June 7, 2023 • 23 mins
Chad is relaunching his podcast with a new name and a broader focus! Starting this week on this same feed, the show will be called Cosmic Intelligence and explore fundamental questions about philosophy, artificial intelligence, consciousness, cosmology and what it means to be human in this new age. We will delve into philosophical ideas, spiritual practices and reflections on how technology is shaping the human experience. Our goal is not just more knowledge or productivity but greater insight, imagination and fulfillment. We believe that ancient contemplative traditions fused with cutting-edge insights from science and AI can illuminate the path ahead. This show is for anyone curious about humanity's place in a world of accelerating change. Join me as we seek revelation and renewal at the intersection of Silicon and Soul.
The new show will include all the existing content around spirituality and spiritual practices but also the implications of the AI revolution as it accelerates the consciousness revolution. Chad will continue to offer his uniquely balanced, open-minded, discerning, and grounded perspective.
I am also available for consulting and speaking engagements on AI, philosophy and consciousness.
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My website is cosmic.diamonds.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chad Woodford (00:00):
In this age of artificial intelligence, it's
crucial to cultivate wisdom,discernment, and awareness. This
podcast will explore fundamentalquestions about consciousness,
ethics and what it means to be ahuman in this new age, we will
delve into philosophical ideas,spiritual practices, and
reflections on how technology isshaping the human experience.
(00:23):
Our goal is not just moreknowledge or productivity, but
greater insight, imagination,and fulfillment. I believe that
ancient contemplativetraditions, fused with cutting
edge insights from science andAI can illuminate the path
ahead. This show is for anyonecurious about humanity's place
in a world of acceleratingchange. Join me as we seek
(00:47):
revelation and renewal at theintersection of silicon and
soul.
(01:17):
I am starting a new career as anAI philosopher and ethicist. And
appropriately I'm in grad schoolfor philosophy, cosmology, and
consciousness. So because ofthat, and because we've entered
this AI revolution, I amrelaunching this podcast with a
new name, cosmic intelligence.
I'll get into my thinking behindthe name in a minute. But
(01:38):
there's going to be a newbroader focus alongside the new
name. And that is the existingcontent from before which was
consciousness, spirituality andspiritual practices, but now
also bringing intransformational technologies
like artificial intelligence.
This is exciting for me, becauseI'm coming full circle to how I
(02:00):
started in the 90s with my firstcareer, but not a circle, and
accumulating exponential spiral.
Anyway, back then I was in gradschool working on a master's in
electrical engineering andartificial intelligence. So I'm
coming back to my roots in a newbroader way, incorporating all
the experiences and wisdom thatI've gathered in the intervening
(02:21):
three decades. On this podcast,I want to enter weave AI, and
use AI as a kind of jumping offpoint to explore other topics,
which I'll talk about in asecond. The bottom line for me
though, is that I want to stressthe importance of thinking more
holistically about AI systemsand how for example, we can help
them become wise elders. Ratherthan making AI some sort of
(02:45):
Messiah that will solve all ofour problems. Let us view it as
a capable advisor helping us tosolve our own problems. If
you're new here, I'm Chad, aphilosopher, technologist,
product manager and attorneybased in Los Angeles. As an
attorney and product manager. Ihave been fortunate to work at
(03:07):
places like Twitter, GoogleMehta, and Airbnb. I am also a
master spiritual teacher, withinthe yoga Nanda, classical Tantra
and Himalayan Kundalinilineages, as well as a Jana yogi
of yoga DownTek wisdom who hastrained yoga teachers at
academies and ashrams across theUS and India. On this podcast,
(03:28):
we will explore philosophy,cosmology, consciousness and
technologies of the sacredthrough the lens of current
technological developments,including artificial
intelligence. We will also talkabout worldviews and spiritual
practices that are relevant toexpanding consciousness and
shifting worldviews. My missionis to inform and cover people
(03:50):
through discernment, wisdom, andspiritual practices. My aim is
to bring a grounded, balanced,fun, and no bullshit view to the
subject. In this episode, as Irelaunch my podcast, I will
explain the pivot and talk aboutwhat we're going to talk about
in future episodes.
(04:20):
I just finished watching theApple announcement about its AR
VR headset division Pro. And I'mreally wildly impressed by it,
although it does have a lot ofcomplicated implications. But
we'll have to talk about thosesome other time. Today. I'm
talking about my new podcast,and what's going on with me.
