Aug. 2, 2025

Beyond the Turing Test: The Artificial Consciousness Challenge - Prof. Ronjon Nag (Stanford)

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Beyond the Turing Test: The Artificial Consciousness Challenge - Prof. Ronjon Nag (Stanford)

This podcast episode features a fascinating and philosophical conversation between Rishad Usmani and Ronjon Nag, delving into the nature of reality, consciousness, the impact of AI on humanity, and even the quest for an "aging vaccine."

Defining Reality and Consciousness: The conversation kicks off with differing views on reality. Rishad posits it as a subjective, sense-limited interface, while Ronjon, from an engineering perspective, defines it pragmatically as what people perceive, including mental realities like sleep and daydreaming. They then explore the elusive concept of consciousness, referencing Stanislaus Dehaene's three types (autonomous, deliberate, environmental) and Roger Penrose's quantum-based theories. Ronjon suggests that true consciousness, beyond mere mimicry, might require a "living" and "embodied" connection, which current fixed silicon AI lacks.

AI and the Human Qualities: Rishad challenges whether AI could possess elements of consciousness, given its autonomous processes, outputs, and inputs. Ronjon counters by proposing an "artificial consciousness test" focusing on concepts like reincarnation or empathy, which would be meaningless to a non-living entity. He introduces various "quotients" beyond IQ and EQ, such as Ambition Quotient (AQ), Compassion Quotient (CQ), and Freedom Quotient (FQ), arguing that AI currently lacks the internal drive or spontaneous nature of humans.

Free Will and Tribalism: The discussion touches on the controversial idea of human free will (or lack thereof, as Sam Harris suggests), noting that our experiences and DNA heavily influence us. However, Ronjon highlights our unique ability to seek new experiences and evolve. This leads into the human "need to organize in tribes," originally for survival, now manifesting in new ways. They ponder if companies might become the dominant "tribes" of the future, potentially wielding more power than countries and optimizing for the

Join Rishad Usmani in a profound conversation with engineer and investor Ronjon Nag as they explore the very fabric of our existence in an age of rapidly advancing AI. This episode ventures far beyond typical tech talk, diving deep into philosophical questions about what constitutes reality, the elusive nature of consciousness (both human and artificial), the future of work in an era of abundance, and the persistent human drive for tribalism.

Ronjon Nag, with his pragmatic engineering perspective, offers fascinating insights into how AI is not just changing technology, but reshaping our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. From the potential for an "aging vaccine" to the unsettling implications of a world where digital truth is easily manipulated, this episode will challenge your perceptions and spark new ways of thinking about humanity's trajectory.

In this episode, you will learn:

  • How engineers define reality: Beyond subjective perception, exploring the physical world and mental projections.
  • The elusive nature of consciousness: A deep dive into different theories, from autonomous processes to quantum forces, and whether AI can ever truly achieve it.
  • The "Artificial Consciousness Test": What it would take for a machine to truly feel and understand human concepts.
  • The future of work in an AI-powered world: Will AI usher in an era of abundance where humans no longer need to work? The "lump of labor" theory vs. insatiable human desires.
  • Human tribalism in a globalized world: Why do we cling to groups, and how might companies become the new "tribes" in a shifting power dynamic?
  • The changing nature of truth: How AI's ability to create deepfakes and fake information threatens digital reality and elevates the importance of trusted curators and physical interaction.
  • Moonshot thinking in longevity science: Ronjon's groundbreaking work on an mRNA "aging vaccine" and pan-cancer solutions.

Guest Bio: Ronjon Nag is an accomplished engineer, inventor, and investor, with a deep expertise in AI, longevity sciences, and venture capital. His pragmatic approach to complex problems offers a unique lens through which to view the future of technology and its impact on humanity.

WEBVTT

00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:05.620
Hi Ron John, thanks so much for joining us today.

00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:11.640
It's so nice to be here Let's start with Maybe

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a simple but difficult to answer question is

00:00:14.300 --> 00:00:18.839
how do you define reality? In my perspective

00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:23.960
our reality is more a subjective Interface and

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we're limited by our five senses and how we perceive

00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:31.239
reality Tell me a bit more about how you define

00:00:31.239 --> 00:00:34.520
reality. How do humans play into that? And with

00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:36.939
the advent of AI, how is a reality changing?

00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:43.420
Yeah, so I'm an engineer. I'm sort of a pragmatist.

00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:51.780
And, you know, so I'm probably less on the spiritual

00:00:51.780 --> 00:00:55.359
side, probably. But so I would sort of define

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reality is um you know often there's a phrase

00:00:59.320 --> 00:01:05.640
uh perception is reality people perceive it it

00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:10.040
is real right and sometimes people are in denial

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of a particular thing but uh other people are

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perceiving things you have to realize that so

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reality is the physical world uh reality might

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be something you are projecting And if other

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people are perceiving it, then that is part of

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the reality universe that you are part of. Now,

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there are realities in the mind, certainly time

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travel. How do you do time travel? Well, you

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go to sleep. So when you're asleep, it's a different

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reality. We've all sort of gone to sleep and

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woken up and thought, oh, I've just woken up.

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I've only been asleep 10 minutes. Without you,

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I've been asleep eight hours. There's sort of

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time compression to be able to do things. So

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part of it is the living reality, awake reality.

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And then there's the... Sleeping reality what

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you are thinking about what the brain is thinking

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about and what the brain embodies and then in

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between daydreaming Where you have reality in

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your mind and you're not sure whether it's possible.

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So when you're in inventing When you're in invention

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space when you're trying to think of new ideas

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or solutions to the problem You're simulating

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reality in your mind. So a long -winded answer

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but Maybe I'll answer to that, your question.

00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:48.759
Thank you. And how does consciousness fit into

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this framework of reality where you're breaking

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reality down into sleeping reality, daydreaming

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reality, and an awake reality? Is the thought

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process there that there are different levels

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of consciousness, which we know from anesthesia,

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but we tend to frame the different levels of

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consciousness in terms of how much input we perceive

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and how sedated we are. Talk to me a bit about

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consciousness. How does reality, or the three

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different subtypes of reality play into consciousness?

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Right, yeah. So, thousands of people for thousands

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of years have been trying to think about what

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is consciousness? And so, I feel myself an amateur

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in this, but I don't feel myself unwilling to

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opine on this. What is consciousness? People

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have been trying to figure that out for a long

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time from many different disciplines. Stanislas

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Dehaene in Paris, he talked about three types

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of consciousness. Subtype one where you can think

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of is the autonomous consciousness where you're

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doing things without even knowing it you're breathing

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you're Blinking your eyes without even knowing

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that you're doing it Then there's consciousness

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type two where you have a more deliberate Action

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points on what you're thinking about from an

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internal paper paper basis so i am talking you

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are talking we're doing that deliberately um

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and there's consciousness type two where which

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is uh um sorry type three where you're looking

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at consciousness uh where you are with respect

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to your environment and to the rest of the world

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uh so that's one field of sort of definition

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of what consciousness is. There are other ideas.

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Roger Penrose, he got the Nobel Prize but not

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for this. He got it for physics. Now he thinks

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that consciousness is really embodied by quantum

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forces in the molecular makeup in your cells

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in your brain and those forces are really the

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embodiment of consciousness. And maybe that's

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why you get love at first sight. Maybe you get

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tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny little forces going back

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and forth. They're so infinitesimal, they're

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really not really measurable by you and I, but

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maybe they're there. And then there's other people

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who think, well, one of the reasons it's difficult

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to define is it's like a fundamental like time

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and space. It's like asking a blind person to

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describe what color is. It's just a fundamental

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sort of mode where you can't define it in other

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fields. It is a field by itself. uh uh you know

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people have tried to study the brain uh uh francis

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crick and christophe cock francis crick uh uh

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discovered dna of course in the last uh uh in

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his latter part of life started looking at the

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brain uh started looking for a piece of the brain

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that maybe that embodied awareness and self -awareness

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in the brain. So I don't think people know, I

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don't know the answer. I'm not clever enough

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of my pay grade, but this is what I'm thinking

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of, that consciousness is kind of a fundamental,

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that as such, it's gonna be difficult to define.

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And that's why it's maybe... difficult for a

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machine to have consciousness because it needs

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to be attached to something living needs to be

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embodied and if you can't have it attached to

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cells that are living then maybe it's going to

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be difficult to get real consciousness that the

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living beings think about but you know it's possible

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to have biosilicon hybrids in semi -conductor

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architectures where maybe you do have some living

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components where things grow and add on versus

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a silicon chip which is fixed. It may be pre

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-programmable, a chip, you know, so -called EPROM

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or a application -specific circuit that may be

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specific for particular application they can

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be put together just like your laptop you can

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program it in different things but it doesn't

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live it's fixed so i think consciousness needs

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to be connected to something you know if we all

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unfortunately there are some people who have

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no locked in syndrome where they can think perfectly

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but it can't move can't move a muscle, can't

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speak, maybe they blink their eyes, but they

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can think perfectly and obviously they're much

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more limited in what they can do. So really computers

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are like that, they can't move, they can't, often

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they see at R .B. Hest, they listen at R .B.

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Hest, they can't control when they see and not

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see. And so if we start to get robotics, robots,

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where the machine can actually move around and

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sense things, maybe you get stronger consciousness

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framework that living beings actually have. So

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again, I'm sorry about my long -winded answer.

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It's probably an engineering focused answer on

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what consciousness might make up of. Let's go

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a bit deeper deeper here and I will push back

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a little bit Yeah, if we break down consciousness

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into the three core components or the three types

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of consciousness being involuntary or autonomous

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processes or reflexes or breathing Outputs like

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verbal communication such as us talking or in

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us communicating and inputs such as hearing and

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feeling and the senses we have. One could, and

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I suppose I'm making this argument, that machines

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can possess those three components. Machines

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have involuntary or autonomous processes. Programs

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are running, computers are running, there's things

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happening in the background that are always happening.

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Now with AI, machines have outputs as well. They

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communicate with us. and they're able to take

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input. The Chad GPT is a very simple example.

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You can talk to it, takes digest that input,

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does whatever it does with it, and it gives an

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output. So by that definition, why does it need

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to be a carbon life form? Why can't machines

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possess consciousness? And maybe as he said,

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we just cannot define consciousness. And the

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only thing we know is is you personally are conscious,

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and this is kind of going to the simulation argument

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of the world, the only person I can know is conscious

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as myself. And everything else could be a simulation,

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this conversation could be a simulation in my

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consciousness, but I cannot prove that you are

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conscious, I can only prove that I am conscious.

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And I know that was a long -winded question,

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but let's opine on that a little bit. Yeah, so

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can machines be conscious? Um, I think the difference

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is it's not whether it's carbon or silicon. It's

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a context concept of clearly machines can answer

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questions like a human can right now. We've passed

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the Turing test now many times. Um, uh, you know,

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arguably, you know, can it think many, many steps

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ahead? Maybe a couple of steps ahead, a few steps

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ahead. Um, can it actually be aware of its existence,

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of its feelings. So I can, in fact I've done

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this, I've got a digital twin, you know, people

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can talk to my digital twin and they can work

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on my digital twin which will, they can talk

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to it and it looks like it's me. But does it

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feel like me? So to be able to know whether a

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being is conscious, it won't be something as

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simple as a Turing test, which merely tells you

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what is a, no, does it behave like a human? You're

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gonna have to talk to the machine and give it

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concepts that you would only know about and be

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able to intelligently articulate if you were

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alive so there's something called the artificial

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consciousness test where you have an artificial

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consciousness test and you give it questions

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that will only make sense if you were alive if

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you had consciousness so you might give it have

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a discussion you might actually have this interview

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might be one of the some of the concepts we've

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talked about already if you ask the machine about

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it um and you'd have to probably wall off the

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machine from the internet so it can't look it

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up. And you'd probably also have to wall it off

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of some of the training data so it doesn't interpolate.

