Synopsis: The new cognitive capabilities in our machines were the result of a shift in the way wethink about problem solving. The shift is the most significant change in AI, ever, if not inscience as a whole. Machine Learning based systems are now successfully attackingboth simple and complex problems using these novel Methods. We are…
Synopsis: In this talk we articulate a positive vision of the future that is both viable given what we know, and also utterly radical in its implications. We introduce two key insights that, when taken together, synergize in powerful ways. Namely, (a) the long-tails of pleasure and pain, and (b) the correlation between wellbeing, productivity,…
Synopsis: The goal of Aligned AI is to implement scalable solutions to the alignment problem, and distribute these solutions to actors developing powerful transformative artificial intelligence. What is Alignment? Algorithms are shaping the present and will shape the future ever more strongly. It is crucially important that these powerful algorithms be aligned – that they…
This talk is part of the ‘Stepping Into the Future‘ conference. Synopsis: Along with many benefits of powerful machine learning methods comes significant challenges. For example, as content recommendation algorithms become increasingly competent at satisfying user preferences, they may also become more competent at manipulating human preferences, to make the preferences more easily satisfiable. These kinds of alignment…
Grand Futures – Thinking Truly Long Term. What are the limits of what advanced civilizations can achieve? What is the upper limit of value? Anders Sandberg speaks on existential hope about the far future and his upcoming book ‘Grand Futures: Thinking Truly Long Term‘, and how to be an optimist about the future. Synopsis: How…
A talk by David Pearce for the Stepping into the Future conference 2022. Synopsis: No sentient being in the evolutionary history of life has enjoyed good health as defined by the World Health Organization. The founding constitution of the World Health Organization commits the international community to a daringly ambitious conception of health: “a state…
James Hughes discusses the neuroanatomy of moral cognition, and the potential for brain stimulation and brain-computer interfaces to modulate moral emotions, cognition and behavior. This talk was part of the ‘Stepping Into the Future‘ conference. Video here. Audio: Synopsis: Links between brain structures and cognition began with studies of victims of brain injuries, and…
We have heard many different notions of what the words: science, philosophy and the term ‘philosophy of science’ mean. No doubt if we consult three different dictionaries we will discover three more., and if we consult Wikipedia yet another. I would hope that those of you more predisposed to enquiry than debate ;even those with…
“The Revolutions of Scientific Structure” reveals an empirically measured discovery, by science, about the natural world that is the human scientist. The book’s analysis places science at the cusp of a major developmental transformation caused by science targeting the impossible: the science of consciousness, which was started in the late 1980s by a science practice…
The resurgence of fact talk in political and public discourse — primarily seen in the rise of so-called “fact-checking” websites—is welcome phenomenon, but what does it signify, and why should we welcome it? I’ll attempt to explain how care and attention to talk of facts and reasons can play a vital role in our public discourse, even in the…
