I don't want to live in a future where meat isn't eaten, even if the taste of the synthetic substitute is identical to the real thing. Nor would I wish to have a robot woman as my wife, for the same reasons.

The Beeminder plug here is pretty amazing. And I love the term "time bridge". Thank you so much!

Ram Dass on Opening to Death | Here and Now Ep. 288

Challenging the idea that struggle and conflict are a necessary part of life, J. Krishnamurti and Dr. Allan Anderson explore a different way of living.

To start at the beginning of this 18-part dialogue on consciousness, spirituality and navigating life with J. Krishnamurti and Dr. Allan W. Anderson: https://youtu.be/rcn0gXWv9UU

This time on Freedom from the Known, J. Krishnamurti and Dr. Allan W. Anderson discuss:
- What it truly means to live and face the profound mystery of death
- Discovering the meaning of existence through awareness of the present moment
- Ways that people attempt to escape from the monotony of daily routine 
- How to meet the ‘battle of life’ with clarity and compassion
- The highest form of education: teaching that there is a way of living without conflict
- Being aware of the correct uses of thought and knowledge
- The destructive, negative energy that is created through conflict and battle
- Considering how love can exist in a world filled with inner and outer battle 
- Digging deeper into the reality of consciousness, beyond definitions

“If you could, as a professor, teacher, parent, point this out, the impracticality of the way we are living, the destructiveness of it, the utter indifference to the earth. We are destroying everything we touch. And, to point out a way of living in which there’s no conflict. That seems to me is the function of the highest form of education.” – J. Krishnamurti

This talk was originally recorded in 1974 at San Diego State University and curated by the Krishnamurti Foundation of America

About J. Krishnamurti:
For nearly six decades until his passing in 1986 at the age of ninety, Jiddu Krishnamurti traversed the globe, delivering spontaneous and captivating discourses to large audiences. Krishnamurti assumed the role of an investigator rather than an authority figure, encouraging individuals to question assumptions and explore the depths of their consciousness. His extensive body of work, estimated at over 100 million words, spans more than six decades of relentless inquiry and dialogue. His teachings, compiled in numerous books and translated into multiple languages, continue to inspire seekers worldwide, inviting them to embark on a profound journey of self-discovery and understanding. J. Krishnamurti’s legacy endures as a guiding light, offering timeless wisdom for those who dare to challenge conventional thinking and explore the complexities of existence.

About Dr. Allan W. Anderson:
Dr. Allan Anderson was a poet, author, Professor Emeritus, beloved teacher, scholar of the Oracular Tradition, and a gifted religious linguist. He helped to form the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State College in 1969. Dr. Anderson later became chair of that department, specializing in Eastern Religions, until his retirement in 1985.

J. Krishnamurti: A Different Way of Living - Freedom From the Known Podcast Ep. 13

Through teachings on non-duality and the illusion of separateness, RamDev explains how true healing comes from recognizing our inherent wholeness.

Ep. 129 - Healing Everything

Jack Kornfield and Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi share uplifting spiritual wisdom on how inner climate change shapes outer climate healing, the environment, and the future of humanity.

Ep. 307 – Inner Climate Change with Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi

For episode 271, Sharon sits down with poet, author and Zen master Henry Shukman. 

After a spontaneous spiritual awakening at the age of 19, Henry embarked on a long journey of healing and deeper awakening through meditation. Since then, he has been leading a growing number of practitioners in Europe and the US. He is the Spiritual Director Emeritus of Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Henry has also created the app, The Way, and is the author of several books, including his latest 2024 release, “Original Love.” This is Henry’s first appearance on the podcast.

In this conversation, Sharon and Henry speak about:
- Henry’s challenges in early life
- Discovering Zen teachings
- Henry’s new book, Original Love
- Mindfulness, Support, Absorption, Awakening
- Original Love versus Original Sin
- Mental health in spiritual practice
- The power of community and connection
- Henry’s meditation app, The Way
- How to microdose lovingkindness
 
The episode closes with Henry leading a guided meditation. You can learn more about Henry’s books and teachings on his website right here. You can also learn about his app, The Way, right here.