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Maybe it trains on this interview and can guess

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what the answer should be. But you might have

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a discussion about reincarnation, whether you

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believe it or not. But if you're not alive, it'll

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be a meaningless concept, reincarnation. You

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might have a discussion about a movie where someone

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switched from a seven -year -old to a 30 -year

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-old. I forget the name of that movie, but at

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least Tom Hanks is in that movie. Again, if you're

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not alive, you might not be able to make any

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sense of what that means. What does it feel like

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to switch, you know, if you're 30 years old and

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you're now seven years old and vice versa, what

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does that feel like? And if you're not alive,

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you may not be able to, you'll be able to have

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some discussion, but it may not be a sensible,

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intelligent interaction. So there is a couple

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of schools of thought that right now GPT is a

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level of, you know, a single PhD in one topic.

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Can we get to superhuman? intelligence and some

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people think is as early as 2029 where you have

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a computer that's as clever as a PhD in every

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topic and it really is surpasses all intelligence

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in all humanity to be able to optimize and provide

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new works completely beyond what humans can go

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about and do at an accelerated pace. And at that

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point, is it a new species? you know, does it

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have feeling? We know we've sort of developed

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our ideas with respect to animal testing over

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the last few decades. Experiments that were done

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decades ago might be different to experiments

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done today where there's much more inspection

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where non -human primates, even dolphins, are

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given extra care on what experiments can be done

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versus a versus a mouse but even mice there's

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more rules about what how animals should be treated

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in medical experiments and certainly you know

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as you go down the down the animal hierarchy

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they don't get as many privileges as non -human

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primates do so people start to think you know

00:15:58.769 --> 00:16:04.049
this it's not a sort of zero or one there's a

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spectrum of of aliveness of consciousness across

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the animal kingdom and across humans and machines

00:16:15.350 --> 00:16:18.809
I'll stop there for a second so you can assimilate

00:16:18.809 --> 00:16:23.730
that. Yeah, I think there's a risk and this is

00:16:23.730 --> 00:16:27.490
kind of what we do right now is entities or organisms

00:16:27.490 --> 00:16:31.389
or an amalgamation of molecules or cells that

00:16:31.389 --> 00:16:34.649
are more similar to us or we say they're more

00:16:34.649 --> 00:16:40.750
alive or they're more conscious and more aware.

00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:44.679
And at the risk of maybe being a little bit not,

00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:50.779
a little bit crass maybe, if you define life

00:16:50.779 --> 00:16:56.539
and living by the ability to grow, adapt to stimuli,

00:16:57.460 --> 00:17:01.860
reproduce and consume energy, cancer is arguably

00:17:01.860 --> 00:17:06.440
more alive than us. It grows faster, it consumes

00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:10.410
more energy, it reproduces faster. So I think

00:17:10.410 --> 00:17:13.230
when we get into these definitions of consciousness,

00:17:13.589 --> 00:17:19.890
awareness, and alive itself, I worry often we

00:17:19.890 --> 00:17:22.970
frame them with the lens of, are they like us?

00:17:24.329 --> 00:17:27.230
Do they look like us? Do they talk like us? Do

00:17:27.230 --> 00:17:30.490
we think they have empathy? And these are all

00:17:30.490 --> 00:17:35.769
very subjective terms. How do you think about

00:17:35.769 --> 00:17:41.599
defining these things by removing the human element,

00:17:41.819 --> 00:17:44.539
do you think we will get to a better truth? And,

00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:47.240
you know, we have to be cognizant of the goal

00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:51.200
of maybe science and experimentation is to make

00:17:51.200 --> 00:17:53.960
our lives better. So there is a selfish goal

00:17:53.960 --> 00:17:56.740
there. And by our, I mean, our human species,

00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:00.220
our humankind's lives better. So we may get to

00:18:00.220 --> 00:18:02.640
an objective truth where we, you know, and we

00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:04.579
kind of know this with climate change and the

00:18:04.579 --> 00:18:07.380
extension of species where the problem is us.

00:18:07.529 --> 00:18:10.250
Like we are the reason climate change is happening

00:18:10.250 --> 00:18:13.309
and so many species have gone extinct. But we

00:18:13.309 --> 00:18:15.849
have to take that knowledge and reframe it, okay,

00:18:16.109 --> 00:18:18.670
how can we mitigate against these risks but also

00:18:18.670 --> 00:18:22.609
improve humankind? And talk to me about how,

00:18:22.609 --> 00:18:25.150
you know, when we make these definitions, should

00:18:25.150 --> 00:18:28.529
we just remove humanness from them and then bring

00:18:28.529 --> 00:18:32.490
it back at the end? Or should we continue looking

00:18:32.490 --> 00:18:34.609
at them through a human list? And I'm being a

00:18:34.609 --> 00:18:37.529
bit pedantic here because I'm human. So I have

00:18:37.529 --> 00:18:39.809
to look at things through a human lens by definition.

00:18:42.150 --> 00:18:45.130
Well, I think, I don't think it has to be looked

00:18:45.130 --> 00:18:49.130
through a human lens. Like I said, like the artificial

00:18:49.130 --> 00:18:51.309
consciousness test, you know, that's independent

00:18:51.309 --> 00:18:57.710
of being a machine or a human. There might be

00:18:57.710 --> 00:19:01.089
other paradigms. We know that machines do things

00:19:01.089 --> 00:19:04.150
better than humans already. They can calculate

00:19:04.150 --> 00:19:10.940
large numbers. They can read books now quicker

00:19:10.940 --> 00:19:16.519
than us. They can actually come up with reasoning

00:19:16.519 --> 00:19:19.119
quicker than us. They still make mistakes, just

00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:25.519
like we make mistakes. The question is, when

00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:28.299
we talk about intelligence, sometimes people

00:19:28.299 --> 00:19:33.000
ask me, when will a machine become intelligent?

00:19:33.319 --> 00:19:37.990
There are different types of intelligence. And

00:19:37.990 --> 00:19:41.410
if you look at it through the human's scape,

00:19:41.609 --> 00:19:44.970
you might say. These are intelligence and these

00:19:44.970 --> 00:19:47.490
may be very difficult to apply to a machine.

00:19:48.289 --> 00:19:50.990
So there's IQ. We all know what IQ is and that's

00:19:50.990 --> 00:19:53.890
machines are pretty good at IQ. They can bring

00:19:53.890 --> 00:19:57.450
up facts and they can do calculations, lightning

00:19:57.450 --> 00:20:03.910
speed, huge knowledge bases. But a very common

00:20:03.910 --> 00:20:07.349
term in the last few decades is EQ, emotional

00:20:07.349 --> 00:20:10.950
question. Are you interested in sitting next

00:20:10.950 --> 00:20:13.589
to this person for 12 hours on an aeroplane?

00:20:14.170 --> 00:20:15.829
Does this person have empathy? There's certain

00:20:15.829 --> 00:20:21.130
people who have great empathy with other people.

00:20:21.769 --> 00:20:24.289
They can sense when things are right and wrong

00:20:24.289 --> 00:20:27.029
and maybe in the medical profession they sort

00:20:27.029 --> 00:20:29.289
of build up that in particular because they need

00:20:29.289 --> 00:20:33.890
to know the unwritten... phenomena that are going

00:20:33.890 --> 00:20:36.430
on that the patient either doesn't want to tell

00:20:36.430 --> 00:20:41.289
or can't tell you or can't articulate it in a

00:20:41.289 --> 00:20:44.910
way that medicine needs to know to be able to

00:20:44.910 --> 00:20:49.329
treat the patient. But that's really even at

00:20:49.329 --> 00:20:53.289
the simplest level, EQ, we have things like qualia,

00:20:53.809 --> 00:20:57.670
which is higher level moral codes, higher level

00:20:57.670 --> 00:21:02.630
emotions. So you can certainly you know, use

00:21:02.630 --> 00:21:06.250
AI to detect when someone's happy or someone's

00:21:06.250 --> 00:21:14.450
sad. But what about envy or guilt? How would

00:21:14.450 --> 00:21:19.089
you do implement guilt mathematically? Right.

00:21:19.730 --> 00:21:24.269
So from internal into the machine. So the machine

00:21:24.269 --> 00:21:27.869
might say, well, OK, I'm seeing things that are

00:21:27.869 --> 00:21:31.640
good that are happening in the world. So for

00:21:31.640 --> 00:21:35.460
example, my existence as a machine, I'm helping

00:21:35.460 --> 00:21:37.819
lots of people answer lots of questions, but

00:21:37.819 --> 00:21:41.359
I'm using lots of energy. So sort of maybe a

00:21:41.359 --> 00:21:44.259
positive loop and a negative feedback and control

00:21:44.259 --> 00:21:46.220
theory. In engineering, we call that control

00:21:46.220 --> 00:21:48.519
theory. It's very common where you're setting

00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:52.319
up motors and you want the motor not to spin

00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:54.799
too fast, but not to spin too slow and get enough

00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:57.579
energy, not to heat up, everything becomes even.

00:22:01.309 --> 00:22:09.410
So, that's what is different. IQ, EQ, that's

00:22:09.410 --> 00:22:12.269
just the basic levels. Now the next thing is

00:22:12.269 --> 00:22:18.549
maybe AQ, right? So IQ, are you clever? EQ, are

00:22:18.549 --> 00:22:20.890
you willing to sit next to this person? Are they

00:22:20.890 --> 00:22:26.670
nice to be with? So they might meet those points.

00:22:27.150 --> 00:22:30.390
AQ is ambition quotient. So it's an autonomous

00:22:30.390 --> 00:22:34.869
thing where you want to drive and drive ahead.

00:22:34.950 --> 00:22:37.910
So you might find someone who's clever and nice

00:22:37.910 --> 00:22:40.970
to be with, but they have no ambition. You know,

00:22:41.089 --> 00:22:45.789
they're shallow, right? And they don't want to

00:22:45.789 --> 00:22:49.470
drive anything or get anything done. But suppose

00:22:49.470 --> 00:22:51.730
you find that person and you get the machine

00:22:51.730 --> 00:22:54.730
that's autonomous, where machines don't have

00:22:54.730 --> 00:22:56.529
any ambition at the moment. As far as I can see,

00:22:56.609 --> 00:22:58.900
they have no ambition. we don't let them have

00:22:58.900 --> 00:23:02.519
any ambition we just interact with them they'll

00:23:02.519 --> 00:23:05.359
optimize a mathematical objective function so

00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:08.559
they have no internal drive to get to the top

00:23:08.559 --> 00:23:12.539
no matter what to get to get to mars to build

00:23:12.539 --> 00:23:14.819
this no matter what even though it looks impossible

00:23:14.819 --> 00:23:17.660
and sometimes you have to be in the space before

00:23:17.660 --> 00:23:20.319
you even know whether it's possible or not possible

00:23:20.319 --> 00:23:25.700
so you've got aq and then um you've also got

00:23:25.700 --> 00:23:29.220
uh No, fine. You've got someone in that area.

00:23:29.259 --> 00:23:36.240
Then you've got, let's see, CQ, compassion quotient,

00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:39.319
right? So you've got someone who's bright, brilliant,

00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:43.059
great to be with, fun to be with. They have ambition

00:23:43.059 --> 00:23:46.039
as well, but they have no compassion. They're

00:23:46.039 --> 00:23:50.240
completely selfless, selfish, completely selfish,

00:23:51.099 --> 00:24:00.640
right? And there's no... sort of understanding

00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:04.420
of being compassionate to other people's needs

00:24:04.420 --> 00:24:07.680
and other things needs. And then finally, you

00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:15.019
may have FQ, which is like freedom quotient,

00:24:15.140 --> 00:24:19.180
which is basically, are you going to do something

00:24:19.180 --> 00:24:24.059
surprising? Sporadic. So in human terms, uh,

00:24:24.440 --> 00:24:26.099
uh, Richard, let me get on a plane and meet you

00:24:26.099 --> 00:24:29.920
tomorrow. Just decide to do that just now. Right.

