Socrates

FastForward Radio by The Speculist Puts Socrates In The Spot

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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.

You can listen to or download the audio file above. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.

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Socrates Thanks You: We May Not Have The Quantity (Yet), But We Certainly Have The Quality

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Dear friends,

It took me a few days to digest the results from my first ever fund-raising campaign and decide what to do next. During that time I took a long, hard look in the mirror of public opinion and input.

Socrates takes a look in the mirror

I received many amazing testimonials and public endorsements and few criticisms. Still, I can’t fail to ignore 2 facts:

  1. Your input was overwhelmingly positive. I was simply overrun by messages not only via email but also via all kinds of social media. (This is one of the main reasons it took me so long to post this because I did my best to reply to as many of you as possible.)
  2. I failed to reach my stated goal of raising $30,000.

So, how do I reconcile the above 2 facts and what have I decided to do next?!

Check out the video below or the audio above to find out!

Thank you!

An Atheist Who Wears a Cross and a Verb! What About You?!

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The issue of religion is one of the more common questions that I ask most of my guests on Singularity 1 on 1. But this is hardly the most important thing during any conversation. Still, if we are talking about the future of humanity, it may be relevant to know a little more about the person’s past and present religiosity. In this way when we move on to topics such as cosmology, metaphysics, ethics or epistemology, we are more mindful of our own implicit presumptions.

The danger in the above approach is that one might embrace the label a bit too tightly and thereby ruin the potential for a genuine conversation and exchange of ideas. Thus we must also be aware of all the religious, intellectual, political or other such shortcuts we are using. While they can be useful in the short term, in the longer term they omit so much that they become rapidly useless.

In addition, the vast majority of us are simply full of contradictions. Thus the more you get to know a person the harder it is to slot her into a rigid label or category.

Take me for example – I consider myself to be an unapologetic atheist. Yet, one of the contradictory personal facts about this statement is that much of the time I wear a golden cross around my neck.

So how can that be?

Let me give you the top three reasons:

Firstly, there is a very personal story behind this particular cross because it was made of my parents’ wedding rings after my mother passed away. So for me it has a very different emotional meaning rather than the usual Christian one.

Secondly, while I am an atheist who was born and lived in a communist country, even there I was unable to escape the deeply embedded Judeo-Christian culture permeating Western Civilization. Consequently, being an atheist hasn’t prevented me from occasionally falling a victim to the same implicit presumptions that are characteristic of Christianity or even Judaism. Thus wearing a cross reminds me that I am still a child of the temporal, political, cultural and georgraphic context I was born in.

Finally, the cross reminds me that the body of my knowledge is always going to be dwarfed by the body of my ignorance. So to me it represents the X factor – something that I don’t know I don’t know – the unkown unknown.

Thus, despite the cross and what it might signify to you, I am not a Christian. In fact, since I am pretty certain there is no such divinity as professed by any of the major religions – I am very much an atheist. However, in a larger sense I am an agnostic: I realize that I don’t know everything and am willing to follow the evidence no matter where it takes me.

If and when I find that I’m wrong I change my mind.

This, I believe, is the essense of the Socratic method – to ask questions, make mistakes, learn and evolve. That is why I believe human is a step in evolution, not the culmination. We are each a process, not an entity. As Buckminster Fuller put it once:

“I live on Earth at present, and I don’t know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing — a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process — an integral function of the universe.” (I Seem To Be A Verb 1970)

***

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson claims the title “scientist” above all other “ists.” And yet, he says he is “constantly claimed by atheists.” So where does he stand?

In his own words: “Neil deGrasse, widely claimed by atheists, is actually an agnostic.”

 

Neil is clearly a verb. But what about you?!

Are you an -ist or an -ism? A verb or a noun?

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10 Tips for Your Blogging Success: Socrates Gets Riled Up at Podcamp Toronto

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Socrates at Podcamp TorontoLast 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…

 

Socrates’ Top 10 Blogging and Podcasting Tips:

1. Do your homework and start with the right foundation!

How do you do that?

Learn from the best! Studying mediocrity only produces more mediocrity. Success leaves traces. The breadcrumbs are there. All you need to do is find them and follow the path.

