwhile, my consolation is that eventually I will have to do another interview with Ray Kurzweil just so I get it right that time. For now, however, I hope that the content of this one will make up for its technical deficiencies. During our conversation with Dr. Kurzweil we cover a wide variety of topics such as: how and why at age 5 Ray decided to become an inventor; his unique background of being born to Jewish parents but brought up in a Unitarian Church; his early interest in issues such as religious tolerance, poverty, social inequality and justice; 3D printing, open source, patents, progress and intellectual property rights; Watson, artificial intelligence, the Turing Test and human rights for AI, the technological singularity and some criticism thereof; his upcoming book How To Create A Mind and his Pattern Recognition Theory of Mind; the evolutionary advantages of intelligence; the benefits of reverse-engineering the human brain for the creation of AI and whether the latter would be interested in pondering and solving humanity’s greatest problems. My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Ray Kurzweil is: “Don’t be too concerned about what’s practical. Follow your passion and be who you would like to be.”

Cory Doctorow is one of my all time most favorite science fiction writers. So it is no surprise I had so much fun interviewing him. I don’t know how he does it, but Cory is one of those rare individuals who can juggle successfully being a father, an avid reader, a blogger, an activist, a journalist and a prolific science fiction writer, all at once. It is for this reason that I was persistent in chasing Cory for over 2 years so that I can finally get him on Singularity 1 on 1. And it was totally worth it: Doctorow is indeed a very dynamic, eloquent, passionate, challenging and fun interlocutor. During our conversation Cory covers a wide variety of topics such as: how Star Wars inspired him to become a science fiction writer; Cory’s initial jobs as a bookstore seller, Greenpeace activist, web developer, entrepreneur and director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; the intimate relationship between being a science fiction writer, a blogger and an activist; the motivation and goals behind his work; what science fiction is about and what it is good and bad at doing; Doctorow’s take on the technological singularity as a “progressive apocalypse”; his “militant atheism” and technology activism. Some of my favorite quotes that I will take away from this interview with Cory are: “Science fiction is very good at predicting the present.” […] “Evolution is not perfection. Evolution is suitability.” […] “We have failed to appreciate the gravitas of the internet and continue to regulate it as if it is a glorified video on demand service. And as we do this, we put everything that we do on the internet – which is everything – in jeopardy.”

Transhumanism is both misunderstood and feared. Ignorant people with an ideological agenda have gone as far as labeling it “the most dangerous idea.” I thought that it is time to bring some basic intellectual clarity on the topic and who is better prepared to help us do that but “the first female philosopher of transhumanism”!? Dr. Natasha Vita-More has already been a guest on Singularity 1 on 1. Her first interview was both interesting and popular and I very much enjoyed talking to her about her life and work. This time our conversation is more focused on issues strictly related to transhumanism and the basics thereof, so I thought I’d call this episode Transhumanism 101. During our conversation Natasha covers a wide variety of topics such as: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the effect it had on transhumanism, science fiction and science in general; the negative perception and fear of transhumanism stemming from some more recent publications such as Bill Joy’s Why The Future Doesn’t Need Us and Francis Fukuyama’s Post-Human Future; Natasha’s definition of transhumanism; similarities and differences between transhuman, posthuman and cyborg; critical thinking as one of the basic tenets of transhumanism; important writings such as Max More’s Towards a Futurist Philosophy, Eric Drexler’s Engines of Creation and Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World; her PhD dissertation on human enhancement and life expansion; some of the reasons that people fear transhumanism and how to turn that around; some of her upcoming projects such as The Transhumanist Reader and H+TV as well as artistic events and conferences that she supports. One of my favorite quotes that I will take away from this interview with Natasha is her call to “Get creative about the future!”

“When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.” [John M. Richardson, Jr.] Brian David Johnson – Intel‘s futurist and principal engineer with 25 patents behind his back, is without any doubt one of those who really do make it happen. What better guest to invite on Singularity 1 on 1?! During our conversation with Brian David Johnson we cover a wide variety of topics such as: the personal story of how he got inspired by engineering, technology and science fiction; how Brian got to have the best job in the world; the tasks and responsibilities of Intel’s futurist; the motivation and goals behind his work; Brian’s personal responsibility, Intel’s corporate one and our public and private obligation to create the future; pragmatic versus non-pragmatic futurism; why getting it right is more important than being right; futurism and future casting; the tomorrow project; science fiction and science fiction prototyping… My three most favorite quotes that I will take away from this interview with Brian are: “Own the fact that you can build the future.” […] “I define geek by passion.” […] and my favorite one: “Don’t let the future happen to you.”

Giulio Prisco is an Italian information technology virtual reality consultant, as well as a writer, futurist, and transhumanist. Formerly a senior manager in the European Space Agency, Prisco is a physicist and computer scientist who started his career at CERN. Giulio is an avid advocate of cryonics. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Lifeboat Foundation and a founding member of the Order of Cosmic Engineers, and the Turing Church, fledgling organizations which claim that the benefits of the technological singularity would be viable alternatives to the promises of major religious groups. Given Prisco’s biography, when Catarina (Kryonica) suggested that I invite Giulio on Singularity 1 on 1, I was very happy to oblige. During our conversation we cover a wide variety of topics such as: how Giulio got interested in transhumanism and the singularity; the inspirational role of science fiction in general and Arthur C. Clarke in particular; the many definitions of the technological singularity; transhumanism and why he is a singularitiarian who doesn’t believe in the singularity; happiness as the ultimate motivation; religion, spirituality, unreligion and science; the Order of Cosmic Engineers; The Turing Church; hope and resurrecting the dead. My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Giulio Prisco is: “The end is not the end. Future science and technology may be able to resurrect us.”

