Amazing Progress in Artificial Intelligence – Ben Goertzel


Many of you know the sad news that theoretical physicist & mathematician Freeman Dyson has passed away, so in celebration of his life and achievements, Anders Sandberg (Future of Humanity Institute) discusses Freeman Dyson’s influence on himself and others – How might advanced alien civilizations develop (and indeed perhaps our own)? We discuss strategies for…
Part 1 in an interview with Eric Sampson on Moral Realism. Note AI is referenced, but the bulk of the questions about AI are covered in part 2. Chapters 0:00 Intro 3:03 Why is moral realism attractive to AI Safety Research? 2:02 Background, & Personal reason to choose moral realism 4:00 Describing moral realism –…
Remembering Lee Smolin’s theory of the dynamical evolution of the universe where through a form of natural selection, black holes spawn new universes, I thought that if a superintelligent civilization understood its mechanics, they may try to control it, and engineer or bias the physics in the spawned universe – and possibly migrate to this…
David Pearce and I recently discussed relating Buddhism to the abolitionist project – both have the reduction of suffering located at the heart of their purposes. However, is there a necessary connection between desire and suffering? David argues no – highlighting a difference between emphasis of a traditional Buddhist approach to mitigating suffering through the…
In AI safety, direct specification refers to the attempt to program specific goals, rules, or behaviours directly into an AI system. AI trained to optimise values may over-optimise those we specify at the expense of real value we don’t specify. Political or market dynamics incentivise racing to powerful AI – the race dynamics come with…
Stelarc’s art suggests that humanity’s future lies not in holding onto the “natural” body, but in embracing its redesign. The body is contingent – a temporary configuration ripe for reinvention. “The idea of redesigning the body is something that’s come out from the perceived inadequacies in interacting with technology. So for me it’s not an…