Radio Bostrom

Aug 08 2024 29 ep. 55 mins 192
Radio Bostrom Podcast artwork

Audio narrations of academic papers by Nick Bostrom.

  Technology  Society & Culture
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AI Creation and the Cosmic Host (2024)

Aug 08 2024 1 mins  
By Nick Bostrom.Abstract:There may well exist a normative structure, based on the preferences or concordats of a cosmic host, and which has high relevance to the development of A-eye. In particular, we may have both moral and prudential reason to create superintelligence that becomes a good cosmic citizen—that is conforms to cosmic norms and contributes positively to the cosmopol

Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World (2024)

Mar 18 2024 1 mins  
Nick Bostrom’s latest book, Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World, will be published on 27th March, 2024. It’s available to pre-order now: https://nickbostrom.com/deep-utopia/ The publisher describes the book as follows: A greyhound catching the mechanical lure—what would he actually do with it? Has he given this any thought? Bostrom’s previous book, Superintel

The Unilateralist’s Curse and the Case for a Principle of Conformity (2016)

Aug 26 2022 41 mins  
By Nick Bostrom, Thomas Douglas & Anders Sandberg.Abstract:In some situations a number of agents each have the ability to undertake an initiative that would have significant effects on the others. Suppose that each of these agents is purely motivated by an altruistic concern for the common good. We show that if each agent acts on her own personal judgment as to whether the init

In Defense of Posthuman Dignity (2005)

Aug 25 2022 35 mins  
By Nick Bostrom.Abstract:Positions on the ethics of human enhancement technologies can be (crudely) characterized as ranging from transhumanism to bioconservatism. Transhumanists believe that human enhancement technologies should be made widely available, that individuals should have broad discretion over which of these technologies to apply to themselves, and that parents should n

A Primer on the Doomsday Argument (1999)

Aug 24 2022 12 mins  
By Nick Bostrom.Abstract:Rarely does philosophy produce empirical predictions. The Doomsday argument is an important exception. From seemingly trivial premises it seeks to show that the risk that humankind will go extinct soon has been systematically underestimated. Nearly everybody's first reaction is that there must be something wrong with such an argument. Yet despite being

Propositions Concerning Digital Minds and Society (2022)

Aug 23 2022 71 mins  
By Nick Bostrom and Carl Shulman. Draft version 1.10.Abstract:AIs with moral status and political rights? We'll need a modus vivendi, and it’s becoming urgent to figure out the parameters for that. This paper makes a load of specific claims that begin to stake out a position.Read the full paper:https://nickbostrom.com/propositions.pdfMore episodes at:https://radiobostrom.com

Base Camp for Mount Ethics (2022)

Aug 22 2022 58 mins  
By Nick Bostrom.Draft version 0.9Abstract:New theoretical ideas for a big expedition in metaethics.Read the full paper:https://nickbostrom.com/papers/mountethics.pdfMore episodes at:https://radiobostrom.com/ ---Outline:(00:17) Metametaethics/preamble(02:48) Genealogy(09:41) Metaethics(21:30) Value representors(26:56) Moral motivation(30:02) The weak(33:25) Hedonism(41:38) Hierarchi

The Transhumanist FAQ (2003)

Aug 21 2022 182 mins  
By Nick Bostrom.Abstract:Transhumanism is a way of thinking about the future that is based on the premise that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but rather a comparatively early phase. We formally define it as follows:(1) The intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving

The Future of Human Evolution (2004)

Aug 20 2022 63 mins  
By Nick Bostrom.Abstract:Evolutionary development is sometimes thought of as exhibiting an inexorable trend towards higher, more complex, and normatively worthwhile forms of life. This paper explores some dystopian scenarios where freewheeling evolutionary developments, while continuing to produce complex and intelligent forms of organization, lead to the gradual elimination of all

Predictions from Philosophy? (1997)

Aug 19 2022 103 mins  
By Nick Bostrom.Abstract:The purpose of this paper, boldly stated, is to propose a new type of philosophy, a philosophy whose aim is prediction. The pace of technological progress is increasing very rapidly: it looks as if we are witnessing an exponential growth, the growth-rate being proportional to the size already obtained, with scientific knowledge doubling every 10 to 20 years