00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:32.359
Can a machine do that sporadically? Just think

00:24:32.359 --> 00:24:35.480
of it as something to surprise me, sparkle me.

00:24:36.440 --> 00:24:40.660
Uh, these are all sort of human attributes and

00:24:40.660 --> 00:24:43.460
you could argue, well, do we care about any of

00:24:43.460 --> 00:24:46.460
them? Do we just simply care about the mathematical

00:24:46.460 --> 00:24:49.980
objective function of producing as many um as

00:24:49.980 --> 00:24:53.720
much food as possible for the lowest cost uh

00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:57.460
for the for the greatest number of people um

00:24:57.460 --> 00:25:01.180
or do we want higher order uh functions and there

00:25:01.180 --> 00:25:04.000
is mazlov's hierarchy which talks about you know

00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:06.160
well the basic function can we just put food

00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:08.960
on the table can we put shelter on the table

00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:11.559
and then once you've got those well then you

00:25:11.559 --> 00:25:15.529
say well uh Am I appreciated by other people?

00:25:16.029 --> 00:25:20.170
Do I have status? If you can't put food on the

00:25:20.170 --> 00:25:21.849
table, you don't really care about your status.

00:25:23.690 --> 00:25:28.569
I'll do anything. I'll do any job, anything you

00:25:28.569 --> 00:25:30.450
ask of me, just to get me to get food on the

00:25:30.450 --> 00:25:36.869
table. And so we've got this hierarchy of intelligence,

00:25:37.210 --> 00:25:43.569
hierarchy of consciousness that fits across the

00:25:43.569 --> 00:25:47.670
different levels of machine development as AI

00:25:47.670 --> 00:25:53.869
is coming up in the next few years. I think it's

00:25:53.869 --> 00:26:00.829
clear to us that AI at this point, as you went

00:26:00.829 --> 00:26:03.789
into a little bit, does not have free will. It

00:26:03.789 --> 00:26:08.359
does not have that freedom. Coefficient do you

00:26:08.359 --> 00:26:10.160
think we have free will I think that there's

00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:14.220
an argument that can be made that we are We make

00:26:14.220 --> 00:26:17.240
decisions based on our experiences and maybe

00:26:17.240 --> 00:26:20.539
the DNA we were born with And that's kind of

00:26:20.539 --> 00:26:23.180
the end of that sentence. But what are your thoughts

00:26:23.180 --> 00:26:25.920
on free will and do we possess it? Yeah, that's

00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:27.859
a very good question. I'm always asking my students

00:26:27.859 --> 00:26:31.640
that and leaving aside the religious part of

00:26:31.640 --> 00:26:35.839
it is sort of like I think people naturally feel

00:26:35.839 --> 00:26:40.079
they do have free will. But you know, I think

00:26:40.079 --> 00:26:42.160
there's a Sam Harris, I'm not sure if you're

00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:45.819
familiar with his work, but it's sort of a controversial

00:26:45.819 --> 00:26:50.140
topic in a way. The thought that actually, you

00:26:50.140 --> 00:26:52.880
may think you have free will, but you actually

00:26:52.880 --> 00:26:58.259
don't. You are actually just a product of your

00:26:58.259 --> 00:27:02.000
chemicals. and you're just a bag of chemicals

00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:06.599
and you've had a set of experiences and you have

00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:10.319
a certain set of DNA and the experiences you

00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:16.880
have the way you've brought up really affect

00:27:16.880 --> 00:27:19.279
everything you're going to do either on a minute

00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:24.339
by minute basis or on a macro year by year basis

00:27:24.339 --> 00:27:27.400
and you are not your own person you may think

00:27:27.400 --> 00:27:30.940
you are But you're not that's one theory. It's

00:27:30.940 --> 00:27:34.839
controversial because it gives like Dictators

00:27:34.839 --> 00:27:38.160
and criminals and the evil people a pass because

00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:40.619
they're not evil just it's not their fault They're

00:27:40.619 --> 00:27:42.559
evil. It's just the way though They were brought

00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:45.859
up and their experiences that they had and if

00:27:45.859 --> 00:27:48.880
you had the same experiences you'd be evil, too

00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:54.099
So that's a controversial concept, so I think

00:27:54.099 --> 00:27:57.880
that clearly we are a product of our experiences

00:27:59.900 --> 00:28:05.480
We view the world based on what we see. However,

00:28:05.519 --> 00:28:10.720
we are changeable. We see new experiences. We

00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:18.680
will decide to put ourselves in places where

00:28:18.680 --> 00:28:24.640
we listen to other views or not. If you have

00:28:24.640 --> 00:28:27.140
a certain political ilk and you watch Fox News

00:28:27.140 --> 00:28:32.400
all the time and don't give PBS a chance, then

00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:34.460
you'll have a certain view continuing and vice

00:28:34.460 --> 00:28:38.500
versa. If you just watch PBS all the time and

00:28:38.500 --> 00:28:41.319
you never watch Fox News, then you will never

00:28:41.319 --> 00:28:44.880
understand why the other half of the country

00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:48.619
or the planet doesn't see it the way you see

00:28:48.619 --> 00:28:54.759
it. I think what's a little bit different to

00:28:54.759 --> 00:28:57.619
free will in a machine which doesn't have it

00:28:57.619 --> 00:29:03.880
is we actually move around. We actually are exposed

00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:06.079
to different things. And even if you do not watch

00:29:06.079 --> 00:29:09.160
Fox News, you do bump into other people, you

00:29:09.160 --> 00:29:13.480
bump into other thoughts and other areas in other

00:29:13.480 --> 00:29:17.140
fields. And so then you start, you might start

00:29:17.140 --> 00:29:20.400
thinking, is there a point there? At least can

00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:23.680
you understand why they think that? Why does

00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:31.480
the other side think the way they do? I think

00:29:31.480 --> 00:29:35.420
in general you have free will, but it's affected

00:29:35.420 --> 00:29:38.920
by your experiences. If you take the Chomsky

00:29:38.920 --> 00:29:42.640
view on language, humans have a unique ability

00:29:42.640 --> 00:29:46.440
to actually understand language because we essentially

00:29:46.440 --> 00:29:51.759
have the ability to understand syntax and grammar

00:29:51.759 --> 00:29:55.000
programmed in at birth and other animals don't

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:57.039
have that and that's why they can't have language.

00:29:57.220 --> 00:29:59.019
But clearly they do have language but it's of

00:29:59.019 --> 00:30:07.140
a more limited version than ours. I'm hesitating

00:30:07.140 --> 00:30:08.900
because I have a couple of questions but I'm

00:30:08.900 --> 00:30:11.059
hesitant to see which one I should ask first.

00:30:12.700 --> 00:30:17.240
As humans, we have this inherent need, and I

00:30:17.240 --> 00:30:20.640
will use the word need not desire, to group ourselves

00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:25.359
in tribes. And be it based on, you know, race,

00:30:25.599 --> 00:30:30.099
religion, gender, intelligence, sports team,

00:30:30.119 --> 00:30:33.160
geography, and I would kind of put religion and

00:30:33.160 --> 00:30:36.279
maybe now political party at the extreme of this

00:30:36.279 --> 00:30:39.740
tribal association we place ourselves in. And

00:30:39.740 --> 00:30:45.539
extreme means we are not willing to reconsider

00:30:45.539 --> 00:30:50.140
our associations based on factual data. You can

00:30:50.140 --> 00:30:52.000
probably discern what I think about religion

00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:56.660
from this, but we'll leave that for another discussion.

00:30:59.240 --> 00:31:01.700
Why do you think we have this need? I think there's

00:31:01.700 --> 00:31:03.980
some good from it. It allows us to work together.

00:31:04.039 --> 00:31:07.740
It allows us to feel better. It allows us to

00:31:07.740 --> 00:31:11.160
have some more. If you look at people who have

00:31:12.339 --> 00:31:15.680
them a lot of perseverance and grit a lot of

00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:18.400
them have a faith that they rely on you know

00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:21.900
that they say I'm doing this because of God or

00:31:21.900 --> 00:31:28.220
And it gives them a lot of power To push through

00:31:28.220 --> 00:31:30.880
something maybe to do good in this world and

00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:34.759
sometimes to do a lot of bad in this world You

00:31:34.759 --> 00:31:36.579
know if you want if you if you're comfortable

00:31:36.579 --> 00:31:38.880
talking about religion obviously, you know feel

00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:42.130
free to do so but the question primarily is Why

00:31:42.130 --> 00:31:45.930
do you think we have this inherent need to organize

00:31:45.930 --> 00:31:50.970
ourselves in tribes? We don't need to anymore.

00:31:53.730 --> 00:31:57.690
Our needs to live are taken care of. We have

00:31:57.690 --> 00:32:00.569
shelter, we have food, we have water. We don't

00:32:00.569 --> 00:32:03.230
have to be in packs and defend ourselves against

00:32:03.230 --> 00:32:07.269
lions or the woolly mammoth or whoever. So why

00:32:07.269 --> 00:32:11.859
do we persist with this need? And will AI have

00:32:11.859 --> 00:32:17.140
a similar need? Yes. So I think you're right.

00:32:17.299 --> 00:32:19.720
We actually don't need that's very, very pertinent.

00:32:19.759 --> 00:32:22.579
We don't need to be in tribes anymore for shelter

00:32:22.579 --> 00:32:29.160
or protection from at least wild animals, protection

00:32:29.160 --> 00:32:32.539
from each other by the sounds of it. We may do.

00:32:33.599 --> 00:32:37.390
I think that There is an individual streak, and

00:32:37.390 --> 00:32:41.690
if you ask a child, I think children, and certainly

00:32:41.690 --> 00:32:43.410
as a child, when I was a child, I couldn't really

00:32:43.410 --> 00:32:46.450
understand the concept of borders. Why can't

00:32:46.450 --> 00:32:48.809
you just walk, go wherever you want to go, go

00:32:48.809 --> 00:32:53.089
wherever you want to be? Across the border. Well,

00:32:53.410 --> 00:32:57.109
yeah, yeah, there are no borders if you're an

00:32:57.109 --> 00:33:01.740
individual organism. We're all the same. 99 .5

00:33:01.740 --> 00:33:03.859
% of the DNA of all of us is the same. We're

00:33:03.859 --> 00:33:11.400
all the same, 99 .5%. And I'm actually higher

00:33:11.400 --> 00:33:19.019
than that, actually. And yet, there are societies,

00:33:19.220 --> 00:33:21.779
you know, there's a society. And I think there's

00:33:21.779 --> 00:33:23.980
much more globalization. If you play it forward,

00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:29.140
there's already more cosmopolitan communities

00:33:29.140 --> 00:33:33.089
within countries. If you looked 150 years ago,

00:33:33.309 --> 00:33:35.170
you know, you looked at the country of Britain

00:33:35.170 --> 00:33:37.589
or countries, even the United States, which is

00:33:37.589 --> 00:33:41.210
an immigrant country at the time, it was very

00:33:41.210 --> 00:33:48.309
homogeneous. Today, it is very cosmopolitan.

