Launch of Amplifying Cognition podcast: next-level thinking, Humans + AI, and better decisions

07/11/23 • -1 min

Humans + AI (formerly Amplifying Cognition)

“Amplifying Cognition is about recognizing that the human mind is the most extraordinary thing in the known universe. Yet it is capable of far more. “

– Ross Dawson

About Ross Dawson

Ross Dawson works globally as a futurist, keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and strategy advisor. He is Founding Chairman of the Advanced Human Technologies Group of companies, and is the bestselling author of five books, most recently Thriving on Overload.

Website: Ross Dawson

LinkedIn: Ross Dawson

Twitter: @rossdawson

Facebook: Ross Dawson

YouTube: Ross Dawson

Books

Thriving on Overload

Other books

What you will learn

The metamorphosis from Thriving on Overload to Amplifying Cognition (00:31)
How and why Amplifying Cognition became the name of the podcast (02:23)
A glimpse of what AI is and how it can amplify humans (06:41)
Cognitive evolution (epigenetics) through leveraging collective intelligence (10:11)
The nature of interviews and features on this podcast (12:53)

Episode Resources

Transcript

Welcome to the launch episode of The Amplifying Cognition podcast, which is an evolution and rebirth of the Thriving on Overload podcast. I’m Ross Dawson. I’m a futurist and entrepreneur fascinated by how we can tap the incredible potential of the human mind. In this brief episode, I will share why the metamorphosis from Thriving on Overload to Amplifying Cognition, what I mean by Amplifying Cognition and where the podcast will go, the sorts of people will speak to, and the sorts of topics we’ll cover.

Thriving on Overload podcast was originally the interviews for the book. I thought I was going to be speaking to these incredible people, and rather than just having me in that conversation, capturing all of their insights for other people to listen to, and it was far more from those amazing conversations than I could fit into the book, of course. We kept on going with conversations with fascinating people that could help us to thrive in a world of unlimited information.

That’s a year and a half now that the podcast has been running. A few months ago, on the podcast, I published an episode where I had a conversation talking about my thoughts about the future of the podcast. And at the time, I said, I was considering renaming the podcast Amplifying Cognition, along with a few other possibilities, and asking for some thoughts and feedback. I spent a long time thinking about the many options to reframe the podcast. But in the end, I went with Amplifying Cognition. It’s a big decision because I expect it will be years where I will be continuing to dig into this theme.

Now that I’ve made the decision, I’m very happy because it brings together so many of the themes that I’ve been fascinated by, and worked on throughout my life really, really from when I was a child. It’s interesting now that I’m finding that the vast scope of my interest can somehow be related to this idea of Amplifying Cognition.

In this episode, once again, I’m sharing with you where the podcast is going. I’d love to get any thoughts you have to help make this podcast as interesting and useful to you as it possibly can be. Please get in touch with me directly on the contact form on my website, or any of my social media profiles.

The background to this rebranding is, first of all, I had this concept of Thriving on Overload, which was this issue that we all face; we are immersed in the world of unlimited information and our brains are not built for that so we have to build practices and how it is we engage, enhance our attention, pull together all of that information, find what’s useful, fi...

“Amplifying Cognition is about recognizing that the human mind is the most extraordinary thing in the known universe. Yet it is capable of far more. “

– Ross Dawson

About Ross Dawson

Website: Ross Dawson

LinkedIn: Ross Dawson

Twitter: @rossdawson

Facebook: Ross Dawson

YouTube: Ross Dawson

Books

Thriving on Overload

Other books

What you will learn

The metamorphosis from Thriving on Overload to Amplifying Cognition (00:31)
How and why Amplifying Cognition became the name of the podcast (02:23)
A glimpse of what AI is and how it can amplify humans (06:41)
Cognitive evolution (epigenetics) through leveraging collective intelligence (10:11)
The nature of interviews and features on this podcast (12:53)

Episode Resources

Transcript

Previous Episode

undefined - Harold Jarche on personal knowledge mastery, the Seek, Sense, and Share framework; networked learning, and finding different perspectives [REPOST] (Ep67)

Harold Jarche on personal knowledge mastery, the Seek, Sense, and Share framework; networked learning, and finding different perspectives [REPOST] (Ep67)

“Choose the sources that are going to disconfirm what you think. You need to have the people who are going to challenge your thinking so you don’t go down a single rabbit hole. That’s the trick. That’s the art in doing this. “

– Harold Jarche

About Harold Jarche Harold Jarche has been an independent consultant for the past 20 years working with individuals, organisations, and governments to improve collaboration, knowledge sharing and sense-making. He is the author the Seeking Perpetual Beta e-book series and runs the very popular Personal Knowledge Mastery online workshops. In this episode, Harold shares his Seek, Sense, and Share framework; insights on network learning, finding different perspectives, and far more.