Original Love with Henry Shukman & Sharon Salzberg – Metta Hour – Ep. 271

Vipassana teacher Trudy Goodman explores how trusting in the dharma and in ourselves leads to a more peaceful, present life.

Ep. 228 - Trust in Dharma, Trust Yourself with Trudy Goodman

Holding gratitude for the ways Mother Earth supports all beings, Spiritual Healer Taita Pacha Kanchay describes the indigenous mission to be a voice for the land. 

This time on The Four Sacred Gifts, Anita and Taita Pacha Kanchay chat about :
- The profound indigenous connection to Mother Earth and the wisdom of listening to her deeply
- Healing the planet by embracing unity and recognizing all beings as brothers and sisters
- How to transform the world through indigenous systems of knowledge 
- The sacred power of indigenous ceremonies and honoring our ancestors with reverence
- Opening your heart and mind in order to spread goodness in the world
- The practice of forgiveness—releasing resentment and anger to free ourselves from negative energy
- Living in harmony with the Earth and understanding why indigenous wisdom endures through generations
- Gratitude for Mother Earth’s gifts and the importance of living in reciprocity
- Listening to nature as a way to remember our deep interconnectedness with all life

“This is the time when indigenous tribes need to guide and share the wisdom of our Mother Earth because us as indigenous tribes, we have the mission to be the voices of the lands.” –Taita Pacha Kanchay

About Taita Pacha Kanchay: 
Taita Pacha Kanchay is a healer whose ancestral name means "the sun-glint that penetrates the earth." As a Yanakuna Yachak, also known as a "spiritual authority," Pacha has devoted his life to studying and practicing the spiritual traditions passed down by his ancestors and elders.Today, he serves as a speaker and the Coordinator of the Great National Council of Indigenous Elders in Colombia (ONIC), representing a remarkable alliance of 115 tribes. He is also a representative of the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network, a United Nations Delegate, and an activist for Indigenous Sovereignty and environmental justice. A carrier of the sacred medicine of Yagé (Ayahuasca), Pacha's driving purpose is to exemplify and share the knowledge of coexistence in harmony with Mother Earth's spirit and wisdom. Affectionately known as “the healer of the healers” in Colombia, he offers healing on every level—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Pacha's transformative work inspires individuals worldwide to embrace the interconnectedness of all beings and rediscover their innate connection to nature and tap into the endless wellspring of wisdom that resides within. 

You can reach him at malkupachakanchay@hotmail.com. 

Voices of the Land with Taita Pacha Kanchay & Dr. Anita Sanchez | The Four Sacred Gifts - Ep. 15

Carried by a discourse on The Heart Sutra, teacher and author Susan Piver joins Raghu to explore the truth of emptiness.

This week on Mindrolling, Raghu and Susan chat about:
- Practicing The Heart Sutra with only one syllable: ahh
- The truth of emptiness through recitation of non-truths 
- Understanding emptiness as bliss, not as voidness
- The commitment to self interest that many westerners experience
- Releasing the ego as the first step towards embracing emptiness 
- Being both empty and luminous at the same time
- Thinking of emptiness as complete interconnection and fullness
- Susan’s psychedelic experience: staying in the present, being in the womb of bliss
- The six transcendent actions and how they all spring from generosity 
- Check out this free, downloadable translation of The Heart Sutra from Plum Village

About Susan Piver:
Susan Piver has an international reputation as an exceptionally skillful meditation teacher. She teaches workshops and speaks on mindfulness, innovation, communication, relationships, and creativity. Susan has been a student of Buddhism since 1995, graduated from a Buddhist seminary in 2004, and was authorized to teach meditation in 2005. In 2012, she founded The Open Heart Project, the world’s largest online-only meditation center. Susan is also a New York Times bestselling author. Her most recent book, Inexplicable Joy: On the Heart Sutra, is now available. You can keep up with Susan on Instagram.

