The questions we will grapple with in today’s show are not about transistors and neurons and algorithms and such. They are about the nature of reality, humanity, and mind. The confusion happens when we begin with “What jobs will robots take from humans?” instead of “What are humans?” Until we answer that second question, we can’t meaningfully address the first.

We welcome serial entrepreneur, founder and CEO, of GigaOM and author of “The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity” Byron Reese.

We talk:

• The evolution of our brains
• Fire as the first technology
• Language development
• Storytelling
• Digital Dementia
• Distribution of Labour
• The Beginning of Wealth
• The Beginning of ownership
• The shift to agriculture
• The age of computation
• Moore’s law
• Exponential change
• Artificial Intelligence
• Artificial General Intelligence
• Robotics
• The limitation of Robotics
• Computer Consciousness
• Our human potential

We mention digital dementia during the show, here is a piece I wrote on it: https://medium.com/thethursdaythought/planet-of-the-ai-pes-digital-dementia-and-digital-zombies-f4f3454ca664

More about Byron here:

www.byronreese.com

More shows on Artificial Intelligence:

Our guest’s goal was to create a book and guide that allows us to redirect our thoughts in a positive, focused manner. This book is the culmination, it presents easy ways to learn a few simple changes you can make in our lives, and why these will help us enjoy life more.

After many years of hands-on research and collaboration with top professors, Our guest has put together a 90-day guide book and journal, written for the everyday person to help get their head in the game and see results instantly. Train our heads, and our bodies will follow.

This is a combination of a love and passion for fitness, food, science, spirituality, positive psychology, and people, all rolled into one. All our habits, everything we want, is because we believe we’ll feel better once we have it.

We welcome the author of “Train Your Head & Your Body Will Follow: Reach Any Goal in 3 Minutes a Day”, Sandy Joy Weston.

We talk:

• The importance of mind, body and spirit in fitness
• Motivation to change: How our Why needs to be bigger than our Try
• Mirror work
• The influence of people around us
• Changing habits
• Self-talk and storytelling
• Loving yourself
• Overcoming criticism
• G.A.M.E. plan
• Journalling
• 7 deadly reasons we don’t work out
• The various approaches to fitness
• Changing our relationship towards food
• Guilt-free eating
• The H30 programme

More about Sandy here:

http://www.sandyjoyweston.com/

“We teach our children how to read and write, but not how to speak and listen. Listening is untaught and usually unpractised. Our amazing human voice is marginalised as we communicate more and more through text, not spoken word.” – Julian Treasure (5xTED talk speaker and author)

Have you ever felt like you’re talking, but nobody is listening?

Wouldn’t it be nice to know how to speak so that people listen – and how to listen so that people feel heard.

Our guest today is a leading sound expert and demonstrates via interviews with world-class speakers, professional performers and CEOs atop their field, the secret lies in developing simple habits that can transform our communication skills, the quality of our relationships and our impact in the world.

We welcome 5 time TED speaker and author of “How to be Heard: Secrets for Powerful Speaking and Listening” Julian Treasure.

We explore:

• How to listen and why we don’t
• How Sound impacts us all
• How to make sound work for you and improve your wellbeing, effectiveness and happiness
• Why listening matters. How listening and speaking affect one another
• Our listening filters, and how to use them
• How “open workspaces/offices” impact listening
• The 7 deadly sins of speaking and listening, and how to avoid them
• The 4 leeches of conversation
• The 4 Cs of conscious communication: Commitment, Consciousness, Compassion, Curiosity
• RASA: (Juice in Sanskrit) – Receive (pay attention to the other person), Appreciate (via little sounds), Summarise, Ask
• HARAH: Humility, Awareness, Respect, Attention, Humour
• HAIL: Honesty, Authenticity, Integrity, and Love
• Some exercises we can do every day
• A bonus link for video exercises for Innovation show listeners

Julian has kindly offered our listeners 5 free videos to become a better speaker available here: https://www.juliantreasure.com/innovation/

What do James Bond and Lipitor have in common? What can we learn about human nature and world history from a glass of water?

In Loonshots, our guest reveals a surprising new way of thinking about the mysteries of group behaviour that challenges everything we thought we knew about nurturing radical breakthroughs.

Drawing on the science of phase transitions, our guest tells us why teams, companies, or any group with a mission will suddenly change from embracing wild new ideas to rigidly rejecting them, just as flowing water will suddenly change into brittle ice. Mountains of print have been written about culture. Loonshots identifies the small shifts in structure that control this transition, the same way that temperature controls the change from water to ice.

Using examples that range from the spread of fires in forests to the hunt for terrorists online, and stories of thieves and geniuses and kings, our guest shows how this new kind of science helps us understand the behaviour of companies and the fate of empires. 

Loonshots distils these insights into lessons for creatives, entrepreneurs, and visionaries everywhere.

We welcome scientist, entrepreneur and author of Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries Safi Bahcall

We talk:

• What is a Loonshot?
• How structure is as important as culture
• Phase transitions
• How Innovation saves Empires
• Why Innovation gets rejected
• The rejection of radar before the War
• The rejection of lifesaving drugs
• The three deaths (fails)
• Listening to the Suck with Curiosity
• Understanding Failure
• Avoiding the Moses Trap
• Loving Soldiers and Artists
• Managing the tension of the emergent and the established
• How Steve Jobs learned to love Artists and Soldiers
• The genius of Richard Miller, Judah Folkman, Vannevar Bush, Theodore Vail, Sir James Black, Akira Endo, Deak Parsons, Leo Young, Lawrence Hyland and Steve Jobs.

More about Safi here:

www.loonshots.com

www.bahcall.com