For example, in terms of blogging I learn from and follow ProBlogger, Copyblogger, Entrepreneurs-Journey, David Risley, John Chow and Smart Passive Income.

If you are a total beginner you should start with BecomeABlogger.com. This is a fantastic free video course where all you need to do is provide an email address and get the training videos straight into your inbox.

To learn about podcasting check out PodcastAnswerMan.com and especially his free online course Learn How To Podcast.

To learn video blogging see Gideon Shalwick and especially his free Rapid Video Blogging ebook.

2. Buy your own domain and build your online hub there. Never use third party hosts such as TypePad, Blogger, WordPress.com, PodBean or Libsyn. This way you will have full control over your own content while building domain equity, looking professional and even saving money. (Hosting your podcast at Libsyn for 6 years is a tragedy. Teaching this to others is a crime!)

3. Start an Email List as soon as you start blogging or podcasting. This is and will remain to be your most valuable asset.

I personally use MailChimp and love it. Plus it’s free for users with less than 1,000 subscribers. You really can’t beat that.

4. Go for quality not quantity. This applies both for the articles you post (and their frequency) as well as the audience you are trying to reach. Get 1,000 True Fans and you will be set.

5. Write for People not for search engines: SEO is important, so do the basics: tag your images, write smart titles, provide a good meta description of your articles and use a professional blog theme. Once you’ve got that covered – write for real people. It is real people (or lack thereof) who will make you succeed or fail as blogger and a podcaster. (as well as most other things in life.)

I admit that catering to search engine spiders may provide some short-term results. The question is though: What do you do when Google updates their search algorithm and you lose your Page rank placement?! You would have to start catering to people.

Why not start with the right focus, ignore short-term temptations and write for the long term?

Write for people. Write so that you have a lasting on-line presence, business and reputation.

6. Be authentic! Be honest. Never sell out. Never miss the bad or the imperfect end of things. Once you commit to something – follow through. And follow the evidence no matter where it takes you! When you fail or mess up – admit you made a mistake, own up to it and take action to remedy the situation.

7. Give first, give often and give a lot without asking or expecting something back. Best way to achieve your dreams is to help others achieve theirs. It is not about you – it is about other people. (e.g. tweet and link even to your competition.)

8. Campaign a cause. Don’t market yourself or your product. Set the goal to be making a difference for all – not only your readers or customers, and go after that. If you make a difference people will reward you by reading your blog and buying your product.

9. Do the work. There are no shortcuts. So just do the work. (By the way – writer’s block is a myth!)

10. Never give up!… and don’t wait for permission to go after your dreams and change the world. (Dan Barry had to apply 13 times to NASA but he never gave up on his dream to be an astronaut.)

The Importance of Doubt, Asking Questions and Not Knowing

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Most of us are uncomfortable not knowing.

Just think about it: Wouldn’t it be nice (and easy) if we knew the answers to all the important questions?

Who am I? Is there a God? What is his name? What is the purpose of life? How do I live the good life? What is justice?…

Knowing is much more comfortable (and easier) than not knowing. That is why most people convince themselves to be absolutely certain they know the answers.

Yet, as Voltaire presciently noted “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”

It is absurd to take things on faith, without doubting or testing them in any way, and go on preaching that you really do have the answers.

It is absurd to be able to accomplish such an enormous feat simply by following orders and without any substantial struggle, discomfort or risk.

It is absurd that we can find out everything there is to know by listening to our parents and elders or by mindlessly reciting someone’s holly book.

Religion is a convenient and easy way out of our discomfort. It is the fast food equvalent in our hunger for grand answers and spiritual fulfillment – it may provide short-term relief but is damaging in the long-term for our ability to think. It is this, more than anything else, that explains my atheism.

Said Nietzsche:

“I do not by any means know atheism as a result; even less as an event: it is a matter of course with me, from instinct. I am too inquisitive, too questionable, too exuberant to stand for any gross answer. God is a gross answer, an indelicacy against us thinkers — at bottom merely a gross prohibition for us: you shall not think!”

