Transhumanist-themed podcast: George Dvorsky’s Sentient Developments

After a three year hiatus, George Dvorsky has rekindled his futurist-themed podcast, Sentient Developments. The show serves as a counterpart to his blog of the same name and covers similar topics, often in more detail and with accompanying clips and interviews for added depth and insight.

The Sentient Developments Podcast, which runs weekly, deals with a number of issues familiar to the readers of AF. As an explicitly transhumanist-themed podcast, Dvorsky deals directly with the potential for human enhancement, both in terms of what is possible today and in the near future. True to the tagline, “Futurism, science, life,” Dvorsky looks into those technologies and techniques available today that can improve or expand human performance and experience–from diet and exercise to nootropics and implants.

In addition, he looks to the future and considers more radical possibilities for the human species, whether it be cybernetics, genetics, radical life extension, or the technological Singularity. And as Chair of the Board for the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, Dvorsky analyzes these issues through the lens of a critical bioethicist.

As a science-themed podcast, Sentient Developments covers more than just human enhancement. Concerned about animal welfare, and as the program chair for the IEET’s Rights of Non-Human Persons Program, Dvorsky often discusses his efforts to see human-equivalent rights afforded to a number of highly sapient species. He is also an expert in SETI studies and often covers the latest in cosmology, metaphysics, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. And like many AF readers, he’s concerned about technological advance and the potential for catastrophic and existential risks; geopolitics, foresight, and risk mitigation are frequently discussed on the show.

The Sentient Developments Podcast is available on iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/sentient-developments-podcast/id135712771). Listeners can also subscribe directly to its feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/PodcastSentDev).

A robot walks into a bar and says, “I’ll have a screwdriver.” A bad joke, indeed. But even less funny if the robot says “Give me what’s in your cash register.”

The fictional theme of robots turning against humans is older than the word itself, which first appeared in the title of Karel Čapek’s 1920 play about artificial factory workers rising against their human overlords. Just 22 years later, Isaac Asimov invented the “Three Laws of Robotics” to serve as a hierarchical ethical code for the robots in his stories: first, never harm a human being through action or inaction; second, obey human orders; last, protect oneself. From the first story in which the laws appeared, Asimov explored their inherent contradictions. Great fiction, but unworkable theory.

Friendly AI is mentioned early on in the op-ed. The article makes the case why machine morality is important and why it’s necessary to reconcile philosophical and engineering perspectives to make progress in this field.