Azeem Azhar's Exponential View

A recording of an Exponential View salon held in London in May 2017. “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter,” said Winston Churchill. But whatever you think of it, democracy has served us well. An increase in democracy is almost always matched by an increase in GDP. According to MIT economist Daron Acemoglu, a country that switches from autocracy to democracy achieves about 20% higher GDP per capita over roughly a 30-year period. Yet data from the end of 2016 suggests that in several advanced economies, including the U.S. and the UK, those born since the late 1980s value democracy less than older cohorts. We’ve witnessed something driven by the underlying shifts in media, technology, the expression of state power, cultural values, and big money funding data. We’ve experienced a manifestation of new behaviors around the democracy process: the transition from broadcast media to niche media moderated by dominant social media platforms. Have these behaviors hacked our democracy? For better or for worse? Azeem Azhar discusses these questions with Carole Cadwalladr, Luciano Floridi, Hari Kunzru, and Tom Loosemore. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

With more than 40% market share in mobile games, 1 billion monthly active users, and 2.6 billion unique devices, the game development platform Unity has a profoundly important role in booming gaming and VR markets. Azeem Azhar talks with Dr. Danny Lange, VP of AI and machine learning at Unity, about the role of these technologies in revolutionizing the ways games are developed and monetized. Dr. Lange talks about the significance of the undergoing paradigm shift in computing, the OODA loop in machine learning, and what happens to software engineers when their trade becomes obsolete. Before joining Unity, he led the machine learning efforts at Uber, Amazon, and Microsoft. Through his work on General Motor’s OnStar Virtual Advisor, Danny provided the foundation for the development of one of the largest deployments of an intelligent personal assistant until the arrival of Siri. Prior to joining General Magic, Dr. Lange served as the visiting scientist at IBM Tokyo Research Laboratory from 1993 to 1997, where he is known for his invention of the Java Aglet, a lightweight mobile agent for the Java programming environment. In addition to his software agent work, he has made significant contributions in the areas of hypertext technology, object-oriented database modeling, and design pattern visualization techniques. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For the tech community, code has an almost exclusively uniform meaning: a set of instructions, until recently written only by humans, that specify any action a computer should execute. In his most recent book, The Code Economy: A Forty-Thousand-Year History, Philip Auerswald talks about “code” in a broader meaning of the word — it is the “how” of human productivity, the manner in which we create, refine, and implement the infrastructure that forms a human society. The advancements of code, from the Neolithic era to the modern times, have driven identity and work reinvention. Philip argues that we are at one of those crucial stages now, and his book offers a guide to the future. Auerswald is an associate professor of public policy at the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government and a coeditor of Innovations, a quarterly journal about entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges. He currently leads the Global Entrepreneurship Research Network, an initiative of the Kauffman Foundation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Scott Santens is a writer and an advocate for universal basic income. His articles have been featured in TechCrunch, the Boston Globe, and Politico, among other places. Scott has coauthored two books: What Do We Do About Inequality? and Surviving the Machine Age: Intelligent Technology and the Transformation of Human Work. He also moderates the sub-Reddit /r/BasicIncome. Scott talks about why he believes “citizen’s salary” is a necessary measure for our societies to deal with tech unemployment by providing an independent income floor. He finds it paradoxical that we keep on developing technology to help us do more, while also being afraid of tech taking over our jobs. In these circumstances, he notes, a new model of ownership needs to be implemented, with everyone starting from the same point. For further reading on Scott’s work and UBI, visit: FAQ about Universal Basic Income Basic Income sub-Reddit Basic Income Earth Network Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Marko Ahtisaari is the CEO and cofounder of The Sync Project, a collaborative venture of scientists, musicians, technologists, and patients, working toward developing functional music that responds to each individual body and serves as precision medicine. Marko is also a director’s fellow at the MIT Media Lab, working on the Open Music Initiative to develop a new distributed ledger system to identify and compensate music rights holders and creators. He was the executive vice president of design at Nokia and worked on award-winning N9 and Lumia products. His startup Dopplr was acquired by Nokia. Marko presents ideas and undergoing projects born out of the vision that in the near future people will use non-drug modalities to heal, enhance well-being, and assist in therapy. He guides us through the recent experiment Unwind.ai, which uses your heart rate to select the tracks that will bring you peace of mind — at least for 5 minutes. For further reading on the Sync Project and music in medicine, please see: Understanding Music as Precision Medicine Sync Music Bot (cutting-edge music recommendation technology) UNWIND.AI (using biometric data to generate music for sleep) Studies in neuroscience reveal music’s effect on the reward system Using music to manage pain Using music to support physical activity and sports training More on music recommendation/analysis technology in general Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A discussion with Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs. Jeff is one of the world’s foremost thinkers on economic development; he advises the UN and a host of governments. In a wide-ranging podcast, he and Azeem Azhar talk about how technology has improved the lives of countless humans. They explore how automated systems will increasingly replace both routine and high-skill jobs. How will our societies cope with those changes? What will we do with the inequalities that will be increasingly produced by the technology revolution? What is the role of basic income? They even have some time to talk about Aristotle. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kate Devlin, computer scientist and robot-sex expert, on robot intimacy and a new age of sex, relationships, and social life. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A conversation between Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor Yuval Harari and Azeem Azhar. They cover the compelling insights in his new book, Homo Deus. Where are we, as a species, going now that we have conquered much of what ailed preceding generations? How will the twin advances of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence come together to transform humans and human society? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Philosopher and investor Dr. Shamil Chandaria investigates how we might live much longer lives and how we can make them more meaningful. He dives into the emerging medicine and science of life extension in a deep but accessible way. He explains how we should consider super-longevity and super-well-being in tandem. And in discussion with an audience we explore the motivations for — and ramifications of — much longer lives. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A wide-ranging conversation on technology with Jason Pontin, editor-in-chief of MIT Technology Review. He touches on gene editing, Moore’s Law, artificial intelligence, Facebook and fake news, and what ties all these disparate strands together. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.