Jerome C. Glenn is co-founder and Director of The Millennium Project. He is well known for inventing the Futures Wheel technique and, among many other things, is also the primary author on their annual state of the future report and editor of futures research methodology. Thus, when Jason Ganz suggested that I invite Jerome on Singularity 1 on 1, I jumped at the opportunity. During our conversation we cover a wide variety of topics such as: the personal story of how Jerome got involved in futures studies; the motivation and the goals of the Millennium Project; trans-institutions and the value and advantages thereof; future scenarios, science fiction and future studies; the Muslim Brotherhood and the middle east peace process; futures methodologies; the 2012 state of the future report and major points thereof; the most important lesson from doing such a comprehensive report for 15 years in a row. My three most favorite quotes that I will take away from this interview with Jerome are: “We are winning more than we are losing.” […] “Pessimism should be stopped. It is a cowardly intellectual position.” […] and my favorite one: “Maybe the most important thing is not to be looking for the most important thing.”

Jim Harris is one of North America’s foremost management consultants, public speakers, authors and thinkers on change and leadership. He is also another local Canadian thought leader that I discovered during the World Future 2012 conference where Jim made the closing keynote speech. His speech was so entertaining, informative and illuminating that I instantly decided to invite him on Singularity 1 on 1. During our conversation with Harris we cover a wide variety of topics such as: technology as a major driver of change in our society; how a company (or our civilization) can appear to be healthy while actually being dead; the limits to growth and the ways we get Blindsided; Jim’s 13 Laws of accelerating change; why most organizations are incapable of innovation and adaptation; what Jim calls The Learning Paradox – learning, changing and accepting uncertainty; why being green is not some hippy ideology but a very profitable business decision. One of my favorite quotes that I will take away from this interview with Jim Harris is: “We need a silver buckshot, not a silver bullet.” (As a way of emphasizing the multiplicity of approaches necessary to adapt to accelerating change and address our environmental and economic meltdowns.)

Ryan Janzen applies principles of electrical engineering and physics to diverse fields, from biomedical science, to fluid dynamics and aerospace, to music and acoustics. With eighteen international peer-reviewed publications, he does research and teaching as a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, with Steve Mann. Janzen is a composer not only for orchestra but also for the hydraulophone. During our 25 minute conversation with Ryan we cover a wide variety of topics such as: his early passion for both technology and music; his strong interest in nature and ethics; the problems of careerism and pursuing technology for its own sake, both in the arts and the sciences; the importance of questioning what we assume to be the natural order of things; the hydraulophone and its unique way of making music by vibrating water as one of many ways of bringing nature and technology together.

Steve Mann is sometimes called the first cyborg. Other times he is called the cyborg Luddite because of the stress he puts on choosing which technologies to embrace and which ones to abandon in order to be in harmony with nature. Whatever the case may be, I was super happy to get him on Singularity 1 on 1. During our conversation with Steve we cover a wide variety of topics such as: his early interest in both nature and technology; his MIT thesis on humanistic intelligence; his digital eye glass EyeTap camera and display technology; his inventing and usage of HDR imaging technology; augmented reality, mediated reality, augmediated reality and the long and short-term adaptation issues thereof; rethinking the relationship between nature and technology; why he is sometimes called the cyborg Luddite and his call to use less of televisions, elevators, automobiles and air-conditioning; his take on the technological singularity; surveillance and sousveillance; existemology – existential epistomology, learning by doing and learning by being; the hydraulophone; the differences between live blogging, logging and glogging. My two most favorite quotes that I will take away from this interview with Dr. Mann are: “I am not saying more or less technology – I am saying appropriate technology. Instead of technological excess – we should have technology that is balanced with nature. Instead of replacing nature with technology – we should balance it. Instead of replacing intelligence with artificial intelligence – we should use humanistic intelligence…” […] “I think that the only way we are ever going to understand AI is through HI. I think that the only way we are ever going to understand computers is to become a computer. And I think that the only way to understand measurement (at least as children) is to become the ruler.”

Dr. Anders Sandberg is a well known transhumanist, futurist, computational neuroscientist and currently a research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford University. I enjoyed talking to him last time he was on Singularity 1 on 1 and was happy to have him back for another one. During our second conversation with Anders we cover a wide variety of topics such as: transhumanism and the ethics thereof; the limits of being human; the Epic of Gilgamesh and our quest for immortality; overcoming death and enhancing life; life expectancy and our willingness to take risks; the potential for enhancement arms-races; the likelihood of armed conflict between transhumanists and neo-luddites; the most likely path to human enhancement; personal versus collective enhancement; hive-minds, distributed intelligence, the Borg and individulaity; post-humanism and mind uploading. My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Dr. Sandberg is: “That which does not kill us only makes us stranger.”

George Dyson was born in 1953 and had a unique opportunity to witness firsthand the conjunction of mathematics and physics that brought the digital revolution to life. He has been observing the relationship between nature and technology ever since. Dyson’s latest book, Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe, illuminates the transition from numbers that mean things to numbers that do things in the aftermath of World War II. I am very happy I had the opportunity to have him appear on Singularity 1 on 1 where we talked for over an hour. During our discussion with Dyson we cover a very wide variety of topics such as: his unique childhood of growing up as the son of theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson; playing around the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton; having Helen Dukas i.e. Einstein’s secretary as a babysitter; his interest in boats and boat-building as inspired by reading Kon-Tiki; George’s previous book titled Darwin Among The Machines; Samuel Butler and Ted Kaczynski; Turing’s Cathedral and the origins of our digital universe; Alan Turing and John von Neumann; the hydrogen bomb and what von Neumann called “the deal with the devil”; technology’s power to liberate and/or enslave; artificial intelligence, the technological singularity and our chances of surviving it. My two favorite quotes from this interview with George Dyson: “In wildness is the preservation of the world.” (Henry David Thoreau) “There is no way to completely govern the digital universe. It will always be a wildness, not a bureaucracy or a national park.”

