The Feedback Loop by Singularity

This week our guest is author and podcaster, Azeem Azhar, who has a robust background as an investor, founder, and regulator in the tech space, including several years working with the World Economic Forum on the Global Future Council on Digital Economy and Society.

Azeem spends much of his time these days creating content for ExponentialView.co, where he provides weekly assessments of the dynamics at play in humanity’s exponential transformation. The key ideas he’s uncovered on this journey can be found in his latest book, The Exponential Age: How Accelerating Technology is Transforming Business, Politics and Society.

In this episode, we review his book and the wisdom he’s gained over the years, with an emphasis on the impacts of the growing divide taking place between technology’s advancements and society’s ability to keep up with it.

Find Azeem's work at ExponentialView.co or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/azeem

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Host: Steven Parton - LinkedIn / Twitter

Music by: Amine el Filali

This week my guest is neuroscientist and entrepreneur, Adam Gazzaley, who co-authored the 2016 book The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World, and whose company Akili Interactive has developed the world's first video game approved by the FDA for the medical treatment of ADHD.

Adam and I start the conversation with a robust exploration of attention from a neuroscientific perspective, investigating the modern impacts of distraction and technological stimuli. From there, we delve into how technology can also be used to improve our cognitive functioning, including through unexpected avenues like video games.

Find out more about Adam and his work at gazzaley.com or follow him at twitter.com/adamgazz

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Learn more about Singularity: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠su.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Host:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Steven Parton⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ /⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music by: Amine el Filali

We all know about the all-too-familiar retail apocalypse that led to closures of many brick-and-mortar chains due to the ‘08 financial crisis and the e-commerce boom, but it’s not over yet. In this episode, we talk about shifts in consumer behavior, how retailers should cope with the current pandemic and how they can prepare for the future.

Meet our guests:

V. “Paddy” Padmanabhan is the Unilever Professor of Marketing, INSEAD-Singapore and Academic Director of the Emerging Markets Institute, INSEAD. His current research focuses on Business Opportunities and Challenges in Developing Economies, Economic Crises and their implications, Pricing and Supply Chain Management. He is among the top 250 most highly cited scholars in the world in Economics and Business.

Molly Hartney comes with more than 10+ years of retail experience as a results-driven executive leader, known for scaling businesses quickly with a unique mix of driving strategy, building talent, and leveraging a customer-centric approach. She most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer and SVP Digital with Funko. Prior to that she spent 8 years in various leadership positions at Lowe’s Home Improvement.

Get the Show Notes

Season One of the podcast is in partnership with INSEAD.

In this episode we check back in with one-time presidential candidate and author of The Transhumanist Wager, Zoltan Istvan, to see how his views have changed since we last talked. This included exploring his changing views in ethics thanks to his study at Oxford, the incredible changes that chatGPT appears to be bringing to society, the disappointments of the longevity movement, and especially concerns around AGI retribution and the “useless” class of humans who will have very few skills that are needed in the transhuman future.

To find out more about Zoltan and his work work, go to zoltanistvan.com or twitter.com/zoltan_istvan

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Apply for registration to our exclusive South By Southwest event on March 14th @ www.su.org/basecamp-sxsw

Apply for an Executive Program Scholarship at su.org/executive-program/ep-scholarship

Learn more about Singularity: su.org

Host: Steven Parton - LinkedIn / Twitter

Music by: Amine el Filali

This week we sit down with cognitive psychologist and long-time professor at UC Irvine, Donald Hoffman. Hoffman has a long history working with some of the greatest minds in the history of humanity, including Francis Crick who was part of the team that discovered the double helix of DNA. His own endeavors are no less revolutionary, as he's currently spearheading a new theory that argues humans evolved a perception of reality that looks drastically different from the true appearance of objective reality. It seems a hard argument to make, but once you hear his ideas you'll understand how insightful and profound his work is. In addition to an in-depth exploration of this theory, we also discuss the evolutionary impacts of online dating, the future of artificial intelligence, and a whole bunch more. Donald Hoffman's newest book, A Case Against Reality, comes out August 13 and can be found on Amazon. *** Questions? Ideas? Recommendations? Send your thoughts to [email protected] *** Host: Steven Parton Intro music by: Amine el Filali