00:33:48.470 --> 00:33:50.829
And if you play it forward, I think Bill Clinton

00:33:50.829 --> 00:33:54.690
talked about this a few decades ago. Eventually,

00:33:54.849 --> 00:33:56.849
you have the browning, the browning of America

00:33:56.849 --> 00:33:58.509
where there's more people who are brown than

00:33:58.509 --> 00:34:04.289
not brown. Um, and, uh, the ability to travel

00:34:04.289 --> 00:34:08.969
from one place to another is extended that, uh,

00:34:09.130 --> 00:34:12.829
interracial, uh, marriages, uh, you know, people

00:34:12.829 --> 00:34:16.190
would be shocked by that 200 years ago and now

00:34:16.190 --> 00:34:19.769
no one blinks. Um, or most people don't blink

00:34:19.769 --> 00:34:25.969
at least. And, um, it, uh, uh, uh, and then that's

00:34:25.969 --> 00:34:32.820
probably. resulted again in no religion being

00:34:32.820 --> 00:34:40.380
a sort of a core force hundreds of years ago

00:34:40.380 --> 00:34:46.119
and it's still a force amongst many groups but

00:34:46.119 --> 00:34:48.840
it's much less I think than hundreds of years

00:34:48.840 --> 00:34:53.960
ago if you look at the macro trend it's likely

00:34:53.960 --> 00:34:57.809
become less and less of a force people may want

00:34:57.809 --> 00:35:01.269
to be attached to a religion, people may believe

00:35:01.269 --> 00:35:04.809
the concepts of religion, it is a faith by definition,

00:35:05.409 --> 00:35:08.449
because as most of the religions have no evidence

00:35:08.449 --> 00:35:16.389
of the material that is proposed, but there is

00:35:16.389 --> 00:35:20.840
a set of values and often those values often

00:35:20.840 --> 00:35:25.619
are common to lots of religions and some variations,

00:35:26.159 --> 00:35:29.800
and maybe those values are not particularly religious

00:35:29.800 --> 00:35:32.000
values, though religions might take on those

00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:35.800
on board, but maybe those are human values, or

00:35:35.800 --> 00:35:41.199
intuitive human values, rather than specifically

00:35:41.199 --> 00:35:50.019
religious values. I think that, well, people

00:35:50.219 --> 00:35:54.739
No, people are looking at a more economic war

00:35:54.739 --> 00:36:00.639
rather than a tribal war. Right now, are you

00:36:00.639 --> 00:36:03.179
willing to be able to keep your standard of living

00:36:03.179 --> 00:36:06.780
as high as anyone else? If you look at economic

00:36:06.780 --> 00:36:10.059
theory, there's a couple of schools of thought,

00:36:10.400 --> 00:36:13.639
rising tides rise all boats. And if you'd have

00:36:13.639 --> 00:36:18.849
trade, you can have different people, different

00:36:18.849 --> 00:36:22.750
groups, depending on what resources they have,

00:36:23.449 --> 00:36:27.489
adopt different strengths. So if you happen to

00:36:27.489 --> 00:36:30.449
be lucky enough in a country that has lots of

00:36:30.449 --> 00:36:33.530
energy resources, you have that competitive strength.

00:36:34.409 --> 00:36:37.530
If you do not, then you have to maybe use your

00:36:37.530 --> 00:36:41.559
mind. and the idea the competitive advantage

00:36:41.559 --> 00:36:45.159
of nations idea is that each country sort of

00:36:45.159 --> 00:36:47.519
works itself out well which what what's it good

00:36:47.519 --> 00:36:51.079
at and they trade they trade with each other

00:36:51.079 --> 00:36:54.739
you know in my own way I try not to do things

00:36:54.739 --> 00:36:58.019
that other people are good at let them do it

00:36:58.019 --> 00:36:59.980
let me find something that is not being done

00:36:59.980 --> 00:37:03.280
already and and start thinking about that can

00:37:03.280 --> 00:37:09.559
I do something that's new the ability to have

00:37:09.559 --> 00:37:17.980
mobility is sort of turn things upside down.

00:37:18.599 --> 00:37:22.039
200 years ago, basically a poor person today

00:37:22.039 --> 00:37:26.480
has travel opportunities, entertainment opportunities

00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:29.460
that a millionaire could only have 200 years

00:37:29.460 --> 00:37:35.679
ago. So the mobility and exposure, transmission

00:37:35.679 --> 00:37:40.119
of communication. We're talking to each other

00:37:40.119 --> 00:37:45.480
on high quality video call for free or practically

00:37:45.480 --> 00:37:50.000
free, which before you'd have a scratchy phone

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.579
call, a dollar a minute, pound a minute, euro

00:37:54.579 --> 00:38:00.219
a minute. And this is now free. And we're now

00:38:00.219 --> 00:38:03.619
seeing people interact with each other, expose

00:38:03.619 --> 00:38:06.400
with each other, seen how the other people live,

00:38:06.980 --> 00:38:08.699
the other half live, you almost have to sort

00:38:08.699 --> 00:38:11.760
of close your borders to stop people knowing

00:38:11.760 --> 00:38:15.800
what's going on. Whereas even as the late as

00:38:15.800 --> 00:38:21.500
the 1970s, you had whole countries that really

00:38:21.500 --> 00:38:24.539
didn't know what life was like in the other country.

00:38:26.349 --> 00:38:28.630
you saw that in the breaking down of the cold

00:38:28.630 --> 00:38:31.550
of the of the of the berlin wall and the cold

00:38:31.550 --> 00:38:35.230
war breaking down um where people in the eastern

00:38:35.230 --> 00:38:38.909
bloc said wait no wait they've got supermarkets

00:38:38.909 --> 00:38:41.909
with a thousand different 40 000 things to buy

00:38:41.909 --> 00:38:45.230
my supermarket as all the shelves are empty why

00:38:45.230 --> 00:38:48.469
right um because they can just watch tv they

00:38:48.469 --> 00:38:52.880
can watch movies they can watch uh television

00:38:52.880 --> 00:38:56.420
shows and see how life is lived by other people

00:38:56.420 --> 00:39:01.780
and they say well why can't we have this so I

00:39:01.780 --> 00:39:07.000
think and then similarly if you're more in a

00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:09.920
well -to -do environment you see why are people

00:39:09.920 --> 00:39:13.400
in this world when we have so much why are people

00:39:13.400 --> 00:39:17.940
suffering why can't we organize ourselves to

00:39:17.940 --> 00:39:22.809
get food on the table Right, why can't people

00:39:22.809 --> 00:39:30.269
figure out a solution to their land wars? Maybe

00:39:30.269 --> 00:39:33.909
the solution in the future won't be land wars,

00:39:34.090 --> 00:39:38.849
but will be AI wars, computing wars. Who's got

00:39:38.849 --> 00:39:44.670
the cleverest AI system? I'll stop there for

00:39:44.670 --> 00:39:55.190
a second to let you. Yeah, I guess It is the

00:39:55.190 --> 00:39:58.170
theory that we are organizing ourselves in tribes

00:39:58.170 --> 00:40:04.610
because of economic resources and our need to

00:40:04.610 --> 00:40:07.409
Compare ourselves with others and want more and

00:40:07.409 --> 00:40:14.230
more Well, yeah, hopefully we do organize it

00:40:14.230 --> 00:40:16.809
not just as countries but as companies I mean

00:40:16.809 --> 00:40:21.699
that's why companies exist to organize themselves,

00:40:21.760 --> 00:40:24.539
they're not considered as countries, to organize

00:40:24.539 --> 00:40:28.300
themselves to offer a solution to a problem that

00:40:28.300 --> 00:40:31.619
hasn't been solved. And you need a certain set

00:40:31.619 --> 00:40:35.559
of people for a certain type of problem. And

00:40:35.559 --> 00:40:40.659
so this sense of organizing, it seems to be inherent

00:40:40.659 --> 00:40:44.539
to human culture, not just particularly for the

00:40:44.539 --> 00:40:51.409
tribal base, but to get things done. And, you

00:40:51.409 --> 00:40:55.809
know, companies in the future may be stronger

00:40:55.809 --> 00:40:58.170
than countries. Maybe that's already the case.

00:40:59.469 --> 00:41:01.889
There's a TV series, I'm not sure if anyone remembers

00:41:01.889 --> 00:41:04.590
it, it was on the Sci -Fi channel. I think it

00:41:04.590 --> 00:41:07.889
was called Incorporation. It was set in 2070

00:41:07.889 --> 00:41:11.590
and climate change has hit and they finally do

00:41:11.590 --> 00:41:15.150
build a wall. But it's a wall on the Canadian

00:41:15.150 --> 00:41:17.650
border to stop Americans emigrating to Canada

00:41:17.650 --> 00:41:20.969
because the climate, the US has turned into a

00:41:20.969 --> 00:41:26.530
desert. And yeah, if you're lucky enough to work

00:41:26.530 --> 00:41:29.269
for a big tech company, there was only like six

00:41:29.269 --> 00:41:32.469
or seven big tech companies who basically commandeered

00:41:32.469 --> 00:41:36.989
all functions of society in particular areas,

00:41:37.849 --> 00:41:40.550
you were living quite a comfortable life. But

00:41:40.550 --> 00:41:44.599
if you were not, you'd be grasping at straws

00:41:44.599 --> 00:41:49.480
and being a supplier or a servant or a nursemaid

00:41:49.480 --> 00:41:51.900
to the people who did work in those companies

00:41:51.900 --> 00:41:54.119
and those companies would tell the countries

00:41:54.119 --> 00:41:56.300
what to do instead of the other way around. Right

00:41:56.300 --> 00:41:59.320
now, we as countries tell companies what to do

00:41:59.320 --> 00:42:02.940
and we'll stop them doing things or encourage

00:42:02.940 --> 00:42:05.260
them to do things based on our policies as a

00:42:05.260 --> 00:42:11.320
country. In this world, and it may happen, It

00:42:11.320 --> 00:42:14.719
may be that companies tell governments what to

00:42:14.719 --> 00:42:17.840
do. And it may be the AIs that those companies

00:42:17.840 --> 00:42:21.760
run tell those companies what to do and what

00:42:21.760 --> 00:42:24.860
to tell the governments to do to optimize the

00:42:24.860 --> 00:42:27.739
particular functions. And it may not just be

00:42:27.739 --> 00:42:38.400
profit. What are the other functions? that they

00:42:38.400 --> 00:42:41.599
would optimize for. I would think profit and

00:42:41.599 --> 00:42:44.380
shareholder value is what they would want and

00:42:44.380 --> 00:42:49.019
this future sounds bleak to me. I'm not sure

00:42:49.019 --> 00:42:50.900
if I would have religion around the world or

00:42:50.900 --> 00:42:55.239
companies because in one of them at least charity

00:42:55.239 --> 00:43:00.519
is mandated and both of them ethics are subjective

00:43:00.519 --> 00:43:05.619
and malleable. Let's not harp on religion too

00:43:05.619 --> 00:43:11.449
much but Do you see this as a positive that the

00:43:11.449 --> 00:43:14.449
companies will run the world? Well, companies

00:43:14.449 --> 00:43:19.130
is not just profit, it is also existence. It's

00:43:19.130 --> 00:43:20.829
well known that companies that sometimes may

00:43:20.829 --> 00:43:23.650
make too much profit, the bigger they are, the

00:43:23.650 --> 00:43:25.489
harder they fall. Because if there's too much

00:43:25.489 --> 00:43:29.700
profit being made, other companies come in. and

00:43:29.700 --> 00:43:32.059
try and compete because there's so much profit

00:43:32.059 --> 00:43:34.320
to be made. They try and compete and create the

00:43:34.320 --> 00:43:37.679
same product. So things sort of mediate. And

00:43:37.679 --> 00:43:43.300
so you'd optimize for existence. Some companies,

00:43:43.460 --> 00:43:47.000
and if you look at the companies of the 20th

00:43:47.000 --> 00:43:50.440
century or even 19th century, we're actually

00:43:50.440 --> 00:43:54.940
quite paternalistic. You know, some companies...

