The World Transformed

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Should You Trust Your Computer? Apr 10, 2018

Show notes

Phil and Stephen discuss the new film by Chris Paine, director of “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Do You Trust This Computer? doyoutrustthiscomputer.org This new documentary about the dangers and benefits of artificial intelligence (mostly the dangers) covers some serious subjects: AI and weapons Technology and Privacy issues Emergence of superintelligence Computers taking over A great lineup of AI luminaries discuss some pretty grim scenarios for how our AI-driven future might turn out. Phil contrasts the tone of the film with a recent essay by another big name in AI, Kai Fu Lee: We are here to create goo.gl/G48v8h All the dystopian talk is just nonsense. It’s too much imagination. We’re seeing AI going into new applications in what appears to be an exponential growth, but it's an exponential growth of applications of the mature technologies that exist. That growth will be over once we develop all of them. Then we have to wait for more breakthroughs for further advancement of AI. But you cannot predict further advancements. Who is right? And if Kai is wrong, what do we do about this? The film suggests “regulation” at the end, but there are big problems making that work. The surprising answer may be that we should NOT trust our computers and therefore we MUST push on with Artificial Intelligence research. Strange as that may seem. WT 424-737

Historical Fantasy (and Other Geeky Topics) Apr 07, 2018

Show notes

It's a good old fashioned World Transformed Geekout as Phil explains how shows like Vikings and The Frankenstein Chronicles are blending history and fantasy in a new and fun way. (UPDATE: and you can add the new AMC series The Terror to that list.) Meanwhile, Stephen has thoughts on how the movie Ready Player One is completely different from the novel -- and why that's okay. Plus Phil recommends the new Starz series Counterpart, which is NOT (unfortunately) currently available on Amazon Prime as Phil says on the show --unless you have the Starz app. [Of course, you could do the one-week free trial and binge watch the show, but we would never recommend that people do anything like that.] BONUS: Stephen says you totally CAN watch Blade Runner 2049 on Amazon Prime -- so there is that. WT 423-736 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

50 Life-Saving Breakthroughs Apr 04, 2018

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Phil and Stephen take a look at The 50 Most Important Life-Saving Breakthroughs in History. Some of these a big medical breakthroughs that you would immediately think of like treatments for malaria, others are less expected (toilets, for example). When you count both ourselves and our ancestors whose lives were saved by these breakthroughs, most of us wouldn't be here today without them. Phil and Stephen review the items on the list and talk about the life-saving technologies they have personally benefited from. Plus: New therapy cures cancer with just one injection A new technique developed by researchers at Stanford University uses two agents which when combined, alert the body’s immune system to the presence of cancer, in order to eliminate it. Just one injection can be effective for a solid tumor. WT 422-735 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Images from Pixabay.com and other sources.

Will Mind-Reading Computers Replace Human Speech? Apr 03, 2018

Show notes

Phil and Stephen discuss scenarios for the future of brain-computers interfaces and how they might alter human communication. Worldwide AI consciousness may replace human speech goo.gl/xdNvj7 ---- In just 32 years, humans won’t speak to each other and will instead communicate through a worldwide consciousness instead – using just our brains — new research shows. According to artificial intelligence research, this “hybrid intelligence” will understand the feelings of the people connected to it, and use their minds to help it grow. In the exhibition, HIBA (Hybrid Intelligence Biometric Avatar) is represented by an artistic impression, based on real research and tells its users: “I am made of you. You complete me and help me grow.” “You allow me to evolve – with each synergy I learn more, through this oneness we can achieve great things.” ---- No more secrets! New mind-reading machine can translate your thoughts and display them as text INSTANTLY goo.gl/zp7nmJ Researchers say they have developed a machine that can translate our thoughts. The astonishing machine will analyse what you are thinking and display it as text. Scientists hope that the machine can be used by people who are unable to speak. Related story (from last year): Elon Musk launches Neuralink, a venture to merge the human brain with AI goo.gl/S1zYnZ ---- centered on creating devices that can be implanted in the human brain, with the eventual purpose of helping human beings merge with software and keep pace with advancements in artificial intelligence. ---- Possibility Update: Fusion getting closer (more nearly adjacent?) Lockheed Martin Now Has a Patent For Its Potentially World Changing Fusion Reactor goo.gl/KWRR18 WT 421-734

Self-Driving Cars: Answering the Objections Mar 31, 2018

Show notes

We have covered the safety risks of autonomous vehicles as well as potential privacy risks and risks to our personal freedom. Now let's answer some of those objections. It turns out that most of the arguments against self-driving cars are beside the point. Kids showing less interest in driving and car ownership. Right. They are ALREADY less interested. Self-driving cars didn’t cause it. Loss of autonomy? That only happens if we GIVE UP AUTONOMY. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. If we lose it, it’s because we gave it away, not because autonomous vehicles took it. Self-driving car companies abusing our data? We have to put rules in place about our data. We have to do this anyway where social media, mobile phones, and web apps are concerned. Again, it is our responsibility to see to it that new technologies are implemented in a way that protect our rights. Safety: there is hardly any argument. The only way to argue against self-driving vehicles is to say they won't work (which they will) are that the lives they will save are not worth saving (which they are.) If we go to fully autonomous vehicles and they kill 10,000 people per year, we will be saving 20,000 lives per year. Everyone, even some of the harshest critics of self-driving cars, expects them to perform better than humans. Going forward we need caution, humility, and optimism. Before long, the math in favor of autonomous vehicles will be undeniable. WT 420-733 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