Hugo de Garis is the past director of the Artificial Brain Lab (ABL) at Xiamen University in China. Best known for his doomsday book The Artilect War, Dr. de Garis has always been on my wish-list of future guests on Singularity 1 on 1. Finally, a few weeks ago I managed to catch him for a 90 minutes interview via Skype. During our discussion with Dr. de Garis we cover a wide variety of topics such as: how and why he got interested in artificial intelligence; Moore’s Law and the laws of physics; the hardware and software requirements for artificial intelligence; why cutting edge experts are often missing the writing on the wall; emerging intelligence and other approaches to AI; Dr. Henry Markram‘s Blue Brain Project; the stakes in building AI and his concepts of ArtIlects, Cosmists and Terrans; cosmology, the Fermi Paradox and the Drake equation; the advance of robotics and the political, ethical, legal and existential implications thereof; species dominance as the major issue of the 21st century; the technological singularity and our chances of surviving it in the context of fast and slow take-off.

Daniel H. Wilson earned a Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. He is the author of The New York Times best selling science fiction novel Robopocalypse and a columnist and contributing editor for Popular Mechanics magazine. He has also written: How To Survive a Robot Uprising, How to Build a Robot Army, A Boy and His Bot and Where’s My Jetpack?. Robopocalypse is not only one of Amazon’s top books for 2011 but, most notably, Steven Spielberg is directing a film based on the novel, scheduled for release in April of 2014. Most recently Daniel published a book called Amped dealing with issues of human enhancement. By now you will not be surprised that I was very happy to get Dr. Wilson on Singularity 1 on 1. During our discussion we cover a wide variety of topics such as: being a scientist versus being a writer; making fun of Hollywood, then, going over to the dark side and becoming part of it; technological progress or lack thereof for the past 40 years; Robopocalypse – the book and the Spielberg movie; why superhuman AI will not be preoccupied with exterminating humanity; being a writer and telling a story that people can relate to; tips on writing visually powerful content; Robogenesis – the sequel to Robopocalypse; Amped and what happens when technology becomes part of our bodies; whether technology makes us more powerful or more vulnerable. I have to say that I enjoyed talking to Daniel H. Wilson as much as I enjoy his books. Hope you do too.

Federico Pistono is perhaps the youngest guest I have ever had on Singularity 1 on 1. Despite that Federico is already a scientific educator, social activist, blogger and aspiring filmmaker. More recently, he is the author of a book called Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That’s OK and an incoming student to Singularity University. During our discussion with Federico we cover a wide variety of topics such as: his early fascination with technology and wide spectrum of personal interests; Singularity University and the grand challenges that humanity is facing today; his upcoming book Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That’s OK; artificial intelligence and the relationship between robotization and unemployment; the technological singularity and our chances of surviving it; entrepreneurship, capitalism and intellectual property rights. My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Pistono is: “The cure for boredom is curiosity. And there is no cure for curiosity.”

Dr. Anders Sandberg is a well known transhumanist, futurist, computational neuroscientist and currently a research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford University. I have been thinking of inviting him on Singularity 1 on 1 for some time and when one of my readers actually asked me to do it I could not be happier to oblige. (Thanks Shahan!) Dr. Sandberg is one of those rare individuals who clearly loves his work and is always very enthusiastic to discuss it. I really enjoyed talking to him and feel that we could have talked a lot more than we did. Thus I will try to bring him back on the show for little more focused discussion on one of his areas of expertise – transhumanism, mind uploading and the ethics thereof. During our first discussion with Anders we cover a wide variety of topics such as: his childhood and early passion for science fiction; his intellectual journey from science fiction to science and – eventually – to ethics; the goals and benchmarks of his work; human enhancement, body modification and the risks of early adopters; the problem of finding the right priorities; the technological singularity and our chances of surviving it; other existential threats to humanity. My second favorite quote that I will take away from Anders Sandberg is: The Singularity should not stop us from thinking! (The first one, of course, is the title.)

Karl Schroeder is one of those fantastic science fiction authors and futurists who, despite his numerous and profound books, have not quite made it into the mainstream yet. In fact, it was just a week ago that Eric Boyd emailed me to suggest that I interview Karl on Singularity 1 on 1 and I was skeptically struggling to figure out who Schroeder is, why I’ve never heard of him before and why he would be a good interview subject. Little did I know that Karl Schroeder will turn out to be one of the smartest and most enjoyable interviewees I have ever had on the show. He not only managed to challenge and stimulate me intellectually but also provided alternative lenses that I can now use when looking at the world and thinking about the future. I can honestly admit that it took only an hour for me to become a Schroeder fan and I have already finished reading one of his earlier books – Sun of Suns. During our discussion with Karl we cover a wide variety of topics such as: his Mennonite background and early interest in science fiction; the Hunger Games and Karl’s peacekeeping foresight novel for the Canadian military – Crisis in Zefra (free download); the differences and the similarities between foresight and science fiction; the technological singularity as a possible though, in Karl’s estimate, not a probable scenario for our future; the concepts of the technological maximum, rewilding and natural selection; Schroeder’s Law as a solution to the Fermi Paradox; his novels Lady of Mazes and Sun of Suns; exponential growth, systems theory and limiting factors thereof; transhumanism and his concepts of trans-lionism; trans-dogism and inhumanism. My favorite quote from Schroeder: “You have to keep moving forward. […] The singularity is not the most interesting current idea. It’s old at this point. You’ve got to keep up. You’ve have got to look at what’s going on now. […] Sure, take the singularity – use it – it’s a lens. Develop other lenses! Use other lenses! Keep looking forward! Keep looking for new ideas, for blind-spots! And the world will continue to be a very interesting place.”