00:43:54.960 --> 00:44:01.239
set up values for their employees. So their employees

00:44:01.239 --> 00:44:04.559
would be sometimes equally hired, they would

00:44:04.559 --> 00:44:07.960
offer company stores that offer company housing,

00:44:08.280 --> 00:44:10.699
company cars, everything for their employees.

00:44:10.739 --> 00:44:14.059
But make no mistake, it was for the benefit of

00:44:14.059 --> 00:44:17.880
the company, the ephemeral company shareholder.

00:44:19.230 --> 00:44:25.289
not for pure charity. But it would appear as

00:44:25.289 --> 00:44:28.909
an altruistic viewpoint that if we make our employees

00:44:28.909 --> 00:44:32.030
happy, then we make good products. But it didn't

00:44:32.030 --> 00:44:34.690
have to be altruistic. You just say we need to

00:44:34.690 --> 00:44:36.929
make our employees happy. We need to keep them

00:44:36.929 --> 00:44:40.110
fed. We need to have them get health care so

00:44:40.110 --> 00:44:44.030
they keep working. Not just we don't want them.

00:44:44.820 --> 00:44:47.579
uh to be well just for the sake of it we want

00:44:47.579 --> 00:44:49.639
them to be well so they can be continued to be

00:44:49.639 --> 00:44:55.840
our workers um and uh you can argue with today's

00:44:55.840 --> 00:44:59.460
companies and certainly uh today's companies

00:44:59.460 --> 00:45:02.500
a couple of decades old um you know we've got

00:45:02.500 --> 00:45:05.219
a few companies here that's still a century old

00:45:05.219 --> 00:45:08.900
right um you know ibm maybe one of them general

00:45:08.900 --> 00:45:13.000
motors ford They're usually not the top, top,

00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:15.920
top companies of today, but they do exist and

00:45:15.920 --> 00:45:19.400
they seem to exist. They have a recipe built

00:45:19.400 --> 00:45:21.739
in internally. These hundred year old companies

00:45:21.739 --> 00:45:26.760
built in internally to continue to exist. Having

00:45:26.760 --> 00:45:28.920
said that, a lot of companies have gone away,

00:45:29.719 --> 00:45:32.699
gone away. Some of them have gone away completely.

00:45:33.579 --> 00:45:36.139
Some of them shadow their former selves. If we

00:45:36.139 --> 00:45:39.280
look at Kodak, we've got Polaroid. They still

00:45:39.280 --> 00:45:42.800
exist just, but they're a shadow, one hundredth,

00:45:42.800 --> 00:45:47.539
one one hundredth of their former selves. And

00:45:47.539 --> 00:45:50.199
if you look at history, that's tends to what

00:45:50.199 --> 00:45:54.619
happens. These big companies don't stay. There's

00:45:54.619 --> 00:45:56.739
upstarts. And this goes back to the economics,

00:45:56.840 --> 00:45:59.639
the competitor level. And maybe the governments

00:45:59.639 --> 00:46:02.280
have been putting that so -called antitrust laws

00:46:02.280 --> 00:46:07.300
to stop companies becoming overarching the dominance

00:46:07.300 --> 00:46:11.840
to in particular industries or whole industries.

00:46:12.539 --> 00:46:17.219
So I think I agree with you is a bleak situation

00:46:17.219 --> 00:46:20.199
if the companies are optimized for their own

00:46:20.199 --> 00:46:24.099
beings, it may not be optimized for human group

00:46:24.099 --> 00:46:27.800
optimized for this ephemeral entity, right, which

00:46:27.800 --> 00:46:31.320
may be may not even be okay for their employees,

00:46:31.320 --> 00:46:36.059
right? But they might be positioning that this

00:46:36.059 --> 00:46:38.099
is the optimum for the employees, for the shareholders

00:46:38.099 --> 00:46:41.679
that own the company, and for society, they might

00:46:41.679 --> 00:46:44.920
say, too, because this is usually the argument

00:46:44.920 --> 00:46:49.579
in biotech. We need to have patents because we

00:46:49.579 --> 00:46:53.360
need to have protection once we invent something

00:46:53.360 --> 00:46:56.900
that we can get money for the investment we made

00:46:56.900 --> 00:47:03.639
in inventing that system. There is a view, specifically

00:47:03.639 --> 00:47:06.280
mostly in the VC community, but also in part

00:47:06.280 --> 00:47:10.519
of the AI community that AI will usher an era

00:47:10.519 --> 00:47:13.440
of abundance where humans will no longer have

00:47:13.440 --> 00:47:18.880
to work. This requires that we take care of the

00:47:18.880 --> 00:47:22.159
humans who don't have to work, which there doesn't

00:47:22.159 --> 00:47:25.360
seem to be a plan to do that. What are your thoughts

00:47:25.360 --> 00:47:28.420
on will AI usher an era where humans don't have

00:47:28.420 --> 00:47:30.809
to work? And then what are some predictions?

00:47:31.429 --> 00:47:38.389
If that is true, are we going to be happier as

00:47:38.389 --> 00:47:42.889
a society? Because we get quite a bit of our

00:47:42.889 --> 00:47:47.110
purpose and meaning from work. And maybe there's

00:47:47.110 --> 00:47:49.690
a false dichotomy here where this is more common

00:47:49.690 --> 00:47:54.690
in the male phenotype, whereas meaning can come

00:47:54.690 --> 00:47:57.329
from relationships and other avenues, which sounds

00:47:57.329 --> 00:48:02.369
better. What are your thoughts on meaning and

00:48:02.369 --> 00:48:05.889
purpose in life? Where does it come from for

00:48:05.889 --> 00:48:08.570
you, maybe? Whereas, where do you think it should

00:48:08.570 --> 00:48:11.710
come from? For me, it comes from, you know, when

00:48:11.710 --> 00:48:13.909
I think about where I drive the most meaning

00:48:13.909 --> 00:48:17.250
from and purpose, oftentimes it's my career.

00:48:17.969 --> 00:48:20.550
I don't want it to be my career. I want it to

00:48:20.550 --> 00:48:23.489
be my family and friends, but my inherent programming

00:48:23.489 --> 00:48:25.929
is the other way. And I've been working for the

00:48:25.929 --> 00:48:29.780
past I would say five years when I recognize

00:48:29.780 --> 00:48:33.239
this to try and change it, and I'm failing. So

00:48:33.239 --> 00:48:35.599
where does meaning and purpose come for you?

00:48:35.880 --> 00:48:38.280
Will AI usher an era of abundance? And if it

00:48:38.280 --> 00:48:42.019
does, will we be happier as a society? And will

00:48:42.019 --> 00:48:44.679
we take care of the people who don't have work

00:48:44.679 --> 00:48:49.619
in that era? Right. So I'm optimistic. So first

00:48:49.619 --> 00:48:52.960
of all, AI will usher an era of abundance. It

00:48:52.960 --> 00:48:59.429
will create lots of new ideas, lots of reduction

00:48:59.429 --> 00:49:03.849
of grunt work and speeding up of ideas, acceleration

00:49:03.849 --> 00:49:08.809
of production. So there's a couple of theories

00:49:08.809 --> 00:49:12.929
here. This is the lump of labor theory. And this

00:49:12.929 --> 00:49:16.309
is the argument that basically, okay, if you

00:49:16.309 --> 00:49:19.789
have machines that take over some work or even

00:49:19.789 --> 00:49:21.650
something else that goes away, the work goes

00:49:21.650 --> 00:49:24.190
away, there's nothing for those people to do.

00:49:25.329 --> 00:49:28.449
There's only a finite set of work to be done

00:49:28.449 --> 00:49:31.510
and if you take away some of the work to be done

00:49:31.510 --> 00:49:34.309
by a machine or be done by something else who

00:49:34.309 --> 00:49:38.829
doesn't need to be done, then the work gets smaller.

00:49:40.679 --> 00:49:44.639
And that certainly could be the case, that the

00:49:44.639 --> 00:49:47.079
world gets smaller and smaller and then people,

00:49:47.800 --> 00:49:49.860
this is called the basic income theory, where

00:49:49.860 --> 00:49:51.920
people just get given a check. It's not that

00:49:51.920 --> 00:49:54.159
the society does worse because stuff is still

00:49:54.159 --> 00:49:58.300
being produced, but people are given a check

00:49:58.300 --> 00:50:03.599
every month to live on and buy things. I actually

00:50:03.599 --> 00:50:05.280
think it's going to be the opposite. I think

00:50:05.280 --> 00:50:10.300
there's humanity, humans. have an insatiable

00:50:10.300 --> 00:50:15.619
desire to have new desires, new products, new

00:50:15.619 --> 00:50:19.980
things to do, and that is practically infinite.

00:50:20.500 --> 00:50:24.760
And it's only limited by their lack of time because

00:50:24.760 --> 00:50:28.099
they're doing other things and doing the existing

00:50:28.099 --> 00:50:30.920
forms of work. So it's a bit like bandwidth.

00:50:31.480 --> 00:50:33.579
No matter how much bandwidth you have, it gets

00:50:33.579 --> 00:50:36.940
filled up. So... This is like this, no matter

00:50:36.940 --> 00:50:40.539
how much free time you have, you'll fill it up,

00:50:40.760 --> 00:50:44.900
right? So work expands to fill the time available.

00:50:45.719 --> 00:50:49.579
So if all of a sudden all the grunt work is now

00:50:49.579 --> 00:50:54.420
done by a machine, that leaves up new time for

00:50:54.420 --> 00:50:58.679
you to do more things. Also gives you new time

00:50:58.679 --> 00:51:02.699
for you to desire more things and other people

00:51:02.699 --> 00:51:09.000
will create systems to meet those desires. And

00:51:09.000 --> 00:51:12.860
guess what? They will have machines to help them

00:51:12.860 --> 00:51:15.800
create, they'll have AI to help them. This is

00:51:15.800 --> 00:51:18.539
the golden age of invention about to appear.

00:51:19.199 --> 00:51:22.920
It used to be you were limited by resources,

00:51:23.079 --> 00:51:25.679
either energy resources, physical resources,

00:51:26.420 --> 00:51:35.000
tools, and, or in later years, skills. Can you

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:40.099
code? And the skills are now going to be encoded

00:51:40.099 --> 00:51:45.159
in machines. It's now going to be a golden age

00:51:45.159 --> 00:51:49.179
of creativity. People who thought they weren't

00:51:49.179 --> 00:51:55.199
creative will become creative. And it will be

00:51:55.199 --> 00:52:00.460
a new sort of educational kind of era where you

00:52:00.460 --> 00:52:02.599
know, it was already a bit like this. You don't

00:52:02.599 --> 00:52:05.699
go to university to learn, you go to university

00:52:05.699 --> 00:52:09.440
to learn how to learn, right, because the technology,

00:52:09.519 --> 00:52:14.159
the knowledge is obsolete within several, you

00:52:14.159 --> 00:52:16.260
know, within a year or two, particularly in science

00:52:16.260 --> 00:52:19.079
and technology, but even in the humanities, new

00:52:19.079 --> 00:52:22.340
ideas, new thoughts, new frameworks pop out.

00:52:22.599 --> 00:52:29.179
And so if you come to, with the new new approaches.

00:52:30.579 --> 00:52:33.239
There'll be just a million new entrepreneurs,

00:52:33.559 --> 00:52:36.719
billion new entrepreneurs, a billion new ideas

00:52:36.719 --> 00:52:41.519
exploding on the scene, not limited to by the

00:52:41.519 --> 00:52:43.860
fact they can't program, not limited to they

00:52:43.860 --> 00:52:46.920
don't have a machine at home. They can log into

00:52:46.920 --> 00:52:51.000
the cloud and have those tools done for them.

