EP 159: The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity with Byron Reese

The questions we will grapple with in today's show are not about transistors and neurons and algorithms and such. They are about the nature of reality, humanity, and mind. The confusion happens when we begin with “What jobs will robots take from humans?” instead of “What are humans?” Until we answer that second question, we can’t meaningfully address the first.

We welcome serial entrepreneur, founder and CEO, of GigaOM and author of "The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity" Byron Reese.

We talk:

• The evolution of our brains
• Fire as the first technology
• Language development
• Storytelling
• Digital Dementia
• Distribution of Labour
• The Beginning of Wealth
• The Beginning of ownership
• The shift to agriculture
• The age of computation
• Moore’s law
• Exponential change
• Artificial Intelligence
• Artificial General Intelligence
• Robotics
• The limitation of Robotics
• Computer Consciousness
• Our human potential

We mention digital dementia during the show, here is a piece I wrote on it: https://medium.com/thethursdaythought/planet-of-the-ai-pes-digital-dementia-and-digital-zombies-f4f3454ca664

More about Byron here:

www.byronreese.com

More shows on Artificial Intelligence:

http://www.theinnovationshow.io/2019/02/18/ep-146-artificial-intelligence-and-the-two-singularities-with-calum-chace/

http://www.theinnovationshow.io/2018/05/03/ep-99-rise-robots-technology-threat-jobless-future-%E2%80%95-martin-ford/

http://www.theinnovationshow.io/2017/09/27/uploading-ep-56-pioneer-machine-learning-breakthroughs-ai-education-future-humanity/

http://www.theinnovationshow.io/2019/02/12/ep-145-the-beginning-of-infinity-explanations-that-transform-the-world-with-author-david-deutsch/