***

Not knowing, just like other cases of being uncomfortable, is a great incentive for personal growth. Progress always comes at the point of resistance. Getting uncomfortable and willing to be uncertain, to not know, to ask questions, to err and to fail, is the best and only way to learn, grow, progress and move forward.

Why? Because as Richard Branson has demonstrated over and over again: “There is always a better way! The fact that something has been done the same way for years is a sign of lazyness or neglect.”

So not knowing is always the very first step on the way to knowing.

socrates-drawing“I know that I don’t know. But you don’t know that you don’t know, and that is why you think you know.” is what Socrates used to say.

Take this contemporary Socrates and Singularity Weblog for example:

I know that I don’t know if the singularity will happen for sure or not.

I don’t even know how to turn this blog into an honest and profitable business to allow me to not only enjoy what I do but also do what I enjoy, without having to struggle.

Yet, what I do know, however, is the importance of doubt, asking questions and not knowing because those are the first steps on the way to finding the answers.

This was the path on which the ancient Greek sage walked and eventually triggered a revolution in culture, science, religion and philosophy that is still on-going.

It is also the path that I have decided to take. No matter the risks, the unknowns and the doubts – I am an optimist – for as long as I am uncomfortable I know that I will be learning and growing. And where there was ignorance there can and, eventually, will be knowledge. (Even it is simply a better question.)

So, join me and venture into the unknown – we are in good company. As Carl Sagan used to say:

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

So, what are you waiting for?!

Get on the path and take the first step! Be uncomfortable! Have doubt! Ask questions! Not know!…

…and you just might be on the way to discovering something absolutely incredible!

 ***

Richard Feynman, 1965 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics (Excerpt from 1981 BBC Horizon)

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No Illusions Podcast: Cameron Reilly Puts Socrates in the Spotlight

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It is only fair that every once-in-a-while Socrates – i.e. “the man with the questions,” ought to get the table turned on him, take the other side of the microphone and answer a few questions himself.

So, when Cameron Reilly asked me to be the next guest on his popular and long-running No Illusions Podcast I was honored and agreed without hesitation.

In 2004 Cameron co-founded the Podcast Network – Australia’s first social media company, which he built into one of the largest independent Australian media sites. In 2007, Reilly was called one of the “40 Biggest Players Of Australia’s Digital Age.” Currently he is a regular speaker on issues surrounding social media, social networking and the future of media in addition to consulting for a number of Brisbane-based companies as their digital strategist.

During my conversation with Cameron we discuss issues such as: my personal history and being born Bulgarian; Canada, Toronto and becoming Canadian; my take on the concept and definition of the technological singularity; the Rapture of the Nerds criticism; the scientific method, science and religion; Moore’s Law; nanotechnology; the potential for dividing humanity into technophile transhumanists and technophobe neo-luddites and all out global war between these two fractions; the pro’s and con’s of being skeptical and using the Socratic method of inquiry.

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.

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Why I Am an Optimist

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People sometimes ask me why am I such an optimist about the progress of technology in general and the technological singularity in particular?

Well, my reply is simple.

I choose to focus on the upside. I choose to be a deliberate, conscious optimist.

That is not to say that I suggest we ought to ignore the many dangers that lie certainly ahead of us. What it means is that, once I’ve done my best and the die is cast, the only thing that is left for me is to enjoy the ride, focus on the bright side of life and have a little sense of humor on the way.

Tony Robins says that, whether consciously or unconsciously, at any given moment in time we are always making the following decisions:

1. What do I focus on?

2. What does it mean for me?

3. How do I feel about it?

4. What am I going to do about it?

I choose to be very deliberate in those choices. Because not making a conscious choice is just but another kind of a choice – I believe, almost certainly, a very bad one.

So, I prefer to be a conscious optimist, rather than an unconscious pessimist.

I have chosen to:

1. Focus on the evolution of technology as exhibited by the exponential growth of development in computer science, artificial intelligence, genetics, robotics and nanotechnologies.

2. Find the positive meaning and unparalleled opportunities of the above, not only for me but also for all of us.

3. Feel great about the future – both mine and that of the rest of humanity.

4. Start and host Singularity Symposium and Singularity Weblog – to popularize, discuss and shape our future, without forgetting or denying the equally great risks and responsibilities we are collectively carrying on the way.

