Socrates

Dr. Michael Greger on How Not to Age

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There are two people who caused me to become vegan and switch to a whole-plant-based diet. The first is Prof. Peter Singer who put the idea in my head many years ago when I started studying ethics. The second person is Dr. Michael Greger whose books How not to Die and The How Not To Die Cookbook are a must-read for anyone interested in evidence-based healthy living and healthy longevity. And so it has been a two-year-dream of mine to one day interview Dr. Greger on my podcast. Well, yesterday was that day and I am happy to publish this short but informative and entertaining interview with Michael Greger.

Dr. Michael Greger does hundreds of interviews per year and could only schedule 30 min for our conversation but we still managed to cover a variety of interesting topics such as: starting off as a math geek; why he became a lifestyle medicine physician and founded NutritionFacts.org; eating healthy as our best current bet to live healthier and longer life; his future book How Not to Age; the alien concepts of evidence-based medicine and nutrition; the optimal human diet; HealthData.org as the largest study of human risk factors for disease; the healthiest and most longevity promoting foods; the benefits of calorie restriction; Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen App…

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.

How Not to Die (book trailer)

Who is Dr. Michael Greger?

Michael Greger, M.D. FACLM is a physician, New York Times bestselling author, and internationally recognized professional speaker on a number of important public health issues. Dr. Greger has lectured at the Conference on World Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, and the International Bird Flu Summit, among countless other symposia and institutions; testified before Congress; has appeared on shows such as The Colbert Report and The Dr. Oz Show; and was invited as an expert witness in defense of Oprah Winfrey at the infamous “meat defamation” trial. In 2017, he was honored with the ACLM Lifestyle Medicine Trailblazer Award.

Dr. Greger’s most recent scientific publications in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Critical Reviews in Microbiology, Family and Community Health, and the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition, and Public Health explore the public health implications of industrialized animal agriculture.

Dr. Greger is also licensed as a general practitioner specializing in clinical nutrition and is a founding member and Fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. He was featured on the Healthy Living Channel promoting his latest nutrition DVDs and honored to teach part of Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s esteemed nutrition course at Cornell University. Dr. Greger’s nutrition work can be found at NutritionFacts.org, which is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit charity.

He is the author of Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching and Carbophobia: The Scary Truth Behind America’s Low Carb Craze. Both of his latest books, How Not to Die and the How Not to Die Cookbook, became instant New York Times Best Sellers. View the book trailer here. Dr. Greger is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine.

Dr. Greger is proud to be a Council of Directors member of the global voice for lifestyle as medicine, the True Health Initiative (THI). This is a growing coalition of more than 360 world experts representing 35 countries. It is an unprecedented assembly that includes physicians, University Deans, former Surgeon Generals, Olympic athletes, chefs, environmental professionals and a diverse group of nutritionists. Together they offer clarity over confusion and support the foundational principles of healthy eating and healthy living.

Stuart Russell on Artificial Intelligence: What if we succeed?

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Stuart Russell is a professor of Computer Science at UC Berkeley as well as co-author of the most popular textbook in the field – Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. Given that it has been translated into 13 languages and is used in more than 1,300 universities in 118 countries, I can hardly think of anyone more qualified or more appropriate to discuss issues related to AI or the technological singularity. Unfortunately, we had problems with our internet connection and, consequently, the video recording is among the worst I have ever published. Thus this episode may be a good candidate to listen to as an audio file only. However, given how prominent Prof. Russel is and how generous he was with his time, I thought it would be a sad loss if I didn’t publish the video also, poor quality as it is.

During our 90 min conversation with Stuart Russell we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: his love for physics and computer science; human preferences, expected utility and decision making; why his textbook on AI was “unreasonably successful”; his dream that AI will contribute to a Golden Age of Humanity; aligning human and AI objectives; the proper definition of Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning vs Deep Learning; debugging and the King Midas problem; the control problem and Russell’s 3 Laws; provably safe mathematical systems and the nature of intelligence; the technological singularity; Artificial General Intelligence and consciousness…

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.

Who is Start Russell?

Stuart Russell is a professor (and formerly chair) of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at University of California at Berkeley. His book Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (with Peter Norvig) is the standard text in AI; it has been translated into 13 languages and is used in more than 1,300 universities in 118 countries. His research covers a wide range of topics in artificial intelligence including machine learning, probabilistic reasoning, knowledge representation, planning, real-time decision making, multitarget tracking, computer vision, computational physiology, global seismic monitoring, and philosophical foundations.

He also works for the United Nations, developing a new global seismic monitoring system for the nuclear-test-ban treaty. His current concerns include the threat of autonomous weapons and the long-term future of artificial intelligence and its relation to humanity.