“You’re empty of separate existence. Your parents, their parents, their parents, if someone ate a different sandwich a thousand years ago, you wouldn’t be here. Emptiness could just as easily be called fullness, completely connected.” –Susan Piver

The Truth of Emptiness with Susan Piver & Raghu Markus | Mindrolling – Ep. 616

Celebrating the release of There Is No Other, a new book of teachings from Ram Dass' lectures, Parvati Markus and Raghu Markus listen to and reflect on some of the material used in its creation. 

This special episode of Here and Now celebrates the new book, There Is No Other, a collection of teachings taken from Ram Dass’ lectures. In these times, Ram Dass’ teachings on wholeness and unity are more needed than ever. 

The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox: https://www.ramdass.org/fellowship/

We begin with a clip of Ram Dass exploring the mindset of “us versus them.” Who exactly is us? Who is them? Raghu and Parvati reflect on how this clip is central to the theme of There Is No Other.

The next clip features Ram Dass talking about the balance of heart and mind. Sharing a powerful real-life example, he explores how we cut ourselves off when we veil our hearts. Raghu and Parvati share how the book is about walking a path to harmony and wholeness.

The third clip finds Ram Dass examining Ramana Maharshi’s concept of “God, Guru, Self,” and how we can begin to appreciate that the Spirit is everywhere. Raghu and Parvati discuss how Ram Dass' new book speaks to this really important moment in our lives.
We end with a brief clip of Ram Dass talking about the path of love. “Finally,” he says, “you become an environment, a vibratory rate…” 

“So the mind, if it gets too strong, out of balance with the heart, shuts down all the information that the heart can give. It cuts you off from your wisdom, really. You don’t even see all the stuff. I mean, you and I are simultaneously existing on so many planes of reality, but because of the power of our minds, we keep limiting which realities are real, and the rest of it we either treat as error or we don’t even notice. It’s so deeply unconscious, we just don’t even notice all the rest of us, of ourselves.” – Ram Dass

About Ram Dass:
Ram Dass’s spirit has been a guiding light for generations, carrying millions along on the journey. Ram Dass teaches that through the Bhakti practice of unconditional love, we can all connect with our true nature. Through these teachings, Ram Dass has shared a little piece of his guru, Maharaj-ji, with all who have listened to him.

There Is No Other, Ram Dass New Book Release with Parvati & Raghu Markus | Here & Now Ep. 289

Jack Kornfield and Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi explore ‘inner climate change,’ guiding us through meditation and reflection on transforming the world by becoming the Tree of Enlightenment.

Ep. 308 – Becoming the Tree of Enlightenment with Prof. Rajiv S. Joshi

Humanity is at a turning point. For the first time in history, we have the technology to completely obliterate ourselves. But we’ve also created boundless possibilities for all life that could enable  just about any brilliant future we can imagine. Humanity could erase itself with a nuclear war or a poorly designed AI, or we could colonize space and expand life throughout the universe: As a species, our future has never been more open-ended. 

The potential for disaster is often more visible than the potential for triumph, so as we prepare for 2019, we want to talk about existential hope, and why we should actually be more excited than ever about the future. In this podcast, Ariel talks to six experts--Anthony Aguirre, Max Tegmark, Gaia Dempsey, Allison Duettmann, Josh Clark, and Anders Sandberg--about their views on the present, the future, and the path between them. 