Yesterday I interviewed John Smart on Singularity 1 on 1. Among many other things John is an advisor in Futures Studies and Forecasting for Singularity University where I met him last summer. He is also one of those rare people who are (literary) Smart since birth and totally justify the name. So it was no surprise that I learned a lot during our one-hour-long conversation and I hope you can learn from him too. During our discussion with John we cover a wide variety of topics such as: the Foresight Education and Research Network (FERN); planning and creating your personal and professional future; the story of how John got interested in futurism and technology; his Acceleration Studies Foundation as well as the meaning of accelerating change; his totally fascinating idea of STEM compression; the Barrow scale vs the Kardashev scale; cosmology, black holes and different interpretations thereof; Moore’s Law and the limits of Physics.

his is my second interview with Dr. Randal Koene for Singularity 1 on 1. Dr. Koene is perhaps one of the world’s foremost neuroscientists. He is director of analysis at Halcyon Molecular, co-founder of Carbon Copies and co-founder of and director at the Neural Engineering Corporation of Massachusetts. Randal’s research objective is whole brain emulation, creating the large-scale high-resolution representations and emulations of activity in neuronal circuitry that are needed in patient-specific neuroprostheses. During our first interview Dr. Koene argued that Mind Uploading Is Not Science Fiction and gave a general overview of his personal and professional background as well as the challenges in working on whole brain emulation. This time around I wanted to focus our conversation primarily on the ethics of mind uploading so we cover topics such as: ethical dilemmas in whole brain emulation; legal and ethical frameworks and constrains; access to mind uploading technology; R.J. Sawyer‘s fantastic sci fi book Mindscan; the computing requirements behind whole brain emulation; the brain in a vat scenario; brain prosthesis; personal identity and multiple uploads; intelligence rights.

A couple of days ago I interviewed Australian James Harvey. James is pretty unique among my guests because he was the very first interviewee whose willingness to take a chance on a brand new podcast helped me kick off Singularity 1 on 1. This, however, is not the only thing that makes him different for James is also “a musician, a poet, a mystic and learned observer of Life…” Most notably, in 2009 Harvey published his thought provoking book Singularia: Being at an Edge of Time which was my reason for inviting him the first time. This time around I asked James to share and discuss his unique Both/And point of view of the singularity, which eludes the traditional dichotomy of the struggle of opposites but stresses instead their unity as parts of a whole. In our first conversation two quotes stood out for me: 1. “I respect science and think it is a marvelous tool but I do not worship it!” 2. “We are Singularia” This time my favorite quote is Harvey’s observation that: “Our analog universe has an infinite resolution both zooming in and zooming out.” In addition, during our second conversation with James we discuss a variety of other topics such as: the importance and differences of digital and analog worlds (e.g. mp3 files and live music); his book Singularia and why the singularity is a lot more than just technology; Jaron Lanier‘s view that the singularity is rapture for geeks; art, creativity, love and the fear of death.

Today I interviewed Prof. Linda MacDonald Glenn on Singularity 1 on 1. Linda is an American bioethicist, healthcare educator, lecturer, consultant, and attorney-at-law. Her academic research encompasses the legal, ethical, and social impact of emerging technologies and “evolving notions of personhood”. During our conversation with Prof. Glenn we discuss a variety of topics such as: the very personal and moving story behind her interest in bioethics; women in technology; human rights versus sentience rights; the legal differences of being human vs being a “person”; the legal test (or lack thereof) for recognizing personhood; the problems of defining and measuring intelligence.

This Monday I interviewed Dr. David Ferrucci on Singularity 1 on 1. David is the IBM team leader behind Watson – the computer that succeeded in dethroning humanity’s greatest ever jeopardy champion – Ken Jennings. I met both Dr. Ferrucci and Ken Jennings during last year’s Singularity Summit where both of them spoke about Watson and the opportunities and challenges associated with it. It was then and there that I hatched my plan to get David (and Ken) on Singularity 1 on 1. I have to say that I learned a lot from and enjoyed talking to David very much. My favorite quote that I will take away from him is this: “Pursue the big challenges and do the big things that inspire people and make them scratch their heads.” During our conversation with Dr. Ferrucci we also discuss topics such as: his original interest in biology and medicine and the story of how he got (accidentally) involved in computer science and programming; why Watson is not mere speech recognition software (or statistical database) but natural language processing and (a lot) more; the inside story behind the idea of creating Watson; the motivation and challenges behind the project; overcoming resistance and the danger and fear of failure; the definition of AI; the importance of Watson in the general scheme of things; Watson’s future and David Ferrucci’s plans; the technological singularity; whole brain simulation and/or emulation; the importance of pursuing the big challenges.

