Michael Vassar

President, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Michael Vassar currently serves as the president of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence. He has been a transhumanist since he read "How and Why: Genetics" at age 7. His writings on the impacts of molecular manufacturing and other transformative technological trends have been featured on futurist.com, KurzweilAI.net and the Lifeboat Foundation website. He is the author of "Corporate Cornucopia: Examining the Special Implications of Commercial MNT Development" and "Lifeboat Nanoshield" with Robert Freitas. He spoke at the May 2007 Bioethics conference entitled Human Rights for the 21st Century, organized by the International Humanist and Ethical Union and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. In his presentation, "Lead Me Not Into Temptation: Implications of the Folk Psychology of Willpower," he offers plausible explanations for the long-standing hostility towards conceptions of cognitive liberty presently found throughout the world. More recently, at the Convergence08 unconference in Mountain View California, he presented on decision theory.

video


transcripts

IEET, Human Rights for the 21st Century, "Implications of the Folk-Psychology of Willpower"

audio

IEET, Human Rights for the 21st Century, "Lead Me Not Into Temptation"