EF33 SHOW NOTES
Looking to play or download the episode? Click here… EF33 (BTP-EF11): The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Creativity — Behind the Podcast of Episode EF11
EPISODE EF33 SUMMARY
Spoiler alert: You’re about to listen to a Behind The Podcast (BTP) of Episode EF11, which was Season 1, Episode 9 of the Evolve Faster Podcast titled When the Lights Go Out: The Blinding Light of an Artificial Future. The driving question of this episode (and this BTP) for you to think through is … Can machines think, be creative or fall in love? It’s a fascinating question that actually has surprisingly little research or philosophical investigation.
As a reminder about Episode EF11: Aldford Herbert, a famous science fiction writer, is on the brink of finishing his latest novel about a realistic, dark future of artificial intelligence. A stroke of luck provides him with an opportunity to talk to Cynthia Butler, the mastermind behind the world’s most bleeding edge AI company. Aldford sees this as the perfect opportunity to secretly learn how precise his fictional predictions might be. What he doesn’t know is that Cynthia might just have a mysterious, and even more insidious agenda than his own. This episode of the Evolve Faster Podcast will investigate AI development from perspectives of deep learning to related neuroscience and several key technological advances in between. Technology and AI is rapidly evolving at a rate much faster than humanity ever did or could hope for. It’s not about if AI will achieve consciousness, but when will we be at least fooled into thinking it has? But does the rapid development automatically mean the end of humankind as we know it? Or is there an alternative route where co-existence is a brighter version of life as it is today?
The ninth episode of the first season of the Evolve Faster Podcast Episode is driven by the big question Can machines think, be creative or fall in love? For the first time, humanity can feel someone breathing on its neck in the neverending evolution race. As AI develops, we can be sure it will give us a real run for our money.
To peek behind the curtain of Episode EF11, we’ll dissect the following submitted questions:
- Why the question (Can machines think, be creative or fall in love)?
- Is Aldford the same guy from A1?
- What does his title “when the lights go out” mean?
- How/why is Sid connected to all these people?
- What does Aldford know? What does Cynthia know?
- Who is Cynthia modeled after?
- Who is Cynthia talking to in the beginning and what is the “dangerous” project?
- And more…
dedication
DEDICATION: Episode EF11 is dedicated to Elon Musk, one of the technology leaders of the modern world. Besides Tesla and SpaceX, his third company Neuralink focuses on brain-computer interfaces which could play a huge role in the transhumanism movement. Musk’s work directly influences where the world goes next. He’s pioneering a path to a new era for humanity, into which most will go kicking and screaming. Luckily, we have Musk and not the anti-hero of Episode EF11.
Starting during the Internet boom, Musk sold his first company Zip2 for a hefty amount, enabling him to co-found x.com (which later evolved into PayPal). After selling PayPal to eBay in 2002, Musk founded SpaceX and ten years later launched Falcon 9, the first spacecraft launched into space by a private company.
It’s impossible to summarize all of Musk’s success and contributions into a short summary. He’s a unique breed of entrepreneur who not only invents the future but has the organizational skill to create and manage huge companies to bring these visions to scale. Usually, entrepreneurs possess only one of those two abilities, such as a Nikola Tesla who was a great inventor but mostly failed at personally bringing any of his inventions to scale. We are witnessing a massive turning point in humanity’s development and evolution, and Elon Musk is one of society’s key chess pieces in this transformation.
Having such an important role, unfortunately, comes at a price. Human nature, like it or not, loves to bring down anyone on top. Some of it is likely justified as you can’t change the world without ruffling feathers or pushing your teams to their limits. Nevertheless, Musk is continuously evolving us forward to carve a potentially better future not just for humanity, but the planet as a whole.
HOW ELON MUSK INSPIRES EPISODE EF11
When writing Episode EF11, I needed a genius and bold entrepreneur and Musk served as a suitable inspiration. It would be a spoiler to reveal anything deeper about his particular choice as a dedication so for that, you’ll have to listen to the episode.
Although the fictional character ended up being quite different than Musk, the heart of their shared identity is cut from the same visionary cloth. With intense vision can come unexpected blind spots and we can only hope Musk doesn’t suffer any on the scale that Cynthia from EF11 does.
Instead of reading the half-baked and speculative news about Musk that constantly sprouts up in media about him, I suggest you follow him directly and discover more from his companies’ websites and talks he’s given:
inspirations
INSPIRATIONS: Max Tegmark, a physicist currently researching the potential danger of AI to ensure the World doesn’t go Skynet. Ben Goertzel, a veteran in AI research and development with a more positive outlook on the AI future than most of his peers. Philippa Foot, a philosopher who modernized the Trolley problem and whom the innocent AI (or human) might have to kill. Alex Garland, whose debut movie, Ex Machina, introduced the AI problem to the
references
Brittany Foster, Five Entrepreneurial Archetypes, www.lawdepot.com. https://www.lawdepot.com/blog/five-entrepreneurial-archetypes/ (Accessed: Feb 22, 2019).
episode quotes
Any of these quotes make you think? If so, please support the show by sharing…
It’s likely to be emotional manipulation that eventually fools humans into thinking we’ve created conscious and superintelligent beings.
There’s always a problem caused by every solution.
One of the great weaknesses of the human mind is the inability to stop unwanted and irrelevant thoughts.
The human mind is so gullible in matters of status and ego, even when you are fully aware of its fragile tendencies and intentions.
If humans could ignore the emotional obstacles and not give up similar to AI, could human creativity be unlimited?