by Dan | Aug 17, 2019 | Consciousness is What Counts
Straight up: The screaming shame of modern science is our lack of understanding of consciousness itself. It is things that are conscious that hold moral weight. A coffee mug or a granite stone or an iPhone are unlikely to have an “internal movie” (qualia)...
by Dan | Feb 4, 2019 | Consciousness is What Counts, Managing the Transhuman Transition
Nick Bostrom’s 2007 TED presentation (titled: Humanity’s biggest problems aren’t what you think they are) involved an illustration that I liked so much that I modeled it – and credited Bostrom – in my first TEDx back in late 2014. I present a...
by Dan | Aug 20, 2018 | Consciousness is What Counts, Discerning the Good Itself
The universe doesn’t seem to be inherently imbued with meaning, but it would seem that anything we could do to find said meaning, to make our time here “worthwhile”, would fall into one of two broad categories. I argue that the creation of artificial...
by Dan | Aug 14, 2018 | Consciousness is What Counts, Improving Sentient Experience, The Good Must Be Explored
Both artificial intelligence and nuclear warheads could both wipe out human life, though it might be possible for superintelligent AI to be even more destructive. That being said, AI is more than an “existential risk.” It’s also a potential...
by Dan | Jul 21, 2018 | Consciousness is What Counts, Reflecting on What I've Read
I spoke recently at a United Nations and INTERPOL event in Singapore, on the topic of artificial intelligence use-cases in law enforcement. One of the only other Americans at the event – and a fellow speaker – was Thomas Campbell. Thomas spent many years...
by Dan | May 1, 2018 | Consciousness is What Counts, Discerning the Good Itself, Exploring the End Game, Facilitating Post-human Transition Collaboration, The Good Must Be Explored, Transhuman Transition
How can you keep artificial intelligence from taking over your job? In my latest TEDx talk, I explore what I’ve learned (from hundreds of interviews) about job security in the era of AI – but I also lay out why I think that “job loss” is a somewhat trivial...
