Joscha Bach and Anthony Aguirre on Digital Physics and Moving Towards Beneficial Futures
Joscha Bach, Cognitive Scientist and AI researcher, as well as Anthony Aguirre, UCSC Professor of Physics, join us to explore the world through the lens of computation and the difficulties we face on the way to beneficial futures.
Topics discussed in this episode include:
-Understanding the universe through digital physics
-How human consciousness operates and is structured
-The path to aligned AGI and bottlenecks to beneficial futures
-Incentive structures and collective coordination
Find the page for this podcast here: https://futureoflife.org/2021/03/31/joscha-bach-and-anthony-aguirre-on-digital-physics-and-moving-towards-beneficial-futures/
Apply to be the FLI Podcast Producer here: https://futureoflife.org/job-postings/
Follow the podcast on:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2Op1WO3gwVwCrYHg4eoGyP
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/future-of-life-institute-podcast/id1170991978?mt=2
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/futureoflife
Have any feedback about the podcast? You can share your thoughts here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/DRBFZCT
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:58 What is truth and knowledge?
11:39 What is subjectivity and objectivity?
15:13 What is the universe ultimately?
20:32 Is the universe a cellular automaton? Is the universe ultimately digital or analogue?
25:59 Hilbert's hotel from the point of view of computation
39:14 Seeing the world as a fractal
43:00 Describing human consciousness
57:46 Meaning, purpose, and harvesting negentropy
1:02:30 The path to aligned AGI
1:05:13 Bottlenecks to beneficial futures and existential security
1:16:01 A future with one, several, or many AGI systems? How do we maintain appropriate incentive structures?
1:30:39 Non-duality and collective coordination
1:34:16 What difficulties are there for an idealist worldview that involves computation?
1:37:19 Which features of mind and consciousness are necessarily coupled and which aren't?
1:47:47 Joscha's final thoughts on AGI
This podcast is possible because of the support of listeners like you. If you found this conversation to be meaningful or valuable, consider supporting it directly by donating at: https://futureoflife.org/donate Contributions like yours make these conversations possible.
Joscha Bach, Cognitive Scientist and AI researcher, as well as Anthony Aguirre, UCSC Professor of Physics, join us to explore the world through the lens of computation and the difficulties we face on the way to beneficial futures.
Topics discussed in this episode include:
-Understanding the universe through digital physics
-How human consciousness operates and is structured
-The path to aligned AGI and bottlenecks to beneficial futures
-Incentive structures and collective coordination
Find the page for this podcast here: https://futureoflife.org/2021/03/31/joscha-bach-and-anthony-aguirre-on-digital-physics-and-moving-towards-beneficial-futures/
Apply to be the FLI Podcast Producer here: https://futureoflife.org/job-postings/
Follow the podcast on:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2Op1WO3gwVwCrYHg4eoGyP
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/future-of-life-institute-podcast/id1170991978?mt=2
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/futureoflife
Have any feedback about the podcast? You can share your thoughts here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/DRBFZCT
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:58 What is truth and knowledge?
11:39 What is subjectivity and objectivity?
15:13 What is the universe ultimately?
20:32 Is the universe a cellular automaton? Is the universe ultimately digital or analogue?
25:59 Hilbert’s hotel from the point of view of computation
39:14 Seeing the world as a fractal
43:00 Describing human consciousness
57:46 Meaning, purpose, and harvesting negentropy
1:02:30 The path to aligned AGI
1:05:13 Bottlenecks to beneficial futures and existential security
1:16:01 A future with one, several, or many AGI systems? How do we maintain appropriate incentive structures?
1:30:39 Non-duality and collective coordination
1:34:16 What difficulties are there for an idealist worldview that involves computation?
1:37:19 Which features of mind and consciousness are necessarily coupled and which aren’t?
1:47:47 Joscha’s final thoughts on AGI
This podcast is possible because of the support of listeners like you. If you found this conversation to be meaningful or valuable, consider supporting it directly by donating at: https://futureoflife.org/donate Contributions like yours make these conversations possible.
