Ep. 506: Will AI produce a state of deep utopia?
Guest: Nick Bostrom, Future of Humanity Institute)
In his new book “Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World,” philosopher Nick Bostrom ponders what life could be like in a “solved world” – a world where everything works and works better than if human hands got in the way.
“What then?” asks Bostrom, is the reason to work? “Is it to earn extra income or because working is an intrinsically valued activity?”
Bostrom is the head of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford and a philosopher with a background in theoretical physics, computational neuroscience, logic, and artificial intelligence. He has been called the “Superintelligent Swede” because of the deep philosophical work he undertakes as he examines the trajectory of human life at the intersection of destruction and possibility.
Bostrom says, “If artificial intelligence can be achieved, it would be an event of unparalleled consequence – perhaps even a rupture to the fabric of history” – a rupture, Bostrom says, “will change the course of human history but is it the end of human history?”
We invited Nick Bostrom to join us for a Conversation That Matters about our flirtatious and tempestuous relationship with the evolution of intelligence.
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