SuperCognition is a podcast by two quixotic individuals, Aubrey Falconer and Zach Doty, on AI and other fun topics. This is our forum to explore radical and futuristic ideas with erudite polymaths from all disciplines.
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Humanity is on the threshold of a phase change
We're pecking our way out of the shell of a cosmic egg, and we need to get this right on the first try. We've spent the past few generations bootstrapping an industrial age by devouring our planet's hydrocarbon energy reserves and poisioning its environment. Other potential catastrophes notwithstanding, climate change has already begun to alter Earth's habitable zones and will soon convert a significant percentage of our global population into refugees.
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Current global mindsets and power structures are relics of our evolutionary heritage
"Rivalrous dynamics + exponential tech is a self-terminating recipe" - Daniel Schmachtenberger
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Consciously-directed evolution is the clear path forward
"Something went wrong. We should have a billion Von Neumanns by now" - Joscha Bach (paraphrase)
Future civilizations will be peopled by humans who've evolved far beyond our current form, both technologically and spiritually. Superabundance, synthetic biology, and the rise of machine intelligence will play critical roles.
- Supercognition
- New protocols and technologies to parallelize & amplify cognition. Podcasts with multiple hosts, a panel of guests, and tens of thousands streaming live over the net.
- Metacognition = vertical scaling. Supercognition = horizontal scaling
- How many minds can we meld into a hive?
- Artificial Intelligence
"Humans are in a continuous race against oxidation. We can't outrun it, so we have to outthink it" - Joscha Bach
- New societial operating system
- Money is the dopamine of our collective intelligence. How do we fix it?
- What does a post-rivalrous world look like? How do we work backwards from there in order to chart a course forwards from the present?
- 18th century systems are failing to solve our 21st century concerns. What can we learn from decentralized ledgers and smart contracts to reimagine government & law?
- Directed evolution
- Crispr, synthetic biology, human germline genetic engineering, radical life extension, and other near-term technologies.
- Self-actualization, human flourishing, mindfulness, value systems, spirituality, and altered states of consciousness.
- Diversity/novelty search
- Local minima as a dangerous attractor
- Post-apocalyptic engineering
- Hydrocarbon energy reserves are finite, Earth's albedo decreases by the year, and our oceans and rainforests draw nearer to tipping points with each passing day. 2020 was a fire drill, and it hit us like a fire. Winter is coming. Time to chose: ants, or grasshopper?
- Mass-scale social movements vs rapture cults
- We don't need a plan to save the elite in an ark ship. We need a plan to mantain the hability of our planet and continuity of our species. It's going to take all of us, working together.