(04:41):
It's been a while since I've putout a new episode. And that's
because on the one hand, I'vebeen really immersed in this
graduate program at theCalifornia Institute of integral
studies in philosophy, cosmologyand consciousness, which has
been so rich and so rewarding,so intellectually stimulating
and such a growth vehicle Butalso, I've been retooling myself
(05:02):
and kind of relaunching myselfin response to what I see as
this AI revolution that'shappening. We are living through
what I think is going to beknown as the age of AI. So I've
been returning to my roots,where I started my whole career
back in the 90s, with AI, andbringing that into the things I
was already talking about beforein the podcast. It's just been a
(05:23):
process of rethinking somethings and changing my
orientation. So I'm renaming thepodcast from spiritual banal
ridiculous, which is a name thatI love, and I will miss it. But
to broaden the focus, I need tobroaden the name. And so the new
name is cosmic intelligence. Ilike that because it brings in
this idea about philosophy,cosmology and spirituality,
(05:47):
combined with artificialintelligence. And for me, it
emphasizes the need to shift thefocus in these conversations
about AI, does something moreholistic, and to not just think
about artificial intelligence,but a conscious kind of cosmic
intelligence. I mean, even theword intelligence is
problematic. I think we shouldbe using the word wisdom. But I
(06:11):
also think that ship has alreadysailed. So yeah, the name is
cosmic intelligence. You don'thave to subscribe to a new feed,
I will use this existing podcastfeed. I've always said to my
podcast intro that I am a yogateacher, attorney and
technologist. So with thisrelaunch, I am leaning into the
technologist part of it more.
And again, the broader set oftopics that I want to explore
(06:34):
the podcast include philosophy,both Western and Vedic
artificial intelligence,including implications for
consciousness cosmologies, andfor humanity as a whole, and in
particular, AI safety andresponsibility within that AI
conversation.
Unknown (06:51):
So on the podcast, I want to talk about consciousness
and what that means, cosmologyand the importance of
worldviews. And I want tocontinue to talk about
spirituality and spiritualpractices, which I'm referring
to as technologies of thesacred.
Chad Woodford (07:08):
I want to kind of just explore the way that these
various topics can intersect,and the way that we can think
about them as technologies ofthe mundane and the sacred.
Again, I will retain all myexisting content, I'm going to
continue to talk aboutspirituality and consciousness.
But I'm going to bring in morefrom the technology and AI side
in particular, I promise youthat I will approach all these
(07:31):
topics, with my usual groundedand discerning but also open
minded perspective. Now I wantto talk a little bit about my
vision and mission, because Ithink that is going to drive the
content of this podcast. For along time, I thought that going
into law was the way to make adifference in the world. And I
think it is for some people itcan be. But the more I think
(07:53):
about it, the more I realizeit's actually philosophy and
spirituality that will make thebiggest change in the world.
Because you can't convincepeople to change their behavior
or change the way they feel orthink if you don't first shift
the way they see the world as awhole. So again, here, we're
talking about philosophy andspirituality, but also
worldviews, which is a word thatI keep saying, and I want to
(08:15):
really get into that topiclater. It all comes down to
worldviews and meaning for me,especially in this age, where
there's a dearth of deepermeaning, and a lot of fear and
misinformation. And there'sreally nowhere for people to go
to make sense of the world. Soin that sense, philosophy is not
some frivolous humanitiesdegree, that doesn't really have
a purpose, it's actually themost essential thing that we can
(08:37):
be doing, at least some of uswho are inclined in that
direction. So my mission is tohelp people who are worried
about a future that's going tobe shaped in large part by AI,
and other technological changes,like VR headsets. People who are
worried about societal decay anddivision and fear. I want to
help these people and people ingeneral, to feel more
(08:58):
optimistic, calmer, becausethey're more informed, and
because they're more discerningand wise, and they have the
tools they know how to feeltheir feelings. And so I want to
help people connect with theirinner wisdom, and to create a
more conscious world and thatway, in short, my mission is to
inform and comfort people byoffering grounded wisdom,
(09:19):
reliable information, andspiritual practices. In terms of
philosophy, cosmology, andconsciousness, when I reflect
back on my life, I realized thatmy interest in philosophy really
started when I was a teenager,reading a lot of philosophical
science fiction, like the duneseries, or Isaac Asimov or
Robert Heinlein. And then thatinterest really deepened in
(09:42):
college when I was reading a lotof books about the intersection
of spirituality and quantumphysics, like the Tao of
physics. But my interest inphilosophy really deepened in
law school because as they say,law is applied philosophy. And
so I started to studyjurisprudence and some of my
courses, which is the philosophyof law. And I was taking
constitutional theory, and I wasjust thinking about some of
(10:04):
these deeper questions thatdrive legal policy. And then in
my free time, partly through theinfluence of my good friend
James, I was reading the entirehistory of Western philosophy. I
don't know how I did it, Ididn't really have any free
time. I suppose there were a lotof tobacco fueled late nights in
the backyard thinking bigthoughts. Anyway, after law
(10:27):
school, once I had a successfulcareer and started to have some
free time, I started travelingto India and studying yoga
vedantic philosophy. Over thecourse of a decade or two, I was
really immersing myself inWestern philosophy and Eastern
philosophy. And that's all cometo a point of profound fusion
with this graduate program.
Again, I think philosophy isincreasingly relevant and even
(10:48):
crucial for our time, withhumanity facing several
catastrophes at once, includingclimate change, political
division, and now potentially anexistential threat posed by AI.
As my professor Richard tarnislikes to say, worldviews create
worlds. What this means for me,and we talk a lot about this in
my program, is that it'snecessary to shift the
(11:11):
materialist paradigm, which has,in my opinion, lingered long
past its expiration date.
scientific materialism is theworldview that we're all
indoctrinated into in school.
Materialism is the dogmaticbelief that says that all
phenomena can be explained byphysical processes, and the laws
of nature, without any need formetaphysical or spiritual
(11:33):
explanations. It says that mindand consciousness can also be
explained purely using physicalprocesses, such as
electrochemical signals in thebrain. And materialism contends
that there is really nointelligence to nature, just a
mindless working out ofdeterministic processes. I find
it deeply strange thatmaterialism is still the
(11:57):
predominant worldview, becauseit's ignoring at least three or
four earth shatteringdevelopments from the 20th
century. For example, subatomicphysics contradicts the
materialist worldview, so doesdepth psychology, especially the
work of Carl Jung. So do thetranscendental experiences that
more and more people are havingwith sacred plants,
(12:18):
psychedelics, breathwork, andother Holotropic practices. All
of these developments undercutthe materialist worldview. But
materialism continues to informso many things in our world, for
example, mass media still standsup and reports within that
worldview. And so do ourapproaches to artificial
intelligence, as I'll talk aboutin future episodes, AI systems
(12:38):
are in large part designed onthe idea that consciousness and
the mind are epiphenomena of thebrain. But that theory has not
been empirically proven.
Granted, there is obviously acorrelation between brain
function and mind. But that'snot causation. This is what is
known as the hard problem ofconsciousness in philosophy, and
(13:00):
cognitive science and inartificial intelligence. As my
longtime listeners know, allthese topics are my favorite
topics. And so I'm excited todiscuss them in greater length
on future episodes.
(13:33):
In terms of artificialintelligence in particular,
again, I started my career inthe 90s, which is what they
called the second AI winter. Soit was a time when AI was still
kind of finding its way and alittle bit lost in the
wilderness. I was working onearly neural networks and
genetic algorithms, applyingthese to the game of Go, decades
before AlphaGo finally beat thebest GO players. I was so early
(13:57):
to the field that I got bored.
It didn't seem like we wereanywhere close to achieving the
goals that I wanted to achieve.
Part of that was the rudimentarystate of technology then, and
unlimited access to datasets,pre the World Wide Web and all
that. But part of it was that Iwas more interested in the
bigger questions around AI andcognitive science. Questions
like What does it mean to beconscious and intelligent? How
(14:20):
do people think exactly? Whereis the mind? And this is where I
think it makes sense that I'mapproaching it from more of a
philosophical angle, because forme, these are the questions that
we need to answer to ensure thatAI systems reflect the greatest
potential of humanity and don'tcause harm, basically, that they
are aligned with humaninterests. And this is where I
(14:42):
think our shared worldview isgoing to be increasingly called
into question or become morecrucial to sort out if we
continue with this materialistworldview, I think we're going
to kind of run into the limitsof that in terms of development
of these AI systems. Just tocomplete the picture after grad
school after working as anengineer, I went to law school
(15:04):
and I worked as an attorney inSilicon Valley. And also as a
product manager. I was lucky towork at a lot of great companies
like Twitter in the early days,and Google and betta, and Airbnb
and a couple of startups. So Ihad a really fun and fulfilling
career in Silicon Valley. And sonow, I'm in grad school for
philosophy, cosmology andconsciousness to complete the
(15:26):
spiral. My plan with this degreeis to begin speaking and writing
more about responsible AI, evenwise AI, about questions of
consciousness that relate to theimplications of AI for humanity,
as AI systems are designed, theynecessarily reflect the
mentality and disposition oftheir creators. So that's why I
think it's so crucial to havepeople who are thinking a bit
(15:48):
broader about these questions,helping to design these systems.
I've noticed that most AIethicists, for example, who are
working in AI today, have agraduate degree of some kind in
engineering, rather than ahumanities degree. We need to
balance this out. We want our AIsystems to think like wise
elders, not like engineers, wewant them to have a much broader
(16:12):
and theater a view of the worldand reflect a worldview that is
a lot more humanitarian, andgenerous than I think is baked
into the kind of defaultcurriculum of most science and
engineering programs. I want toexplore what the implications
are for humanity of theseartificially intelligent
systems. How can we design AIsystems to reflect and
(16:33):
facilitate the greatestpotential of humanity? That is
one of the many questions I'minterested in exploring. I'm
also interested in exploringquestions about consciousness,
the possibility, for example, ofartificial general intelligence
or super intelligence. I'mreally interested in thinking
about how likely that is what isthe timeline there. There are so
(16:55):
many differing opinions aboutthis. And I want to look at
that. And I think the languagehere is important. When we say
super intelligence, what doesthat mean? Exactly? Intelligence
is so narrow. And again, whatabout wisdom? Or supreme
intelligence, as they call it inthe yogic tradition? Plus, there
are so many related questions,if you create a super
(17:17):
intelligence, what are itsmotivations? What are its
desires? How do desires arisewithin a system? Do they arise
organically? Do they have to beprogrammed? What are the sensing
functions of this intelligence?
How is it connected to theworld? How can I interact with
the world, there are so manydifferent facets of this that
I'm really excited to explore,as well as more present day
(17:38):
practical considerations like aIsafety, responsibility and
alignment. I want to encourageresponsible AI and AI safety by
design, similar to how we haveprivacy by design today.
Unknown (17:53):
This whole conversation also raises the question of what
it means to be human in the 21stcentury. And I want to talk
about that. All this has me veryexcited, I can't wait to start
speaking more and even doingsome consulting work around
responsible and humane AI.
Chad Woodford (18:09):
In fact, I'm thinking seriously about
continuing my graduate studiesto get a PhD in some combination
of philosophy and.
(18:32):
Like I said at the beginning, Iwant to continue talking about
the things I have been talkingabout on the podcast. As a
master yoga teacher with over adecade of teaching experience in
the US and in India. I want tocontinue sharing everything I've
been talking about before andoffering for the past few years,
which includes Vedic wisdom,Vedic cosmology, different
(18:53):
spiritual practices, andincluding practices for calming
the nervous system, managingstress, developing discernment,
expanding consciousness, andultimately feeling more
radically alive. I absolutelylove sharing this knowledge and
these practices. And this tiesback into my mission to inform
and comfort people. For example,this year, I'm going to be
(19:16):
offering a Korea teachertraining module for yoga
teachers, and a mantra trainingmodule for teachers as well.
Korea's are powerful andtransformational yoga practices
that combined breath movementand sometimes mantra and mudra.
I'm also planning to offer aclassical tantric goddess
initiation this year that workswith the archetypes of 10 Tantra
(19:38):
goddesses. For those who don'tknow classical Tantra is a set
of spiritual and philosophicaltraditions that originated in
Northwest India around the sixthcentury. In contrast with the
Vedic tradition, which is morepatriarchal classical Tantra is
focused on the divine feminineand the goddess archetypes.
Classical Tantra is thetributary of yoga where we get
(19:59):
meditation mod Because thechakra system and various sacred
rituals, and it has nothing todo with the Neo Tantra that
originated in California acentury ago that's focused on
sacred sexuality. Nothing wrongwith that. But this classical
Tantra practice that I offer isby far the most powerful
practice I have everexperienced. So that's coming
this year to. To summarize, thispodcast will continue the larger
(20:23):
themes that I've been exploring,which is offering a discerning,
expansive perspective, optimism,comforting people who need
comfort, thinking in differentways about worldviews, but also
now bringing in these otherconcepts, these other topics
about potentially existentialthreats of AI, and how AI is
going to impact humanity. Sothat's the new direction. As
(20:44):
always, I will continue to offermy uniquely balanced, open
minded, discerning and groundedperspective, between the
artificial intelligencerevolution and the consciousness
revolution that we're goingthrough, I think we live in
deeply strange and evenincreasingly psychedelic times.
I mean, if you look atgenerative AI, or even products
like the VR AR headsets that arecoming out, it's like we live in
(21:06):
the future. And the future isdeeply strange and surreal. And
I think that's cool, andexciting. I'm excited to serve
as a guide through this surrealnew journey.
I believe that technology canbetter humanity, but only with
(21:29):
the active participation andengagement of humans who are
conscious, and individuated. So,rather than making AI, some sort
of Messiah that's going to solveall of our problems and save us.
Let us see it as a capableadvisor that's helping us to
solve our own problems. I'mavailable for speaking
engagements and consulting as anAI philosopher and ethicist. You
(21:51):
can find me at cosmic dotdiamonds, or if you're a
millennial, you can find me onInstagram, which is cosmic wit.
You can also find relatedcontent on my YouTube channel,
which is also cosmic wit. And ifyou haven't already, please
subscribe to the podcast. Myemail newsletter will be linked
in the show notes. And I'll besending out some emails about
related topics and new episodesand that kind of thing. So thank
(22:16):
you so much for listening. Ican't wait to explore all these
topics in future episodes. I'mvery optimistic about the
future. I think it's going to beexactly what we make it. So
let's create a brighter futuretogether.
In this age of artificial intelligence, it's
crucial to cultivate wisdom,discernment, and awareness. This
podcast will explore fundamentalquestions about consciousness,
ethics and what it means to be ahuman in this new age, we will
delve into philosophical ideas,spiritual practices, and
reflections on how technology isshaping the human experience.
(00:23):
Our goal is not just moreknowledge or productivity, but
greater insight, imagination,and fulfillment. I believe that
ancient contemplativetraditions, fused with cutting
edge insights from science andAI can illuminate the path
ahead. This show is for anyonecurious about humanity's place
in a world of acceleratingchange. Join me as we seek
(00:47):
revelation and renewal at theintersection of silicon and
soul.
(01:17):
I am starting a new career as anAI philosopher and ethicist. And
appropriately I'm in grad schoolfor philosophy, cosmology, and
consciousness. So because ofthat, and because we've entered
this AI revolution, I amrelaunching this podcast with a
new name, cosmic intelligence.
I'll get into my thinking behindthe name in a minute. But
(01:38):
there's going to be a newbroader focus alongside the new
name. And that is the existingcontent from before which was
consciousness, spirituality andspiritual practices, but now
also bringing intransformational technologies
like artificial intelligence.
This is exciting for me, becauseI'm coming full circle to how I
(02:00):
started in the 90s with my firstcareer, but not a circle, and
accumulating exponential spiral.
Anyway, back then I was in gradschool working on a master's in
electrical engineering andartificial intelligence. So I'm
coming back to my roots in a newbroader way, incorporating all
the experiences and wisdom thatI've gathered in the intervening
(02:21):
three decades. On this podcast,I want to enter weave AI, and
use AI as a kind of jumping offpoint to explore other topics,
which I'll talk about in asecond. The bottom line for me
though, is that I want to stressthe importance of thinking more
holistically about AI systemsand how for example, we can help
them become wise elders. Ratherthan making AI some sort of
(02:45):
Messiah that will solve all ofour problems. Let us view it as
a capable advisor helping us tosolve our own problems. If
you're new here, I'm Chad, aphilosopher, technologist,
product manager and attorneybased in Los Angeles. As an
attorney and product manager. Ihave been fortunate to work at
(03:07):
places like Twitter, GoogleMehta, and Airbnb. I am also a
master spiritual teacher, withinthe yoga Nanda, classical Tantra
and Himalayan Kundalinilineages, as well as a Jana yogi
of yoga DownTek wisdom who hastrained yoga teachers at
academies and ashrams across theUS and India. On this podcast,
(03:28):
we will explore philosophy,cosmology, consciousness and
technologies of the sacredthrough the lens of current
technological developments,including artificial
intelligence. We will also talkabout worldviews and spiritual
practices that are relevant toexpanding consciousness and
shifting worldviews. My missionis to inform and cover people
(03:50):
through discernment, wisdom, andspiritual practices. My aim is
to bring a grounded, balanced,fun, and no bullshit view to the
subject. In this episode, as Irelaunch my podcast, I will
explain the pivot and talk aboutwhat we're going to talk about
in future episodes.
(04:20):
I just finished watching theApple announcement about its AR
VR headset division Pro. And I'mreally wildly impressed by it,
although it does have a lot ofcomplicated implications. But
we'll have to talk about thosesome other time. Today. I'm
talking about my new podcast,and what's going on with me.
(04:41):
It's been a while since I've putout a new episode. And that's
because on the one hand, I'vebeen really immersed in this
graduate program at theCalifornia Institute of integral
studies in philosophy, cosmologyand consciousness, which has
been so rich and so rewarding,so intellectually stimulating
and such a growth vehicle Butalso, I've been retooling myself
(05:02):
and kind of relaunching myselfin response to what I see as
this AI revolution that'shappening. We are living through
what I think is going to beknown as the age of AI. So I've
been returning to my roots,where I started my whole career
back in the 90s, with AI, andbringing that into the things I
was already talking about beforein the podcast. It's just been a
(05:23):
process of rethinking somethings and changing my
orientation. So I'm renaming thepodcast from spiritual banal
ridiculous, which is a name thatI love, and I will miss it. But
to broaden the focus, I need tobroaden the name. And so the new
name is cosmic intelligence. Ilike that because it brings in
this idea about philosophy,cosmology and spirituality,
(05:47):
combined with artificialintelligence. And for me, it
emphasizes the need to shift thefocus in these conversations
about AI, does something moreholistic, and to not just think
about artificial intelligence,but a conscious kind of cosmic
intelligence. I mean, even theword intelligence is
problematic. I think we shouldbe using the word wisdom. But I
(06:11):
also think that ship has alreadysailed. So yeah, the name is
cosmic intelligence. You don'thave to subscribe to a new feed,
I will use this existing podcastfeed. I've always said to my
podcast intro that I am a yogateacher, attorney and
technologist. So with thisrelaunch, I am leaning into the
technologist part of it more.
