Re:

You =ood?

Good...and busy. =ere's my new project below - "The Deep Thinking Project".

At the farm all day. NYC tomorrow. =all.

JB
=obile (best number to use)

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THE =EEP THINKING PROJECT

I am now getting started on my new project which =nvolves two dozen of the world's leading thinkers on Al and will result =n a book, US rights to which have been successfully auctioned to Penguin Press. =entative title: DEEP THINKING: ON THE PROMISE AND PERIL OF Al. The =nspiration for framing the project came from Jaan Tallin, co-founder of Skype and =cience philanthropist, who, in the abstract for his essay, =rites:

"An interesting cultural evolution is happening =n the Al research community. Wiener's original warnings were buried for 50+ =ears, only to re-emerge within a small community of 'dissidents,' and are now =lowly—and very encouragingly! — making their way to the mainstream =1 community."

Thus, DEEP THINKING =hallenges the dominant Al narrative by identifying the leading "dissidents" in the =roader Al and science communities and presenting their counter-narratives in their own voices — =wenty-four erudite scientific thinkers who, for most of their careers, have =hought deeply about Wiener's ideas in the context of their own scientific fields: the Al =esearchers Dario Amodei and Stuart Russell; the communications theorist =oichi "Joi" Ito; the complex adaptive systems researcher Geoffrey West; the =omputational socia)l scientist Alex "Sandy" Pentland; the computer scientist W. =aniel Hillis; the cultural anthropologist Mary =atherine Bateson; the arts curator Hans Ulrich Obrist; the genomics researcher =eorge Church; the molecular biologist Ventraman "Venki" Ramakrishnan, the =uantum mechanical engineer Seth Lloyd; the philosopher Daniel C. Dennett; the =hysicists Freeman Dyson, Neil Gershenfeld, Lawrence Krauss, Judea Pearl, and =rank Wilczek; the psychologist Daniel Goleman; the precision cosmologist Max =egmark; the robotocists Rodney Brooks and Chris Anderson, the science =istorians Peter Galison, George Dyson, and David Kaiser; the technologist Jaan Tallin; =he cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths, the writers Kevin Kelly and Pamela =cCorduck.

As Daniel C. Dennett notes: "resurrecting =iener as a major thinker (something I myself agree with) is a sort of thankless task. 4 will happen indirectly if we focus the book on the issues of today, and let Wiener emerge =s the ghost at the banquet". In Stewart Brand's view, =revisiting pioneer thinking is perpetually useful. And it gives a long perspective that =nvites thinking in decades and centuries about the subject. All contemporary =iscussion, is bound to age badly and immediately without the longer =erspective."

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Cybernetics never went =way: it came to be everything, and that it's time =or an update from the field. In so doing, this is not looking =hrough a rear-view mirror. Wiener's cybernetic idea is crucial to =nderstanding what's happening in Al today and where its going; and his =arnings and admonitions about Al are now very real again.

ESSAYS

-Delivery: Tuesday, =eptember 5th day after Labor Day

-Length: 3,000 words

-Honorarium: $1,000; $500 signing, $500 on first book =ublication. Kill fee: the $500 already paid.

-Exclusive rights in all media and languages for two years =ollowing publication (no posting online personal blogs, websites, =tc.), non-exclusive thereafter.

-Original =aterial only, written specifically for the book.

In addition to the essays I am adding material from several =onferences about the project during the next year and also the usual =ne-on-one video interviews I do on EDGE. Note: in the proposal, I make use of a =ombination of the very brief essay abstracts provided by essayists, text from talks =t the September meeting, and material from individual EDGE interviews.

For insight into what the participants are thinking about, =lease see the following links....

the book =roposal:

https://brockman.com/Projects/Proposals/Brockman_DeepThinking/B=ockman_DeepThinking.html
user id: brockman
password: =ubmission

transcript of a conference I ran with a number of =arvard-MIT participants in September. It's the first of several along these =ines.

https://brockman.com/Projects/Proposals/Brockman_DeepThinking/M=eting.pdf

user id: =rockman I password: submission

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