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.

FLI

Steve Charles