We’re humbled to gather not one but three individuals who have been pre-eminent luminaries in their fields for 30 years to discuss their alternative approaches to the current AI paradigm:

Eric Drexler:

Dr. Drexler is widely known for his seminal studies of advanced nanosystems and scalable atomically precise manufacturing (APM), a prospective technology using arrays of nanoscale devices to guide chemically-reactive molecular encounters, thereby structuring matter from the bottom up. Dr. Drexler’s current research explores prospects for advanced AI technologies from the perspective of structured systems development, potential applications, and global implications. Key considerations in this work include advances in AI-enabled automation of AI research and development, and the potential role of thorough automation in accelerated development of comprehensive AI services.

Mark S. Miller:

Mark S. Miller is a pioneer of agoric (market-based secure distributed) computing and smart contracts, the main designer of the E and Dr. SES distributed persistent object-capability programming languages, inventor of Miller Columns, an architect of the Xanadu hypertext publishing system, a representative to the EcmaScript committee, a former Google research scientist and member of the WebAssembly (Wasm) group, and a senior fellow of the Foresight Institute. Eric and Mark co-authored the Agoric Papers, which have recently received substantial attention in the cryptocommerce community, 30 years after their initial release.

Robin Hanson:

Robin Hanson is associate professor of economics at George Mason University and research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. Oxford University Press published his book The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule the Earth in June 2016, and his book The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life, co-authored with Kevin Simler, in January, 2018. Professor Hanson has 900 media mentions, given 350 invited talks, and his blog OvercomingBias.com has had eight million visits. He has pioneered prediction markets since 1988 and suggests “futarchy”, a form of governance based on prediction markets. He was a principal architect of the first internal corporate markets, at Xanadu, of the first web markets, the Foresight Exchange, of DARPA’s Policy Analysis Market, and of IARPA’s combinatorial markets DAGGRE and SCICAST. He coined the phrase “The Great Filter” as part of an effort to understand why the universe looks so dead.

Their ideas are now more relevant than ever:

Eric just published this extensive report on Comprehensive AI Services, a scenario in which humans enjoy generally intelligent services without relying on a single generally intelligent agent.

Mark is co-authoring a novel book, outlining a crypto-commerce based cooperative ecosystem for human and artificial entities. A prelude of his points can be found in this paper.

Robin wrote this book on Age of Em, a detailed study of a future in which a diversity of Whole Brain Emulations co-exist in a complex economy.

What is unique and uniting about those approaches?

They all outline possible positive scenarios, in which artificial and human entities co-exist in a multipolar framework, avoiding potential risks of aligning one generally intelligent singleton with human values.

Join us for this rare opportunity to distill parallels and conflicts amongst these approaches and find out how they may shape the mainstream paradigm in AI.

Light snacks and drinks will be provided.

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Please message us two days in advance if you will need childcare.

This event is part of our Strengthening Civilization salon series. Watch all previous Strenghtening Civilization salons.

Your ticket goes towards supporting Foresight Institute’s mission to advance transformative technology towards futures beneficial to life and the biosphere. If that’s not something you are currently able to contribute to, do still join. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. To benefit from sliding scale tickets, reach out to us.