Anthony and Max are both physics professors and cofounders of FLI. Gaia is a tech enthusiast and entrepreneur, and with her newest venture, 7th Future, she’s focusing on bringing people and organizations together to imagine and figure out how to build a better future. Allison is a researcher and program coordinator at the Foresight Institute and creator of the website existentialhope.com. Josh is cohost on the Stuff You Should Know Podcast, and he recently released a 10-part series on existential risks called The End of the World with Josh Clark. Anders is a senior researcher at the Future of Humanity Institute with a background in computational neuroscience, and for the past 20 years, he’s studied the ethics of human enhancement, existential risks, emerging technology, and life in the far future.

We hope you’ll come away feeling inspired and motivated--not just to prevent catastrophe, but to facilitate greatness.  

Topics discussed in this episode include:
 
How technology aids us in realizing personal and societal goals.
FLI’s successes in 2018 and our goals for 2019.
Worldbuilding and how to conceptualize the future.
The possibility of other life in the universe and its implications for the future of humanity.
How we can improve as a species and strategies for doing so.
The importance of a shared positive vision for the future, what that vision might look like, and how a shared vision can still represent a wide enough set of values and goals to cover the billions of people alive today and in the future.
Existential hope and what it looks like now and far into the future.

Existential Hope in 2019 and Beyond

In this podcast, Lucas spoke with Jade Leung from the Center for the Governance of AI (GovAI). GovAI strives to help humanity capture the benefits and mitigate the risks of artificial intelligence. The center focuses on the political challenges arising from transformative AI, and they seek to guide the development of such technology for the common good by researching issues in AI governance and advising decision makers. Jade is Head of Research and Partnerships at GovAI, where her research focuses on modeling the politics of strategic general purpose technologies, with the intention of understanding which dynamics seed cooperation and conflict.

Topics discussed in this episode include:

-The landscape of AI governance
-The Center for the Governance of AI’s research agenda and priorities
-Aligning government and companies with ideal governance and the common good
-Norms and efforts in the AI alignment community in this space
-Technical AI alignment vs. AI Governance vs. malicious use cases
-Lethal autonomous weapons
-Where we are in terms of our efforts and what further work is needed in this space

You can take a short (3 minute) survey to share your feedback about the podcast here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/YWHDFV7

AIAP: On the Governance of AI with Jade Leung

Does the climate crisis pose an existential threat? And is that even the best way to formulate the question, or should we be looking at the relationship between the climate crisis and existential threats differently? In this month’s FLI podcast, Ariel was joined by Simon Beard and Haydn Belfield of the University of Cambridge’s Center for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), who  explained why, despite the many unknowns, it might indeed make sense to study climate change as an existential threat. Simon and Haydn broke down the different systems underlying human civilization and the ways climate change threatens these systems. They also discussed our species’ unique strengths and vulnerabilities –– and the ways in which technology has heightened both –– with respect to the changing climate.

FLI Podcast: The Climate Crisis as an Existential Threat with Simon Beard and Haydn Belfield

Stuart Russell is one of AI's true pioneers and has been at the forefront of the field for decades. His expertise and forward thinking have culminated in his newest work, Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control. The book is a cornerstone piece, alongside Superintelligence and Life 3.0, that articulates the civilization-scale problem we face of aligning machine intelligence with human goals and values. Not only is this a further articulation and development of the AI alignment problem, but Stuart also proposes a novel solution which bring us to a better understanding of what it will take to create beneficial machine intelligence.

 Topics discussed in this episode include:

-Stuart's intentions in writing the book
-The history of intellectual thought leading up to the control problem
-The problem of control
-Why tool AI won't work
-Messages for different audiences
-Stuart's proposed solution to the control problem

You can find the page for this podcast here: https://futureoflife.org/2019/10/08/ai-alignment-podcast-human-compatible-artificial-intelligence-and-the-problem-of-control-with-stuart-russell/

Important timestamps: 

0:00 Intro
2:10 Intentions and background on the book
4:30 Human intellectual tradition leading up to the problem of control
7:41 Summary of the structure of the book
8:28 The issue with the current formulation of building intelligent machine systems
10:57 Beginnings of a solution
12:54 Might tool AI be of any help here?
16:30 Core message of the book
20:36 How the book is useful for different audiences
26:30 Inferring the preferences of irrational agents
36:30 Why does this all matter?
39:50 What is really at stake?
45:10 Risks and challenges on the path to beneficial AI
54:55 We should consider laws and regulations around AI
01:03:54 How is this book differentiated from those like it?

