Transhumanism, the Singularity and Skepticism
Michael Shermer is interviewed about his views on the future of Artificial Intelligence, the technological singularity, transhumanism, and skepticism. This is not something that Michael Shermer usually talks about. Michael also spoke at the Singularity Summit in the US this year (2011). This footage was taken at the 2011 Think Inc conference in Melbourne.
October 26th, 2011 at 5:19 am
The Think Inc. interview was interesting and disappointing at the same time. I could hear Shermer respond to questions I didn’t know were being asked. I think Shermer, as always, had something to say, but I wasn’t quite sure of the context. A bit more attention should have been paid to the TECHNOLOGY maybe :-)
October 26th, 2011 at 8:51 am
Michael is either bored or very tired. Muffled yawns and short answers.
October 26th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Great interview in that it was casual and apparently impromptu thereby revealing Michael candidly thinking on his feet. Michael seemed tired, not bored. The questions though barely audible seemed to interest him. Some were on ideas he knew only a little about yet he was gracious and grateful to hear about them. Looking forward to other such interviews of Michael and others of The Skeptic Society.
October 26th, 2011 at 3:04 pm
This is great work by Adam Ford. I’ve not heard Michael speak on this topic before. Michael WAS very tired, this was at the end of the Think Inc conference, after most people had dispersed, so that would explain his short answers.
I actually did an interview with Michael just before this. He’s such a great person to speak to. My interview was a much more general interview and you can listen to it here:
http://www.martinspribble.com/2011/09/19/michael-shermer-interview-prominent-people-project/
Keep up the good work guys!
October 26th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Great you put this up here and in the eSkeptic newsletter.
Hope to see you at the Atheist Convention in Melbourne in April.
I will have a futurist stand there!
“Before the invention of writing, almost every insight was happening for the first time (at least to the knowledge of the small groups of humans involved). When you are at the beginning, everything is new. In our era, almost everything we do in the arts is done with awareness of what has been done before. In the early post–human era, things will be new again because anything that requires greater than human ability has not already been done by Homer or da Vinci or Shakespeare.” – Vernor Vinge