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#168 – Ian Morris on whether deep history says we're heading for an intelligence explosion

#168 – Ian Morris on whether deep history says we're heading for an intelligence explosion

From80,000 Hours Podcast


#168 – Ian Morris on whether deep history says we're heading for an intelligence explosion

From80,000 Hours Podcast

ratings:
Length:
164 minutes
Released:
Oct 23, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

"If we carry on looking at these industrialised economies, not thinking about what it is they're actually doing and what the potential of this is, you can make an argument that, yes, rates of growth are slowing, the rate of innovation is slowing. But it isn't. What we're doing is creating wildly new technologies: basically producing what is nothing less than an evolutionary change in what it means to be a human being. But this has not yet spilled over into the kind of growth that we have accustomed ourselves to in the fossil-fuel industrial era. That is about to hit us in a big way." — Ian MorrisIn today’s episode, host Rob Wiblin speaks with repeat guest Ian Morris about what big-picture history says about the likely impact of machine intelligence. Links to learn more, summary and full transcript.They cover:
Some crazy anomalies in the historical record of civilisational progress
Whether we should think about technology from an evolutionary perspective
Whether we ought to expect war to make a resurgence or continue dying out
Why we can't end up living like The Jetsons

Whether stagnation or cyclical recurring futures seem very plausible
What it means that the rate of increase in the economy has been increasing
Whether violence is likely between humans and powerful AI systems
The most likely reasons for Rob and Ian to be really wrong about all of this
How professional historians react to this sort of talk
The future of Ian’s work
Plenty more
Producer and editor: Keiran HarrisAudio Engineering Lead: Ben CordellTechnical editing: Milo McGuireTranscriptions: Katy Moore
Released:
Oct 23, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Unusually in-depth conversations about the world's most pressing problems and what you can do to solve them. Subscribe by searching for '80,000 Hours' wherever you get podcasts. Produced by Keiran Harris. Hosted by Rob Wiblin, Head of Research at 80,000 Hours.