AIAP: Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control with Stuart Russell

Sam Barker, a Berlin-based music producer, and David Pearce, philosopher and author of The Hedonistic Imperative, join us on a special episode of the FLI Podcast to spread some existential hope. Sam is the author of euphoric sound landscapes inspired by the writings of David Pearce, largely exemplified in his latest album — aptly named "Utility." Sam's artistic excellence, motivated by blissful visions of the future, and David's philosophical and technological writings on the potential for the biological domestication of heaven are a perfect match made for the fusion of artistic, moral, and intellectual excellence. This podcast explores what significance Sam found in David's work, how it informed his music production, and Sam and David's optimistic visions of the future; it also features a guest mix by Sam and plenty of musical content.

Topics discussed in this episode include:

-The relationship between Sam's music and David's writing
-Existential hope
-Ideas from the Hedonistic Imperative
-Sam's albums
-The future of art and music

You can find the page for this podcast here: https://futureoflife.org/2020/06/24/sam-barker-and-david-pearce-on-art-paradise-engineering-and-existential-hope-featuring-a-guest-mix/ 

You can find the mix with no interview portion of the podcast here: https://soundcloud.com/futureoflife/barker-hedonic-recalibration-mix

Where to follow Sam Barker :

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/voltek
Twitter: https://twitter.com/samvoltek
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samvoltek/
Website: https://www.voltek-labs.net/
Bandcamp: https://sambarker.bandcamp.com/

Where to follow Sam's label, Ostgut Ton: 

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ostgutton-official
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ostgut.Ton.OFFICIAL/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ostgutton
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ostgut_ton/
Bandcamp: https://ostgut.bandcamp.com/

Timestamps: 

0:00 Intro
5:40 The inspiration around Sam's music
17:38 Barker - Maximum Utility
20:03 David and Sam on their work
23:45 Do any of the tracks evoke specific visions or hopes?
24:40 Barker - Die-Hards Of The Darwinian Order
28:15 Barker - Paradise Engineering
31:20 Barker - Hedonic Treadmill
33:05 The future and evolution of art
54:03 David on how good the future can be
58:36 Guest mix by Barker

Tracklist:

Delta Rain Dance – 1
John Beltran – A Different Dream
Rrose – Horizon
Alexandroid – lvpt3
Datassette – Drizzle Fort
Conrad Sprenger – Opening
JakoJako –  Wavetable#1
Barker & David Goldberg – #3
Barker & Baumecker – Organik (Intro)
Anthony Linell – Fractal Vision
Ametsub – Skydroppin’
Ladyfish\Mewark – Comfortable
JakoJako & Barker – [unreleased]

This podcast is possible because of the support of listeners like you. If you found this conversation to be meaningful or valuable, consider supporting it directly by donating at futureoflife.org/donate. Contributions like yours make these conversations possible.

Sam Barker and David Pearce on Art, Paradise Engineering, and Existential Hope (With Guest Mix)

Live and work in theatre and music on the unceded territories in the Pacific Northwest.  Photo by Jodie Ponto.

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a nonprofit working to reduce global catastrophic and existential risk from powerful technologies. In particular, FLI focuses on risks from artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, nuclear weapons and climate change.

The Institute's work is made up of three main strands: grantmaking for risk reduction, educational outreach, and advocacy within the United Nations, US government and European Union institutions.

FLI has become one of the world's leading voices on the governance of AI having created one of the earliest and most influential sets of governance principles: the Asilomar AI Principles.

Existential Hope in 2019 and Beyond

Future of Life Institute

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