Do Flying Cars Suck? Mar 29, 2018

Show notes

Safety may not be the only problem with autonomous vehicles. Is it possible that they threaten our privacy and our way of life? And with what we’re learning about Facebook and others, do we really want to open up a new way for intrusive technologies to stick their noses into our personal lives and personal space? Michael Walsh chimes in: As I noted on Twitter the other day, these vehicles are emasculating, imprisoning, anti-American, and inhuman. And now, in the wake of the first fatal accident involving an “autonomous vehicle,” they’re deadly as well. Even if they are safe, will driverless cars make us into a nation of passengers? Timid, passive beings willingly relinquishing control of our lives to the government and tech companies? Teenagers losing interest in car ownership. Many not even interested in getting their driver’s license. Will life in a self-driving world be less fun? And what does all this have to do with Phil's vacation in Hawaii? WT 419-732 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

Time to Abandon Self-Driving Cars? Mar 28, 2018

Show notes

In Arizona, a pedestrian has been killed by a self-driving car. What went wrong? Was it the Uber system? Uber’s Self-Driving Cars Were Struggling Before Arizona Crash Disgraceful Dashcam Video Proves Uber Is the Theranos of Self-Driving Or is Uber just the tip of the iceberg? What risks are we willing to take to bring a new technology into play? Who decides what constitutes acceptable performance (and acceptable risk?) Even if the risks were exactly the same, is there something less tolerable about a human being dying at the hands of an autonomous machine than at the hands of human error? Tough questions. And we need to start addressing them. WT 418-731 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

The Hidden Possible Mar 24, 2018

Show notes

We conclude our three-part series with a discussion of the Hidden Possible: possibilities both near and far that we haven’t thought of yet. We can generally only see the hidden possibilities through the rear-view mirror Example: The introduction of the Internet and the rise of mobile devices made social media the adjacent possible. And nobody saw it coming. Nobody foresaw Twitter. (Bonus hidden possibility: for a number of reasons, nobody saw the phenomenon of President Trump on Twitter.) Nobody foresaw Instagram Superstar as a career. Lots of Internet possibilities. The original Netflix -- with mailed DVDs -- was the hidden possible (The online delivery model for Netflix was the adjacent possible.) Uber, Lyft, AirBnB were all the hidden possible Amazon Drone Delivery Improving health via gut bacteria When we started this show, a self-driving car world was the hidden possible for most people. We saw it as adjacent. Now it is much more widely accepted as an adjacent possibility Some ideas are well known deep possibilities by some but still the hidden possible for many others: Post-Scarcity The Singularity WT 417-730 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

The Deep Possible Mar 22, 2018

Show notes

In Part 2 of our three-part series, we look at possibilities that are little more remote. Maybe two or three rooms over, instead of only one. Or maybe many more. The Universal Assembler A Real World 'Star Trek' Replicator Is Now Possible Thanks To New Breakthrough goo.gl/KSW2tx The discovery of carbon nanotubes in 1991 led scientists to develop hundreds of "functionalizations" for nanotube openings. Most of these can be useful as molecular gates. The key innovation at Mattershift has been to create an inexpensive and scalable platform for this library of gates. With the ability to deploy Programmable Molecular Gateways at scale, we believe practical molecular factories are now possible. Post-scarcity -- A deeper, downstream scenario from Universal Assembler. (Whereas we listed post-employment as adjacent!) Interstellar Travel -- Mars colonies and asteroid mining may be adjacent, but we probably still don’t have all the parts for this. Digital Immortality -- very deep Also, many of the possibilities we think of as adjacent may prove to be Deep. Example: In the 1940’s we invented nuclear fission weapons and shortly after developed commercial nuclear power from fission reactors. In the 1950’s we invented nuclear fusion weapons with the expectation that commercial nuclear power from fusion reactors would soon follow. We thought we were adjacent to fusion power, but it has proved to be a much deeper challenge than we anticipated. Cure for Aging Cure for Obesity Fusion Power Robot Lawyers Robot doctors Next time: The Hidden Possible WT 416-729 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

The Adjacent Possible Mar 20, 2018

Show notes

This is the first of three parts as we explore possibilities that are just around the corner. Or, as we like tsay, one room over. This is a follow-up to an earlier show on possibility. The Future and Unlimited Possibility The adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself. Potentially Adjacent Possibilities Cure for Aging Controversial claim: “Elizabeth Parrish, CEO of Bioviva USA Inc., has become the first human being to be successfully rejuvenated by gene therapy, after her own company's experimental therapies reversed 20 years of normal telomere shortening.” Cure for Obesity Fusion Power Maybe finally adjacent? MIT Researchers Say Nuclear Fusion Will Feed the Grid “in 15 Years” Self-Driving Cars The technology is not adjacent; it’s already here and rapidly improving. What’s adjacent is a world where autonomous vehicles are in widespread use / on course to replace most or all human-driven vehicles. Compare to: Electric cars. Also adjacent. Flying cars. Deep. Other Possibilities: Robot Lawyers Robot doctors Post-employment Conversational User Interface Next time: The Deep Possible WT 415-728 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

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