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Welcome to the Foresight Institute’s podcast! Since 1986, Foresight has advanced technologies for the long-term benefit of life, focusing on science and technology too early-stage or interdisciplinary for traditional institutions to support. Our podcast features technical seminars in Molecular Machines, Biotech, Intelligent Cooperation, Neurotech, and Spacetech, alongside our Existential Hope content and special episodes. To view presentations of our technical work and to stay up-to-date on ...
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Anna Chekhovich is the financial director of Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) from Russia. Targeted by Putin’s regime, the foundation has gradually lost access to financial institutions. FBK has been using Bitcoin since 2015 to help overcome financial repression. At that time the Russian government began blocking the bank accounts …
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Eric Drexler is a visionary scientist and engineer thought of as one of the “Founding fathers of nanotechnology”, the science of engineering on a molecular level. He is most known for being the driving force behind the concept of molecular nanotechnology (MNT) and its potential benefits for humans. His 1981 paper in the Proceedings of the National …
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Speaker Dr Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston is a neuroscientist at Monash University, Australia, where he investigates methods for characterising the nature of conscious experiences. In 2019, he obtained his PhD from The University of Melbourne, where he researched how genetic and environmental factors affect cognition. His research interests range from t…
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Molly Mackinlay has extensive work experience in various roles at different companies. She is currently the Head of Engineering, Product, & Research Development at Protocol Labs, where they lead teams working on the IPFS Project. Prior to this, Molly worked at Google where they held multiple roles including Google Search PM II, Google Forms PM, Goo…
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Anders Sandberg's research centres on estimating the capabilities and underlying science of future technologies, methods of reasoning about long-term futures, existential and global catastrophic risk, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), as well as societal and ethical issues surrounding human enhancement. Topics of particular inter…
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Barbara Diehl is a proven expert in entrepreneurship, innovation and education and has been facilitating partnerships with science and business at SPRIND since 2020. Prior to joining SPRIND, she had a successful career in the UK and Ireland for 10 years at the Oxford University Entrepreneurship Centre and the Innovation Academy at University Colleg…
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Eli Dourado is the Chief Economist at the Abundance Institute. He is a former Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and he has studied and written about a wide range of technology policy issues, including Internet governance, intellectual property, cybersecurity, and cryptocurrency. Session Summary This episode co…
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Gustavs Zilgalvis is a technology and security policy fellow within RAND's Global and Emerging Risks Division, a Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy candidate at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and a founding Director at the Center for Space Governance. At RAND, he is specializing in the geopolitical and econ…
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Speaker Amanda Ngo is a 2024 Foresight Fellow. Recently, she has built Elicit.org from inception to 100k+ monthly users, leading a team of 5 engineers and designers, presented on forecasting, safe AI systems, and LLM research tools at conferences (EAG, Foresight Institute), ran a 60-person hackathon with FiftyYears using LLMs to improve our wellbei…
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Jeffrey Ladish Before starting Palisade, Jeffrey helped build out the information security program at Anthropic through his security consulting company, Gordian. Jeffrey has also helped dozens of tech companies, philanthropic organizations, and existential-risk-focused projects get started with secure infrastructure. Summary Ladish discusses the in…
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Speaker Kristian Rönn is the CEO and co-founder of Normative. He has a background in mathematics, philosophy, computer science and artificial intelligence. Before he started Normative he worked at the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute on issues related to global catastrophic risks. Session Summary When people talk about today’s bi…
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Speaker Divya is the co-founder of the Collective Intelligence Project, which advances collective intelligence capabilities for the democratic and effective governance of transformative technologies. She serves as Associate Political Economist and Social Technologist at Microsoft’s Office of the CTO. She also holds positions as a research director …
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Speaker Siméon Campos is president and founder of SaferAI, an organization working on developing the infrastructure for general-purpose AI auditing and risk management. He worked on large language models for the last two years and is highly committed to making AI safer. Session Summary “I think safe AGI can both prevent a catastrophe and offer a ve…
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Speaker Dean Woodley Ball is a Research Fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center and author of the Substack Hyperdimensional. His work focuses on artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, and the future of governance. Previously, he was Senior Program Manager for the Hoover Institution's State and Local Governance Initiative. Key H…
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Dr. Watt is an investment associate at Ascension Ventures, an investment firm specializing in healthcare technology. She previously co-founded and served as CSO of Pro-Arc Diagnostics, a personalized medicine company operating in St. Louis. Key Highlights Watt discusses her career journey and insights into venture capital investing in neuroscience …
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James Pethokoukis is a senior fellow and the DeWitt Wallace Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, where he analyzes US economic policy, writes and edits the AEIdeas blog, and hosts AEI’s Political Economy podcast. He is also a contributor to CNBC and writes the Faster, Please! newsletter on Substack. He is the author of The Conservative Futur…