Sometimes people interrupt me and say:

But you are an atheist! How can you be a true optimist if you don’t believe in God! For only the Almighty can guarantee that in the end things will turn out for the best.

Well, would you allow me to be a pessimist about God? And, never-the-less, still insist I am an optimist?

Why do we need someone else (even God) to take responsibility for the outcome? Why can’t we embrace the fact that with our exponentially growing power comes an equally growing responsibility? Should we blame Santa if our kinds don’t like their presents?

I accept there is no guarantee that in the 21st century things will turn out for the best. Yet this realization does not make me into an immoral, evil or desperate nihilist. Just the opposite. It allows me to appreciate the  time I spend here, the freedom I am presented with and the consequent gravity of my personal, and our collective decisions.

It is up to us create the outcome whatever it may turn out to be – heaven or hell, apocalypse or Utopia. It is up to us to make a choice and take deliberate action towards accomplishing our goals. And even if it is not up to us, I prefer to err and take action, rather than sit idly and observe from the sidelines of history.

No, I don’t need God’s existence or help – I know that I can be happy, prosperous and good without Him. Just like I can choose to be a miserable, evil, stupid and murderous killer of innocent people, all while shouting my particular version of God’s name.

It was not God who lifted us from the holes in the ground – we did. And it will not be his fault if we end up back there. It was our curiosity to explore and our intelligence to discover, channeled through the scientific method of inquiry, that did so.

Thus, I choose to be guided by philosophy rather than superstition.

I choose to ask uncomfortable, skeptical questions rather than accept easy, convenient answers.

I embrace the scientific method and adore the Symphony of Science because there is real poetry in the real world and science is the poetry of reality. The same spiritual fulfillment that people seek in religion, can be found everywhere in the universe.

***

Yes, in this century we are probably going to face the biggest challenges humanity has ever faced and we can approach that pivotal moment either as pessimists or optimists.

We could embrace Murphy’s law and claim that if things can go wrong (isn’t that always a possibility for anything worthwhile?!) then they surely will. Or we can choose to embrace Moore’s Law and say that things always get better, cheaper and faster, while we clearly have safer, more comfortable, longer and healthier lifes.

We can proclaim that the TechnoCalyps is coming. Or that the Singularity is Near.

We can say that God has made us mortal. Or realize that it is us who made Him immortal.

It was not God, it was Science that changed the world and in this century it will help us change it more than ever: to transcend biology, go Beyond Human, build Human v2.0 and maybe even live forever.

Indeed, soon we’ll have to make a decision: Onwards to Utopia or backwards to the Dark Ages.

I believe that we not only can but actually will have “A Better Future” ahead of us. (and “Better You” too.)

***

Let me finish off this personal manifesto with 2 great videos, that may help you visualize the mixture of science and sense of humor, at the corner-stone of my optimism.

The first video is from BBC Channel Four. In it, statistics guru and program host Hans Rosling takes us through the last 200 years of global progress as measured in terms of life span and income. I believe it makes a very powerful argument, both visually and otherwise, as to why we ought to be all optimists.

The second video is from Monthy Python‘s eternally funny and equally brilliant Life of Brian.

For me, sense of humor, rather than belief in God, comes rather handy when my very limited personal knowledge and logic fail to deliver enough optimism. I think that it can work for your too…

I see that humanity’s cup is already half full and we have the best chance ever to fill it up in this century.

That is why I choose to be an optimist!

And what about you?

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If Socrates Were A Blogger

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Socrates felt that even though he was born Athenian he was a citizen of the world.

During his public trial he remarked that “A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time” (Plato. Apology. 32a)

But what if Socrates were a blogger? Would he fare any better today than 2,500 ago?

The Death of Socrates
Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates, 1787, oil on canvas

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We do not like to be wrong. We rarely assume that we may be wrong. Human nature doesn’t let us feel wrong…

When there is a chance that we may be wrong we get angry; we feel frustrated and threatened; our sub-conscious self-defensive mechanisms prevent us from taking the fault in us and thus our self-preservation instincts prevent us from seeing the truth.