And again, the broader set oftopics that I want to explore
(06:34):
the podcast include philosophy,both Western and Vedic
artificial intelligence,including implications for
consciousness cosmologies, andfor humanity as a whole, and in
particular, AI safety andresponsibility within that AI
conversation.
Unknown (06:51):
So on the podcast, I want to talk about consciousness
and what that means, cosmologyand the importance of
worldviews. And I want tocontinue to talk about
spirituality and spiritualpractices, which I'm referring
to as technologies of thesacred.
Chad Woodford (07:08):
I want to kind of just explore the way that these
various topics can intersect,and the way that we can think
about them as technologies ofthe mundane and the sacred.
Again, I will retain all myexisting content, I'm going to
continue to talk aboutspirituality and consciousness.
But I'm going to bring in morefrom the technology and AI side
in particular, I promise youthat I will approach all these
(07:31):
topics, with my usual groundedand discerning but also open
minded perspective. Now I wantto talk a little bit about my
vision and mission, because Ithink that is going to drive the
content of this podcast. For along time, I thought that going
into law was the way to make adifference in the world. And I
think it is for some people itcan be. But the more I think
(07:53):
about it, the more I realizeit's actually philosophy and
spirituality that will make thebiggest change in the world.
Because you can't convincepeople to change their behavior
or change the way they feel orthink if you don't first shift
the way they see the world as awhole. So again, here, we're
talking about philosophy andspirituality, but also
worldviews, which is a word thatI keep saying, and I want to
(08:15):
really get into that topiclater. It all comes down to
worldviews and meaning for me,especially in this age, where
there's a dearth of deepermeaning, and a lot of fear and
misinformation. And there'sreally nowhere for people to go
to make sense of the world. Soin that sense, philosophy is not
some frivolous humanitiesdegree, that doesn't really have
a purpose, it's actually themost essential thing that we can
(08:37):
be doing, at least some of uswho are inclined in that
direction. So my mission is tohelp people who are worried
about a future that's going tobe shaped in large part by AI,
and other technological changes,like VR headsets. People who are
worried about societal decay anddivision and fear. I want to
help these people and people ingeneral, to feel more
(08:58):
optimistic, calmer, becausethey're more informed, and
because they're more discerningand wise, and they have the
tools they know how to feeltheir feelings. And so I want to
help people connect with theirinner wisdom, and to create a
more conscious world and thatway, in short, my mission is to
inform and comfort people byoffering grounded wisdom,
(09:19):
reliable information, andspiritual practices. In terms of
philosophy, cosmology, andconsciousness, when I reflect
back on my life, I realized thatmy interest in philosophy really
started when I was a teenager,reading a lot of philosophical
science fiction, like the duneseries, or Isaac Asimov or
Robert Heinlein. And then thatinterest really deepened in
(09:42):
college when I was reading a lotof books about the intersection
of spirituality and quantumphysics, like the Tao of
physics. But my interest inphilosophy really deepened in
law school because as they say,law is applied philosophy. And
so I started to studyjurisprudence and some of my
courses, which is the philosophyof law. And I was taking
constitutional theory, and I wasjust thinking about some of
(10:04):
these deeper questions thatdrive legal policy. And then in
my free time, partly through theinfluence of my good friend
James, I was reading the entirehistory of Western philosophy. I
don't know how I did it, Ididn't really have any free
time. I suppose there were a lotof tobacco fueled late nights in
the backyard thinking bigthoughts. Anyway, after law
(10:27):
school, once I had a successfulcareer and started to have some
free time, I started travelingto India and studying yoga
vedantic philosophy. Over thecourse of a decade or two, I was
really immersing myself inWestern philosophy and Eastern
philosophy. And that's all cometo a point of profound fusion
with this graduate program.
Again, I think philosophy isincreasingly relevant and even
(10:48):
crucial for our time, withhumanity facing several
catastrophes at once, includingclimate change, political
division, and now potentially anexistential threat posed by AI.