00:52:51.340 --> 00:52:55.420
And so that's the optimistic view. So I actually

00:52:55.420 --> 00:52:59.059
don't think we're going to get to a world where

00:52:59.059 --> 00:53:03.940
people just sit at home and get a check. I think

00:53:03.940 --> 00:53:08.940
that will be a backdrop, a fallback. But I think

00:53:08.940 --> 00:53:10.980
people are going to take that opportunity and

00:53:10.980 --> 00:53:17.579
do things they want to do. I wish for that feature

00:53:17.579 --> 00:53:21.699
as well. And I think the caveat being is we and

00:53:21.699 --> 00:53:24.730
so the thought is that people would two things

00:53:24.730 --> 00:53:27.170
they want to do, and there will be a market for

00:53:27.170 --> 00:53:30.090
those services. And that's how they will make

00:53:30.090 --> 00:53:36.130
money to pay for their expenses. Or there could

00:53:36.130 --> 00:53:41.289
be a time shift, it could be a shift where there's

00:53:41.289 --> 00:53:45.650
not actually quite matched in time, where people

00:53:45.650 --> 00:53:48.289
are not those are sort of a shock to the system

00:53:48.289 --> 00:53:51.309
that who do I work for now? Oh, well, actually,

00:53:51.639 --> 00:53:55.579
no one got any work for you to do. You work for

00:53:55.579 --> 00:54:00.760
yourself now, right? It's sort of a shift in

00:54:00.760 --> 00:54:06.800
type of education and type of mindset where it

00:54:06.800 --> 00:54:10.420
may be actually going back to eras of hundreds

00:54:10.420 --> 00:54:13.079
of years ago where you didn't have big conglomerate

00:54:13.079 --> 00:54:16.179
employers except for maybe the government or,

00:54:16.179 --> 00:54:18.860
you know, armies and people like that where you

00:54:18.860 --> 00:54:21.630
have sort of lots of small artisans and everyone

00:54:21.630 --> 00:54:26.409
has got their own sort of advantage and or sort

00:54:26.409 --> 00:54:30.170
of specialism too but it could be on a bigger

00:54:30.170 --> 00:54:33.929
scale because you know you can distribute your

00:54:33.929 --> 00:54:37.190
products worldwide it used to be if you wrote

00:54:37.190 --> 00:54:40.190
some software you had to find a publisher and

00:54:40.190 --> 00:54:42.389
you'd have to they'd put in a box and put it

00:54:42.389 --> 00:54:45.380
in the shops and Now you can get it to a billion

00:54:45.380 --> 00:54:49.280
people just by uploading it onto one of the phone

00:54:49.280 --> 00:54:52.300
platforms. A billion people, but guess what?

00:54:52.639 --> 00:54:55.460
A million other companies can do that too. So

00:54:55.460 --> 00:54:57.320
everyone can do it, but actually getting the

00:54:57.320 --> 00:55:03.219
person to find things is not as big an issue

00:55:03.219 --> 00:55:05.760
if you actually want it. If you write a book,

00:55:05.940 --> 00:55:10.510
you publish a book, you... It can self -publish

00:55:10.510 --> 00:55:12.570
now. It used to be you got a traditional publishing

00:55:12.570 --> 00:55:14.849
model with lots of publishers who would try and

00:55:14.849 --> 00:55:17.730
get it in the bookstores. And you still have

00:55:17.730 --> 00:55:20.730
those somewhat, but it's now a little bit more

00:55:20.730 --> 00:55:23.409
level playing field where you can just write

00:55:23.409 --> 00:55:28.550
your book and stick it on the Amazon store for

00:55:28.550 --> 00:55:35.010
people to use. The concept of digital reality

00:55:35.010 --> 00:55:38.210
versus physical reality is very interesting.

00:55:38.800 --> 00:55:43.360
from a sense of what is truth and what is not

00:55:43.360 --> 00:55:49.239
true or what is falsehood. We can prove physical

00:55:49.239 --> 00:55:51.940
reality to be true or not true by various things.

00:55:51.960 --> 00:55:54.199
And maybe a couple examples is did this tree

00:55:54.199 --> 00:55:57.619
fall? Well, was there a tree there before and

00:55:57.619 --> 00:56:01.500
did it fall? You can see it fell. If it's fallen

00:56:01.500 --> 00:56:03.900
there currently, even if it's not fallen currently,

00:56:04.119 --> 00:56:07.650
maybe. There's people saw a tree there, there's

00:56:07.650 --> 00:56:10.949
evidence in the soil, there's roots. There are

00:56:10.949 --> 00:56:15.989
things that you can go back in time and prove

00:56:15.989 --> 00:56:20.690
beyond a shadow of a doubt. And I use that phrase

00:56:20.690 --> 00:56:24.170
as much as we can, that this happened in physical

00:56:24.170 --> 00:56:28.650
reality, or this is happening right now. Digital

00:56:28.650 --> 00:56:34.300
reality is very different. without going into

00:56:34.300 --> 00:56:36.579
blockchain perhaps and that technology hasn't

00:56:36.579 --> 00:56:38.840
been adopted. So it's not part of our digital

00:56:38.840 --> 00:56:44.340
reality at scale right now. There is a worry

00:56:44.340 --> 00:56:50.860
that AI will say make a fake study to sell a

00:56:50.860 --> 00:56:55.059
placebo medication and maybe even make a fake

00:56:55.059 --> 00:56:59.500
journal. And as long as everything lives digitally,

00:56:59.900 --> 00:57:02.840
AI can write or we can digitally alter the truth.

00:57:03.900 --> 00:57:06.360
Before we couldn't because we did not have the

00:57:06.360 --> 00:57:09.659
technology to make videos realistic, audios realistic,

00:57:10.119 --> 00:57:12.920
but now we can have a video of someone doing

00:57:12.920 --> 00:57:19.159
something from 50 years ago and punish them for

00:57:19.159 --> 00:57:21.320
a crime and then to extrapolate that you can

00:57:21.320 --> 00:57:24.460
get into this minority report scenario where

00:57:24.460 --> 00:57:27.039
you're predicting crimes that are actually made

00:57:27.039 --> 00:57:30.360
up by AI. because you want someone behind bars

00:57:30.360 --> 00:57:34.000
because maybe, you know, maybe they work for

00:57:34.000 --> 00:57:38.360
Facebook and you're Google, right? And there's

00:57:38.360 --> 00:57:40.159
a world where companies rule the world. They

00:57:40.159 --> 00:57:44.199
also have the ability to change our reality,

00:57:44.460 --> 00:57:48.820
both the past, the present, and the future. How

00:57:48.820 --> 00:57:51.099
do you kind of think about that? Are we giving

00:57:51.099 --> 00:57:54.179
AI too much power? You know, one of my clinics

00:57:54.179 --> 00:57:57.980
still uses paper and pen. And maybe we should

00:57:57.980 --> 00:58:00.579
keep it that way. At least there's proof that

00:58:00.579 --> 00:58:03.079
this is what happened in this encounter. And

00:58:03.079 --> 00:58:06.159
then there's no, there's no way to alter that.

00:58:07.139 --> 00:58:11.519
Um, and you can, yeah. Yeah. So we're going to

00:58:11.519 --> 00:58:15.119
be entering a world and we're a third of the

00:58:15.119 --> 00:58:18.559
way in that world already where anything digital,

00:58:18.760 --> 00:58:21.699
you're actually not going to believe that this

00:58:21.699 --> 00:58:25.320
is going to be like that. So fine. Yeah. AI can

00:58:25.320 --> 00:58:28.940
fake something. You can fake something you're

00:58:28.940 --> 00:58:33.900
going to get back to the world of endorsed curated

00:58:33.900 --> 00:58:38.239
curators either by professions Where you say

00:58:38.239 --> 00:58:42.079
well I can go to the AI doctor But who wrote

00:58:42.079 --> 00:58:45.440
who's behind this AI doctor? So that's where

00:58:45.440 --> 00:58:49.219
a real doctor may still have a role You're going

00:58:49.219 --> 00:58:54.360
to get to the level where Maybe you need to buy

00:58:54.360 --> 00:58:59.460
airline stocks, hotel stocks, because even DocuSign,

00:58:59.579 --> 00:59:01.579
even a video call, we won't believe anymore.

00:59:02.219 --> 00:59:06.219
We actually have to physically meet you, talk

00:59:06.219 --> 00:59:10.400
to you, shake your hand in the flesh, and see

00:59:10.400 --> 00:59:15.260
you sign with ink on a piece of paper to know

00:59:15.260 --> 00:59:19.760
we can get the deal done, to have the physical...

00:59:21.599 --> 00:59:30.360
ability. So anything digital will have its, you

00:59:30.360 --> 00:59:31.900
know, so you're going to have to, this is where

00:59:31.900 --> 00:59:34.539
like the New York Times or the newspapers who

00:59:34.539 --> 00:59:37.579
went out of business or got diminished over the

00:59:37.579 --> 00:59:43.559
last 40 years may come back with a play where

00:59:43.559 --> 00:59:47.199
we know, I see something on the internet, on

00:59:47.199 --> 00:59:53.869
Twitter, on Meta or what have you It's not curated

00:59:53.869 --> 00:59:57.510
could be anybody But if it's the New York Times

00:59:57.510 --> 01:00:01.230
website Okay, I might agree or disagree with

01:00:01.230 --> 01:00:03.710
bits of the New York Times, but at least I know

01:00:03.710 --> 01:00:10.510
it's them right and Therefore these curators

01:00:10.510 --> 01:00:14.869
are going to come up and Their job is to stop

01:00:14.869 --> 01:00:19.519
themselves being copied and deep -faked of course,

01:00:20.320 --> 01:00:22.199
and there'll be a number of ways they can do

01:00:22.199 --> 01:00:28.079
that. But you're going to see that there's going

01:00:28.079 --> 01:00:31.840
to be actually, ironically, we saw this in when

01:00:31.840 --> 01:00:34.480
computers came about, we thought there'd be no

01:00:34.480 --> 01:00:37.679
paper needed anymore, then the amount of paper

01:00:37.679 --> 01:00:39.340
would be reduced. In fact, the amount of paper

01:00:39.340 --> 01:00:42.440
went up. and maybe this is what's going to happen

01:00:42.440 --> 01:00:44.320
with AI we think well actually everything's going

01:00:44.320 --> 01:00:47.260
to be digital now we don't need to do anything

01:00:47.260 --> 01:00:49.619
meet anyone anymore it will just do all the work

01:00:49.619 --> 01:00:52.699
for us but actually maybe we'll need actually

01:00:52.699 --> 01:00:57.539
more human bonding as a result of this you know

01:00:57.539 --> 01:01:01.179
we keep complaining about teenagers not just

01:01:01.179 --> 01:01:03.900
teenagers even adults now glued to their phones

01:01:05.380 --> 01:01:08.900
But if you see AI doing more and more stuff,

01:01:09.659 --> 01:01:12.500
as it becomes more functional, but then if you

01:01:12.500 --> 01:01:15.000
actually have to do a transaction, if you do

01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:19.019
a contract, maybe that'll increase human person

01:01:19.019 --> 01:01:23.780
-to -person communication. Also, digital's just

01:01:23.780 --> 01:01:27.000
boring. It's much more fun to have a cup of coffee

01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:29.940
with you than you have even this Zoom call. It'd

01:01:29.940 --> 01:01:35.599
be more fun to do it in person than to... have

01:01:35.599 --> 01:01:37.780
a sort of email, there's a hierarchy of, you

01:01:37.780 --> 01:01:41.940
know, texting, email, video call, also phone

01:01:41.940 --> 01:01:45.239
call, video call, and then in person, right?

