Existential Hope Drop #13: Kevin Kelly, Wired founder
Pioneering Visions Of A High-Tech Future
In this Hope Drop, our special guest is Kevin Kelly, an influential figure in technology, culture, and optimism for the future. As the founding executive editor of Wired and former editor of Whole Earth Review, Kelly's ideas and perspectives have shaped generations of thinkers and technologists.
Kevin Kelly's hopes for the future:
Delve into Kevin Kelly's philosophies and experiences, from witnessing technological shifts over the decades to fostering optimism about the future.
Kevin speaks on:
His latest book on good advice for life
His current project envisioning a desirable hi-tech future 100 years from now
The transformative power of the internet as an accelerant for learning
Bridging Minds With Telepathy
Kevin Kelly's idea of a potential eucatastrophe was the invention of telepathy. Mind-to-mind communication could unlock a cascade of positive events, such as:
Enhanced Empathy and Understanding: Telepathy can deepen empathy by directly experiencing others' thoughts and emotions, fostering compassion and harmony.
Improved Communication and Collaboration: Telepathic communication enables instant transmission of thoughts and ideas, revolutionizing collaboration, decision-making, and teamwork.
Advancements in Education and Learning: Telepathy could accelerate learning by directly transmitting knowledge, personalizing education, and overcoming physical barriers to access information.
About the artist
Philipp Lenssen created this art piece with the help of generative AI. Philipp is from Germany and has been exploring between technology and art for all his life. He developed sandbox universes Manyland and wrote a technology blog for 7 years. He's currently working on new daily pictures at Instagram.com/PhilippLenssen
NEWS FROM THE XHOPE ECOSYSTEM
Best of the Xhope Library
Flatland - Edwin Abott. On the possibility of phenomena that are beyond our current ability to understand and what progress toward understanding may look like.
The Case Against Education - Bryan Caplan. Discusses the problems with today’s educational system and gives a few suggestions for alternatives.
71 Definitions of Intelligence - Shane Legg. Reviews various explanations of intelligence.
Moral Spillover in Human-AI Interaction
Sentience Institute has also published a blog post on Moral Spillover in Human-AI Interaction by two of their researchers, Katerina Manoli and Janet Pauketat. Moral spillover, the transfer of moral attitudes and behaviours, such as moral consideration, from one setting to another, seems to be an important driver of moral circle expansion. This blog post reviews the literature on moral spillover with a focus on human-AI interaction.
New recommended reading from Rethink Priorities
We highly recommend some of the new blog posts that can be found on Rethink Priorities Longtermism Department webpage. Recent posts include a series of “speedruns” led by Associate Researcher Marie Buhl investigating affordable super PPE, rapidly scale food production in the case of nuclear winter, and AI alignment prizes (by Research Assistant Joe O'Brien).
Learn more about our work at existentialhope.com.