Website: jarche.com

Blog: Harold Jarche

LinkedIn: Harold Jarche

Twitter: @hjarche

YouTube: Harold Jarche

Book Series

Seeking Perpetual Beta

What you will learn

What is Personal Knowledge Mastery (02:07)
How is Personal Knowledge Mastery different from Personal Knowledge Management (05:00)
What is Networked Learning (08:00)
What is the Seek, Sense, and Share Framework and its practice (11:09)
How the Seek process helped Harold make sense of Covid (22:56)
Why he chooses sources that contradict what he thinks (26:36)
How to make sense of complex issues with many diverse opinions (29:30)
What is Harold’s daily routine (33:09)
How to synthesize and add value to information (38:54)
What is the difference between networks and communities (44:07)

Episode Resources

Transcript

Ross Dawson: Harold, it’s awesome to have you on the show.

Harold Jarche: It’s great to be here, Ross.

Ross: We’ve known each other for a long time. One of our common interests has been what you have framed as personal knowledge management, or in your case, personal knowledge mastery. Can you explain what personal knowledge management is and how you came to that?

Harold: It started when I started freelancing, which was in 2003. One of the challenges I had is that I live in the middle of nowhere; I’m about 1000 kilometers from Boston no or Montreal and major cities, I live out in the Atlantic, Canada. One of the challenges I had was, how do I stay current in my profession? How do I stay connected to people? And how do I not spend a whole bunch of money? I came across the work of several people, particularly Lilia Efimova, who was doing her doctorate about knowledge sharing through blogging at the University of Twente, Netherlands.

There are a few other people who we...

Next Episode

$undefined - Jerry Michalski on ethical cyborgs, amplifying uniqueness, peak knowledge, and fractal conversations (AC Ep2)$

Jerry Michalski on ethical cyborgs, amplifying uniqueness, peak knowledge, and fractal conversations (AC Ep2)

“I believe that more people would be eager to jump in and think together if the thinking were fun and led to something truly productive and useful. For me, that’s a significant aspect of amplifying cognition. “

– Jerry Michalski

About Jerry Michalski On this episode we learn from the incredible connector Jerry Michalski. His fascinating career is hard to summarise, playing a central role in the emerging digital economy as long time managing editor of Esther Dyson’s Release 1.0 newsletter. He is now leader at the Relation Economy Expedition (REX) as well as an advisor facilitator and speaker at the Institute For The Future with a deep focus on trust and relationships.

Websites:

jerrymichalski.com

jerrysbrain.com

Openglobalmind.com

LinkedIn: Jerry Michalski

Twitter: @jerrymichalski

What you will learn

The potential of generative AI and other advanced models in enhancing human capabilities (03:12
Difference between Cyborg and Centaur (04:25)
Exploring boundaries and augmentation in the age of ChatGPT (05:33)
Balancing individuality and AI in knowledge management (07:10)
Using AI to explore diverse perspectives (09:14)
The danger of the loss of distinction between fact and fiction (10:37)
The significance of collective intelligence among cyborgs and the urgency to address ethical considerations (11:44)
Embracing contagious and viral ideas while avoiding oversimplification (18:20)
Dealing with an ethical cyborg vs. an ethical person (20:26)
Ethical concerns related to AI research and the potential misuse of open-source models (21:52)
Navigating arguments and perspectives with ChatGPT (25:46)
Amplifying cognition as the by-product of collective thinking and knowledge sharing (33:20)

Episode Resources

Transcript

Ross Dawson: Jerry, it’s amazing to have you back on the show.

Jerry Michalski: It’s very exciting to have another conversation with you. Thanks for the invite.

Ross: It’s almost two years since you were one of the first guests on the show, a very obvious guest, and you are very obvious to relaunch Amplifying Cognition. What are you thinking about? What are you doing? What are you delving into these days?

Jerry: It’s funny; we were just comparing notes a little bit and it seems like my path is converging with your path as we speak even. It’s very fun because I realized not that long ago that I’m more of a cyborg than anybody I know because I externalize more of what I think into this Brain software that I use. I find it incredibly useful and usable. Even though it’s called the Brain, it has no AI in it. That has not been an experience for me of using generative AI or any of the models that we’re talking about here. But, oh my gosh, those things are all completely complimentary.

My general notion is that the future of work is cyborg; we’re going to have to learn how to meld well with technology. That means we’re probably going to have to figure out how the tools work and how to incorporate them into our lives. But also, the ethics of this stuff is really important. The other piece of what I’m working on is standing up a community of cyborgs who are trying to work together to figure out, Hey, what does this next generation of work look like? And how do we do it in some ethical way so that maybe our efforts are making the world a better place instead of destroying it?

Ross: How would you define cyborg?

Jerry: I was torn between cyborg and centaur. Centaur does not roll off the tongue. People don’t know what centaurs ar...