The Innovation Civilization Podcast

Given how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is eating our civilization, it's essential to sketch out its first principles and ethical dimensions. We are joined by one of the world's leading AI/ML experts in former founder and co-lead at Google's AI ethical division, and the founder of Ethical AI LLC Margaret Mitchell (@mmitchell_ai) who speaks to our Empasco Co-Founder Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) on the fundamentals of artificial intelligence ethics and global value structures. Margaret has published more than 50 blockbuster papers on vision-language and grounded language generation concentrating on the evolution of AI towards achieving positive goals. She is vastly famous for her work on the instinctive elimination of undesired biases concerning demographic groups from machine learning models. And her work is utilized by some of the biggest companies in the world. Margaret was also the founding member of Microsoft's ethical AI group. In this episode, we talk about: - what is exactly AI?  - what's machine learning vs deep learning? -the first principles of Ethical AI -various types of bias and the existence of a 'good' and 'bad' bias as key components to building an AI model  -how governments and policymakers can evaluate ethical AI models -development of AI in the western world vs the Emerging markets -the possible utopian, dystopian and realistic predictions of a society fully adopting AI Follow our host Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) for more updates on tech, civilizational growth, progress studies, and emerging markets. Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players, you should be able to click the timestamp for the episode. (00:00) - Intro (06:03) - Margaret's background on Artificial Intelligence (AI) (07:55) - Definition of Artificial Intelligence  (09:36) - Difference between Machine Learning & Deep Learning (11:56) - Ethics in AI (Definition & Practices) (13:43) - The role of the human layer in Ethical AI  (15:11) - Categories & Examples of biases that occur in AI (22:29) - Normative vs Descriptive approach for selecting biases in machine learning models (25:22) - Recent developments in the field of AI (26:50) - Effective practices of ethical AI in big tech companies (29:33) - Steps Governments & Policymakers can take to build and regulate AI models (32:08) - How should tech startups in Emerging Markets develop models in the field of AI ethics? (35:07) - Future of AI: Utopian vs Dystopian vision (37:41) - Margaret's recent venture on open source AI  (40:36) - Outro

One of the world's foremost development economists Professor Sir Paul Collier from Oxford University, Blavatnik School of Government joins our host Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) for this breathtaking episode on poverty alleviation and turnarounds. Sir Paul has previously written 4 books on the topic of poverty alleviation, governance and sustainable growth including one of the most famous books in the development literature called 'The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It'. Prior to this Sir Paul also held the position as the Director of Research at the World Bank. In this episode we talk about: -definitions, types and causes of poverty. -properties of fragile states and the 'bottom billion' people in the world -how states can manufacture turnarounds including learnings from examples of growing middle-income countries such as Bangladesh, India, Singapore etc. -where Western institutions working in the development sector get it wrong and how to ameliorate those errors. -how to achieve good leadership and governance at a state-level. Follow our host Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) for more updates on tech, civilizational growth and progress studies. Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players, you should be able to click the timestamp for the episode. (00:00) - Intro (06:23) - Humble roots and what made Sir Paul interested in the topics of development economics and governance? (08:25) - What is poverty? Does poverty always have to relate with a financial benchmark? What are the types and causes of poverty? (10:37) - Who are the "Bottom Billion"? (12:11) - what are the structural traps to poverty that Bottom Billion countries have? (22:13) - How do the Western institutions allocate capital for the development sector? (26:43) - What role do the World Bank and other financial institutions play to bolster infrastructure building? (30:26) - How can states manufacture turnarounds? (38:16) - How do countries like Bangladesh and other developing states continue to grow (autopilot development) despite high number of corruption and poverty? (42:13) - Are we on the right trajectory in terms of alleviating poverty? What roles do the government and state leaders have to establish strong societies? (46:16) - Outro

We're joined by the Dean of Social Sciences at New York University and Professor of Political Science David Stasavage (@stasavage) who wrote the recent book (The Decline and Rise of Democracy). We talk about: - the first principles and definitions of what we exactly mean by 'democracy' - a compressed summary of the origins, and pre-17th century non-European early forms of democracy in the Islamic world, China, Africa. - democracy, institution-building, and state development in early Rashidun Caliphates, Umayyads and Chinese empires. - Does adopting democracy automatically lead to more economic development and innovation? - The reasons for the development of late democracy in Europe. - The reasons for development of the democratic model in the United States. - Technology and the future of democracy in the world.  Follow our host Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) for more updates on tech and civilization. Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players, you should be able to click the timestamp for the episode. (00:00) - Episode intro and key moments (04:55) - Why David wrote a book on the history of Democracy across different regions? (05:52) - Definitions and first principles of Democracy. (07:10) - Is democracy a consensus-based system? (07:45) - First principles of early vs modern democracy (08:58) - Examples of early democracy across the world (09:32) - Compressed summary of the origins of democracy till today (11:20) - The role of democracy between 7th and 13th CE Islamic world (14:08) - How decentralised system of governance made democracy possible? (15:15) - Democratic process of the early Rashidun caliphates (16:30) - Standardization and unification of democratic policies (17:11) - How is China's political development different from the rest of Europe and the Islamic world (21:41) - How is democracy tied to the idea of economic development?  (24:30) - The role of democracy when it comes to technological innovations (25:48) - Emergence of democracy in Europe (28:09) - Why were Aristotle's democratic discussions more popular in Europe than in the rest of the world (29:31) - Impact of Aristotle's democratic theory on early Europe (30:23) - Does democracy help reduce inequality? (35:50) - What is bureaucracy? (37:49) - Mixtures model of democracy (39:25) - Are there hierarchies in a modern democracy? (41:54) - Does democracy change forms? (45:04) - Is autocracy deeply rooted in the culture of political and state development? (47:14) - Development of the democratic model in the US and the future of democracy (49:48) - Outro