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The Flourishing Foundation In February 2024, we partnered with the Future of Life Institute on a hackathon to design institutions that can guide and govern the development of AI. The winner of the hackathon was the Flourishing Foundation, who are focused on our relationship with AI and other emerging technologies. They challenge innovators to envis…
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Dr Roman Yampolskiy holds a PhD degree from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo. There he was a recipient of a four year National Science Foundation IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) fellowship. His main areas of interest are behavioral biometrics, digital forensics, pattern …
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This episode features an interview with the 1st place winners of our 2045 Worldbuilding challenge! Why Worldbuilding? We consider worldbuilding an essential tool for creating inspiring visions of the future that can help drive real-world change. Worldbuilding helps us explore crucial 'what if' questions for the future, by constructing detailed scen…
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Christian Schroeder de Witt | Secret Collusion Among Generative AI Agents: Toward Multi-Agent Security
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Christian is a researcher in foundational AI, information security, and AI safety, with a current focus on the limits of undetectability. He is a pioneer in the field of Multi-Agent Security (masec.ai), which aims to overcome the safety and security issues inherent in contemporary approaches to multi-agent AI. His recent works include a breakthroug…
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This episode features an interview with the 2nd place winners of our 2045 Worldbuilding challenge! Why Worldbuilding? We consider worldbuilding an essential tool for creating inspiring visions of the future that can help drive real-world change. Worldbuilding helps us explore crucial 'what if' questions for the future, by constructing detailed scen…
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Evelyne Yehudit Bischof, MD, MPH, FEFIM, FMH is Associate Professor at the Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Chief Associate Physician of Internal Medicine and Oncology at the University Hospital Renji of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, and Emergency Medicine Physician at the Shanghai East International Medical Ce…
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This episode features an interview with the 3rd place winners of our 2045 Worldbuilding challenge! Why Worldbuilding? We consider worldbuilding an essential tool for creating inspiring visions of the future that can help drive real-world change. Worldbuilding helps us explore crucial 'what if' questions for the future, by constructing detailed scen…
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Speaker Stuart Buck is the Executive Director of the Good Science Project, and a Senior Advisor at the Social Science Research Council. Formerly, he was the Vice President of Research at Arnold Ventures. His efforts to improve research transparency and reproducibility have been featured in Wired, New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, The Economist, …
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Speaker Tom Burns graduated with First Class Honours in his Bachelor of Science from Monash University in 2013, exploring the mathematical features of human perception of non-linguistic sounds. Shifting to philosophy, he completed a Master of Bioethics in 2014, analyzing the ethics of euthanasia legislation in Australia, followed by a World Health …
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Jason Crawford, Roots of Progress | Sustainable Technological Futures | Xhope Worldbuilding Course
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Jason Crawford is the founder of The Roots of Progress, where he writes and speaks about the history of technology and the philosophy of progress. Previously, he spent 18 years as a software engineer, engineering manager, and startup founder. Worldbuilding Course This session is a part of THE WORLDBUILDING CHALLENGE: CO-CREATING THE WORLD OF 2045. …
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Robert Lempert (Ph.D., Applied Physics, Harvard University) is a senior physical scientist at RAND. He is the director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for Longer Range Global Policy and the Future Human Condition, a principal researcher at RAND, and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His research focuses on risk ma…
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Speaker Anthony is the Executive Director & Secretary of the Board at the Future of Life Institute, and the Faggin Presidential Professor for the Physics of Information at UC Santa Cruz. He has done research in an array of topics in theoretical cosmology, gravitation, statistical mechanics, and other fields of physics. He also has strong interest i…
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Existential Hope Podcast: Hannu Rajaniemi | On Being a Sci-Fi Author and Biotech Entrepreneur
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Speaker Hannu Rajaniemi is a Finnish American author of science fiction and fantasy, who writes in both English and Finnish. He lives in Oakland, California, and was a founding director of a commercial research organisation ThinkTank Maths. Episode Perhaps most famously known for his 2010 release, The Quantum Thief, Rajaniemi is settled firmly in b…
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Speaker Allison Duettmann is the president and CEO of Foresight Institute. She founded Existentialhope.com, co-edited Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy, co-authored Gaming the Future, and co-initiated The Longevity Prize. She advises companies and projects, such as Cosmica, and The Roots of Progress Fellowship, and is on the Executive Comm…
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Jeff Sebo is an American philosopher. He is a clinical associate professor of environmental studies, director of the animal studies MA program, and affiliated professor of bioethics, medical ethics, and philosophy at New York University. Summary In this episode, Jeff discusses the consciousness, sentience, agency, and moral and legal status of non-…
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Jules Hedges is a mathematician and computer scientist who was a pioneer of the recently developed field of applied category theory. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Categorical Cybernetics (https://cybercat.institute), a nonprofit organization for research and open-source software development, and 20squares (https://20squares.xyz/), a start…
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This month, we talk to David Pearce, a thought leader who is always pushing the boundaries of human potential. Pearce, a philosopher and bioethicist, is best known for his advocacy of transhumanism – the movement that seeks to enhance human capabilities through technology. We'll explore his ideas on overcoming aging, achieving radical life extensio…
