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Digital Optimist

  • Episode 39: Artificial Intelligence: Digital Freedom or Slavery

    19 APR 2024 · This is an interstitial podcast between two series. There is so much talk about whether AI is good or bad and those words do not do justice to the complexity of that debate. Scott looks at one important aspect by thinking through whether we might become negatively addicted to the use of AI or will AI free us from mundane tasks and free our creative capabilities – or both! The more accurately we can predict the impacts of AI, the better we can adjust how we use it for good. This is the first podcasts that ends in a warning!
    23m 23s
  • Episode 38: Digital Amplification: The Big Picture Human Impact

    1 MAR 2024 · Like the story of the fish that do not have a sense that they live in the water because it always all around them, humanity is being impacted by the amplification of technology. For those of us living right in the middle of it, we have a sense that our lives are changing, but we don’t really have the comparative scale to understand how much or how fast. People who have lived for many decades can remember the way it was and compare to the way it is – for better or for worse. Younger people have less perspective to work with. This podcast talks about the dark and the light of digital amplification when looked at through a larger lens. The more precise perspective we can create on what technology can and will do to humanity, the more we can make good decisions on finding the needed balance between humans and machines.
    28m 18s
  • Episode 37: Digital Amplification: Hybrid Intelligence

    2 FEB 2024 · Like the story of the fish that do not have a sense that they live in the water because it always all around them, humanity is being impacted by the amplification of technology. For those of us living right in the middle of it, we have a sense that our lives are changing, but we don’t really have the comparative scale to understand how much or how fast. People who have lived for many decades can remember the way it was and compare to the way it is – for better or for worse. Younger people have less perspective to work with. This podcast talks about the dark and the light of digital amplification when looked at through a larger lens. The more precise perspective we can create on what technology can and will do to humanity, the more we can make good decisions on finding the needed balance between humans and machines.
    20m 33s
  • Episode 36: The Digital Amplification of Physical Capabilities

    17 NOV 2023 · There are two central ways humans will amplify themselves. This podcast deals with the first which is physically improving our capabilities. We were all born with natural bodies. Some of these bodies had weaknesses from birth. Some of our bodies get damaged along the way. What happens when we can repair either of these states and create physical parity in the world? What happens when we can extend lifespan through the use of biotech, nanotech, and digital tech? We stand at the precipice of amazing improvements through the integration of AI, biotech, and nanotech. What kind of world will that lead us into? How much of what science fiction writers has shared for years will come true? Now is the time to get a clear picture in our minds and wrestle with what we will tell our kids and grandkids when they have the chance to enhance.
    26m 6s
  • Episode 35: Amplified Humanity: Past and Future

    20 OCT 2023 · Human beings are always looking for an edge or improvement. In a lot of ways, we are achievement junkies who never stop figuring out how to amplify our capabilities. A competitive world drives us from childhood to find ways to be better than those around us. It is no surprise that technologies are becoming a more powerful influence in getting us the advantages we seek. In this opening podcast of the series, Scott looks into what has driven us in the past and how those same catalysts will cause a very Humalogy future – at the individual level. Will we all become cyborgs? No. Will we slowly be drawn more towards technology amplifications? Very likely. The more we wrestle with the direction of amplification now, the more likely we are to avoid some of the blind alleys that have hurt us in the past.
    26m 50s
  • Episode 34: Machine Intelligence: When Digital Minds Wake Up

    11 AUG 2023 · What is the human mind in relationship to our brain? What is a machine mind going to look like? How do humans decide on their next best word or action and how does an LLM do the same? At what point might we believe that a machine mind is waking up? In this episode, Scott dives into the philosophy of mind by asking you the listener a handful of intriguing questions. Along the way you might come to believe that we overstate the sophistication of the human mind and under predict the possibility for a machine mind to be awake. If nothing else, this episode will help you think about analogies and ideas you might not have heard before and that will help inspire your mind!
    28m 53s
  • Episode 33: Technology: Blessing or Poison

    21 JUL 2023 · In the final podcast in the Digital Philosophy series, Scott examines whether technology will ultimately help or hurt the human race. This requires us to understand the recipe of digital interaction we each have and see what the ingredients are that make up our own recipe. To help with that Scott reviews an interesting list of negative impacts of technology, then the opposite side with the positive impacts. Only by meditating on these lists and looking at the digital recipes we each create for our lives can we answer this incredibly important philosophical question. Technology: A blessing or an existential poison!
    36m 13s
  • Episode 32: The AI World in Our Own Image

    17 MAY 2023 · What if we stopped using humanity as the high bar we seek when building AI’s and robots? A philosophy to explore is the need to let go of the belief that building AI’s “as smart as us” is the right path. The reason we fear AI’s harming us is because we harm each other, and we can only imagine that technology will do the same. We can have a new philosophy that says we should build technology to be much more than us, then harness it to amplify the human race. This podcast will change the way you think about the standards we are setting with our new digital tools and the optimistic future we can have.
    30m 8s
  • Episode 31: Podcast 31 Digital Intelligence, Consciousness, and Neo Philosophy

    17 MAR 2023 · Philosophy is thousands of years old and for all that time, it has been the study of finding truth in a world populated by humans as the only thinking entities. AI’s and synthetic intelligence are now changing the very definition of intelligences and consciousness. In this podcast Scott explores what he calls Neo-Philosophy and the need to answer important questions about the integration of human and synthetic intelligence. One such question is defining levels of consciousness and how technology fits into the new model. One hundred years of science fiction is now coming true and we need to find the Truth about how that will impact each of us. You might want to have a device near you to take a few notes from this podcast!
    25m 26s
  • Episode 30: Finding Happiness and Meaning in a Digital World

    2 MAR 2023 · Why digital philosophy and not digital science? Because science struggles to answer some questions that have lots of humanity baked into them. Because the meaning of words sometimes fail us with being consistent across peoples and science struggles when the words don’t have solid measurable meanings. Such it is with happiness and the meaning of life. These words are a state of being or set of choices we all make, and they are hard to measure. Were we happier thirty years ago? Did we have more of a sense of meaning? The answers today must live in the realm of philosophy. In this first podcast in the series Scott examines the possible impacts of digital transformation on our happiness and the meaning of our lives. There are big questions in this podcast that when answered, will help you move forward in life – if you are willing to contemplate them deeply!
    31m 49s

It is seductive to fear the future because we are biologically programmed to look for danger. This natural impulse is enabled by popular media. However, this podcast is meant to...

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It is seductive to fear the future because we are biologically programmed to look for danger. This natural impulse is enabled by popular media. However, this podcast is meant to awaken a sense of hope for a bright Humalogy™ future. With a more expansive view of the facts, history has proven that humanity constantly progresses.
Technology is increasing the speed at which we experience this beneficial progression.
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