On the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo moon landings, we welcomed New-York Times Best Selling Author Charles Fishman (@cfishman), who wrote the book 'One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission that flew us to the moon’ (https://www.amazon.com/One-Giant-Leap-Untold-Story/dp/1501106295/). Follow our host Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) for more updates on tech and civilization. We talk about: - the factors that led to the success of one of the largest government-funded deep-science technology projects. - spinoff technologies and effects of Apollo on hardware and software we do today - communist management style vs democratic leadership - privatisation of space economy, decreasing costs, similarities to internet economy and opportunity for emerging market countries. - climate change, poverty vs space investment priorities? Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players, you should be able to click the timestamp for the episode.  (00:00) - Intro (09:08)  - Key factors that made a major technology project like Apollo successful (17:25) Evolution of Soviet centralized vs American decentralized management systems (23:12) - Apollos systemic impact on software (28:35) - Apollo as a global trust-building exercise for software (29:02) - Some of the defining spinoff technologies from Apollo (37:52) - How the context of 50s and 60s defined America and the Apollo mission  (43:03)  - Is space travel affordable? (44:39) - Investing in space technologies vs investing in climate change and poverty (47:06) - How does space science reinforce climate science?  (48:00) - Is there a new space race on the horizon? (53:29) - Opportunities for developing nations in the space domain (58:02) - Space applications within the local context (64:24) - Outro  

CEO at Mattereum, Vinay Gupta (@leashless), the man who lead the launch of the world's second-biggest cryptocurrency Ethereum at its outset, joins us for a very special third episode on the Innovation Civilization Podcast. We cover the history of money starting from ancient humans to today, the fundamental tech and thesis of crypto along with what emerging market policymakers & citizens can do to leverage this foundational technology. We are also joined by Empasco Partner Artur Safaryan (@asafaryann) and Co-founder Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo). Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players, you should be able to click the timestamp for the episode.  (00:00) - Introduction (02:36) - Vinay's story on being one of the early adopters of cryptocurrencies (03:57) - What is a smart contract? (04:50) - Origins and use of money (09:42) - Characteristics of money (11:32) - Digitization of money (14:10) - Problems with paper money (16:27) - Who is/are Satoshi Nakamoto? (19:18) - What is cryptocurrency? (22:32) - Is cryptocurrency considered as money? (28:06) - Where are we on the timeline with respect to the radical changes brought about by cryptocurrencies?  (30:46) - What are the missing components for the large-scale adoption of cryptocurrencies? (38:10) - Is crypto here to make you rich?  (39:11) - Benefits of cyptocurrency (44:13) - What enabled the rise of cryptocurrencies? (47:04) - How can governments in emerging markets leverage cryptocurrency for policymaking and state development? (58:56 ) - How blockchain is currently used in the charity space?  (61:55) - What should individuals in developing nations do to get into the crypto space?  (68:52) - Future of blockchain technology (71:42) - Outro      

In our second episode, our Co-Founder Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) is joined by British historian and author Dr. Anton Howes (@antonhowes)  where we uncover the roots of innovation in the modern world, including how to create innovation ecosystems with a focus on 16th-19th century Britain as a case-study.  Dr. Anton is the Head of Innovation Research at The Entrepreneurs Network and released his latest book 'Arts and Minds: How the Royal Society of Arts Changed a Nation'. He's also a former Lecturer in Economic History at King's College London.   OUTLINE: Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players, you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.  (00:00) - Introduction to Episode (01:55) - First-principles: Defining Innovation vs Invention (07:08) - Industrial Revolution: Why this epoch of time is so crucial in innovation history? (12:43) - Specific technologies - Idea of different Industrial Revolutions (15:22) - Innovation in other regions  (16:47) - Key factors that led to an accelerated period of innovation and invention in 16th-century Britain (22:41) - Scientific Revolution and effects of the Baconian Program on Early Britain during the 1500s and 1600s (32:44) - Reasons and origins of why the idea of 'improvement mentality' came about (41:33) - Is Necessity the mother of all inventions?  (48:20) - Effect of British Colonialism in accelerating innovation (59:03) - Is there a decline in Innovation in Britain vs the American acceleration in the 20th century? (1:06:09) - Lessons for Emerging Markets when it comes to creating Innovation Ecosystems (1:14:28) - Ending  

In this first episode, our host Waheedur Rahman (@iwaheedo) is joined by Pamir Sevincel (@pamirsevincel) from Up Partners. The first part of the episode covers the history, formulation, and ontological dimensions of ancient cities. The second part covers the latest developments in the urban air mobility space, solutionizing key 21st-century urban transportation problems, venture models for this foundational eVTOL technology, and the near-term future of cities in the skies.

A brief prologue to explain the baseline thesis behind the series of episodes that are to follow.