Dear Futurists,
At an event last week, I found my mouth opening wide with exasperation and frustration. More than once.
I was listening to people who were described as “experts in AI”.
“Don’t worry”, one of them said to the audience. “AI isn’t really going to change jobs much.”
Another said, “There’s no novelty in new AI solutions. They’re just brute force applications of algorithms that were invented at least twenty years ago”.
(I asked that speaker when the transformers algorithm was invented, which has enabled new types of self-supervised learning and the wave of recent Large Language Models. He didn’t answer that question.)
Yet another speaker said: Large Language Models (LLMs) have no agency. So there’s no need to be concerned about AI systems with any agency.
(But, as anyone will know, who has been keeping an eye on recent developments, there has been an explosion of combination systems that apply agency to guide an extended series of interactions with LLMs.)
I won’t name and shame these particular speakers. Instead, I can be more constructive. I can point to a set of speakers in whom I have a much higher level of confidence.
These are speakers who have been announced as participating in the DeepTech Summit at this year’s CogX Festival.
I don’t know all these speakers, but the ones that I do know, I’m already eagerly looking forward to hearing them speak.
If my mouth opens with astonishment while I’m listening to one of them, it will almost certainly be the good kind of astonishment, rather than me being dumbfounded by claims that are false or even dangerous.
London Futurists discount code
Don’t forget there’s a 30% discount code available for members of London Futurists to use when registering to attend CogX.
I can’t share that discount code in any public message, but it will be emailed to all the members of London Futurists who receive the version of this newsletter that is sent via our page on Meetup.com.
Please be aware that CogX registration prices rise on 1st July.
The transition to AGI
Today’s AI is already posing many hard questions to developers, business leaders, policy makers, risk analysts, and legislators alike. I’m sure many of these points will feature in various CogX presentations.
I’m sure CogX will also feature at least some coverage, too, of the even harder questions that are being posed by the possible emergence, sooner than most people are ready, of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence).
The open survey on that topic which I launched just a few days ago has already received nearly 30 sets of answers. You can review many of these comments on the survey home page. You’ll find plenty of thought-provoking remarks there. Bring your full attention!
I’m already starting to plan Round 2 of the survey, which will involve a deeper dive into areas highlighted by Round 1 responses as deserving more analysis. But Round 1 will remain open in the meantime, until the end of June.
If you want to express your views on these key questions, you’ll find all the information here.
The Death of Death – English language publication
It’s been a long time coming, but it’s now nearly here.
That’s the English language translation of the book co-authored by José Cordeiro and myself, The Death of Death: The Scientific Possibility of Physical Immortality and its Moral Defense.
It’s a bold title for a book with a bold vision of the future. I can imagine you may have some questions about it. You’ll find some answers in the Virtual Enlightenment Salon of the U.S. Transhumanist Party this Sunday (25th June), from 9pm UK time, where both José and I will be responding to audience comments. Here’s a link to where the salon will be live-streamed:
Topics I expect we’ll be discussing – and which are covered with care in the various chapters of the book – include:
- Is aging and death an inevitable biological consequence of life?
- The history of ideas about aging, including some key recent findings
- How breakthroughs often occur: scepticism before momentum builds with the formation of a wider ecosystem
- Exponential change and the approach to Longevity Escape Velocity
- Economic arguments about “the aging society” and “the longevity dividend”
- The psychological roots of “accepting aging”
- Important lessons from past cases of paradigm shifts in medicine and healthcare
- “Plan A” vs. “Plan B” – cryonics and other ideas
- The outcome depends on us – all of us!
If you already know that you can’t wait to read this book, please place a pre-order on Amazon. Here’s the link to the book on the UK version of Amazon.
Winners and losers as the future accelerates
My keynote at the Digital Enterprise Show in Malaga last week, “Winners and losers as the future accelerates”, was filmed by Sergio Tarrero of Alianza Futurista.
Sergio did a fine job of interweaving my slides with footage from several different cameras.
As for me, I was ambitious enough to try to cover at least 60 minutes of ideas in just a 20 minute keynote. My rationale is that these topics all have vital importance.
Enjoy!
// David W. Wood
Chair, London Futurists
London Futurists 