Last week I interviewed Vivek Wadhwa on Singularity 1 on 1. I met Vivek last summer at Singularity University where he is the VP of accademics and innovation. Vivek is one of those multi-talented and very outspoken people who is never afraid to take the risk and say what they think. He is also a successful entrepreneur and, as a contrarian in the true Socratic fashion, is someone motivated by impact not profit. During our conversation with Vivek we discuss issues such as: the stories behind his becoming (accidental) entrepreneur and an (accidental) SU linchpin; his current position at Singularity University, its structure and the amazing group of people gravitating around it; the convergence of exponential technology and Vivek’s motivation to do good; the pro’s and con’s of being an outspoken contrarian; the bubble in some tech stocks such as GroupOn; his love of science fiction and the fact that technology has already delivered more than he expected; the rapture of the nerds criticism; the up and coming technologies that will change the world as well as the risks and benefits thereof.

Yesterday I interviewed David Chalmers for Singularity 1 on 1. David is one of world’s best known philosophers of mind and thought leaders on consciousness and I was a freshman at the University of Toronto when I first read some of his work. Since then Chalmers has been one of the few philosophers (together with Nick Bostrom) who has written and spoken publicly about the Matrix’ simulation argument and the technological singularity. (See for example David’s presentation at the 2009 Singularity Summit or read his The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis) During our conversation with David we discuss topics such as: how and why Chalmers got interested in philosophy; his search in answering what he considers to be some of the biggest questions – issues such as the nature of reality, consciousness and artificial intelligence; the fact that academia in general and philosophy in particular doesn’t seem to engage technology; our chances of surviving the technological singularity; the importance of Watson, the Turing Test and other benchmarks on the way to the singularity; consciousness, recursive self-improvement and artificial intelligence; the ever-shrinking of domain of solely human expertise; mind uploading and what he calls the hard problem of consciousness; the usefulness of philosophy and ethics; religion, immortality and life-extension; reverse engineering long-dead people such as Ray Kurzweil’s father.

Yesterday I was very fortunate to get a rare English language interview from Dmitry Itskov – the elusive Russian entrepreneur spearheading project Avatar and Global Future 2045. The first time I saw Itskov was at the recent Singularity Summit where he revealed his uniquely ambitious project. I don’t know Dmitry well but he may just turn out to be one of those soft-spoken, under-the-radar and camera-shy people who actually make things happen. I was impressed by his breadth of knowledge and courage to conduct our interview entirely in English. Itskov also impressed me as a very thorough person who makes the effort to respect all sides and points of view yet without sacrificing his personal integrity and commitments. That is why I will follow his progress with interest. During our discussion with Dmitry we cover topics such as: his humanitarian motivation and the interesting fact that he initially was not even familiar with the concept of the singularity; the ongoing goals and recent success of the Global Future 2045 congress recently launched in Moscow; his project Avatar – its goals, timeline and benchmarks; brain and head transplantation and the 1960’s experiments of Dr. R. J. White and his Soviet counterparts; our fear of the future and his advice to focus on the benefits and dream more often rather than the risks only; the general resolution that he is working on submitting to the UN general assembly; religion and Dmitry’s genuine desire to engage all major traditions in discussing the project and especially its political and ethical implications.

Last week I interviewed Raymond McCauley for Singularity 1 on 1. I met Raymond last summer at Singularity University where he is the Co-Chair of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics. McCauley is one among many former hackers and computer scientists who went into the exploding biotech industry. He has an infectious passion for bioinformatics and a fantastic radio-voice that simply disarms skepticism. During our conversation we discuss issues such as: Raymond’s background in hacking and computer science; his move to bioinformatics and his day-job at Genomera; his involvement in Singularity University and BioCurious; biology as the growth industry of the 21st century; the faster-than-exponential growth in genomic data; personal genomics and the promise of personalized medicine; the Oxford Nanopore DNA USB sequencer; DNA sequencing for less than a penny; synthetic biology and intellectual property rights; religion, philosophy and ethics. My favorite thought that I will take away from Raymond: “Be your own scientist! Find the simplest idea or thing that you can test, prototype, try it and see.” I think that this is what true science is all about — Thank you Raymond!

Last Sunday I spoke at Podcamp Toronto. Since I never considered myself to be a successful blogger or podcaster, I wanted to simply introduce people to the concept and ideas behind the technological singularity and transhumanism. That was the plan. But few things get me riled up more than ignorance posing as true knowledge. So, given that many of the sessions I attended put forward information which I found to be not merely wrong, but outright detrimental for those who choose to follow it, I had no option but to step up to the plate and set the record straight. Looking at the video now, I regret to admit that my impassioned near-impromptu presentation may have been a bit too long, too frank and too emotional to be as good as I wanted it to be. But it was genuinely authentic and that is one quality that is harder to learn than good public speaking…

This is my second interview with George Dvorsky. The first time I had George on Singularity 1 on 1 we ended up talking for 1h 14 minutes. I am afraid that I enjoy his company so much that this time we talked for almost 1h 40min. During our conversation we discuss issues such as: Dvorsky’s agonizing decision to stop being vegetarian and embrace the Paleo diet; cross-fit training, organic farming and the cost of food; the seeming contradiction between transhumanism and paleo/cross-fitness; animal enhancement (aka animal uplift), human-equivalent non-person rights and the list of candidate species; mass extinction and the Fermi paradox; SETI and the Dysonian approach that George and co are suggesting; the potential for and implications of friendly and unfriendly alien intelligences. This interview is long but if you are interested in the above topics, then, it is very much worth watching. One of the main points that I will take away is a brilliant quote that Dvorsky brought to my attention: “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” -Robert A. Heinlein

