Prof. Lawrence Krauss is a world-famous theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and activist against superstition whom I have dreamed of interviewing for years. So, when we finally booked the date, I feverishly spent a full week reading his last 2 books and watching 20+ hours of his past interviews and documentaries. Alas, I got the flu and didn’t manage to sleep at all the last couple of days before the interview. Lawrence, in turn, had a root canal done just the day before. And so I feel that I could have and should have done a much better job of this interview but, as Krauss says, “most experiments fail the first time”. Good news is that I will use this as an excuse to ask for another interview. During our 82 min discussion with Lawrence Krauss we cover a variety of interesting topics [...]
A couple of weeks ago, during the last Transhumanist Meetup in Toronto, I did a Conversations with the Future book reading. Basically, I read my book’s foreword – the story of how I got to do what I do, as well as the book introduction – what my book is all about, and the epilogue – what people should take away from it. This event would not have happened without the great work of David McFadzean and Agah Bahari as well as meetup space provided by Rangle.IO. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to Dave Gibson and Billy Jimmy Lee, who took great video and pictures respectively that I can now share with people like you. Hope you enjoy it. As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To [...]
What does a creative writer do that a computer can’t? Could an AI have drummed up Hamlet? Artificial Intelligence has come a long way in the last several years, and now the filmmakers behind “Sunspring” have returned with a new short starring David Hasselhoff. Once again, Oscar Sharp who directed the first ever all AI Artificial Intelligence has come a long way in the last several years, and now the filmmakers behind “Sunspring” have returned with a new short starring David Hasselhoff. Once again, Oscar Sharp who directed the first ever all AI movie has teamed up with “Benjamin,” an A.I. programmed by Ross Goodwin to write screenplays. This year, they trained four new long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network models on subtitles from David Hasselhoff’s 1980s TV shows, Shakespeare, Golden Age Hollywood films, and Aaron Sorkin. In addition, [...]
Matthew Le Merle is co-founder of Fifth Era and managing partner of Keiretsu Capital, which is the world’s largest angel network and most active US venture investor. Most recently, Le Merle is the author of a new book titled Build Your Fortune in the Fifth Era: How to Prosper in an Age of Unprecedented Innovation. During our 90 min discussion with Matthew we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: who Matthew Le Merle is and the origins of his family name; how he got involved in disruptive innovation first and angel investing later; the difference between angel and venture investors and what entrepreneurs can learn from that; Le Merle’s take on the singularity and the coming together of the digital and biotech revolutions; his book Build Your Fortune in the Fifth Era and why the vast majority of people sit [...]
What if your toothbrush is smarter than you? I know, this may sound ridiculous but let us look at the present trends, and you can judge for yourself. In the 19th century, we moved from natural to artificial power. So we took a hand-pump and turned it into an electric pump. A horse carriage and turned it into an automobile. A toothbrush and made an electric one. All those things existed before, but now they were better because of artificial power. Today we are undergoing a similar process. But this time we’re moving from natural to artificial intelligence. So we take a phone and add AI to make a smartphone. We take a watch and make a smart watch. Take a car and make a smart car. And we have smart software, smart appliances, smart buildings, etc. My toothbrush has [...]
If the state is an information structure, then the reason that it has been “computed” using representative government, is because that was a way to enforce rigid, static, computer-like processing. You can have a state without a monopoly on violence. The blockchain is exactly that. In other words, with computers, there is a new medium for running code. Previously that was limited to the human brain, which is why the nation-state evolved. Nick Szabo who coined the word “smart contract” in Formalizing and Securing Relationships on a Public Network (1997) talks about the distinction between “wet code with traditional legal contracts that run in the heads of lawyers”, and dry code that runs in computers. So nation-states use a static, rigid structure, where the government of the state is defined by a monopoly on violence, as a way of enforcing [...]
We’ve been trying to better our minds for some time. In recent years, folks have flocked to the nootropic marketplace to purchase cognitive enhancement supplements that would sharpen their focus and expand their memory recall. Now, scientists are hard at work to develop technology that would enable us to one-up AI (Artificial Intelligence). While the technology is intended to be microscopic and is quite complicated in nature, the idea is rather simple: Create a fine net that would pick up on our neural signals and shield us from any perceived threat that AI might pose. Nanotechnology is something that is spreading like wildfire among some of the biggest names in cutting-edge scientific development. Ray Kurzweil, one of our leading futurists, has jumped on the nanotech bandwagon, speaking publicly about his intention for there to be nanobots in the not-so-distant-future. But [...]
Last week InnerSpace – the flagship show on the Space Channel, interviewed me and my friends David McFadzean and Agah Bahari about Transhumanism in general and “Ghost in the Shell” in particular. The segment was aired last night on InnerSpace at 6 & 11 p.m. ET with multiple repeat broadcasts on MTV Canada. During those 4 minutes, we cover a lot of important topics such as: the meaning of Transhumanism; why technology is a magnifying mirror; the meaning of being human; the importance of ethics and my recent book Conversations with the Future. Check it out and let me know what you think ;-)
Yesterday I did a Facebook Live session together with comedian Amish Patel where we talked about our April Fool’s Prank, got serious about comedy and did a little comedy about the serious. So, if you still haven’t seen my “interview” with “Dr. Amish Patel” on why the Universe is a Simulation and his proof for that, make sure you check it out. During this conversation with Amish Patel we talk about: the format and goals of my Singularity.FM podcast; our April Fool’s prank and some chosen audience comments; how many of the “jokes” in our gag were things that really happened during my real interviews; why emotion eats logic for breakfast; the power of music and humor; the importance of doubt and asking questions; why I went vegan; ethics and religion… I have to mention that both I and Amish [...]
Do you fear we might live in a simulation? Well, I just had the unique privilege to interview Dr. Amish Patel, who not only argues passionately that the Universe is indeed a simulation but also shares for the very 1st time his groundbreaking proof that this is indeed the case. During our 30 min discussion with Dr. Patel we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: who is Amish Patel in his own words; his cutting-edge work in cosmology, quantum mechanics and applied mathematics; the collapse of scientific materialism; his savant-like multiplication skills; mathematics and the nature of reality; his biggest dream and biggest fear; why everything around us is information and his “it from bit theory of the universe”; the computation hypothesis and the simulation hypothesis; why we are the AI; negativity and nihilism; why and how we can [...]
