New interviews with Michael Nielsen, Jim O'Shaughnessy, plus Autonomous Vehicles special
Ideas worth building the future around.
This month, we drop three conversations on the Existential Hope podcast that tackle a shared question: how do we steer toward better futures in practice?
Michael Nielsen explores how to think and steer toward the future better. Jim O’Shaughnessy shares insights on innovative funding and venture capitalism to build the best futures. And in a special episode, Andrew Miller discusses how to bring autonomous vehicles into society better and faster.
New Episodes of the Existential Hope Podcast
🎙 Michael Nielsen – Hyper-entities, tools for thought, and wise optimism
A conversation about how we can think and reason better about the future, and steer more realistically toward the futures we actually want. We walk through Michael’s recent work, from “hyper-entities” to new tools for thought, and explore how it connects to existential hope: not just avoiding bad outcomes, but deliberately building good ones.
🎙 Jim O’Shaughnessy – Curiosity, creativity, and OSV Ventures
OSV Ventures is a rare example of a venture organisation explicitly aligned with building long-term, positive futures. This conversation explores their approach, why it’s unusual, and how they use unconventional bets and bold ideas to push those futures forward.
🚗 Autonomous Vehicles Special – With Andrew Miller, author of The End of Driving
This episode is a deep-dive special with Andrew Miller, who knows the autonomous vehicles space inside out. Self-driving cars are one of those technologies where the technical capability is already here, so the real questions are: Where exactly are we today? When will we start seeing them more widely in society? And what would it take to make that rollout a best-case scenario?
Xhope library recommendations
Hand-picked resources from the Existential Hope library that connect with this month’s conversations.
The Beginning of Infinity - David Deutsch. On the power of explanations to unlock futures of infinite potential. Chapter 8 and 9 are especially recommended. Book
Pragmatic Optimism - Nell Watson. Quotes Petrarch who lived in 1343 CE: "My fate is to live among varied and confusing storms. But for you perhaps, if as I hope and wish you will live long after me, there will follow a better age.” Forum/blog-post
Why I Believe That Us Engineers Should Carry a Techno Optimist Attitude – Konrad Kording. An inspiring call to action for engineers and technologists to dream bigger. Forum/blog-post
Community updates
Each month we highlight new research, stories, and big-picture thinking that offer practical ways to imagine and work toward better futures.
Introducing Better Futures — William MacAskill (Forethought)
A new series of essays exploring why “flourishing” should be considered alongside “survival” as a top priority for the long term. It’s a clear, structured argument that fits squarely with the Existential Hope theme, complete with the concept of “viatopia” as a society able to steer toward near-best outcomes.
The Connection — Alexandre Variengien
A near-future short story about “connection” technology that translates subjective experience, leading to shared libraries of lived knowledge, collective problem-solving clusters, and new governance models. A vivid, character-driven way to think about social and technological change.
White Mirror — Tinkered Thinking (OSV Publishing)
A new book from OSV Publishing: an anthology of 31 hopeful, idea-rich stories following the inventor–explorer Lucilius across space and time. Rather than dystopia, it imagines concrete, optimistic futures that explore not just what’s possible, but what’s necessary for humanity.
AI Options, not ‘Optimism’ — Eric Drexler
A recent post arguing for shifting from debating odds of success to thinking like participants: back-chaining from success states (e.g., steerable superintelligence), mapping dependencies, and focusing on concrete options rather than optimism vs. pessimism.
Explore more on Existentialhope.com