Why cryonics and mind emulation could mean we don't have to die, how nanotech could rebuild the physical world, and the case for Existential Hope — picturing futures worth building.
New episode with Allison Duettmann, the CEO of the Foresight Institute.
Foresight has spent the past 40 years backing frontier science too early or too interdisciplinary for legacy institutions. It has helped inspire and organize 10,000+ scientists, technologists, philanthropists, investors, students, thinkers, pioneers, and dreamers — including the early-2000s space community where Elon Musk and Steve Jurvetson discussed the importance of commercial space and reusable rockets. Foresight's Feynman Prize went to Fraser Stoddart and David Baker 9 and 20 years before each won a Nobel. Today, Foresight is one of the main communities where neurotech pioneers gather and explore the frontiers of BCI, connectomics, simulations, and uploading.
Allison also founded the Existential Hope movement, rooted in the conviction that we must imagine flourishing futures — in the tradition of ambitious science and sci-fi — as a precondition for building them. She is one of the best people thinking deeply about the future, coordinating humanity to imagine and achieve good outcomes, and working to accelerate the technologies and adoption that will get us there.
We go deep into all of that in this episode: how neurotech could let us connect far more directly than language allows; how BCIs are meaningfully improving people's lives today; why connectomics and whole-brain emulation can keep humans compatible with superintelligent AI; why uploading could give us a path to exploring ourselves and living vastly richer, more fulfilling lives than a single ~80-year narrative arc allows; the possibility of living billions of years; and how nanotechnology could reshape the physical world, address our sustainability and energy challenges, and build the infrastructure to lift us off planet and explore the universe.
This is a ton, and goes to show how deeply and broadly Allison thinks. She explains things clearly and bridges huge divides with care, vision, and rigor. Hope you enjoy!
Listen & watch: YouTube · Spotify · Apple Podcasts
Chapters
- 00:00 — Introduction
- 01:25 — What is Existential Hope?
- 04:06 — Visions of the future: nanotech, longevity, neurotech, AI
- 08:04 — From existential risk to building better futures
- 16:15 — How far away is nanotechnology?
- 24:26 — Is a superintelligent AI a tool, or a new form of life?
- 37:33 — How neurotech could connect minds far beyond language
- 41:56 — Whole brain emulation: from C. elegans and FlyWire to the human "holy grail"
- 45:16 — The connectome problem: a complete wiring diagram isn't enough
- 47:19 — Why it's so hard to attract talent to emulation
- 1:03:04 — Longevity, cryonics, and the case for living billions of years
- 1:22:24 — How close are we to never having to die?
- 1:43:13 — How Foresight operates to advance frontier science
- 1:54:06 — From philosophy to Foresight: how a three-month stay became 10 years in SF
- 2:03:04 — Allison's vision for an optimistic future
Links & references
Guest & organizations
- Allison Duettmann
- Foresight Institute
- Existential Hope
- Existential Hope World Gallery
- Foresight Fellowship / programs
- Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology
- Mythos Ventures
Referenced papers & projects
- Whole Brain Emulation: A Roadmap — Sandberg & Bostrom (2008)
- ARIA — Manufacturing Abundance
- LessWrong
- The Bitter Lesson — Richard Sutton (2019)
- Causal Learning: Psychology, Philosophy, and Computation — Gopnik & Schulz
- FlyWire (fruit-fly connectome)
- OpenWorm / C. elegans connectome
- WormAtlas
- Max Hodak — Science Corporation
- Until Labs
- Adam Marblestone & Convergent Research
Videos & demonstrations
- Funding the Commons 2022
- Woman hearing for the first time
- DBS tremor surgery (spiral drawing)
- Cystic fibrosis: progress through new treatments
Books & media
- The Nexus Trilogy — Ramez Naam (2012–2015)
- Permutation City — Greg Egan (1994)
- The Beginning of Infinity — David Deutsch (2011)
- Gaming the Future — Allison Duettmann, Mark S. Miller, Christine Peterson (2022)
- Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology — K. Eric Drexler (1986)
- The Age of Em — Robin Hanson (2016)
- The Edge of Sentience — Jonathan Birch (2024)
- Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies — Nick Bostrom (2014)
- The Longevity Imperative — Andrew J. Scott (2024)
- The Precipice — Toby Ord (2020)
- The Myth of Sisyphus — Albert Camus (1942)
- The Culture series — Iain M. Banks (1987–2012)
- Unbounding the Future: The Nanotechnology Revolution — Drexler, Peterson & Pergamit (1991)
- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! — Richard P. Feynman with Ralph Leighton (1985)
- "Letter to Posterity" — Petrarch (1350)