The Future And You
Ideas and opinion about the future based on verifiable facts of today.
 
October 28, 2009 Episode

Eliezer Yudkowsky (co-founder and research fellow of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence) is today's featured guest.

Topics: the Singularity and the creation of Friendly AI; his estimate of the probability of success in making a Friendly AI; and why achieving AI using evolutionary software might be monumentally dangerous. He also talks about human rationality, such as: the percentage of humans today who can be considered rational; his own efforts to increase that number; how the listener can seek the path to greater rationality in his or her own thinking; the benefits of greater rationality; and the amount of success that can be expected in this pursuit.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 28, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 30 minutes] (This interview was recorded on October 4, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

Eliezer Yudkowsky is an artificial intelligence researcher concerned with the Singularity, and an advocate of Friendly Artificial Intelligence. He is the author of The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence publications Creating Friendly AI (2001) and Levels of Organization in General Intelligence (2002). His most recent academic contributions include two chapters in Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom's edited volume Global Catastrophic Risks.

Aside from research, he is also notable for his explanations of technical subjects in non-academic language, particularly on rationality, such as his article An Intuitive Explanation of Bayesian Reasoning. Also, along with Robin Hanson, he was one of the principal contributors to the blog Overcoming Bias sponsored by the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. In early 2009, he helped to found LessWrong.com, a community blog devoted to refining the art of human rationality.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_10_28.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

October 21, 2009 Episode

Michael Vassar and Michael Anissimov are today's featured guests. (Both are interviewed in their capacity as organizers of the Singularity Summit 2009 held earlier this month in New York City.)

Topics: the Singularity and artificial intelligence in general, and this year's Singularity Summit conference in particular. Also: the limits of human reasoning, public resistance to the Singularity, and trends within the transhumanist community.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 21, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 27 minutes]

Michael Vassar is President of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence and is responsible for the organization of the Singularity Summit. He has held positions with the Peace Corps and with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He writes and speaks on topics relating to the safe development of disruptive technologies. His papers include the Lifeboat Foundation analysis of the risks of advanced molecular manufacturing (which he co-authored with Robert Freitas) and Corporate Cornucopia, which he authored for the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology Task Force. He holds an M.B.A. from Drexel University and a B.S. in biochemistry from Penn State.

Michael Anissimov writes and speaks on futurist issues, especially the relationships between accelerating change, nanotechnology, existential risk, transhumanism and the Singularity. His blog Accelerating Future has had over 4 million visits. He co-founded the non-profit Immortality Institute, the first organization focused on the abolition of nonconsensual death. He has worked or volunteered for, the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, The Methuselah Foundation, The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, and the Lifeboat Foundation. He has given talks to audiences at technology and philosophy conferences in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and at Yale University. A leading voice on the technological Singularity, he was quoted multiple times in Ray Kurzweil's 2005 book The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. He was profiled in the May 2007 issue of Psychology Today.

Michael Anissimov was the featured guest in The Future And You episode for the week of March 5, 2008. That episode (like all past episodes) is still available for your listening pleasure.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_10_21.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

October 14, 2009 Episode

Gregory Benford and Aubrey de Grey (who both spoke at the Singularity Summit held earlier this month in New York City) are interviewed, as well as two attendees of this singular event which is so intently focused on the future.

Topics: the Singularity and artificial intelligence in general, and this year's Singularity Summit conference in particular. (The goal of this episode, in addition to being informative, is to provide a little of the convention's feel and mood--and if possible--it's energy.) Other related topics include life extension and mind uploading.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 14, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 25 minutes]

Doctor Gregory Benford is a Nebula award winning science fiction author. He has a doctorate in astrophysics, and is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California. 

Doctor Aubrey de Grey is a medical doctor known for his work in promoting human life extension. He is an author and theoretician in the field of gerontology, and the Chief Science Officer of the Methuselah Foundation. He has been interviewed by 60 Minutes, the BBC, the New York Times, Fortune Magazine, the Washington Post, TED, Popular Science--even by Stephen Colbert for his comedy show The Colbert Report.

News Items include my activities at the Singularity Summit, such as people I met, talked with, ate with, and had ice cream with. The short version is that I had a lot of fun and met a lot of cool and exciting people, the long version contains considerably more detail.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_10_14.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

October 7, 2009 Episode

Nathan P. Butler (a professional educator with eight years of teaching experience) is today's featured guest.

Topics: Why teachers are encouraged to give kids about five hours of homework everyday. Ways in which kids are different today thanks to the technologies they've grown up with, and how those same technologies are changing the teaching methods used in the classroom. Ways in which atheism is encouraged in children by public schools since teaching it openly is not allowed. The balancing act of just how much religion must be avoided when teaching human history.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 7, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 minutes]

Nathan P. Butler holds a 'Masters in Education with a Specialization in Integrating Technology in the Classroom.' He is also a groundbreaking podcaster, having been a podcaster years before podcasting had a name or a standardized means of distribution. He is also a mover and shaker in Star Wars Fandom through his work in with ChronoRadio and StarWarsFanworks, and for having written an exhaustive thousand-page-long chronology of the Star Wars universe which is titled 'Star Wars Timeline Gold.'

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_10_7.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT