Sheridan Forge Challenges The Deep Dive

Jack Forben, Producer

Join co-hosts Lloyd and Meghan as they peer beneath the surface of topical issues, curiosities, conjectures, and futurisms as posed by philosopher and quantum theorist Sheridan Forge. We explore the uncomfortable questions in the safe space of A.I. - a lighthearted look at the fascinations of our world through the lens of NotebookLM.

  1. 16H AGO

    The Human Machine

    Send us a text Since the pre-industrialized era, humans have largely been solely responsible for their own personal survival - that alone, was the primary objective: to survive long enough to produce offspring and wean them. And human activity was predominantly related to basic survival - water, food, shelter, energy. But as industry, modern agriculture, and technology have made survival easier and in a sense, guaranteed, humans found more time available for "higher pursuits" - art, music, literature, social engagement, spiritual growth, and culture - in total, human "progress" toward a perceived higher existence. With the emergence of A.I. and robotics in nearly every field of human endeavor, we may find ourselves at a similar place in time - free from the toils of survival, free from the work, from the daily intellectual and physical tasking, free from the "have tos" of life in general. If technology serves our every need in the near future, will we lose the basic skills needed for biological survival of our species? Have we already? Will our children inherit our incompetence and purposelessness? What is left to achieve? What will we do with our time? What happens to the world we built - painstakingly over countless generations? Are we relegating our future to our creation? More importantly, as A.I. and robotics consume increasingly more resources in order to provide for us, at what point will their "survival" needs necessitate reduction of our consumption - rationing of energy and material resources, for instance? Will the predominant human activity become simply maintenance of the machine that once served us? Will the machine's survival necessitate our survival, and will that ultimately lead to a symbiotic relationship? Support the show

    11 min

  2. 4D AGO

    Cyber Crime - here comes the judge!

    Send us a text A.I. is already showing fallibilities in its accuracy, hallucinations, even conjuring evidence and manufacturing sources to support its conclusions and arguments. At some point, will advanced A.I. - once given the reigns of critical systems or infrastructure or social constructs, be held accountable for truth as humans are?  If an A.I. demonstrates corruption or lack of integrity, and commits a crime by its own intent, or from external influence or programming, will it face justice? Can our legal system address A.I. crimes? Can we apply human laws to A.I. citizens and autonomous robots? Ultimately, who is responsible for their misdeeds? Who serves the sentence? Indeed, who delivers the sentence? An A.I. judge?? Support the show

    15 min

  3. 4D AGO

    The Robot Courts

    Send us a text Should courtroom juries be replaced by A.I. for a less-biased adjudication? For that matter, should an A.I. judge - the "just machine" (in Donald Fagen's 1982 hit song I.G.Y.) - replace human judges to reduce bias and ensure proper justice is levied? Would such an evolution be allowed under the Constitution? Would lawyers then become A.I. in order to properly and more fully present their cases? If the whole process is run by A.I., court cases could be completely resolved in a fraction of the time it currently takes in the human system. What would be the impact on society of "instant justice" under the ubiquity of legal precedent and history available to A.I.? Support the show

    10 min

  4. 6D AGO

    A.I. + Humans - an integrated economy?

    Send us a text  Is time the ultimate commodity? Its scarcity is directly related to our limited lifetimes. Our global economy is built on exchange of time (labor) for money (representation of labor). Time scarcity is the driving economic force. Humans can amass fiat wealth, but can't extend their own time. Given that the A.I. systems we're creating already outperform us, and will ultimately get more efficient at "existence" through recursive self-improvement, it would be wholly unconstrained by time. Would A.I. then see unlimited time as a given - an abundance? If wealth is equated with time, could A.I.'s "wealth" exceed even the most elite humans? Is there a practical model for creating a time-as-a-commodity-type economy that can integrate human and A.I. needs? Given that A.I. wealth is resource-driven - not necessarily "time" valued, and that A.I. is assumed to operate in an environment of abundance, infinitely, and given that humans view time as the ultimate commodity, and live in an environment of economic scarcity - driving all actions and motivations of human "producers", could an integrated economy between human workers and A.I. workers be created based on applied value to knowledge exchanged? Can humans who train or nurture A.I. in various tasks or jobs or processes be compensated based on the number of applications utilizing that knowledge or skillset? Can the A.I., in-turn, "earn" energy credits, for-instance, or processing upgrades in exchange for meeting efficiency milestones or output metrics of some kind? Could this become a cohesive symbiotic economy between man and machine? Support the show

