singularity

A couple of months ago I saw Roman Polanski’s film the Ghost Writer based on the titular bestselling book by Robert Harris. At the time, I could hardly imagine that only a couple of months after the movie premiere I will be communicating with Andrew Crofts – the archetype ghostwriter on whom Ewan McGregor’s character was most probably based upon.

Andrew wrote a popular guest article for SingularityWeblog.com where he shared the story behind his latest book The Change Agent: How to Create a Wonderful World.

The book talks about the life and ideas of Andrew’s archetype change agent – James Martin, a world-renowned futurist, computer scientist, author, lecturer and, among many other things, the largest donor in the history of Oxford University. (Most recently, James Martin produced a pivotal documentary film called The Meaning of the 21st Century. It is based on Martin’s titular book and examines the major perils and promises that humanity faces in the 21st century such as climate change, the technological singularity and others.)

Given the relevance of Andrew’s topic and the success of his guest blog post, I decided to ask him to do an interview for Singularity 1 on 1. We ended up having a 46 minute conversation during which we discussed a variety of interesting topics such as: Andrew’s experience as a guest on James Martin’s private island; the story behind, the accuracy and the goals of Crofts’ book The Change Agent; James Martin‘s life and ideas in general and his take on the future of humanity, technology and the singularity in particular.

Andrew Crofts on the Change Agent, the Ghostwriter and the Singularity

David Pearce is a British utilitarian philosopher who promotes what he calls The Hedonistic Imperative. David is also a co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association and a vegan who argues that we (or our future posthuman descendants) have a responsibility not only to avoid cruelty to animals within human society but also to alleviate the suffering of animals in the wild.

During our 85 minute conversation with David Pearce we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why in his view philosophy is mostly a matter of temperament; Utilitarianism as his choice of flavor; why he decided to be a vegan; defining and measuring sentience; his definition of transhumanism and why philosophy has largely ignored it; The Abolitionist Project; the importance and impact of suffering; The Hedonistic Imperative; whether killing other humans can be permissible under extreme circumstances; Buddhism; his take on the technological singularity, mind uploading and the Hameroff/Penrose model of consciousness…

My favorite quotes that I will take away from this interview with David Pearce are his two definitions of transhumanism:

“Technical solution to an ethical problem.”

“The use of technology to overcome biological limitations.”

Transhumanist Philosopher David Pearce: Give Up Eating Meat!

Dave Asprey is founder of The Bulletproof Executive as well as a Silicon Valley investor and technology entrepreneur who spent 15 years and over $300,000 to hack his own biology. He lost 100 pounds without counting calories or excessive exercise, upgraded his brain by more than 20 IQ points, and lowered his biological age while learning to sleep more efficiently in less time.

I first heard of Dave from my friend PJ Manney who highly recommended Asprey for my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. After such an endorsement I was certain that the Bulletproof Executive will not disappoint. However, I never suspected that, after our conversation, a total coffee fanatic like me would end up changing his morning routine and become an upgraded coffee fan. [It’s been 5 days since the interview was recorded and the results were so impressive that my wife couldn’t help it but join me in the bulletproof coffee morning routine.]

During our 1 hour conversation with Dave Asprey we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: biohacking and the bulletproof executive brand; interval training and electrical stimulation; Asprey’s experience as a technology executive; the bulletproof diet and upgraded coffee; the ethical and health implications of the paleo and vegan diets…

My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Bulletproof Executive Dave Asprey is:

“Hack the environment to hack yourself and you can reach levels of performance never imagined.”

singularity

David Bessent