Radio Bostrom

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**Radio Bostrom**

Audio narrations of academic papers by Nick Bostrom.

Latest Episodes:

[French Translation] Letter from Utopia (2008) Aug 19, 2022

Show notes

http://www.nickbostrom.com/translations/utopie.pdf

What is a Singleton? (2005) Aug 18, 2022

Show notes

By Nick Bostrom.
Abstract:
This note introduces the concept of a "singleton" and suggests that this concept is useful for formulating and analyzing possible scenarios for the future of humanity.

Read the full paper:
https://nickbostrom.com/fut/singleton
More episodes at:
https://radiobostrom.com/

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Outline:

(00:18) Abstract

(00:32) 1. Definition

(01:35) 2. Examples and Elaboration

(05:42) 3. Advantages with a Singleton

(08:02) 4. Disadvantages with a Singleton

(10:14) 5. The Singleton Hypothesis

Embryo Selection for Cognitive Enhancement: Curiosity or Game-changer? Aug 17, 2022

Show notes

https://nickbostrom.com/papers/embryo.pdf

Letter from Utopia (2008) Aug 16, 2022

Show notes

By Nick Bostrom.
Abstract:
The good life: just how good could it be? A vision of the future from the future.
Read the full paper:
https://nickbostrom.com/utopia
More episodes at:
https://radiobostrom.com/

Technological Revolutions: Ethics and Policy in the Dark (2006) Aug 15, 2022

Show notes

https://nickbostrom.com/revolutions.pdf

Human Enhancement Ethics: The State of the Debate (2008) Aug 14, 2022

Show notes

https://nickbostrom.com/ethics/human-enhancement-ethics.pdf

How Vulnerable is the World? (2021) Aug 13, 2022

Show notes

By Nick Bostrom and Matthew van der Merwe.
Abstract:
Sooner or later a technology capable of wiping out human civilisation might be invented. How far would we go to stop it?
Read the full paper:
https://aeon.co/essays/none-of-our-technologies-has-managed-to-destroy-humanity-yet
Links:
- The Vulnerable World Hypothesis (2019) (original academic paper)
- The Vulnerable World Hypothesis (2019) (narration by Radio Bostrom)
Notes:
This article is an adaption of Bostrom's academic paper "The Vulnerable World Hypothesis (2019)".
The article was first published in Aeon Magazine. The narration was provided by Curio. We are grateful to Aeon and Curio for granting us permission to re-use the audio. Curio are offering Radio Bostrom listeners a 25% discount on their annual subscription.

Crucial Considerations and Wise Philanthropy (2014) Aug 12, 2022

Show notes

By Nick Bostrom.
Abstract:
Within a utilitarian context, one can perhaps try to explicate [crucial considerations] as follows: a crucial consideration is a consideration that radically changes the expected value of pursuing some high-level subgoal. The idea here is that you have some evaluation standard that is fixed, and you form some overall plan to achieve some high-level subgoal. This is your idea of how to maximize this evaluation standard. A crucial consideration, then, would be a consideration that radically changes the expected value of achieving this subgoal, and we will see some examples of this. Now if you stop limiting your view to some utilitarian context, then you might want to retreat to these earlier more informal formulations, because one of the things that could be questioned is utilitarianism itself. But for most of this talk we will be thinking about that component.
Read the full paper:
https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/crucial-considerations-and-wise-philanthropy-nick-bostrom
More episodes at:
https://radiobostrom.com/

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Outline:

(00:14) What is a crucial consideration?

(04:27) Should I vote in the national election?

(08:18) Should we favor more funding for x-risk tech research?

(14:32) Crucial considerations and utilitarianism

(18:52) Evaluation Functions

(19:03) Some tentative signposts

(20:35) (Text resumes)

(27:28) Possible areas with additional crucial considerations

(30:03) Some partial remedies

Astronomical Waste: The Opportunity Cost of Delayed Technological Development (2003) Aug 11, 2022

Show notes

By Nick Bostrom.
Abstract:
With very advanced technology, a very large population of people living happy lives could be sustained in the accessible region of the universe. For every year that development of such technologies and colonization of the universe is delayed, there is therefore an opportunity cost: a potential good, lives worth living, is not being realized. Given some plausible assumptions, this cost is extremely large. However, the lesson for utilitarians is not that we ought to maximize the pace of technological development, but rather that we ought to maximize its safety, i.e. the probability that colonization will eventually occur.
Read the full paper:
https://nickbostrom.com/astronomical/waste
More episodes at:
https://radiobostrom.com/