Singularity.FM

"Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." Edsger Dijkstra "When looms weave by themselves, man’s slavery will end." Aristotle "Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended." Vernor Vinge, 1993 Today we are entirely dependent on machines. So much so, that, if we were to...

…by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually...

I recorded this virtual keynote for a corporate client about 10 days ago and decided to share it publicly. Hope you enjoy it 😉 Technology is a Mirror, Not a Crystal Ball; It Reveals Who We Are, Not the Future The 1st atomic bomb was nicknamed “gadget.” Does this say something about who we are? Or does it say something about the nature of technology and the power to do good or evil? Today we live...

Famous physicist Sir Isaac Newton saw our universe as a pool table. Given that everything follows the laws of nature, Newton argued, if one knows the direction and the force behind each billiard ball, or each particle in the universe, one will be able to predict the future and what comes next. Needless to say, this is a pretty deterministic view that leaves no space for personal freedom, not to me...

"Technology improves the lives of people who can avoid being dominated by it and forced into debilitating addictions to it." Frank Kaufmann The 1st atomic bomb was nicknamed “gadget.” Does this fact say something about who we are? Or does it say something about the nature of technology and the power to do good or evil? I will begin this chapter by looking at the most popular myths about technology...

"The universe is made of stories, not atoms." Muriel Rukeyser *** About 13.5 billion years ago, matter, energy, time and space came into being in what is known as the Big Bang. The story of these fundamental features of our universe is called physics. About 300,000 years after their first appearance, matter and energy started to coalesce into complex structures, called atoms, which then combined i...

"The Earth does not belong to man; man belongs to Earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself." Chief Seattle We are story-telling animals. And all of history is the human story, our story. So, if today we are at the precipice of the singularly most disruptive change in how we live, how we organize ourselves collectively, a...

"Gods always behave like the people who make them." Zora Neale Hurston, Tell My Horse Before we have a story, any story, we must first have a storyteller. Therefore, the most important story, that which all other stories are derived from, the story-of-all-stories, is the story of the storyteller: the human story. The human story has been written and rewritten several times already. The last time w...

"Most people believe the mind to be a mirror, more or less accurately reflecting the world outside them, not realizing the contrary that the mind is itself the principle element of creation." Rabindranath Tagore It is arguable whether it is proper for us to be classified as Homo Sapiens because it is arguable as per how wise we actually are. But, in this chapter, I will claim it is much less argua...

Chapter 5: The Importance of Story "It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story." Patrick Rothfuss Stories are not just stories. Stories matter. Because, to paraphrase Friedrich Nietzsche, if one has a sufficiently strong “why” one can endure any “how.” And the “why” comes not...

ReWriting the Human Story - Chapter 4: The Power of the Storyteller The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come. Steve Jobs. Before we have a story, any story, we must first have a storyteller. And that storyteller is a god, because within their narrative they are all-powerful, almighty and omn...

Chapter 3: The Power of Story We suffer not from the events in our lives but from our stories about them. Epictetus The most powerful stories are stories about things that don’t exist. Because our fictive language gave birth to legal fictions, social constructs and imagined realities. So much so that today imagined things are more powerful than real things. Trees, rivers, fish, animals and even th...

Chapter 2: The Story of Story "The limits of my language means the limits of my world." Ludwig Wittgenstein Humanity has searched for meaning since its beginning. And we find it in story. The story that we tell ourselves. Thus, a world devoid of meaning becomes meaningful. But this meaning is given by and designed for us. And it is created in language. The truly unique feature of human language is...

We started our thought experiment with Kenneth Burke’s definition of story as “equipment for living.” Burke offers a great start but it is Jeff DeChambeau who really brings all the essential elements together in defining story as “information processing technology.” And, whether we realize it or not, it is among the oldest, most powerful, and longest-lasting technologies we have. But let us break...

ReWriting the Human Story: How Our Story Determines Our Future an alternative thought experiment by Nikola Danaylov Part I: Story People always find it easier to be a result of the past rather than a cause of the future. Unknown Are we just billiard balls in a predetermined cosmic game of pool? Or are we free to choose our future? My thesis in this book is that our future is indeed determined. But...

It is harder and harder to make sense of life. Everything is changing, all the time, at a faster and faster pace. Our civilization is struggling to keep up with exponential technology and disruptive change. Our age-old institutions, politics, economics, ethics, religion and laws, even our environment, are so fundamentally challenged, that we risk collapse. Our stories have gotten so divorced from...

Dr. Gus Hosein is a 20+year-veteran of Privacy International. So to say that he knows a lot about privacy will be an understatement. But his knowledge is not merely academic. Gus and his scrappy team of privacy crusaders have fought the long and hard war for privacy by putting everything on the line, over and over again. A war where on a good day you might feel like a David facing off a Goliath. A...

Though admittedly posthumanist, Francesca Ferrando‘s Philosophical Posthumanism is the best book on transhumanism that I have read so far. I believe that it is a must-read for transhumanists and non-transhumanists alike. In fact, one can argue that Ferrando’s book ranks right up there with the very best not only on the transhuman, but also on the human and the posthuman. The reason for that is sim...

Kim Stanley Robinson has an asteroid named after him. The reason for that is simple: Stan, as he’s often known among people who know him, is one of the best known contemporary authors of classic [hard] science fiction. He has written 20 books that have been translated into 25 languages and has won pretty much all literary awards in his genre that you can think of. His latest novel is The Ministry...

Dr. Matthew Cole is the only vegan sociologist that I know of. His unique point of view on veganism, especially its implications with respect to ethics, transhumanism, and the application of technology, has already left a mark on the way I perceive the small challenges of being vegan as an opportunity for personal discipline and growth. I have learned a lot from him and I hope you take this interv...

Thomas Homer-Dixon is one of Canada’s most celebrated intellectuals. Luckily, he was also one of my Professors at the University of Toronto whose class on complexity has left an indelible mark on me. So when I heard that after a long break Homer-Dixon is publishing a new book on climate change I simply had to ask him for an interview. Commanding Hope: The power we have to renew a world in peril is...

Maria Farrell is the author of some of my most favorite op-ed pieces of 2020. She is very smart, gutsy, genuine, feisty, generous, and Irish. Her writing is sharper, it penetrates deeper and she’s not afraid to go further than most others. I have already learned a lot from her and have become a total fan. So it was a blast to have her on my podcast and I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as...

Glen Hiemstra has been a futurist for close to 40 years. But if you think his specialty is forecasting the future then you’d be wrong. No. Hiemstra’s focus has not been on the most probable, or even the possible future. Instead, Glen has chosen to focus consistently on what he calls “the preferred future.” This is also what he’s been advising his clients to do. And shouldn’t we all do just that –...

Hans Moravec famously claimed that robots will be our (mind) children. If true, then, it is natural to wonder What to Expect When You’re Expecting Robots? This is the question that Laura Major and Julie Shah – two expert robot engineers, are addressing in their new book. Given the subject of robots and AI as well as the fact that both Julie and Laura have experience in the aerospace, military, rob...

Juan Enriquez is a bestselling author, TED All-Star with 9 TED Talks, and countless TEDx talks. Juan is an angel investor and Managing Director of Excel Venture Management. He has sailed around the world on an expedition that increased the number of known genes a hundredfold and was part of the peace commission that negotiated the cease-fire with the Zapatistas in Mexico. Most recently, Enriquez i...