Singularity.FM

Digital  crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin are the singularity of money and, after spending some time educating myself, I have turned from a skeptic into a fan. If you are not familiar with the topic then I suggest that you start with my interview with Andreas Antonopoulos. In that conversation we lay down the basics and discuss why "Bitcoin is not currency; it’s the internet of money!" If you are already intellectually comfortable with Bitcoin, then it is time to talk about Bitcoin 2.0 and the best candidate so far is Ethereum. Ethereum is the brain-child of Vitalik Buterin who wrote most of the original code and had such a compelling vision that he managed to attract a large team of coders, cryptography experts, investors and supporters - all with the goal of making it a reality. And so I was extremely happy to interview Buterin for my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. During our 70 min conversation with Vitalik we cover a variety of topics such as: what is Ethereum and how is it different from Bitcoin; Vitalik's motivation and biggest dream; why and how Ethereum was designed to be Turing complete; the differences between Ethereum and Ether; the idea of creating a decentralized app ecosystem; egalitarianism and the Gini index; the size and security of the Ethereum database; the excange rate and sale of Ether coins... I owe a special debt of gratitude to Jan Miranda and Tamara Haasen without whom this interview would not have happened! (If you want to help me produce more high-quality episodes like this one you can send bitcoin 1gnjsmU3TzWF1LXNFrm3egYYuh3ZJrJ7F or old-fashioned money!)   Who is Vitalik Buterin? Vitalik Buterin is the Founder of Ethereum and Chief Technical mentor at Decentral. He is a programer, head writer and co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine, and is involved with the development of KryptoKit, Darkwallet and Egora. Buterin is a 2014 Thiel Fellowship recipient known worldwide as a visionary in the cryptocurrency space. Vitalik travels the world lecturing about decentralized trust networks and Ethereum.   What is Ethereum? Ethereum is a platform that makes it possible for any developer to write and distribute next-generation decentralized applications. Borrowing the concept of distributed consensus and cryptographic proof that makes crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin so effective in trustless payments, Ethereum extends the use of these technologies to trustless agreements. This allows developers to easily build innovative new products on a censorship and collusion-resistant foundation. See this 10 min video of Stephan Tual - Ethereum CCO, for a short explanation of the platform and its main applications:   Related articles Andreas Antonopoulos on Singularity 1 on 1: “Bitcoin is not currency; it’s the internet of money!”

Digital crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin are the singularity of money and, after spending some time educating myself, I have turned from a skeptic into a fan. If you are not familiar with the topic then I suggest that you start with my interview with Andreas Antonopoulos. In that conversation, we lay down the basics and discuss why […]

Stuart Armstrong is a James Martin research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford where he looks at issues such as existential risks in general and Artificial Intelligence in particular. Stuart is also the author of Smarter Than Us: The Rise of Machine Intelligence and, after participating in a […]

Stuart Armstrong is a James Martin research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford where he looks as issues such as existential risks in general and Artificial Intelligence in particular. Stuart is also the author of Smarter Than Us: The Rise of Machine Intelligence and, after participating in a fun futurist panel discussion with him - Terminator or Transcendence, I knew it is time to interview Armstrong on Singularity 1 on 1. During our conversation with Stuart we cover issues such as: his transition from hard science into futurism; the major existential risks to our civilization; the mandate of the Future of Humanity Institute; how can we know if AI is safe and what are the best approaches towards it; why experts are all over the map; humanity's chances of survival...  My favorite quote from this interview with Stuart Armstrong is: "If we don't get whacked by the existential risks, the future is probably going to be wonderful." (You can listen to/download the audio file above or watch the video interview in full. If you want to help me produce more episodes like this one please make a donation!)   Who is Stuart Armstrong? Stuart Armstrong was born in St Jerome, Quebec, Canada in 1979. His research at the Future of Humanity Institute centers on formal decision theory, the risks and possibilities of Artificial Intelligence, the long term potential for intelligent life, and anthropic (self-locating) probability. Stuart is particularly interested in finding decision processes that give the "correct" answer under situations of anthropic ignorance and ignorance of one's own utility function, ways of mapping humanity's partially defined values onto an artificial entity, and the interaction between various existential risks. He aims to improve the understanding of the different types and natures of uncertainties surrounding human progress in the mid-to-far future. Armstrong's Oxford D.Phil was in parabolic geometry, calculating the holonomy of projective and conformal Cartan geometries. He later transitioned into computational biochemistry, designing several new ways to rapidly compare putative bioactive molecules for virtual screening of medicinal compounds.   Other Future of Humanity Institute Interviews Anders Sandberg on Singularity 1 on 1: We Are All Amazingly Stupid, But We Can Get Better Anders Sandberg on Singularity 1 on 1: Embrace Strangeness