Roman Yampolskiy on Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security

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There are those of us who philosophize and debate the finer points surrounding the dangers of artificial intelligence. And then there are those who dare go in the trenches and get their hands dirty by doing the actual work that may just end up making the difference. So if AI turns out to be like the terminator then Prof. Roman Yampolskiy may turn out to be like John Connor – but better. Because instead of fighting by using guns and brawn he is utilizing computer science, human intelligence, and code. Whether that turns out to be the case and whether Yampolskiy will be successful or not is to be seen. But at this point, I was very happy to have Roman back on my podcast for our third interview. [See his previous interviews here and here.]

During our 80-minute conversation with Prof. Yampolskiy, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: AI in the media; why we’re all living in our own bubbles; the rise of interest in AI safety and ethics; the possibility of a 9.11 type of an AI event; why progress is at best making “safer” AI rather than “safe” AI; human and artificial stupidity; the need for an AI emergency task force; machine vs deep learning; technology and AI as a magnifying mirror; technological unemployment; his latest book Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security.

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.

Who is Roman Yampolskiy?

Dr. Roman V. Yampolskiy is a Tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science at the Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville. He is the founding and current director of the Cyber Security Lab and an author of many books including Artificial Superintelligence: a Futuristic Approach.

Yampolskiy is a Senior member of IEEE and AGI; Member of Kentucky Academy of Science, former Research Advisor for MIRI and Associate of GCRI.

Roman Yampolskiy holds a Ph.D. degree from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo. He was a recipient of a four year National Science Foundation fellowship. Dr. Yampolskiy’s main areas of interest are AI Safety, Artificial Intelligence, Behavioral Biometrics, and Cybersecurity.

Dr. Yampolskiy is an author of over 150 publications including multiple journal articles and books. His research has been cited by 2000+ scientists and profiled in popular magazines both American and foreign, dozens of websites, on radio and TV and other media reports in some 30 languages.

Nikola Danaylov on the Always Another Way Podcast: The World is Transformed by Asking Questions

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A couple of weeks ago I did an interview on the Always Another Way Podcast. Now, let’s be clear that this was a different kind of interview I did here, so if you want to hear primarily my views on AI, the Singularity, transhumanism, and other advanced technologies, then, this one is not for you. So don’t waste your time.

However, if you want to hear me a bit more on why I believe that the world is transformed by asking questions, on how we make progress, on what is technology, what is human and how I evolved into those views of mine then you may actually enjoy it. I myself felt rather refreshed doing an interview on a topic I don’t talk often about by an interviewer who clearly did her homework and was not afraid to go into new territory.

Beyond Bionics: How the Future of Prosthetics is Redefining Humanity

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Bionic technology is removing physical barriers faced by disabled people while raising profound ethical questions of what it is to be human. From DIY prosthetics realized through 3D printing technology to customized AI-driven limbs, science is at the forefront of many life-enhancing innovations.

Gerd Leonhard on AI and Digital Ethics

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It’s been ten years now since I came up with my thesis that Technology is Not Enough. That ethics is a good operating system to help us debug not only our technology but also our society. And so it makes me very happy to find other travelers on the same journey, especially if they are further ahead than me 😉

This is Gerd Leonhard’s latest short film sharing some thoughts on his #1 speaking topic: humans versus/with machines, artificial intelligence and the future of humanity in a world where machines can hear, see, speak, learn and ‘think’.

On the one hand, artificial intelligence (AI) clearly has the capacity to improve our lives in pretty much every aspect, from energy to medical to smart cities; on the other end, it could fundamentally change who we are as humans, and what we think of as ‘human’. It could be a great destroyer of jobs but it could also free us from unsatisfying routines. But if machines become truly ‘intelligent’ what will be left for us to do… you may ask.

I think it will all come down to what I call digital ethics i.e. how will we use technology to our collective human benefit (i.e. embrace it but don’t become it), and how will we deal with the yet mostly unknown externalities caused by exponential technological change. Technology will have almost unlimited power in less than 20 years, at which point the key question will be WHY and WHO, not if or how. Do we need a global digital ethics counsel on AI, and if so, how would we realize it?

“Oracle of Silicon Valley” Tim O’Reilly on WTF: Do Work That Matters

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Inc Magazine called Tim O’Reilly the “Oracle of Silicon Valley.” Wired called him “The Trend Spotter.” Others have noted that “the Internet was built on O’Reilly books.” All in all, Tim O’Reilly is as perfect of a guest for my Singularity.FM podcast as I can ever imagine. So, I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.