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Sumner Norman is a pioneering figure at the nexus of neuroscience, engineering, and impact-driven entrepreneurship. His research in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) is forging new paths in neurotechnology to transform the lives of those with neurological injuries or diseases. Sumner is the co-founder and CEO of Forest Neurotech, a non-profit “focus…
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Trent McConaghy is the Founder and CTO of Ocean Protocol and BigchainDB, specializing in AI and blockchain technology to democratize data and AI. His work includes advancing decentralized data solutions and ensuring equitable access to AI technologies. McConaghy also contributes to the IPDB Foundation and advises the Estonian E-residency program Ke…
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t Panellists: Alex Fedintsev, Leon Peshkin, Yuri Deigin, and Aleksandra Singer. Recorded at Vision Weekend France 2023. Key Highlights They discussed the field's growth in public acceptance and funding over the past five years – they noted that, whilst reprogramming and longevity research are advancing, overall outcomes in the field haven't been as…
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Panellists: Andre Losekrug, Michael Gibson, Anders Sandberg, and Robin Hanson. Recorded at Vision Weekend France 2023. Energy Key Highlights: Excitement about energy advancements, specifically in the field of fusion. This could lead to an increased focus on policy changes to address climate change and the building of reactors. The growing entrepren…
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Danielle Strachman is a cofounder and general partner of 1517. She has worked with young entrepreneurs for about a decade. In 2010, during the founding of the Thiel Fellowship, Danielle joined to lead the design and operations. She's worked with some of the most prestigious founders, such as Vitalik Buterin and Ritesh Agarwal. Previous to her work …
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Panellists: Divya Siddarth, Jonathan Prasserat-Palmbach, Lewis Hammond, Primavera De Filippi, Stuart Armstrong, and Trent Mcconaghy. Recorded at Vision Weekend France 2023. Key Highlights Panellists discussed the potential development of intelligent cooperation between humans and AI, focusing on secure collaboration and cryptography methods. Concer…
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Panellists: Anders Sandberg, Bradley Love, Robin Hanson, Brett Kagan Recorded at Vision Weekend France 2023. Key Highlights The panel explored how brain emulation is increasingly becoming a viable possibility with technological advancements. They discussed the availability of tools that help understand the neurochemistry and biology of cells, which…
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Panellists: Alexis Courbet, Erik Benson, Stephane Redon, Dean Thomas. Recorded at Vision Weekend France. Key Highlights The panel discusses molecular nanotechnology and the potential for compact machines to replace industrial facilities. They discuss advances in the field, which include protein design, protein folding, and dynamic structures that r…
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Gus Docker hosts The Future of Life Institute podcast, which features conversations with prominent researchers, policy experts, philosophers, and influential thinkers of all kinds. Gus studied philosophy and computer science at the University of Copenhagen and is active in Effective Altruism Denmark. Despite the ongoing threat of existential risks …
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Dr. Scott Hubbard has been a leader in space exploration for almost 50 years. His career includes a National Lab, a start-up venture, NASA, and Stanford. At NASA, Dr. Hubbard is best known as Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, the first Mars Program Director (aka the "Mars Czar"), and the founder of NASA's Astrobiology Institute. Key Highligh…
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Mark Hamalainen is cofounder of the Longevity Biotech Fellowship. His career has progressed from manual bench work in academia, to lab automation at Synthego, to longevity movement building - always seeking better methods and higher leverage ways to accelerate progress. He shares an actionable roadmap for an unlimited healthy lifespan, divided into…
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Jason Crawford is the founder of The Roots of Progress, where he writes and speaks about the history of technology and the philosophy of progress. Previously, he spent 18 years as a software engineer, engineering manager, and startup founder. Session Summary: Jason envisages a future marked by dynamic, continuous progress, encapsulated in the conce…
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Casey Handmer is the founder of Terraform Industries, a company dedicated to gigascale atmospheric hydrocarbon synthesis. His method of creating hydrocarbons promises to be a cheaper and cleaner alternative to traditional oil wells. Known for his work as an astrophysicist, innovator, and Mars aficionado, Casey is eager to guide us through the intri…
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Matjaž Leonardis, in collaboration with David Deutsch at the University of Oxford, is advancing the understanding of a theorem by Popper and Miller from 1983, offering new insights into Bayesian updating and its standard interpretations. His research interests span learning and creativity in both humans and machines. Beyond his academic pursuits, M…
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Dr. Anders Sandberg is a Senior Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, where he specializes in the management of low-probability, high-impact risks and future technology capabilities. With a Ph.D. in computational neuroscience from Stockholm University, his expertise spans computer science, neuroscience, and medic…
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Kipply Chen is part of the data team at Anthropic. Key Highlights The swift pace of alignment potentially outpacing AI advancements. Challenges of coordinating predictive and base model alignment across labs. Security and policy's critical role in AI safety. A likely surge in legal issues concerning training data misuse. The push for an open-source…
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Trent McConaghy is the founder of Ocean Protocol, a decentralized platform aimed at democratizing AI data sharing while maintaining privacy. With a career starting in AI research for national defence, McConaghy transitioned to entrepreneurship, where his first startup, ADA, was acquired by Synopsys in 2004. His work continued with Solido, an AI ven…
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