#14 Phoenix Rising: Harnessing Collective Intelligence and AI for a New Dawn – with Stephen Messer

In the first episode of The Emeritus, I speak with Professor Paul Harris of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a leading figure in developmental psychology. We discuss his academic journey and his influential work on children’s emotional development, imagination, and learning from the testimony of others. I hope the conversation offers a richer sense not only of his research, but also of the ideas, experiences, and collaborations that have shaped his remarkable contribution to the field.

In this episode, we sit down with Dave Jilk, an author and former serial entrepreneur with a unique blend of experience in the software and startup world. These days, Dave dedicates much of his time to writing, recently releasing his latest work, Epoch: A Poetic Psy-Phi Saga. This science fiction novel, uniquely written as an epic poem from the first-person point of view of an AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), offers a fresh and realistic take on how AGI will likely come about. It explores how AGI might be developed based on our understanding of the development of brains, intelligence, consciousness, and purpose, what it might do, and its potential impact on humanity. The book delves into some profound questions about AI alignment and what it means to be human, making it a must-read for anyone curious about how artificial superintelligence is likely to emerge. In this interview, we dive into some of the central topics from Dave’s new book. I also hope this interview can offer a glimpse of how brilliant ideas can arise by combining one’s interdisciplinary interests, expertise, and pursuits. I am excited to share this insightful conversation, and I hope it inspires the listeners as much as it did me! Thank you to our sponsor Nomono for the amazing podcast kit (https://nomono.co/) and to The Fritt Ord Foundation for their support! Recommended sources: 1. Dave Jilk’s book «EPOCH: A Poetic Psy-Phi Saga»: https://www.epoch.fyi 2. Dave Jilk’s website: http://www.jilk.com 3. Dennet, D. C. (1992) Conciousness Explained: https://www.amazon.com/Consciousness-Explained-Daniel-C-Dennett/dp/0316180661 4. Butler, S. (1872). Erewhon, or, Over the Range: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1906 5. Esaias, T. (1993). Norbert and the system: https://timonsesaias.com Timestamps: 01:45:36 [00:00:00] Intro of the episode. [00:02:07] Sponsor: Nomono Podcasting Kit. [00:03:04] Literary inspiration and motivation for writing a sci-fi novel as an epic poem. [00:07:04] Dave’s diverse background and how his interest in AGI and AI emerged. [00:12:22] Coverage of science and time, human language, history and facticity. [00:23:01] Introducing Aither, the AGI, and his caretakers, aka the scientists. [00:29:48] Building alignment and trust through socialization and learning interactions. [00:36:19] The idea of Multiplicity and connecting knowledge with alignment. [00:42:39] Parallels to human development in learning about trust and deception. [00:50:11] Programming and tuning of the novelty drive and curiosity in the AGI. [00:55:36] AI safety and why we should anthropomorphize AGI. [01:03:02] Making AGI as much like a human as we can and the role of LLMs. [01:10:09] Neural implants, sensations and consciousness; it is going to get weird. [01:17:39] The road ahead of us: No off switch for AGI, or for humanity. [01:28:19] The prophecy of Kronos, reflecting the fear in humans and future AGI. [01:35:04] Transcendence by contributing a verse to a powerful play. [01:44:28] Outro and concluding remarks.

In this episode, we meet Dr. Bita Sarah Haynes, founder, and CEO of CoachEra ™, a new frontier coaching platform for top performers designed to optimize professional and personal goals and performances and avoid burnout for individuals, businesses, institutions, and organizations that value continued growth and learning. Bita is a renowned executive coach and clinical psychologist and has been called the real-life Wendy Rhoades, the famous character from the TV show Billions. She has a proven track of coaching individuals and teams toward maximizing their human potential, including top tech founders, C-Suite executives, Fortune Top 20 CEOs, professional athletes, investors, and stakeholders. In this interview, we cover her journey and career path and the importance of immigrant resourcefulness, her entrepreneurship and work at CoachEra ™, and how they work on integrating diverse skills and work-life balance for individual growth, organizational development, and change management to sustain success and resilience and to avoid burnout. But this is also a story about defining one’s core values and profoundly aligning these with one’s professional and personal path. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

In this episode, we meet Alok Aggarwal, Founder, CEO, and Chief Data Scientist of Scry AI, a software company with technologists and domain experts that develops enterprise applications using proprietary AI algorithms for different domains. In this interview, we discuss his recently published book “The Fourth Industrial Revolution & 100 Years of AI (1950-2050): The Truth About AI and Why It’s Only a Tool.” Alok has been working as an innovator and developer in the field of AI for four decades, and we discuss some of the major topics in his career and book, including similarities and differences across the four scientific revolutions, the capabilities, limitations, and history of AI, and where we are going next. He proposes that AI is a mirror in which humans can see their reflections and that as we create more advanced AI, we will need to understand ourselves better. I hope this conversation can help to clarify some misconceptions about AI and inspire the listeners to reflect on what AI can teach us about humanity!

In this episode, we meet Raphaelle Moatti, founder of Delicious Future, a public benefit corporation with a mission to accelerate the shift to regenerative eating. We discuss her work and how she combines human perspectives, systemic thinking, and rigorous research with technology to impact individual health and environmental sustainability. An added subtext narrative is about her journey of diverse skill acquisition and how courage and creativity can open new quests aligned with one’s identity and deeper values. This conversation made me completely rethink my relationship with food and consider the deeper meaning of eating, as well as how to synthesize the treads in my own aspiring entrepreneurship. I hope you will enjoy this conversation as much as I did!