Stuart Armstrong is a James Martin research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford where he looks at issues such as existential risks in general and Artificial Intelligence in particular. Stuart is also the author of Smarter Than Us: The Rise of Machine Intelligence and, after participating in a fun futurist panel discussion with […]

This is my second interview with Steven Kotler. Last time we discussed Abundance: The Future is Better than You Think – the book Steven co-wrote with Peter Diamandis. This time we are here to discuss reaching our optimum state of performance or what many of us call Flow. During our conversation […]

This is my second interview with Steven Kotler. Last time we discussed Abundance: The Future is Better than You Think - the book Steven co-wrote with Peter Diamandis. This time we are here to discuss reaching our optimum state of performance or what many of us call Flow. During our conversation with Steven Kotler we cover issues such as: the definition of flow as an optimal state of performance; his profound personal experiences of being in flow; the likelyhood of putting flow in a pill or video game; why we need setting both long term as well as clear short term goals; Nietzsche and transhumanism; the flow genome project... (You can listen to/download the audio file above or watch the video interview in full. If you want to help me produce more episodes like this one please make a donation!)   Who is Steven Kotler? Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, award-winning journalist, and cofounder and director of research for the Flow Genome Project. His books include The Rise of Superman, Abundance, A Small Furry Prayer, West of Jesus, and The Angle Quickest for Flight. His work has been translated into thirty languages and his articles have appeared in more than seventy publications, including New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Wired, and Forbes. You can find him online at www.stevenkotler.com or writing Far Frontiers, a blog for Forbes.com: www.forbes.com/sites/stevenkotler.   Related articles Steven Kotler on Singularity 1 on 1: Get Off the Couch and Change the World

This is my second interview with Steven Kotler. Last time we discussed Abundance: The Future is Better than You Think – the book Steven co-wrote with Peter Diamandis. This time we are here to discuss reaching our optimum state of performance or what many of us call Flow. During our conversation with Steven Kotler we cover […]

The first time I met Prof. Ed Boyden was at last year’s Global Future 2045 conference in New York. There I was highly impressed with Boyden’s impressive work in neuroscience in general and optogenetics in particular, as well as the profound implications it would have on our ability to understand […]

The first time I met Prof. Ed Boyden was at last year's Global Future 2045 conference in New York. There I was highly impressed with Boyden's impressive work in neuroscience in general and optogenetics in particular, as well as the profound implications it would have on our ability to understand and manipulate the brain. And so I knew instantly I must bring him for an interview on Singularity 1 on 1. During our 1 hour conversation with Ed we cover a variety of topics such as: his interesting career path from chemistry to physics to electrical engineering and into neuroscience; the loop of understanding and why the brain is where we need to go; the importance of philosophy; optogenetics and whether the brain is a classical computer or not; the Penrose-Hameroff theory of consciousness; the Human Brain Project; Randal Koene's Whole Brain Emulation project; the definition and importance of consciousness; neuro-plasticity and Norman Doidge's The Brain That Changes Itself; free will and mind-uploading... (You can listen to/download the audio file above or watch the video interview in full. If you want to help me produce more episodes like this one please make a donation!)   Who is Ed Boyden? Ed Boyden is Associate Professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, at the MIT Media Lab and the MIT McGovern Institute. He leads the Synthetic Neurobiology Group, which develops tools for analyzing and engineering the circuits of the brain. These technologies, created often in interdisciplinary collaborations, include 'optogenetic' tools, which enable the activation and silencing of neural circuit elements with light, 3-D microfabricated neural interfaces that enable control and readout of neural activity, and robotic methods for automatically recording intracellular neural activity and performing single-cell analyses in the living brain. He has launched an award-winning series of classes at MIT that teach principles of neuroengineering, starting with basic principles of how to control and observe neural functions, and culminating with strategies for launching companies in the nascent neurotechnology space. He also co-directs the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering, which aims to develop new tools to accelerate neuroscience progress. Amongst other recognitions, he has received the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award (2013), the Grete Lundbeck European "Brain" Prize, the largest brain research prize in the world (2013), the Perl/UNC Neuroscience Prize (2011), the A F Harvey Prize (2011), and the Society for Neuroscience Research Award for Innovation in Neuroscience (RAIN) Prize (2007). He has also received the NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2013), the NIH Director's Transformative Research Award (twice, 2012 and 2013), and the NIH Director's New Innovator Award (2007), as well as the New York Stem Cell Foundation-Robertson Investigator Award (2011) and the the Paul Allen Distinguished Investigator Award in Neuroscience (2010). He was also named to the World Economic Forum Young Scientist list (2013), the Wired Smart List "50 People Who Will Change the World" (2012), the Technology Review World’s "Top 35 Innovators under Age 35" list (2006), and his work was included in Nature Methods "Method of the Year" in 2010. His group has hosted hundreds of visitors to learn how to use neurotechnologies, and he also regularly teaches at summer courses and workshops in neuroscience, as well as delivering lectures to the broader public at TED and at the World Economic Forum. Ed received his Ph.D. in neurosciences from Stanford University as a Hertz Fellow, where he discovered that the molecular mechanisms used to store a memory are determined by the content to be learned. Before that, he received three degrees in electrical engineering, computer science, and physics from MIT. He has contributed to over 300 peer-reviewed papers, current or pending patents, and articles,

