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Madhumita Murgia: We’re going to start off today’s episode with somebody named Anders Sandberg.
Anders Sandberg: I’m senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. And I’m somewhat of a futurist, somewhat of a philosopher ideal with questions about the emerging technologies, the big risks to humanity, what we can say about the long-term future.
Madhumita Murgia: For some people, people like Sandberg, the development of powerful AI isn’t just about creating a useful technological tool. They see it as the key to the evolution of the human species. Sandberg calls himself an extropian.
Anders Sandberg: So extropian is a version of transhumanism, which is a wider term for the idea that the human condition is great but we could probably use technology to make it even better — extend our lives, become smarter, make our bodies fit our own visions, etc.
Madhumita Murgia: Extropy is the opposite of entropy. So instead of the idea that the world around us is always descending into chaos, extropy suggests that things could get better over...