future39 with John Koetsier

'United Nations’ is chapter 27 of Insights from the Future, a book I’m writing about technology, innovation, and people … from the perspective of the future. THIS IS NOT NEWS; IT IS A PROJECTION OF FUTURE NEWS. Subscribe to my newsletter to keep in touch and get notified when the book publishes.

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The augmented human and jobs of tomorrow, with Cathy Hackl ...

What will it mean to be human when we can plug into our computers? Today we plug our computers in to power. Tomorrow, we might plug ourselves into them.

AR and VR are changing how we see the world. AI and augmentation and brain-machine interfaces will change how we live, how we work, and how we play.

Cathy and I chat about HTC Vive, Magic Leap, Oculus Quest, brain-machine interfaces, Upload (the new show on Amazon Prime), and augmented intelligence. We also talk about Apple and where Apple's upcoming product will fit, as well as the convergence of AR and VR.

In the past, we’ve always been able to expand to some frontier … we’ve rarely hit the limits of our space or territory. That's no longer the case right now.

As horrible as it is, Coronavirus is showing us what a clean earth might be: blue sky in Delhi, India. Animals returning in Germany. Quiet in our streets. Clean air in China.

Is a finite earth economy possible? And what does growth look like in a finite earth economy?

In this episode of future39, we talk with Bob Leonard, co-author of Moving to a Finite Earth Economy.

Superintelligence: what happens in a world with AI that is hundreds or thousands of times smarter than humans?  

In this episode of future39 we're chatting with research scientist Roman Yampolskiy. He’s a professor at the University of Louisville, and his most recent book is Artificial Superintelligence: A Futuristic Approach.  

What we talk about:  

- Define superintelligence … what are we talking about here?  

- Assume we can create a superintelligence … or one emerges … what are the potential dangers?  

- Is there any reason to assume that an artificial superintelligence would have any particular kind of morality? 

- What about the opportunities? What would a superintelligence enable?  

- Elon Musk thinks we’ll have to augment to compete. Agree?  

- What happens to humans in a world with one -- or many -- superintelligences?  

- How likely do you think a superintelligence is in the next 10 to 20 years?

Tesla. Apple. Google. Facebook. 

Every company inventing the future started somewhere … with an idea and an investment. 

Where will tomorrow’s futures be invented?

Welcome to future39. I’m John Koetsier, and today we’re speaking with former Apple executive and current venture capitalist Daniel Gross.

Daniel says he wants to fund “moonshot ideas from hackers, side hustlers, builders, and tinkerers all over the world”

What we talk about:

 - What are the biggest problems in the world today?

 - Are solutions to those problems getting funded by VCs?

 - Today’s “big tech” includes Facebook in social, Google in search, Apple in devices, Amazon in retail, Microsoft in productivity. (And much more, of course, in each case.) Where do you see the big companies of 10-20 years? What are they doing?

 - The keys to scaling innovation are largely held by VCs with deep pocketbooks. Do you see that changing?

 - Innovation clusters like Silicon Valley have led the past few technological revolutions. Will tomorrow be different?

 - What is the future of the company? Do you see its organization/composition/location changing over the next decade?

Welcome to future39.  We’re talking about the future of work (and life in the solar system) with futurist Kate Levchuk.  

Guest: Kate Levchul  

- Kate is an exec at Infosys  

- She’s a futurist, a consultant, an author, a researcher, and has masters degrees in 2 disciplines  

What we talk about:  

- 30 years ago, Harvard Business School professor Shoshana Zuboff said that everything that can be automated, will be. Agree?  

- If we look at the scope of history and we see a time in the past where nothing was automated, and we see a future that is completely or mostly automated … where are we now?  

- What does work start to look like when most or all manufacturing is automated … what jobs remain? What does it do to our economy? What does it do to trade … does it kill regional advantages in costs due to cheap labor?  

And ... two massive missions of the 21st century: One of the things that I’ve been thinking about is the massive global job of the next century is repairing and restoring our environment, and creating sustainable and healthy living conditions for people. What does that look like to you? 

Another major job … mission … colonizing the solar system. If we look down the line a little farther … there are serious people with serious technology who are seriously looking at things like expanding where humans can live to the moon, to Mars, and beyond. How does that change the picture for humanity, and jobs, and your vision for the kind of future we’ll have? 

What science fiction do you love, and what has influenced your thinking?  

Ultimately, the questions boil down to:  

- Will you have a job? What will it look like?   

- What will changing jobs do to our economies? To trade?

The future ain’t what it used to be, to quote Yogi Berra. We chat with Theo Priestley -- a former tech evangelist for companies like SAP -- about the future of work, AI as our leader, and a coming’golden age or renaissance of human creativity.

Or how the future could really suck thanks to surveillance capitalism.

He's a TED speaker -- and has organized a TEDx event -- and has written for Wired, Forbes, the BBC, VentureBeat, and other media outlets. He now runs an "anti-consultancy," where he tells clients what they don't want to hear.