During our 90 min conversation with Tim O’Reilly we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why Tim sees himself as a change-maker; the change he is after; the aesthetic and the useful; the importance of story; Tim’s background in Latin and Ancient Greek; his thesis on Mysticism and Logic in Plato’s Dialogues; ethics as a way of debugging technology and society; reality and truth; why he is not a singularity fan; whether we can influence the future or not; why technology is not enough; his book WTF: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us; Uber and Lyft; runaway AI; the Emperor Has No Clothes and serving the wrong algorithm; rewriting the human story…

My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Tim O’Reilly is:

“Economic determinism is probably the cardinal sin of the present moment.”

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.

Who is Tim O’Reilly?

Tim O’Reilly, San Francisco, California, 2017.

Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc. His original business plan was simply “interesting work for interesting people,” and that’s worked out pretty well. O’Reilly Media delivers online learning, publishes books, runs conferences, urges companies to create more value than they capture, and tries to change the world by spreading and amplifying the knowledge of innovators.

Tim has a history of convening conversations that reshape the computer industry. In 1998, he organized the meeting where the term “open source software” was agreed on, and helped the business world understand its importance. In 2004, with the Web 2.0 Summit, he defined how “Web 2.0” represented not only the resurgence of the web after the dot com bust, but a new model for the computer industry, based on big data, collective intelligence, and the internet as a platform. In 2009, with his “Gov 2.0 Summit,” he framed a conversation about the modernization of government technology that has shaped policy and spawned initiatives at the Federal, State, and local level, and around the world. He has now turned his attention to implications of AI, the on-demand economy, and other technologies that are transforming the nature of work and the future shape of the business world. This is the subject of his new book from Harper Business, WTF: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us.

In addition to his role at O’Reilly Media, Tim is a partner at early stage venture firm O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV) and on the boards of Maker Media (which was spun out from O’Reilly Media in 2012), Code for America, PeerJ, Civis Analytics, and PopVox.

At the Heart of Intelligence: A Film by Gerd Leonhard & Telia Finland

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At the Heart of Intelligence is an emotionally compelling and well-made short film discussing artificial intelligence. It was produced in collaboration between popular futurist Gerd Leonhard and Telia Finland. The movie employes powerful visuals, fantastic music and high-quality production but not at the expense of also asking some vital questions about intelligence – in general, and artificial intelligence – in particular. Hope you enjoy it.

Synopsis: What will happen to humans when machines get more and more intelligent? Futurist Gerd Leonhard and the Helsinki Data Center are figuring it all out…

Physicist Max Tegmark on Life 3.0: What We Do Makes a Difference

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Some people say that renowned MIT physicist Max Tegmark is totally bonkers and refer to him as “Mad Max”. But, to quote Lewis Carroll from Alice in Wonderland, “All the best people are.” Furthermore, I am not sure if Tegmark is “mad” but I am pretty sure he is very much “fun” because I had a total blast interviewing him on my Singularity.FM podcast.

During our 90 min conversation with Max Tegmark we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: curiosity and being a scientist; reality and math; intelligence, AI and AGI; the technological singularity; Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence; populating the universe; Frank J. Tipler’s Omega Point; the Age of Em and the inevitability of our future; why both me and Max went vegan; the Future of Life Institute; human stupidity and nuclear war; technological unemployment.

My favorite quote that I will take away from this conversation with Max Tegmark is:

“It is not our universe giving meaning to us, it is us giving meaning to our universe.”

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.

Who is Max Tegmark?

 

Max Tegmark is driven by curiosity, both about how our universe works and about how we can use the science and technology we discover to help humanity flourish rather than flounder.

Max Tegmark is an MIT professor who loves thinking about life’s big questions. He’s written two popular books, Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality and the recently published Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, as well as more than 200 nerdy technical papers on topics from cosmology to AI.

He writes: “In my spare time, I’m president of the Future of Life Institute, which aims to ensure that we develop not only technology but also the wisdom required to use it beneficially.”

 

Previous Singularity.FM episodes mentioned during this interview:

Robin Hanson (part 2): Social Science or Extremist Politics in Disguise?!

Frank J. Tipler: The Laws of Physics Say The Singularity is Inevitable!

Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn on AI and the Singularity

Lawrence Krauss on Singularity.FM: Keep on Asking Questions

Transhumanist Manifesto Inspires WIRED Article on Transhumanism

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A couple of weeks ago Joi Ito – head of the MIT Media Lab and contributor to WIRED Magazine, interviewed me about my Transhumanist Manifesto and related topics such as life-extension, immortality, cryonics, speciesim, and ethics. Some people have said that this is the best interview I have done so far:

It is hard for me to judge objectively if that is indeed the best interview I have ever done or not. However, subjectively, I feel it was definitely the most fun one I have done so far. Joi Ito, in turn, shared with me that my interview inspired him to write a long in-depth article about transhumanism on WIRED Magazine: The Responsibility of Immortality: Welcome to the New Transhumanism

Whatever the case may be, I thought it is appropriate to repost the interview as a podcast episode so that you can check it out and judge for yourself.