01:01:45.420 --> 01:01:47.039
So in person, you say, well, I haven't got time

01:01:47.039 --> 01:01:50.500
to go and meet every single person one at a time,

01:01:51.079 --> 01:01:54.159
but can we meet them in scale, which is where

01:01:54.159 --> 01:01:58.059
you do a podcast in this kind of issue and have

01:01:58.059 --> 01:02:04.469
sensible interactive discussion. As part of what

01:02:04.469 --> 01:02:08.909
you do right now, you invest in startups. Tell

01:02:08.909 --> 01:02:14.429
me a bit about how do you think about structure

01:02:14.429 --> 01:02:19.190
versus intuition? How do you think about a purely

01:02:19.190 --> 01:02:22.650
correlation -based strategy? And you know, maybe

01:02:22.650 --> 01:02:25.309
we can go back to the Rentech model of investing

01:02:25.309 --> 01:02:29.469
where I think my audience probably knows this

01:02:29.469 --> 01:02:32.030
already, but Jim Simons came up with this model

01:02:32.030 --> 01:02:35.190
called the Medallion Fund, and they invested

01:02:35.190 --> 01:02:39.289
purely based on correlation data, and they took

01:02:39.289 --> 01:02:42.190
out the human element. So if the algorithm said

01:02:42.190 --> 01:02:45.610
invest in this startup, you invest in it. There's

01:02:45.610 --> 01:02:49.230
no investment memo. There's nothing else. It's

01:02:49.230 --> 01:02:51.489
just the algorithm says it, and you test the

01:02:51.489 --> 01:02:54.440
algorithm. So I think there's a quantum light

01:02:54.440 --> 01:02:57.000
is a new find by the Revolut founder who's trying

01:02:57.000 --> 01:03:00.320
to do this. What are your thoughts and could

01:03:00.320 --> 01:03:03.039
and you know, there's obvious reasons why it

01:03:03.039 --> 01:03:04.880
can't be because we don't get feedback right

01:03:04.880 --> 01:03:07.880
away. There's just too many unknowns. The public

01:03:07.880 --> 01:03:10.400
markets are very different. You get feedback

01:03:10.400 --> 01:03:12.579
almost instantly if you made the right decision.

01:03:12.719 --> 01:03:15.179
And if you borrow Danny Kahneman's framework

01:03:15.179 --> 01:03:18.059
or where to rely on validity versus intuition.

01:03:18.860 --> 01:03:21.420
our venture value was in on structure versus

01:03:21.420 --> 01:03:26.340
intuition. This is something where, you know,

01:03:26.360 --> 01:03:29.059
you can't have just correlation -based intuition.

01:03:30.039 --> 01:03:32.420
What are your thoughts on structure versus intuition?

01:03:34.340 --> 01:03:38.119
How much of VC is just correlation, investing

01:03:38.119 --> 01:03:41.739
in startups, and how much is intuition? Well,

01:03:41.800 --> 01:03:43.920
first of all, the key word is correlation, not

01:03:43.920 --> 01:03:48.280
causation, right? When I've seen some of these

01:03:48.280 --> 01:03:54.880
quantitative models in VC, often I found really

01:03:54.880 --> 01:03:58.599
they're just following expert investors. They

01:03:58.599 --> 01:04:02.099
end up just investing in things that Sequoia

01:04:02.099 --> 01:04:05.679
invested in, right? But that's usually later.

01:04:08.719 --> 01:04:12.780
So we invest at the very earliest stages. So

01:04:12.780 --> 01:04:15.139
we invest in AI and longevity sites companies.

01:04:15.719 --> 01:04:18.400
and we invest at the very early stages, first

01:04:18.400 --> 01:04:22.760
check off and only check. Probably the riskiest

01:04:22.760 --> 01:04:27.699
point, the risk is to the riskiest point. And

01:04:27.699 --> 01:04:33.139
certainly much of VC is pattern matching recognition.

01:04:33.280 --> 01:04:35.940
You've seen this story before, seen this playbook

01:04:35.940 --> 01:04:39.320
before, you've seen this playbook in one area,

01:04:39.500 --> 01:04:43.239
can it be applied in a different area? um and

01:04:43.239 --> 01:04:45.659
that's often you know they that's sort of the

01:04:45.659 --> 01:04:48.380
uber story like you know the uber of cat feeding

01:04:48.380 --> 01:04:52.559
the uber of dog walking this is like people will

01:04:52.559 --> 01:04:54.800
talk about that you take one business model apply

01:04:54.800 --> 01:05:00.619
it to a different segment uh and uh often that

01:05:00.619 --> 01:05:03.539
can work uh and i'd say that's a correlation

01:05:03.539 --> 01:05:06.880
kind of thing when you're doing deep science

01:05:08.240 --> 01:05:11.480
or moonshot science. And venture still plays

01:05:11.480 --> 01:05:15.619
in that, does play in that. That's almost the

01:05:15.619 --> 01:05:19.619
definition of venture, because if it's building

01:05:19.619 --> 01:05:23.519
another coffee shop, that's not venture. We know

01:05:23.519 --> 01:05:25.599
how the coffee shop economics, we know that people

01:05:25.599 --> 01:05:28.800
wanna drink coffee, we know what a successful

01:05:28.800 --> 01:05:33.179
cafe looks like, we just build it. Location is

01:05:33.179 --> 01:05:35.760
probably a big impact in coffee shop. business

01:05:35.760 --> 01:05:38.400
and maybe put a different model you want to have

01:05:38.400 --> 01:05:40.019
chains of coffee shops and where you put them

01:05:40.019 --> 01:05:41.739
in the right place this is a Starbucks model

01:05:41.739 --> 01:05:46.960
in deep science venture we were I play in the

01:05:46.960 --> 01:05:49.739
science often know a lot of investors will say

01:05:49.739 --> 01:05:51.559
well I don't want to invest in it because I don't

01:05:51.559 --> 01:05:54.579
understand it well guess what no one understands

01:05:54.579 --> 01:05:56.699
it that's why it's called deep science if it

01:05:56.699 --> 01:06:00.139
was if it was just if it was science and people

01:06:00.139 --> 01:06:03.260
understood they just call it science if it's

01:06:03.260 --> 01:06:06.599
deep science no one understands it so you're

01:06:06.599 --> 01:06:10.739
going to have to roll your sleeves up and get

01:06:10.739 --> 01:06:13.179
the intuition first of all so you will be intuition

01:06:13.179 --> 01:06:18.880
you know is there a there there uh to think about

01:06:18.880 --> 01:06:23.460
and to play in that area and are you willing

01:06:23.460 --> 01:06:25.860
to spend the time as an investor to roll your

01:06:25.860 --> 01:06:30.639
sleeves up to understand what the venture is

01:06:30.639 --> 01:06:36.730
about now the other view is don't bet on the

01:06:36.730 --> 01:06:42.090
horses, but bet on the jockey instead. Right,

01:06:42.170 --> 01:06:44.469
so you just assume the jockey has chosen the

01:06:44.469 --> 01:06:49.010
right horse, chosen the right race to run in,

01:06:49.369 --> 01:06:54.809
and that can work too. So some people will invest

01:06:54.809 --> 01:07:01.030
in a company. So we're investors, but we're also

01:07:01.030 --> 01:07:07.090
inventors. I'm an inventor. Now, one of my most

01:07:07.090 --> 01:07:12.429
interesting ideas to work on a moonshot is a

01:07:12.429 --> 01:07:17.329
vaccine. A vaccine for what, you may ask? A vaccine

01:07:17.329 --> 01:07:22.349
for aging. Wait, how does that work? And who's

01:07:22.349 --> 01:07:26.309
crazy enough to even try that, right? Yeah. And

01:07:26.309 --> 01:07:29.130
well, maybe Ron John's one of those people where

01:07:29.130 --> 01:07:34.510
when in 1983, he was working on a machine that

01:07:34.510 --> 01:07:38.530
could transcribe speech. This is 1983. We said

01:07:38.530 --> 01:07:40.469
we're going to make a machine that can understand

01:07:40.469 --> 01:07:46.130
speech. And that concept at that point was only

01:07:46.130 --> 01:07:50.969
seen in science fiction. Let's go deeper on the

01:07:50.969 --> 01:07:53.989
vaccine for aging. Tell me a little bit more

01:07:53.989 --> 01:07:56.789
about how you're thinking about that. How do

01:07:56.789 --> 01:07:58.730
you think about aging? I'm assuming there are

01:07:58.730 --> 01:08:01.469
some parts of aging that are beneficial for us

01:08:01.469 --> 01:08:05.369
and some parts that aren't. In a lot of ways,

01:08:06.110 --> 01:08:09.670
the memories we form or brain, if you want to

01:08:09.670 --> 01:08:12.590
call it aging to an extent, is good. We want

01:08:12.590 --> 01:08:14.550
to be wiser, smarter, more intelligent, make

01:08:14.550 --> 01:08:17.649
better decisions, not be as driven by our emotions

01:08:17.649 --> 01:08:20.770
to an extent. especially when the leaders are

01:08:20.770 --> 01:08:24.869
straight, but bodily aging beyond a certain point,

01:08:24.949 --> 01:08:29.029
we want to stop. How do you think about aging?

01:08:29.090 --> 01:08:31.729
How do you break it down? And how do you kind

01:08:31.729 --> 01:08:36.010
of control to only target the bad parts of aging

01:08:36.010 --> 01:08:41.170
without the good parts? Exactly correct. So aging

01:08:41.170 --> 01:08:44.829
is not all bad. No, we get wiser. We actually

01:08:44.829 --> 01:08:49.399
don't get as reactive as we are when you're younger

01:08:49.399 --> 01:08:53.699
we don't have no dollar reactions to nickel problems

01:08:53.699 --> 01:08:57.020
you know younger people often get upset about

01:08:57.020 --> 01:08:59.500
simpler things and as you get older you've seen

01:08:59.500 --> 01:09:04.979
it all before and maybe a bit calmer and we just

01:09:04.979 --> 01:09:07.119
know more we just know more as each year you

01:09:07.119 --> 01:09:08.920
know more you know more people you know more

01:09:08.920 --> 01:09:12.439
things and then you want to protect your brain

01:09:12.439 --> 01:09:16.310
from neurodegenerative diseases. So one thing

01:09:16.310 --> 01:09:19.869
about aging, as the way we look at it, at Agemica,

01:09:19.970 --> 01:09:24.069
which is the company that is trying to do an

01:09:24.069 --> 01:09:29.250
aging vaccine, that's A -G -E -M -I -C -A, is

01:09:29.250 --> 01:09:32.909
that there are many diseases that are age -related

01:09:32.909 --> 01:09:36.590
that increase in prevalence as you get older.