Last week I went to visit Eric Boyd at HackLab.TO. While visiting I took the opportunity to interview Eric for my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. Eric is the president of HackLab.TO, one of the co-founders of StumbleUpon and a regular public speaker on topics such as cyborg, transhumanism, electronic jewelry and hacking. In the past, I have lacked the proper equipment to do an on-site audio or video recording without having to borrow it from my friends or my very generous brother-in-law. Fortunately, though, last week I got the biggest anonymous donation ever received at Singularity Weblog. (Thank you anonymous donor.) The money allowed me to purchase a brand new Canon VIXIA HF G10 (aff) camcorder as well as a Fujifilm X10 (aff) photo camera, and thus equipped I headed to HackLab.TO. During our conversation we discuss issues such as: Eric’s early interest in technology; his co-founding of StumbleUpon and eventual leaving the company; his work in Silicon Valley and involvement in NoiseBridge – the hacker space in San Francisco; building a vibrant hacker and techno-community in Canada; SenseBridge, the philosophy behind it and the electronic jewelry he makes (e.g. the Sound Spark, Mood Spark and North Paw); body augmentation and transhumanism; religion and the technological singularity; why humans are naturally born cyborgs; early adopters of tech and judging when to join a revolution so that we are not left behind.

Yesterday I interviewed Steven Kotler on Singularity 1 on 1. Together with Peter Diamandis, Steven is the co-author of Abundance: The Future is Better than You Think. Abundance is a book that provides both hope and inspiration in an ocean of doom and gloom. Its main message being that the future can and, most likely, will be better than we think. Impossible?! Check out the interview to see why you are probably wrong. During our conversation with Steven Kotler we discuss issues such as: running a dog shelter for special needs dogs; the story of how Steven got his first writing job and eventually published articles in Maxim, Wired, GQ, Popular Science and other periodicals; his first novel; environmental degradation, global warming and biodiversity; the neuroscience behind out cognitive biases such as why we are local optimists but global pessimists; environmentalism and nuclear energy; the story of how Steven met Peter Diamandis and eventually got together to write Abundance; the four forces shaping the world today — exponentially growing technology, DIY Innovators, techno philanthropists and the rising billion; the Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize, AI (such as Watson) and putting a doctor in your cell phone; scarcity, abundance and capitalism; why he believes that we are living an an age of unparallelled personal empowerment. Who is Steven Kotler? Steven Kotler is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist, co-founder of the Rancho de Chihuahua dog sanctuary and director of research for the Flow Genome Project. His award-winning books include the non-fiction works Abundance, A Small Furry Prayer, West of Jesus and the novel The Angle Quickest for Flight. His articles have appeared in over 60 publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Wired, Forbes, GQ, Outside, Popular Science, and Discover. You can find more about Steven Kotler on his website: http://www.stevenkotler.com.

Yesterday I interviewed Ramez Naam for my singularity podcast. Ramez is the author of an award-winning, timely and easy to digest book on the ethical, political, economic and other implications of transhumanism titled More Than Human. Since I enjoyed reading the book very much I simply had to interview Naam and ask him to talk more about his ideas. During our conversation we discuss a variety of topics such as: Ramez’ early interest philosophy, physics and computer science; the motivation behind his work at Microsoft on projects such as MS Word, Outlook and the Bing search engine; the inspiration behind his book on transhumanism; human evolution and the way technology has become a crucial part of who we are; playing God in general and altering the human DNA in particular; life extension and the probability of overcoming death; artificial intelligence, the technological singularity and why he is not a singularitarian; the limits to growth, resource depletion, innovation and optimism. Who is Ramez Naam? Ramez Naam is a computer scientist and entrepreneur. He is the author of More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement, which the LA Times called “a terrific survey of current work and future possibilities in gene therapy, neurotechnology, and other fields.” For More Than Human, Naam was awarded the 2005 H.G. Wells Award for Contributions to Transhumanism. Ramez spent 13 years at Microsoft, where he lead development on early versions of Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and most recently the Bing search engine. Naam is a Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and blogs at UnbridledSpeculation.com. He lives in Seattle, where he is currently working on his next book The Infinite Resource: Harnessing the Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet.

This morning I interviewed Daniel Kraft for Singularity 1 on 1. I met Dr. Kraft at Singularity University where he is the Medicine and Neuroscience Chair and executive director of the FutureMed Program. Daniel is one of those people with an incredibly diverse spectrum of talents and interests for he is not only a medical doctor and oncologist but also an inventor, a technology and space enthusiast, an entrepreneur and an F-16 flight surgeon. During our conversation we discuss a variety of topics such as: Daniel’s early interest and talent in technology and science; his original fascination with the Apollo Space program and eventual participation in International Space University; his passion for flying and being a pilot; his medical education and personal journey to becoming a faculty member at Singularity University; his desire to be an instigator, connector and motivator of innovation; the story behind as well as the purpose and structure of the FutureMed program; bone marrow harvesting, regenerative medicine and stem cell research; longevity and the future of medicine and health care; his greatest inspiration and concerns about the field of medicine and his belief that one doesn’t have to be a doctor to improve health care.