As my professor Richard tarnislikes to say, worldviews create
worlds. What this means for me,and we talk a lot about this in
my program, is that it'snecessary to shift the
(11:11):
materialist paradigm, which has,in my opinion, lingered long
past its expiration date.
scientific materialism is theworldview that we're all
indoctrinated into in school.
Materialism is the dogmaticbelief that says that all
phenomena can be explained byphysical processes, and the laws
of nature, without any need formetaphysical or spiritual
(11:33):
explanations. It says that mindand consciousness can also be
explained purely using physicalprocesses, such as
electrochemical signals in thebrain. And materialism contends
that there is really nointelligence to nature, just a
mindless working out ofdeterministic processes. I find
it deeply strange thatmaterialism is still the
(11:57):
predominant worldview, becauseit's ignoring at least three or
four earth shatteringdevelopments from the 20th
century. For example, subatomicphysics contradicts the
materialist worldview, so doesdepth psychology, especially the
work of Carl Jung. So do thetranscendental experiences that
more and more people are havingwith sacred plants,
(12:18):
psychedelics, breathwork, andother Holotropic practices. All
of these developments undercutthe materialist worldview. But
materialism continues to informso many things in our world, for
example, mass media still standsup and reports within that
worldview. And so do ourapproaches to artificial
intelligence, as I'll talk aboutin future episodes, AI systems
(12:38):
are in large part designed onthe idea that consciousness and
the mind are epiphenomena of thebrain. But that theory has not
been empirically proven.
Granted, there is obviously acorrelation between brain
function and mind. But that'snot causation. This is what is
known as the hard problem ofconsciousness in philosophy, and
(13:00):
cognitive science and inartificial intelligence. As my
longtime listeners know, allthese topics are my favorite
topics. And so I'm excited todiscuss them in greater length
on future episodes.
(13:33):
In terms of artificialintelligence in particular,
again, I started my career inthe 90s, which is what they
called the second AI winter. Soit was a time when AI was still
kind of finding its way and alittle bit lost in the
wilderness. I was working onearly neural networks and
genetic algorithms, applyingthese to the game of Go, decades
before AlphaGo finally beat thebest GO players. I was so early
(13:57):
to the field that I got bored.
It didn't seem like we wereanywhere close to achieving the
goals that I wanted to achieve.
Part of that was the rudimentarystate of technology then, and
unlimited access to datasets,pre the World Wide Web and all
that. But part of it was that Iwas more interested in the
bigger questions around AI andcognitive science. Questions
like What does it mean to beconscious and intelligent? How
(14:20):
do people think exactly? Whereis the mind? And this is where I
think it makes sense that I'mapproaching it from more of a
philosophical angle, because forme, these are the questions that
we need to answer to ensure thatAI systems reflect the greatest
potential of humanity and don'tcause harm, basically, that they
are aligned with humaninterests. And this is where I
(14:42):
think our shared worldview isgoing to be increasingly called
into question or become morecrucial to sort out if we
continue with this materialistworldview, I think we're going
to kind of run into the limitsof that in terms of development
of these AI systems. Just tocomplete the picture after grad
school after working as anengineer, I went to law school
(15:04):
and I worked as an attorney inSilicon Valley. And also as a
product manager. I was lucky towork at a lot of great companies
like Twitter in the early days,and Google and betta, and Airbnb
and a couple of startups. So Ihad a really fun and fulfilling
career in Silicon Valley. And sonow, I'm in grad school for
philosophy, cosmology andconsciousness to complete the
(15:26):
spiral. My plan with this degreeis to begin speaking and writing
more about responsible AI, evenwise AI, about questions of
consciousness that relate to theimplications of AI for humanity,
as AI systems are designed, theynecessarily reflect the
mentality and disposition oftheir creators. So that's why I
think it's so crucial to havepeople who are thinking a bit
(15:48):
broader about these questions,helping to design these systems.
I've noticed that most AIethicists, for example, who are
working in AI today, have agraduate degree of some kind in
engineering, rather than ahumanities degree. We need to
balance this out. We want our AIsystems to think like wise
elders, not like engineers, wewant them to have a much broader
(16:12):
and theater a view of the worldand reflect a worldview that is
a lot more humanitarian, andgenerous than I think is baked
into the kind of defaultcurriculum of most science and
engineering programs. I want toexplore what the implications
are for humanity of theseartificially intelligent
systems. How can we design AIsystems to reflect and
(16:33):
facilitate the greatestpotential of humanity? That is
one of the many questions I'minterested in exploring. I'm
also interested in exploringquestions about consciousness,
the possibility, for example, ofartificial general intelligence
or super intelligence. I'mreally interested in thinking
about how likely that is what isthe timeline there. There are so
(16:55):
many differing opinions aboutthis. And I want to look at
that. And I think the languagehere is important. When we say
super intelligence, what doesthat mean? Exactly? Intelligence
is so narrow. And again, whatabout wisdom? Or supreme
intelligence, as they call it inthe yogic tradition? Plus, there
are so many related questions,if you create a super
(17:17):
intelligence, what are itsmotivations? What are its
desires? How do desires arisewithin a system? Do they arise
organically? Do they have to beprogrammed? What are the sensing
functions of this intelligence?
