Futurology

The Quantum Path to Consciousness (with Hartmut Neven & Grant Slater)

Futurology

Show Notes

Quantum computing can transform technology. Can it also reshape consciousness itself? | Subscribe to Futurology! https://linkin.bio/futurology/

Can quantum computing unlock the secrets of consciousness and hasten the arrival of artificial super intelligence? Hartmut Neven, the visionary founder of Google’s Quantum AI Lab, has spent decades pushing the boundaries of what machines can do. Now he’s betting on quantum computing to clear the path for the next era of possibilities.

In this episode, Neven takes us from early adversarial machine learning at DARPA to building the world’s most advanced quantum processors at Google. He makes a case for why the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is our most likely vision of reality and reveals his experimental program to test whether quantum superposition is where consciousness is born.

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Mentioned in this Episode:

The Fabric of Reality — David Deutsch (book, 1997)

Intriguing Properties of Neural Networks — Christian Szegedy, Wojciech Zaremba, Ilya Sutskever, Joan Bruna, Dumitru Erhan, Ian Goodfellow and Rob Fergus (paper, 2013)

Mécanique quantique. Tome 1, 2 — Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Bernard Diu and Franck Laloë (textbook, French edition)

The Emperor’s New Mind — Roger Penrose (book, 1989)

Where to Find Hartmut Neven:

Google Research ProfileGoogle Quantum AI Lab

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Credits

Executive Producers: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Nils Gilman, Dawn Nakagawa, & Jason Hoch

Producers: Grant Slater, Alex Gardels, & Nathalia Ramos

Associate Producer: Elissa Mardiney

Theme Music: Marcus Bagala

Audio Engineer: Aaron Bastinelli & Kyle Scott Wilson

Futurology is a production of Studio B and Wavland for the Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles, California.

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