A couple of months ago I interviewed Rachel Haywire for Singularity 1 on 1. I had some dificulties in posting this interivew but, since those were eventually resolved, better late than never… Rachel Haywire is a multi-media artist and writer currently residing in Los Angeles, California. She is the founder of The Human 2.0 Council which is a Transhumanist network of artists and students on the edge of society and media. Known for bridging the gap between the counterculture and academia she founded the Extreme Futurist Festival which is a 2 day entertainment and tech convention focusing on radical performers and voices of the new evolution. Rachel is known as an “antisocial media coach” and considered a leading voice in digital media. She is credited for bringing DIY Transhumanism into the mainstream. I have to admit that I worked for 10 hours before my interview with Rachel and was totally wasted by the time we started. Thus I began our conversation a bit low on energy but was quickly energized by her willingness to share frankly some of her very personal struggles and limitations. In addition, during the interview we discuss issues such as: what does it mean to be “anti-social media coach”‘; how Rachel got interested in transhumanism and issues surrounding the technological singularity; the difference between transhumanism and cyber-punk; being an extreme futurist and organizing the Extreme Future Fest; the early Italian futurists such as Marinetti and their fascist inclinations; women in transhumanism; DIY synthetic biology, human enhancement and bio-hacking; the risks of early adopters; flying as the ultimate freedom; Rachel’s appreciation for ballet and love of dance in general; neuro-diversity; artificial intelligence and others. My favorite quote from Rachel (apart from the title) is: “Just because you are smart, it doesn’t mean that you can’t be cultured. And just because you are cultured it doesn’t mean that you can’t be smart. There is intelligence and there is artistic merit, and those two things should, can and do exist at the same time.”

Those of you who followed SingulatityWeblog.com last summer know that I was very fortunate to attend Singularity University on NASA’s campus in Mountainview, California. The 10 weeks I spent there were one of the most challenging yet inspiring periods of my life. I learned a lot about technology, leadership, entrepreneurship and about myself. I was inspired by meeting people such as futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil, space enthusiast and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, astronaut Dan Barry, Apple co-founder Steven Wozniak, and many others from across the globe. I had the unique opportunity to go inside the kitchen of technology, talk to some of the chefs and see what will likely be on the menu for the next decade or more. Since I came back I have been getting numerous emails from people interested in applying who are asking me to read their applications or for tips on being successful in applying to Singularity University. Today I decided to make a short video with my top 5 tips. If you are seriously thinking about applying take a few minutes and watch the video below where for the first time ever I reveal all my secret shortcuts and hidden tricks which helped me get accepted to SU on a full scholarship. So here are My Top 5 Tips for Applying to Singularity University:

I couple of days ago I interviewed Michael Shermer for Singularity 1 on 1. I met Dr. Shermer at the recent Singularity Summit in New York where he was one of the most entertaining, engaging and optimistic speakers. Since he calls himself a skeptic and not a singularitarian, I thought he would bring not only balance to my singularity podcast but also a healthy doze of skepticism, and I was not disappointed. During our conversation we discuss a variety of topics such as: his education at a Christian college and original interest in religion and theology; his eventual transition to atheism, skepticism, science and the scientific method; SETI, the singularity and religion; scientific progress and the dots on the curve as precursors of big breakthroughs; life-extension, cloning and mind uploading; being a skeptic and an optimist at the same time; the “social singularity”; global warming; the tricky balance between being a skeptic while still being able to learn and make progress. Who is Michael Shermer? Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine (www.skeptic.com), the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, the host of the Skeptics Distinguished Science Lecture Series at Caltech, and Adjunct Professor at Claremont Graduate University and Chapman University. Dr. Shermer’s latest book is The Mind of the Market, on evolutionary economics. His last book was Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design, and he is the author of Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown, about how the mind works and how thinking goes wrong. His book The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule, is on the evolutionary origins of morality and how to be good without God. He wrote a biography, In Darwin’s Shadow, about the life and science of the co-discoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace. He also wrote The Borderlands of Science, about the fuzzy land between science and pseudoscience, and Denying History, on Holocaust denial and other forms of pseudohistory. His book How We Believe, presents his theory on the origins of religion and why people believe in God. He is also the author of Why People Believe Weird Things on pseudoscience, superstitions, and other confusions of our time. According to the late Stephen Jay Gould (from his Foreword to Why People Believe Weird Things): “Michael Shermer, as head of one of America’s leading skeptic organizations, and as a powerful activist and essayist in the service of this operational form of reason, is an important figure in American public life.” Dr. Shermer received his B.A. in psychology from Pepperdine University, M.A. in experimental psychology from California State University, Fullerton, and his Ph.D. in the history of science from Claremont Graduate University (1991). He was a college professor for 20 years (1979-1998), teaching psychology, evolution, and the history of science at Occidental College (1989-1998), California State University Los Angeles, and Glendale College. Since his creation of the Skeptics Society, Skeptic magazine, and the Skeptics Distinguished Science Lecture Series at Caltech, he has appeared on such shows as The Colbert Report, 20/20, Dateline, Charlie Rose, Larry King Live, Tom Snyder, Donahue, Oprah, Lezza, Unsolved Mysteries (but, proudly, never Jerry Springer!), and other shows as a skeptic of weird and extraordinary claims, as well as interviews in countless documentaries aired on PBS, A&E, Discovery, The History Channel, The Science Channel, and The Learning Channel. Shermer was the co-host and co-producer of the 13-hour Family Channel television series, Exploring the Unknown.

Last week I interviewed Luke Muehlhauser for Singularity 1 on 1. Luke Muehlhauser is the Executive Director of the Singularity Institute, the author of many articles on AI safety and the cognitive science of rationality, and the host of the popular podcast “Conversations from the Pale Blue Dot.” His work is collected at lukeprog.com. I have to say that despite his young age and lack of a University Degree – a criticism which we discuss during our interview, Luke was one of the best and clearest spoken guests on my show and I really enjoyed talking to to him. During our 56 min-long conversation we discuss a large variety of topics such as: Luke’s Christian-Evangelico personal background as the first-born son of a pastor in northern Minnesota; his fascinating transition transition from religion and theology to atheism and science; his personal motivation and desire to overcome our very human cognitive biases and help address existential risks to humanity; the Singularity Institute – its mission, members and fields of interest; the “religion for geeks” (or “rapture of the nerds”) and other popular criticisms and misconceptions; our chances of surviving the technological singularity. My favorite quote from the interview: “Superhuman AI is coming this century. By default it will be disastrous for humanity. If you want to make AI a really good thing for humanity please donate to organizations already working on that or – if you are a researcher – help us solve particular problems in mathematics, decision theory or cognitive science.”