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.

Philosopher Peter Singer on AI, Transhumanism and Ethics

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photo courtesy of Leif Tuxen

Peter Singer is arguably the most influential living philosopher of our day. His book on Animal Liberation basically started the animal rights movement and his textbook on Practical Ethics is the standard philosophy text of first-year students. No wonder that in 2005 Time Magazine called Peter Singer one of the 100 most influential people in the world. And so for me, personally, having Professor Peter Singer on Singularity.FM was a dream come true.

During our 1-hour conversation with Peter Singer we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: ethics and philosophy; why he is not an animal lover; why he is a flexible vegan; 3D printed meat; Peter’s personal mentors and inspirations; transhumanism and human nature; his biggest dreams and fears; why I went vegan; his greatest ethical failure; Ayn Rand and objectivism; climate change, instinct and evolution; intelligence and ethics; whether life-extension is moral; AI and the technological singularity; technology and ethics.

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.

Who is Peter Singer?

Peter Singer may be, as The New Yorker calls him, the planet’s “most influential living philosopher.” The Australian academic specializes in applied ethics, to which he takes a secular, utilitarian approach — minimize suffering, maximize well-being. He gained recognition in the 1970s with his groundbreaking book Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals, which questions society’s tendency to put human needs above those of members of other species. And he draws fire from critics who object to his fascinating argument in favor of an obligation to help the global poor that sets the bar so high that it means we are almost all living unethically. His defense of euthanasia and infanticide, in some circumstances, has led to protests against his lectures and to his teaching position at Princeton.

But Singer’s collective body of work is more acclaimed than controversial. He has written the classic text Practical Ethics and many other books, with more in progress. He lectures at Princeton, where he is a professor of bioethics, and the University of Melbourne, where he is a laureate professor. You can find dozens of brief, brilliant essays at Project Syndicate, where Singer examines the philosophical questions surrounding current topics like Obamacare, computer piracy, and obesity.

Nikola Danaylov on the Future Grind Podcast

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Last month Ryan O’Shea – host of the Future Grind Podcast, did what is probably the most thorough interview with me so far. I thought it might be good to repost it on Singularity.FM so that you can listen to me being interviewed for a change while also getting exposed to another fantastic futurist podcast that I recommend highly.

Hope you enjoy it but, either way, do let me know. 😉

The Future Grind Podcast Ep. 20 – “Conversations with the Future” with Nikola Danaylov

In this installment of the Future Grind podcast, host Ryan O’Shea is joined by bestselling author and futurist speaker Nikola Danaylov. Nikola writes about the future at his website Singularity Weblog and hosts the Singularity.FM podcast. His 2017 book Conversations with the Future features highlights from his interviews with some of this field’s most noteworthy individuals, including Ray Kurzweil, Kevin Kelly, Verner Vinge, and more. They discuss the importance of ethics and the influence of Socrates in Nikola’s work, as well as his path from serving in the armed forces of Bulgaria to studying drone warfare in North America, and how that ultimately lead to his fascination with the technological singularity.

It’s time once again for your frequent disclaimer that the thoughts of the guests on this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of Future Grind or Ryan O’Shea.

We’re posting in two forms, an audio podcast and a video podcast. Please subscribe to Future Grind via our YouTube channel, DTube channel, and iTunes feed as we have some exclusive content that is not posted on both channels. You can also find us on Facebook.

Show Notes

  • What Nikola does [1:38]
  • Where to start? Ethics. [2:28]
  • How drone warfare introduced Nik to the Singularity [5:00]
  • Governments jobs & the benefit of rejection [9:17]
  • Beginnings in communist Bulgaria [10:27]
  • The growth of Singularity Weblog [13:45]
  • What is the Singularity? [22:09]
  • How Nikola became Socrates [25:24]
  • Singularity Weblog as a modern Greek Symposium [28:05]
  • The Emperor Has No Clothes – critique of Singularity University [31:15]
  • The fallout from the Rotterdam talk [40:26]
  • How the book came to be [43:14]
  • The struggles & rewards of a vegan diet [45:28]
  • Is Nikola a Transhumanist? [55:14]
  • The risk of nuclear weapons & climate change [56:32]
  • Parting messages [1:06:56]

Mentioned

“Technology is Not Enough”
“Technology is the How, not the Why or What”
Start Here on Singularity Weblog
Ray Kurzweil – The Singularity is Near
Charlie Stross – Accelerando
Singularity Hub
NASA Ames Research Center
Singularity University
Socrates
Plato
Stoicism
Marcus Aurelius
Mark Zuckerberg
Cambridge Analytica
Richard Branson – Losing My Virginity
Nikola’s “Transhumanist Manifesto”