#20 - Nick Bostrom - Utopia, Superintelligence and Digital Minds
Mar 29, 2024
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Join philosopher Nick Bostrom as he delves into utopias, superintelligence, and digital minds with host Liv Boeree. They discuss finding purpose in a fully automated world, potential limits to technology, the vulnerable world hypothesis, aligning markets to defensive tech, AI consciousness, and the complexities of consciousness and its diverse forms.
In a world of effortless expertise download, reevaluating purpose becomes crucial for societal meaning.
Exploration of different utopian types, from culture-centered to post-scarcity versions, offers insights into societal structuring.
The podcast dives into the implications of a 'solved world', where traditional human efforts lose significance, prompting a need for redefining value and purpose.
Deep dives
The Concept of D-Butopia
In a technologically mature world, the ease of downloading knowledge and skills leads to a reevaluation of purpose and value. The podcast delves into the radical implications of effortless acquisition of expertise, questioning the meaning and ultimate value of human existence in such a scenario.
Defining Utopia
The discussion explores different types of utopias, from governance and culture-centered versions like 'Brave New World' to post-scarcity and post-work utopias. It differentiates between utopias based on existing societal structures and those envisioning a deeply transformed, more malleable world.
Challenges in a Solved World
The narrative navigates the concept of a 'solved world' where instrumental human effort becomes redundant due to advanced technology. It raises questions about the purpose and value of activities in a society where traditional endeavors lose their significance.
Intrinsic Value of Effort in Utopia
The podcast delves into the need for instrumental effort in a post-instrumental utopia. It highlights the potential shift in motivations and values when activities no longer yield tangible outcomes or require personal exertion.
Implications for Moral and Ethical Considerations
The discussion touches on the moral implications of pursuing a utopian society, questioning the alignment of market incentives and defense technology, anticipating potential vulnerability and the need for a delicate balancing act to prevent catastrophic outcomes.
What would life look like in a fully automated world? How would we derive meaning in a world of superintelligence?
Today's Win-Win episode is all about utopias, dystopias and thought experiments, because I'm talking to Professor Nick Bostrom. Nick is one of the world’s leading philosophers - he's a leading thinker on the nature of consciousness, AI, catastrophic risks, cosmology… he’s also the guy behind the Simulation Hypothesis, the Paperclip Maximizer thought experiment, the seminal AI book Superintelligence... Off into the hypotheti-sphere we go!
Chapters0:00 - Intro
01:42 - Why a book on Utopia?
03:31 - Different types of Utopias
11:40 - How to find purpose in a solved world?
18:31 - Potential Limits to Technology
22:34 - How would Utopians approach Competition?
30:24 - Superintelligence
34:39 - Vulnerable World Hypothesis
39:48 - Thinking in Superpositions
41:24 - Solutions to the Vulnerable World?
46:34 - Aligning Markets to Defensive Tech
48:43 - Digital Minds & Uploading
52:25 - AI Consciousness
55:08 - Outro
Links:
Nick’s Website - https://nickbostrom.com/
Anthropic Bias Paper - https://anthropic-principle.com/
Deep Utopia Book - https://nickbostrom.com/booklink/deep...
Superintelligence book - Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
Vulnerable World Hypothesis - https://nickbostrom.com/papers/vulner...
Orthogonality Thesis - https://nickbostrom.com/superintellig...
Simulation Argument - https://simulation-argument.com/
Digital Minds - https://nickbostrom.com/papers/intere...
Future of Humanity Institute - https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/The Win-Win Podcast:
Poker champion Liv Boeree takes to the interview chair to tease apart the complexities of one of the most fundamental parts of human nature: competition. Liv is joined by top philosophers, gamers, artists, technologists, CEOs, scientists, athletes and more to understand how competition manifests in their world, and how to change seemingly win-lose games into Win-Wins.
Credits
♾️ Hosted by Liv Boeree & Igor Kurganov
♾️ Produced & Edited by Raymond Wei
♾️ Audio Mix by Keir Schmidt
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