This weekend I interviewed Jose Cordeiro for Singularity 1 on 1 and I have to admit that this was one of my favorite interviews so far with perhaps the strongest, most positive endings on the show. Jose is a published book author, energy expert, futurist, transhumanist and Singularity University faculty member. So, even if Venezuela’s terribly slow internet connection did not make for the best video recording, the interview is absolutely worth watching. Furthermore, if you ever attend a public event or a lecture where you suddenly hear someone scream “Energyyyy!” on the top of their lungs – you will have no doubt that it can be no one else but our friend Cordeiro. During our 48 min conversation we discuss a large variety of topics such as: Jose’s personal background and his failed attempt to become Venezuela’s energy minister; the staggering murder rates in Venezuela; his journey from MIT’s engineering department through the Oil and Gas Industry to renewable resources, Singularity Unviversity and futurism; the Energularity – its meaning and timeline; the Kardashev scale and the vulnerability of pre-type 1 civilizations such as ours; the biggest change in the largest industry on our planet – i.e. the Energy industry’s shift from fossil fuels to solar, wind, geothermal or fusion; the evolution of intelligence, our chances of surviving the technological singularity and the importance of optimism. My favorite quote from Jose: “The world is just half full but it is beginning to become fuller and fuller and more beautiful.”

Last week I interviewed Dr. Randal Koene for Singularity 1 on 1. Dr. Koene is perhaps one of the world’s foremost neuroscientists. He is director of analysis at Halcyon Molecular, co-founder of Carbon Copies and co-founder of and director at the Neural Engineering Corporation of Massachusetts. Randal’s research objective is whole brain emulation, creating the large-scale high-resolution representations and emulations of activity in neuronal circuitry that are needed in patient-specific neuroprostheses. During our 70 min conversation we discuss a large variety of topics such as: Randal’s early childhood and interest in science fiction; his lack of time to do all the things that he wanted to; his fascination with neuroscience; the distinction between whole brain emulation, whole brain simulation and complete understanding of the human brain; his work at Halcyon Molecular, Carbon Copies and Neuro Engineersing; the roadmap and benchmarks on the path of mind-uploading; the best and worst case scenarios that could result from Dr. Koene’s work; some of the ethical implications of mind uploading; the relationship between mind-uploading and the technological singularity. Who is Randal Koene? Randal A. Koene is heading up Analysis at nanotechnology company Halcyon Molecular in Silicon Valley. Previously, Randal A. Koene, Ph.D., was Director of the Department of Neuroengineering at Tecnalia, third largest private research organization in Europe. He is a former Prof. at the Center for Memory and Brain of Boston University, and co-founder/owner of the Neural Engineering Corporation of Massachusetts. His research objective is whole brain emulation, creating the large-scale high-resolution representations and emulations of activity in neuronal circuitry that are needed in patient-specific neuroprostheses. Koene has professional expertise in computational neuroscience, psychology, information theory, electrical engineering and physics. He organizes neural engineering efforts to obtain and replicate function and structure information that resides in the neural substrate for use in neuroprostheses and neural interfaces. And based on NETMORPH (netmorph.org), Koene’s computational framework for the simulated morphological development of neuronal circuitry, his lab is creating a Virtual Brain Laboratory to give neuroscientists, neuroengineers and clinicians large-scale high-resolution quantitative tools analogous to the computational tools that have become essential in fields such as genetics, chemistry or the aero-space industry. This effort bridges scales and will help determine how significant functions are encoded robustly in neural ensembles, and how those functions can nevertheless depend in specific ways on the detailed biophysics of particular component physiology. Koene earned his Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience at the Department of Psychology at McGill University, and his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering with a specialization in Information Theory at Delft University of Technology. He is a member of the Oxford working group that convened in 2007 to create a first roadmap toward whole brain emulation (a descriptive term for the technological accomplishment of mind transfer to a different substrate that was first coined by Koene on his MindUploading.org website). Visit Koene’s personal web site rak.minduploading.org, carboncopies.org, MindUploading.org or watch Koene present and discuss “Scope and Resolution in Neural Prosthetics and Special Concerns for Emulation of a Whole Brain”.

Yesterday I interviewed science comedian Brian Malow for Singularity 1 on 1. Brian is one of those unique comedians who is capable to not only make you laugh but also make you think. During our conversation we discuss topics such as: the name science comedian and the potential tension between science and comedy; serious comedy, mixing humor with scientific truth and making people think; how Brian became a comedian; the connections between science and science fiction; his favorite science fiction writers; his hobbies of insect photography and writing short sci fi stories; his take on the technological singularity and our chances of surviving it. Who is Brian Malow? Brian is a science comedian, based in San Francisco, who has performed for the American Chemical Society, the National Association of Science Writers, Apple, Dell, JPL, NIST, AGU and other acronyms. He produces science videos for Time Magazine’s website, and audio essays for Neil deGrasse Tyson’s radio show. Brian has led workshops and given presentations to train scientists to become better speakers for the National Science Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Research Council of Canada. He has been featured on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” and on A&E, and in the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Nature.