The best time to be alive?

“You are alive in the most exciting and spectacular and dangerous period of the entire history of humanity and prehistory.” Bernardo Kastrup

There are no guarantees. This could all go very badly, and in a large variety of ways. But it is humans who are the main risk, not a conscious AI. 

For Bernardo, a rogue AI makes for great movies, but is a distraction. It will possess superhuman intelligence, yes, reasoning and even mimic creativity. But it is unlikely to have its own agenda, and certainly not its own inner life. Bernardo predicts it will remain our tool, not a tyrant, and in this meeting, he explains why.

Equally, it is wrong to underestimate its power. The technology will revolutionise every aspect of our lives, and no part of the economy will be left untouched. 

Current risks range from ecological damage to the development of biological weapons to AIs trained on values far from our own. Bernardo argues the responsibility is ours, and Europe could play a special role in implementing ethical AI.

Tower of Babel or Garden of Eden? 

It is worth keeping at least one eye on the best-case scenario. "I do have hope" says Bernardo, "otherwise, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing." The technology unleashed will be indistinguishable from magic. If we build it right, and establish wise regulations, we could establish the conditions for a utopia. Solutions to climate change and cancer. A world in which food, shelter and medical care are available to everyone. Freedom from work we do only to survive.  

"I think it's possible. I'm not going to go as far as to say it's likely. But we have survived the past 100 years on the back of extraordinarily unlikely things."

The challenge will then be psychological: what do we do with our time? What now is the meaning of life? 

For some, it will be a brutal initiation, and idealism will be needed more than ever. 

A philosophy that can recognise the unique role we have as sentient beings, and the deep value our lives have beyond our capacity to work, or even think. 

A philosophy to counter-balance trans-humanist projections of the divinity onto AI, likely a compensation for a materialist culture that has suppressed spiritual life.

A philosophy that can inform how artificial intelligence, as a manifestation of a deep archetype in nature, might even feed back into metacognition in Mind at Large. 

Whatever lies ahead, I am so grateful you are here, engaged in the conversation. 

We also discussed: 

• Why Europe is the best hope for ethical AI
• Beating NVIDIA means a voice in the consciousness debate
• The dangers of language & abstraction
• Transhumanism, womb envy & the Chinese Room 

There is a free preview above. Non-members can get a one-off ticket here. Please share your thought in the comments. There are many more perspectives on this worth hearing.

I look forward to seeing you soon,

Amir

P.S. Thursday 1st Oct we have a community meeting, a chance to connect with each other and discuss how idealism is showing up (or not) in our daily lives. Details here.

There is no meeting Tues 29 Oct. We next meet with Bernardo and nondual teacher Francis Lucille on Oct 6. 

Speakers

Bernardo Kastrup

Analytic idealism

Bernardo Kastrup is the Executive Director of Essentia Foundation and Founder/CEO at AI systems company Euclyd BV. His work has set off the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy (ontology, philosophy of mind) and another in computer engineering (reconfigurable computing, artificial intelligence).

As a scientist, he has worked for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Philips Research Laboratories (where the ‘Casimir Effect’ of Quantum Field Theory was discovered). He has also been creatively active in the high-tech industry for almost 30 years, having founded parallel processor company Silicon Hive (acquired by Intel in 2011) and worked as a technology strategist for the geopolitically significant company ASML. Most recently, he has founded AI company Euclyd BV.

Formulated in detail in many academic papers and books, his ideas have been featured in Scientific American, the magazine of The Institute of Art and Ideas, the Blog of the American Philosophical Association and Big Think, among others. His most defining book is Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell: A straightforward summary of the 21st-century’s only plausible metaphysics.

Explore Bernardo’s work →