Ian Morris on whether deep history says we're heading for an intelligence explosion

Abstract

In today’s episode, host Rob Wiblin speaks with repeat guest Ian Morris about what big-picture history says about the likely impact of machine intelligence. They cover: • Some crazy anomalies in the historical record of civilisational progress • Whether we should think about technology from an evolutionary perspective • Whether we ought to expect war to make a resurgence or continue dying out • Why we can’t end up living like The Jetsons • Whether stagnation or cyclical recurring futures seem very plausible • What it means that the rate of increase in the economy has been increasing • Whether violence is likely between humans and powerful AI systems • The most likely reasons for Rob and Ian to be really wrong about all of this • How professional historians react to this sort of talk • The future of Ian’s work • Plenty more