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
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Hi Ron John, thanks so much for joining us today.
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It's so nice to be here Let's start with Maybe
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a simple but difficult to answer question is
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how do you define reality? In my perspective
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our reality is more a subjective Interface and
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we're limited by our five senses and how we perceive
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reality Tell me a bit more about how you define
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reality. How do humans play into that? And with
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the advent of AI, how is a reality changing?
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Yeah, so I'm an engineer. I'm sort of a pragmatist.
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And, you know, so I'm probably less on the spiritual
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side, probably. But so I would sort of define
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reality is um you know often there's a phrase
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uh perception is reality people perceive it it
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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.
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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
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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
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I'll stop there for a second so you can assimilate
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that. Yeah, I think there's a risk and this is
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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.