Latest / The Existential Hope Podcast
Michael Nielsen on Hyper-entities, Tools for Thought, and Wise Optimism
If you think people who worry about AI are being pessimistic, you might have it backwards.
In this episode, we talk with Michael Nielsen, scientist and writer known for his work on open science, quantum computing, and how our language shapes the way we think. Michael explores what he calls "wise optimism": the idea that genuinely believing in a technology's potential means taking its risks seriously, not dismissing them.
We also spend a good chunk of the conversation on “hyper-entities”. These are imagined future objects, like the Internet before the 1990s or AGI now, that shape present…
The skinny
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