London Futurists

Katja Grace, researcher and blogger from AI Impacts, discusses the 2023 survey on AI progress showing a shorter time expected for human-level AI. They explore AGI vs superintelligence, job automation, GPT writing styles, and risks of advanced AI surpassing human intelligence and the need for caution in AI development.

Our guest in this episode is Max More. Max is a philosopher, a futurist, and a transhumanist - a term which he coined in 1990, the same year that he legally changed his name from O’Connor to More.One of the tenets of transhumanism is that technology will allow us to prevent and reverse the aging process, and in the meantime we can preserve our brains with a process known as cryonics. In 1995 Max was awarded a PhD for a thesis on the nature of death, and from 2010 to 2020, he was CEO of Alcor, the world’s biggest cryonics organisation.Max is firmly optimistic about our future prospects, and wary of any attempts to impede or regulate the development of technologies which can enhance or augment us.Selected follow-ups:Extropic Thoughts - Max More's writing on SubstackThe Biostasis Standard - Max's writings on "the latest in the field of biostasis and cryonics"Neophile - WikipediaThe Time of the Ice Box - Episode of 1970 BBC children's TV series TimeslipCryostasis Revival: The Recovery of Cryonics Patients  through Nanomedicine - 2022 book by Robert FreitasResearchers perform first successful transplant of functional cryopreserved rat kidney - news from the University of MinnesotaLarge Mammal BPF Prize Winning Announcement - news from the Brain Preservation FoundationThe European Biostasis FoundationAlcor Life Extension FoundationMusic: Spike Protein, by Koi Discovery, available under CC0 1.0 Public Domain DeclarationReal Talk About MarketingAn Acxiom podcast where we discuss marketing made better, bringing you real...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Our guest in this episode is Dr. Mark Kotter. Mark is a neurosurgeon, stem cell biologist, and founder or co-founder of three biotech start-up companies that have collectively raised hundreds of millions of pounds: bit.bio, clock.bio, and Meatable.In addition, Mark still conducts neurosurgeries on patients weekly at the University of Cambridge.We talk to Mark about all his companies, but we start by discussing Meatable, one of the leading companies in the cultured meat sector. This is an area of technology which should have a far greater impact than most people are aware of, and it’s an area we haven’t covered before in the podcast.Selected follow-ups:Dr Mark Kotter at the University of CambridgeMeatablebit.bioclock.bioAfter 25 years of hype, embryonic stem cells are still waiting for their moment - Article in MIT Technology ReviewThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012Moo's Law: An Investor’s Guide to the New Agrarian Revolution - book by Jim MellonWhat is the climate impact of eating meat and dairy?Guidance for businesses on cell-cultivated products and the authorisation processWild mammals make up only a few percent of the world’s mammals - Our World In DataBlueRock TherapeuticsTherapies under development at bit.bioStem Cell Gene Therapy Shows Promise in ALS Trial - from Cedars-Sinai Medical CenterMusic: Spike Protein, by Koi Discovery, available under CC0 1.0 Public Domain DeclarationReal Talk About MarketingAn Acxiom podcast where we discuss marketing made better, bringing you real...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

The public discussion in a number of countries around the world expresses worries about what is called an aging society. These countries anticipate a future with fewer younger people who are active members of the economy, and a growing number of older people who need to be supported by the people still in the workforce. It’s an inversion of the usual demographic pyramid, with less at the bottom, and more at the top.However, our guest in this episode recommends a different framing of the future – not as an aging society, but as a longevity society, or even an evergreen society. He is Andrew Scott, Professor of Economics at the London Business School. His other roles include being a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and a consulting scholar at Stanford University’s Center on Longevity.Andrew’s latest book is entitled “The Longevity Imperative: Building a Better Society for Healthier, Longer Lives”. Commendations for the book include this from the political economist Daron Acemoglu, “A must-read book with an important message and many lessons”, and this from the historian Niall Ferguson, “Persuasive, uplifting and wise”. Selected follow-ups:Personal website of Andrew ScottAndrew Scott at the London Business SchoolThe book The Longevity Imperative: How to Build a Healthier and More Productive Society to Support Our Longer LivesLongevity, the 56 trillion dollar opportunity, with Andrew Scott - episode 40 in this seriesPopulation Pyramids of the World from 1950 to 2100Thomas Robert Malthus - WikipediaDALYs (Disability-adjusted life years) and QALYs (Quality-adjusted life years) - WikipediaVSL (Value of Statistical Life) - WikipediaThe economic value of targeting aging - paper in Nature Aging, co-authored by Andrew Scott, Martin Ellison, and David SinclairA great-grandfather from Merseyside has become the world's oldest living man - BBC, 5th April 2024Related quotations:Aging is "...revealed and made manifest only by the most unnatural experiment of prolonging an animal's life by sheltering it from the hazards of its ordinary existence" - Peter Medawar, 1951"To die of old age is a death rare, extrReal Talk About MarketingAn Acxiom podcast where we discuss marketing made better, bringing you real...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Nicholas Humphrey, renowned Psychology Professor, debates AI consciousness in 'Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness'. Topics include qualia, blindsight in animals, and machines mimicking consciousness. Discussion on the evolution of AI consciousness, ethical implications, and boundaries of human consciousness.

