Blaise Agüera y Arcas, author and CTO of Technology & Society at Google, returns to the podcast to talk about his new work, What is Life?. This limited-edition, pocket-sized book is the first part of a larger print project with MIT Press and Antikythera titled What Is Intelligence?. What is Life? draws fascinating parallels between the life-building chemical reactions taking place in natural chimneys deep in our oceans and the work of Alan Turing and John von Neumann in the mid-twentieth century. Blaise joins Robb and Josh to explore how self-reproduction—and thus life—is inherently computational. This conversation delves into the nested nature of life on Earth and how technology is an extension of our evolution.
You can buy Blaise’s books from Hat & Beard Press:
- Who Are We Now? https://hatandbeard.com/products/who-are-we-now-by-blaise-aguera-y-arcas
- Ubi Sunt https://hatandbeard.com/products/ubi-sunt-by-blaise-aguera-y-arcas
In this episode, we mention:
- Blaise Agüera y Arcas’s work, “What is Life” — read for free online: https://whatisintelligence.antikythera.org
- Lynn Margulis’s books: https://www.amazon.com/Books-Lynn-Margulis/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ALynn%2BMargulis
- Conventional evolutionary theory (Neo-Darwinism): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Darwinism
- Stephen Jay Gould’s books: https://www.amazon.com/Books-Stephen-Jay-Gould/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AStephen%2BJay%2BGould
- W. Brian Arthur’s book, “The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves”: https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Technology-What-How-Evolves/dp/1416544062
- The Invisible Machines episode, "Radically Honest AI with Dr. Anna Lembke": S5E01 Radically Honest AI with Dr. Anna Lembke
- Anna Lemble’s book, “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence”: https://www.amazon.com/Dopamine-Nation-Finding-Balance-Indulgence/dp/152474672X
- Richard S. Sutton and Andrew G. Barto's book, "Reinforcement Learning: second edition: An Introduction (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning series)" (about temporal difference learning):
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