Episode Details

This installment of the Stewarding the Flame series is an interview with Connor Glass, founder and CEO of Phantom Neuro, a company building implantable technology that interfaces with the body's peripheral nervous system.

Connor argues that artificial intelligence already meets his own definition of life, and that biological evolution has effectively hit its ceiling - the cyborg, not the pure robot, is what he sees as humanity's next stage, with implantable technology (not wearables) as the actual delivery mechanism. At the same time, he's emphatic about staying "team human."

We explore how Connor defines life and where AI fits into that definition, what role human-machine interfaces should play in keeping humans relevant as the "torch" of the living process, and what he'd tell the people building AGI about the risks of moving too fast without bounds - or too slow to stay competitive.

This conversation explores whether AI already counts as alive, why Connor believes the cyborg is humanity's next evolutionary stage, and what he thinks is the most dangerous way humanity could opt out of the living process as we enter the age of AGI.

The interview is the sixth installment of The Trajectory's newest series, Stewarding the Flame, where we explore what intelligence is and ask what "flame" life possesses that non-life does not.

Connect with Connor Glass and Phantom Neuro:
 -- Connor Glass on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-glass-010124141/
-- Phantom Neuro on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/phantomneuro/

This episode referred to the following other essays and resources:
-- Stewarding the Flame - How to Build an Ideal Future for Intelligence: https://danfaggella.com/stewarding
-- Consolation Cosmism: https://danfaggella.com/consolation
-- Terence Deacon – AI Is a "Deep Fake of Intelligence" (Worthy Successor, Episode 29): https://danfaggella.com/deacon1
-- Blaise Agüera y Arcas – AGI Symbiosis and the Arrow of Intelligence (Worthy Successor, Episode 14): https://danfaggella.com/arcas1
-- Ed Boyden – Neurobiology as a Bridge to a Worthy Successor (Worthy Successor, Episode 13): https://danfaggella.com/boyden1
-- Martin Rees – If They're Conscious, We Should Step Aside (Worthy Successor, Episode 12): https://danfaggella.com/rees1
-- Richard Sutton – Humanity Never Had Control in the First Place (Worthy Successor, Episode 2): https://danfaggella.com/sutton1
-- Lotus Eaters vs World Eaters – A Fork in the Road in the Transhuman Transition : https://danfaggella.com/the-transhuman-transition-lotus-eaters-vs-world-eaters/
-- The Culture Series: Iain M. Banks: https://www.goodreads.com/series/49118-culture
-- Accelerando: Charles Stross: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17863.Accelerando
-- On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura): A poem by Lucretius: https://classics.mit.edu/Carus/nature_things.3.iii.html

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/rJSK8o1HaS0

See the full article from this episode: https://danfaggella.com/glass1

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