The first time I met Prof. Ed Boyden was at last year’s Global Future 2045 conference in New York. There I was highly impressed with Boyden’s impressive work in neuroscience in general and optogenetics in particular, as well as the profound implications it would have on our ability to understand and manipulate the brain. And […]

Peter Voss is an entrepreneur, inventor, engineer, scientist, and AI researcher. He is a rather interesting and unique individual not only because of his diverse background and impressive accomplishments but also because of his interest in moral philosophy and artificial general intelligence. Given how quickly our first interview went by, I […]

Peter Voss is an entrepreneur, inventor, engineer, scientist and AI researcher. He is a rather interesting and unique individual not only because of his diverse background and impressive accomplishments but also because of his interest in moral philosophy and artificial general intelligence. Given how quickly our first interview went by, I wanted to bring him back to Singularity 1 on 1 and dig a little deeper into some of the issues we touched on the previous time. During our 53 min conversation with Peter we cover a variety of topics such as: if and how higher intelligence can make us moral; rational ethics; determinism and the nature of free will, consciousness and reality; the benefits of philosophising… (You can listen to/download the audio file above or watch the video interview in full. If you want to help me produce more episodes like this one please make a donation!)   Who is Peter Voss? Peter started his career as an entrepreneur, inventor, engineer and scientist at age 16. After a few years in electronics engineering, at age 25 he started a company to provide turnkey business solutions based on self-developed software, running on micro-computer networks. Seven years later the company employed several hundred people and was successfully listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. After selling his interest in the company in 1993, he worked on a broad range of disciplines — cognitive science, philosophy and theory of knowledge, psychology, intelligence and learning theory, and computer science — which served as the foundation for achieving breakthroughs in artificial general intelligence. In 2001 he started Adaptive AI Inc., with the purpose of developing systems with a high degree of general intelligence and commercializing services based on these inventions. Smart Action Company, which utilizes an AGI engine to power its call automation service, was founded in 2008. Peter often writes and presents on various philosophical topics including rational ethics, freewill and artificial minds; and is deeply involved with futurism and radical life-extension. Related articles Peter Voss on Singularity 1 on 1: Having more intelligence will be good for mankind!

Peter Voss is an entrepreneur, inventor, engineer, scientist, and AI researcher. He is a rather interesting and unique individual not only because of his diverse background and impressive accomplishments but also because of his interest in moral philosophy and artificial general intelligence. Given how quickly our first interview went by, I wanted to bring him back […]

Andreas Antonopoulos is arguably the face of bitcoin because he is probably the most prolific interviewee as well as the most publicly recognized expert in the field of crypto-currency. To top it off, Andreas is extremely eloquent, has an impressively broad spectrum of knowledge and is an admitted disruptarian. I […]