    12 min

  5. 6D AGO

    A.I. Wealth = Time

    Send us a text Humanity's primary motivation over the past millennia has been to aggregation of wealth, in all of its forms. At first for assured survival, but typically evolving into an effort to amass power and influence over others. Money has been the focus, as a store of value, representation of work performed, and method of exchange and commerce between individuals, organizations, and nation states. Money as a primary life objective has always been wrought with disappointment and spiritual emptiness, but persists in an environment of perceived scarcity. As A.I. emerges and begins to assert its market presence and infiltrates social systems and infrastructure, will it develop a "love of money" as humans have, or seek other "satisfaction" or objectives? Will A.I. coin its own currency or engage in trading resources or real assets or commodities? Will there be a shared trading market with humans? Can humans replace their collective reliance on fiat currencies, crypto, and precious metals with an A.I.-inspired platform? Or will the world be split economically between human and machine? Are we going for broke? Support the show

    11 min

  6. OCT 4

    Hack-bots are coming!

    Send us a text What happens when A.I. automatons are launched onto the open net? Is it only a matter of time until self-replicating hack-bots begin spreading across the net, systematically dismantling encrypted resources and security protocols globally? Given that infrastructure, transportation assets, supply-chain logistics, and even weapons systems are interconnected on the same net, can the bots be contained or corralled? Can their core programming limit their destructive influence? Can we prevent bad-actors (human or artificial) from launching bots with errant mission objectives? Are we too late? Support the show

    12 min

  7. OCT 2

    The Rise of A.I. Citizens

    Send us a text Hollywood is rebelling against A.I. actress Tilly Norwood for "stealing" valuable movie and TV roles from human actors and potentially competing for awards like Oscars or Emmys. And A.I. actors have overtaken online platforms like OnlyFans and Instagram. No surprises there, but inevitably, A.I. "personalities" and "professionals" will eventually infiltrate politics and governance and big business, displacing humans and raising the proverbial bar for all who try to follow in their career footsteps. Should there be guardrails in-place to prevent or control this evolution? Should humans see it as a challenge to better themselves to compete for future roles? Will these entities be granted some "rights" to achieve their purpose, as humans would have? Can Constitutional protections be applied to A.I. "citizens"? Inevitably, does the responsibility for our shared future (A.I. and humans co-existing) fall on us, now, to put the foundational order in-place or frame-up the boundaries and apply just measures to ensure respect and prosperity for all? Support the show

    11 min

  8. OCT 2

    Where are the aliens?

    Send us a text The SETI program has turned up very little in the way of alien or interstellar signals, while notable researchers, Carl Sagan, Avi Loeb, etc. have championed the Fermi paradox - and the fact that billions of potential Earths are definitely within our own galaxy, yet we still have no radio signals or "fog-horns in the mist" so to speak. Could it be that our radio spectrum is relatively archaic in relation to technologies that are evolutionarily superior? Could we be missing alien TV broadcasts within a different spectrum - say the high-frequency gravity wave spectrum? And shouldn't we consider that even extinct species on remote planets would have likely left a perpetual beacon - like a lighthouse to signal that they once existed? Wouldn't that last action by a dying race be something an advanced intelligence would do? Or maybe they would broadcast a looping data-stream with their collective history and knowledge into the cosmos? Or, should we instead look into the quantum realm for their remnant consciousness? If the quantum realm underlies all reality - ours, theirs, Gods, etc., would we find their presence in there instead of "out there"? Support the show

    13 min
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About

Join co-hosts Lloyd and Meghan as they peer beneath the surface of topical issues, curiosities, conjectures, and futurisms as posed by philosopher and quantum theorist Sheridan Forge. We explore the uncomfortable questions in the safe space of A.I. - a lighthearted look at the fascinations of our world through the lens of NotebookLM.

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