Even when we know or suspect that we are or may be wrong, we do not like to be proven wrong.

Ultimately, we remarkably hate to be proven wrong in public – in front of our friends, relatives, lovers, etc. Then we feel robbed – like if someone has stolen something precious of our personality in front of everyone and yet we were totally powerless to do anything; we’d rather stay in our blissful ignorance for as long as possible than suffer the humiliation of truth…

At the same time many of us, maybe most, know that unique pleasure of proving someone wrong. For, on the one hand, if we ourselves made the same mistake the fact that someone else fell in the same trap relieves our self-blame. On the other hand, if we did not do that mistake – it gives us the pleasurable feeling of superiority. In reverse, the person who dares to do so to us takes a prominent place on our hate list. This prospect may be especially irritating if one thinks oneself to be important and of higher social status.

No wonder that Socrates was, as he said, “getting unpopular.” What do you expect of someone who goes around chasing people on the marketplace and other public places with the only goal of proving that they do not know or that what they think that they know is actually wrong?

Well, this may not be exactly what Socrates had in mind when he did it but surely a large part of the population was taking it that way. Thus it is not surprising if Socrates made more enemies than friends among the Athenians. It is actually surprising that the difference for and against his indictment was only 30 votes.

***

Generally people who are saying the truth, straight in the eyes, without useless preambles, are being punished for such an “imprudent” behavior.

Truth seekers are always annoying – they expose the faults in our life, the uselessness of our goals, and the meaninglessness of our “achievements” – who could tolerate that?

How dare you impose your ideas on my intellectual sovereignty – I have the right to be ignorant.

I also want to stay ignorant and would defend myself and this right by all means possible.

Therefore if you do not respect my borders of ignorance and want to enlighten my poor soul, and useless existence, you have to be able to suffer the consequences: accept the hate of those that you want to help and in some cases even pay with your life for your great arrogance of being right or of exposing others for not being so. Thus Socrates’ fate was rather predictable and by his words we understand that he too was aware of that fact.

Some time later another offender of ignorance came – the Buddha (the Awakened One). For his search for truth and enlightening activities he was allegedly presented with the Socratic prize – a cup of poison.

Later, no different end caught up with Jesus – another daring example of a noble desire to save the masses – the same masses that rewarded him with the crucifix from gratitude…

As a Bulgarian writer once said:

“He who is in love with the truth has no friends, no family and no homeland – he is a monster!” (Atanas Dalchev. Fragments)

***

So, if Socrates were a contemporary blogger would he fare better today?

Have we really changed that much since the 4th century BC?

Would Socrates be put to trial again?… or not?

Would he be able to not only survive longer but thrive in our “free speech” modern world?

Would the people treat him, unlike the Athenians, as a true citizen of the world?

Best of Singularity Blog

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Even though it has been only a bit more than a month since the beginning of this blog I am happy to note that there is already a tight group of people who have subscribed to my feed and continue to come back and read my posts on a regular basis.

I want to take this opportunity to do 2 things:

First and foremost I want to thank you all for the generous gift of your interest, your time and your moral support. I cherish those dearly and promise to do my best to provide you with more interesting, more relevant and better written singularity content during the new 2010.

In the end, without you — my readers, both the Singularity Weblog and the Singularity Symposium website will be not only pointless but will cease to exist.

It is your mouse clicks here that give me meaning and inspiration to keep searching for if I know one thing for sure it is that I don’t know…

Secondly, I want to highlight the top 5 most popular blog posts for 2009.

This list is based on visitors’ data as compiled by my Google Analytics account and is therefore entirely your list and not mine.

Your fellow traveler,

Socrates

Singularity Weblog Top 5 List

1. Dawn of the Kill-Bots: The Conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Arming of AI (part 1)

2. If Socrates were a Blogger

3. Mind Reading, Thought Control and Neuro Marketing: Is “the Lord of the World” still science fiction?

4. Do you want to live forever?

5. Dawn of the Kill-Bots: the Conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Arming of AI (part 3)