Aubrey de Grey discusses progress with ending aging, from strategies to repair damage to the RMR project's interventions in middle-aged mice. He also explores a mouse experiment for life extension, advancements in longevity research, and the X-prize HealthSpan award for rejuvenation research.

As artificial intelligence models become increasingly powerful, they both raise - and might help to answer - some very important questions about one of the most intriguing, fascinating aspects of our lives, namely consciousness.It is possible that in the coming years or decades, we will create conscious machines. If we do so without realising it, we might end up enslaving them, torturing them, and killing them over and over again. This is known as mind crime, and we must avoid it.It is also possible that very powerful AI systems will enable us to understand what our consciousness is, how it arises, and even how to manage it – if we want to do that.Our guest today is the ideal guide to help us explore the knotty issue of consciousness. Anil Seth is professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. He is amongst the most cited scholars on the topics of neuroscience and cognitive science globally, and a regular contributor to newspapers and TV programmes.His most recent book was published in 2021, and is called “Being You – a new science of consciousness”.The first question sets the scene for the conversation that follows: "In your book, you conclude that consciousness may well only occur in living creatures. You say 'it is life, rather than information processing, that breathes the fire into the equations.' What made you conclude that?"Selected follow-ups:Anil Seth's websiteBooks by Anil Seth, including Being YouConsciousness in humans and other things - presentation by Anil Seth at The Royal Society, March 2024Is consciousness more like chess or the weather? - an interview with Anil SethAutopoiesis - Wikipedia article about the concept introduced by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela Akinetic mutism, WikipediaCerebral organoid (Brain organoid), WikipediaAI Scientists: Safe and Useful AI? - by Yoshua Bengio, on AIs as oraclesEx Machina (2014 film, written and directed by Alex Garland)The Conscious Electromagnetic Information (Cemi) Field Theory by Johnjoe McFaddenThe Electromagnetic Field Theory of Consciousness by Susan PockettMusic: Spike Protein, by Koi Discovery, available under CC0 1.0 Public Domain DeclarationReal Talk About MarketingAn Acxiom podcast where we discuss marketing made better, bringing you real...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Adam Kovacevich, Founder and CEO of Chamber of Progress, discusses the Apple lawsuit, tech regulation, antitrust issues, AI advancements, and autonomous vehicles vs AI tools in the transportation industry.

In this episode, we are delving into the fascinating topic of mind uploading. We suspect this idea is about to explode into public consciousness, because Nick Bostrom has a new book out shortly called “Deep Utopia”, which addresses what happens if superintelligence arrives and everything goes well. It was Bostrom’s last book, “Superintelligence”, that ignited the great robot freak-out of 2015.Our guest is Dr Kenneth Hayworth, a Senior Scientist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia. Janelia is probably America’s leading research institution in the field of connectomics – the precise mapping of the neurons in the human brain.Kenneth is a co-inventor of a process for imaging neural circuits at the nanometre scale, and he has designed and built several automated machines to do it. He is currently researching ways to extend Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscopy imaging of brain tissue to encompass much larger volumes than are currently possible.Along with John Smart, Kenneth co-founded the Brain Preservation Foundation in 2010, a non-profit organization with the goal of promoting research in the field of whole brain preservation.During the conversation, Kenneth made a strong case for putting more focus on preserving human brains via a process known as aldehyde fixation, as a way of enabling people to be uploaded in due course into new bodies. He also issued a call for action by members of the global cryonics community.Selected follow-ups:Kenneth HayworthThe Brain Preservation FoundationAn essay by Kenneth Hayworth: Killed by Bad PhilosophyThe short story Psychological Counseling for First-time Teletransport Users (PDF)21st Century MedicineJanelia Research CampusMusic: Spike Protein, by Koi Discovery, available under CC0 1.0 Public Domain DeclarationReal Talk About MarketingAn Acxiom podcast where we discuss marketing made better, bringing you real...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson Discover how technology is reshaping our lives and livelihoods.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Lou de K, Program Director at Foresight Institute, discusses challenges and optimism of AGI alignment. Topics include risks, societal impact, decentralized science, and alternative governance structures in the AI landscape.