01:09:37.960 --> 01:09:41.899
An aging concept is almost opposite to another

01:09:41.899 --> 01:09:46.359
concept known as personalized medicine. Right,

01:09:46.439 --> 01:09:49.000
so in aging we're trying to find solutions that

01:09:49.000 --> 01:09:53.439
fix lots of things all at once. Personalized

01:09:53.439 --> 01:09:56.800
medicine is often trying to fix one thing that

01:09:56.800 --> 01:10:01.460
only affects you. Right, so they do sort of overlap

01:10:01.460 --> 01:10:04.000
as well because you can sort of scale personalized

01:10:04.000 --> 01:10:07.460
medicine ideas. But the way we look at aging

01:10:07.460 --> 01:10:13.500
is think of it as clusters of diseases. So three

01:10:13.500 --> 01:10:19.100
big clusters are cardiovascular, the number one

01:10:19.100 --> 01:10:24.619
killer. Second one is cancer. And the third one

01:10:24.619 --> 01:10:27.739
is neurodegenerative. So if we can solve those

01:10:27.739 --> 01:10:31.810
three, that will give you. very big chunk of

01:10:31.810 --> 01:10:34.829
a lot of age -related disease and they actually

01:10:34.829 --> 01:10:39.369
are correlated as well if you solve one and then

01:10:39.369 --> 01:10:42.890
the others improve as well. And what we want

01:10:42.890 --> 01:10:46.789
to do is use the power of the tools of the day

01:10:46.789 --> 01:10:49.810
which are different the tools of even five years

01:10:49.810 --> 01:10:56.109
ago. Can we protect proteins from being disrupted

01:10:56.109 --> 01:11:01.989
and turned into cancer cells? Can we sort of

01:11:01.989 --> 01:11:04.229
realize that the central dogma theory that we

01:11:04.229 --> 01:11:09.289
all have DNA, what's amazing is the DNA is the

01:11:09.289 --> 01:11:11.949
same in every single cell of ours, whether it's

01:11:11.949 --> 01:11:15.390
a tongue cell or a stomach cell, and DNA turns

01:11:15.390 --> 01:11:19.989
into RNA, RNA creates proteins, and the proteins

01:11:19.989 --> 01:11:23.689
tell ourselves what to do. And then when we get

01:11:23.689 --> 01:11:28.479
older, that regulation seems to disrupt a little

01:11:28.479 --> 01:11:34.880
bit? Can we stop that happening? Can we program

01:11:34.880 --> 01:11:39.859
peptides to protect proteins from turning into

01:11:39.859 --> 01:11:44.939
cancerous but not turning our normal cells into

01:11:44.939 --> 01:11:48.579
disruptive components at the same time? So how

01:11:48.579 --> 01:11:52.020
do you sort of kill bad cells without killing

01:11:52.020 --> 01:11:57.000
normal cells? And with AI, you have a new tool

01:11:57.000 --> 01:11:59.060
available to you. So that's what we're trying

01:11:59.060 --> 01:12:02.960
to do at Aegemica. And we think we have a prototype

01:12:02.960 --> 01:12:07.760
for an aging vaccine, an mRNA aging vaccine.

01:12:07.899 --> 01:12:10.779
We think we can solve, at this point, about 30

01:12:10.779 --> 01:12:14.140
cancers all at the same time. So a pan -cancer

01:12:14.140 --> 01:12:17.279
vaccine. Think about it cluster by cluster. And

01:12:17.279 --> 01:12:19.560
then thinking about rinsing and repeating, taking

01:12:19.560 --> 01:12:22.619
the same idea and use the same technique for

01:12:22.619 --> 01:12:26.659
the other clusters of diseases. And aging, if

01:12:26.659 --> 01:12:29.720
you can solve even big chunks of it, all of a

01:12:29.720 --> 01:12:35.180
sudden, society's medical problems go away. All

01:12:35.180 --> 01:12:37.239
these problems about not enough doctors, not

01:12:37.239 --> 01:12:40.619
enough nurses, paying $100 ,000 for a cancer

01:12:40.619 --> 01:12:43.439
treatment. Well, if you don't get cancer, you

01:12:43.439 --> 01:12:46.300
don't need to pay for it. If you don't get cancer,

01:12:46.380 --> 01:12:50.109
you don't need to see the doctor. You know, nature's

01:12:50.109 --> 01:12:51.829
come out with a study. If you can solve aging,

01:12:51.970 --> 01:12:58.470
it's a $38 trillion impact. So, you know, think

01:12:58.470 --> 01:13:01.310
of a big idea and thinking of the tools available

01:13:01.310 --> 01:13:05.250
to you and then jumping into the space is one

01:13:05.250 --> 01:13:07.130
of the ideas. If you don't jump into the space,

01:13:07.329 --> 01:13:11.380
well, it won't happen. So what space do you want

01:13:11.380 --> 01:13:13.500
to jump into? So that's something in space and

01:13:13.500 --> 01:13:16.500
then you put some money to work at it in it and

01:13:16.500 --> 01:13:21.000
try and do it step by step. So in the old speech

01:13:21.000 --> 01:13:23.859
recognition days, when I couldn't, I said, I'm

01:13:23.859 --> 01:13:26.199
going to make a machine to transcribe speech.

01:13:26.539 --> 01:13:28.619
So, well, okay, let's break it down. Let's just

01:13:28.619 --> 01:13:31.760
do telephone digits to start off with. And then

01:13:31.760 --> 01:13:34.140
later on, 15, 18 years later, it's on everyone's

01:13:34.140 --> 01:13:37.560
phones. Full speed transcription. So I think

01:13:37.560 --> 01:13:40.899
about aging science. Okay, well, aging is a big

01:13:40.899 --> 01:13:43.060
problem. There's many, many age -related diseases.

01:13:43.859 --> 01:13:46.819
Let's start with cancer. Cancer is a good one

01:13:46.819 --> 01:13:52.159
to look at because it's, as you know, it metastasizes.

01:13:52.680 --> 01:13:57.010
So if you solve one cancer. It's often it's too

01:13:57.010 --> 01:13:59.409
late. You've got another cancer. And so can you

01:13:59.409 --> 01:14:02.829
solve groups of diseases at the same time? And

01:14:02.829 --> 01:14:05.189
so that was a good model to look at. And then

01:14:05.189 --> 01:14:08.789
can we solve that model in the other other models?

01:14:10.630 --> 01:14:13.550
So there we have it. So that's that's the major

01:14:13.550 --> 01:14:17.949
working on. And sometimes I say I encourage people,

01:14:17.970 --> 01:14:20.250
Richard, what's your big idea? That's my big

01:14:20.250 --> 01:14:23.569
idea. The loads of big ideas to work on. And

01:14:23.569 --> 01:14:27.000
then think about how the big idea can be worked

01:14:27.000 --> 01:14:30.720
on. And instead of saying giving up before you

01:14:30.720 --> 01:14:32.840
even start saying, well, how do we break the

01:14:32.840 --> 01:14:34.880
problem down? That's the engineer in becoming.

01:14:35.220 --> 01:14:37.819
Now I'm an engineer where we will be pragmatic.

01:14:38.020 --> 01:14:40.819
And so well, how do we break the problem down?

01:14:42.420 --> 01:14:46.979
Yeah, I think from a medicine, care delivery

01:14:46.979 --> 01:14:50.279
perspective, the problems aren't technical, the

01:14:50.279 --> 01:14:54.179
problems are regulatory and reimbursement. We

01:14:54.179 --> 01:14:57.399
can create an AI physician that's completely

01:14:57.399 --> 01:15:00.420
autonomous for specific verticals from a technical

01:15:00.420 --> 01:15:04.720
perspective tomorrow. You know, for to refill

01:15:04.720 --> 01:15:06.859
birth control, blood pressure medications. These

01:15:06.859 --> 01:15:13.380
are very, fairly straightforward clinical decision

01:15:13.380 --> 01:15:15.239
trees. Some of them are more robust than others,

01:15:15.279 --> 01:15:17.880
but you know, I can probably write a clinical

01:15:17.880 --> 01:15:20.819
decision tree for a blood pressure refill in

01:15:20.819 --> 01:15:23.760
a day or two. And it might be a comprehensive,

01:15:24.039 --> 01:15:26.739
but I can do it. I'm sure someone can code it.

01:15:27.659 --> 01:15:30.840
But no state medical board is going to give that

01:15:30.840 --> 01:15:32.819
clinical decision tree a license to actually

01:15:32.819 --> 01:15:37.000
refill the birth control. And no payers are reimbursed

01:15:37.000 --> 01:15:41.439
today. So the question becomes, do I build it

01:15:41.439 --> 01:15:47.640
now and wait? Because venture, and building a

01:15:47.640 --> 01:15:51.939
company, you have to pay employees. there's a

01:15:51.939 --> 01:15:55.739
time, there's a stopwatch that starts when I

01:15:55.739 --> 01:15:59.539
start this. And yeah, like how long do I wait

01:15:59.539 --> 01:16:05.960
before I build this? So last question, Ron, if

01:16:05.960 --> 01:16:10.159
you could go back in time and talk to your 20

01:16:10.159 --> 01:16:12.060
year old self, or maybe if you could go back

01:16:12.060 --> 01:16:15.859
in time 10 years ago, what piece of advice would

01:16:15.859 --> 01:16:19.470
you? Tell 20 year old Ron John and then Ron John

01:16:19.470 --> 01:16:27.550
10 years ago. Yes. So 20 year old Ron John, I

01:16:27.550 --> 01:16:34.850
think is have a thick skinned expect rejection

01:16:34.850 --> 01:16:41.289
and show up 99 % of life is just showing up.

01:16:41.409 --> 01:16:43.909
So all you have to do, you know, I've been rejected

01:16:43.909 --> 01:16:48.829
so many times. for so many things, but over time

01:16:48.829 --> 01:16:50.810
you get thicker, the skin got thicker and thicker

01:16:50.810 --> 01:16:52.289
and thicker, didn't worry about it, but in the

01:16:52.289 --> 01:16:55.430
early days it was quite unnerving when you got

01:16:55.430 --> 01:16:59.350
rejected for something, but apply for things

01:16:59.350 --> 01:17:01.590
and show up to things, talk to people, don't

01:17:01.590 --> 01:17:05.189
be afraid, go out of your comfort zone. 10 years

01:17:05.189 --> 01:17:08.840
ago, I think go out of your comfort zone is still

01:17:08.840 --> 01:17:10.739
there. I think I've got used to being rejected,

01:17:10.819 --> 01:17:13.039
so not a problem. In fact, the more you got rejected,

01:17:13.060 --> 01:17:14.840
the more you wanted to do it, actually. I think

01:17:14.840 --> 01:17:17.640
that's almost a positive sign. The more people

01:17:17.640 --> 01:17:19.720
say you can't do it, the more you actually say,

01:17:19.899 --> 01:17:21.739
well, you can do it. You can do it, and you are

01:17:21.739 --> 01:17:30.600
going to do it. But try and be also as humble

01:17:30.600 --> 01:17:34.529
as you can. I think I... sort of rolled into

01:17:34.529 --> 01:17:41.609
it in trying to be factual and be available to

01:17:41.609 --> 01:17:48.270
people and just have no airs and graces. I think

01:17:48.270 --> 01:17:52.050
that's probably general theme is just be accessible

01:17:52.050 --> 01:17:54.409
if someone wants to talk to you, talk to them

01:17:54.409 --> 01:18:01.520
and be able to Think bigger, probably also think

01:18:01.520 --> 01:18:04.060
bigger. About 10 years ago, I'd say think bigger.

01:18:04.819 --> 01:18:08.420
So I'm thinking big now. And looking back, I

01:18:08.420 --> 01:18:10.899
was thinking big, I guess, 20, 30 years ago,

01:18:10.920 --> 01:18:16.779
but I didn't feel like I was, right? So I think

01:18:16.779 --> 01:18:18.920
there's lots and lots of big ideas and lots of

01:18:18.920 --> 01:18:21.399
now role models, people who have done big ideas.

01:18:22.079 --> 01:18:24.779
And so you think, well, why can't I? Why can't

01:18:24.779 --> 01:18:31.539
you? The resources now available to people. That's

01:18:31.539 --> 01:18:34.420
great advice. Yeah. Don't be afraid of rejection

01:18:34.420 --> 01:18:36.880
and think bigger. Thanks so much for joining

01:18:36.880 --> 01:18:39.680
me today. Thank you for having me. Thank you

01:18:39.680 --> 01:18:40.420
for having me, Richard.