How is it connected to theworld? How can I interact with
the world, there are so manydifferent facets of this that
I'm really excited to explore,as well as more present day
(17:38):
practical considerations like aIsafety, responsibility and
alignment. I want to encourageresponsible AI and AI safety by
design, similar to how we haveprivacy by design today.
Unknown (17:53):
This whole conversation also raises the question of what
it means to be human in the 21stcentury. And I want to talk
about that. All this has me veryexcited, I can't wait to start
speaking more and even doingsome consulting work around
responsible and humane AI.
Chad Woodford (18:09):
In fact, I'm thinking seriously about
continuing my graduate studiesto get a PhD in some combination
of philosophy and.
(18:32):
Like I said at the beginning, Iwant to continue talking about
the things I have been talkingabout on the podcast. As a
master yoga teacher with over adecade of teaching experience in
the US and in India. I want tocontinue sharing everything I've
been talking about before andoffering for the past few years,
which includes Vedic wisdom,Vedic cosmology, different
(18:53):
spiritual practices, andincluding practices for calming
the nervous system, managingstress, developing discernment,
expanding consciousness, andultimately feeling more
radically alive. I absolutelylove sharing this knowledge and
these practices. And this tiesback into my mission to inform
and comfort people. For example,this year, I'm going to be
(19:16):
offering a Korea teachertraining module for yoga
teachers, and a mantra trainingmodule for teachers as well.
Korea's are powerful andtransformational yoga practices
that combined breath movementand sometimes mantra and mudra.
I'm also planning to offer aclassical tantric goddess
initiation this year that workswith the archetypes of 10 Tantra
(19:38):
goddesses. For those who don'tknow classical Tantra is a set
of spiritual and philosophicaltraditions that originated in
Northwest India around the sixthcentury. In contrast with the
Vedic tradition, which is morepatriarchal classical Tantra is
focused on the divine feminineand the goddess archetypes.
Classical Tantra is thetributary of yoga where we get
(19:59):
meditation mod Because thechakra system and various sacred
rituals, and it has nothing todo with the Neo Tantra that
originated in California acentury ago that's focused on
sacred sexuality. Nothing wrongwith that. But this classical
Tantra practice that I offer isby far the most powerful
practice I have everexperienced. So that's coming
this year to. To summarize, thispodcast will continue the larger
(20:23):
themes that I've been exploring,which is offering a discerning,
expansive perspective, optimism,comforting people who need
comfort, thinking in differentways about worldviews, but also
now bringing in these otherconcepts, these other topics
about potentially existentialthreats of AI, and how AI is
going to impact humanity. Sothat's the new direction. As
(20:44):
always, I will continue to offermy uniquely balanced, open
minded, discerning and groundedperspective, between the
artificial intelligencerevolution and the consciousness
revolution that we're goingthrough, I think we live in
deeply strange and evenincreasingly psychedelic times.
I mean, if you look atgenerative AI, or even products
like the VR AR headsets that arecoming out, it's like we live in
(21:06):
the future. And the future isdeeply strange and surreal. And
I think that's cool, andexciting. I'm excited to serve
as a guide through this surrealnew journey.
I believe that technology canbetter humanity, but only with
(21:29):
the active participation andengagement of humans who are
conscious, and individuated. So,rather than making AI, some sort
of Messiah that's going to solveall of our problems and save us.
Let us see it as a capableadvisor that's helping us to
solve our own problems. I'mavailable for speaking
engagements and consulting as anAI philosopher and ethicist. You
(21:51):
can find me at cosmic dotdiamonds, or if you're a
millennial, you can find me onInstagram, which is cosmic wit.
You can also find relatedcontent on my YouTube channel,
which is also cosmic wit. And ifyou haven't already, please
subscribe to the podcast. Myemail newsletter will be linked
in the show notes. And I'll besending out some emails about
related topics and new episodesand that kind of thing. So thank
(22:16):
you so much for listening. Ican't wait to explore all these
topics in future episodes. I'mvery optimistic about the
future. I think it's going to beexactly what we make it. So
let's create a brighter futuretogether.
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