
Anthony Aguirre, FLI | Why Worldbuilding? | Xhope Worldbuilding Course
05/03/24 • 10 min
Speaker
Anthony is the Executive Director & Secretary of the Board at the Future of Life Institute, and the Faggin Presidential Professor for the Physics of Information at UC Santa Cruz. He has done research in an array of topics in theoretical cosmology, gravitation, statistical mechanics, and other fields of physics. He also has strong interest in science outreach, and has appeared in numerous science documentaries. He is a creator of the science and technology prediction platform Metaculus.com, and is founder (with Max Tegmark) of the Foundational Questions Institute.
Worldbuilding Course
This session is a part of THE WORLDBUILDING CHALLENGE: CO-CREATING THE WORLD OF 2045. In this virtual and interactive course, we engage with the most pressing global challenges of our age—climate change, the risks of AI, and the complex ethical questions arising in the wake of new technologies. Our aim is to sharpen participants’ awareness and equip them to apply their skills to these significant and urgent issues.
Existential Hope
Existential Hope was created to collect positive and possible scenarios for the future so that we can have more people commit to creating a brighter future, and to begin mapping out the main developments and challenges that need to be navigated to reach it. Existential Hope is a Foresight Institute project.
Hosted by Allison Duettmann and Beatrice Erkers
Follow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Existential Hope Instagram
Explore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Speaker
Anthony is the Executive Director & Secretary of the Board at the Future of Life Institute, and the Faggin Presidential Professor for the Physics of Information at UC Santa Cruz. He has done research in an array of topics in theoretical cosmology, gravitation, statistical mechanics, and other fields of physics. He also has strong interest in science outreach, and has appeared in numerous science documentaries. He is a creator of the science and technology prediction platform Metaculus.com, and is founder (with Max Tegmark) of the Foundational Questions Institute.
Worldbuilding Course
This session is a part of THE WORLDBUILDING CHALLENGE: CO-CREATING THE WORLD OF 2045. In this virtual and interactive course, we engage with the most pressing global challenges of our age—climate change, the risks of AI, and the complex ethical questions arising in the wake of new technologies. Our aim is to sharpen participants’ awareness and equip them to apply their skills to these significant and urgent issues.
Existential Hope
Existential Hope was created to collect positive and possible scenarios for the future so that we can have more people commit to creating a brighter future, and to begin mapping out the main developments and challenges that need to be navigated to reach it. Existential Hope is a Foresight Institute project.
Hosted by Allison Duettmann and Beatrice Erkers
Follow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Existential Hope Instagram
Explore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode

Existential Hope Podcast: Hannu Rajaniemi | On Being a Sci-Fi Author and Biotech Entrepreneur
Speaker
Hannu Rajaniemi is a Finnish American author of science fiction and fantasy, who writes in both English and Finnish. He lives in Oakland, California, and was a founding director of a commercial research organisation ThinkTank Maths.
Episode
Perhaps most famously known for his 2010 release, The Quantum Thief, Rajaniemi is settled firmly in both the science-fiction and the biotech startup worlds. Away from writing, Rajaniemi is the co-founder of Helix Nanotechnologies, a startup building the world's most advanced mRNA platform to create a unified interface to the immune system.
We’ll discuss his ideas on the impact of sci-fi on the real world and explore his views on the upcoming biotechnology wave, including gene editing and biohacking. We then address how these new technologies could be implemented and governed, before finally focusing on an idea that is, at present, only in sci-fi: the immune-computer interface.
Full transcript, list of resources, and art piece: https://www.existentialhope.com/podcasts
Existential Hope was created to collect positive and possible scenarios for the future so that we can have more people commit to creating a brighter future, and to begin mapping out the main developments and challenges that need to be navigated to reach it. Existential Hope is a Foresight Institute project.
Hosted by Allison Duettmann and Beatrice Erkers
Follow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Existential Hope Instagram
Explore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode

Robert Lempert, RAND | On the How & Why of Worldbuilding | Xhope Worldbuilding Course
Robert Lempert (Ph.D., Applied Physics, Harvard University) is a senior physical scientist at RAND. He is the director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for Longer Range Global Policy and the Future Human Condition, a principal researcher at RAND, and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His research focuses on risk management and decision-making under conditions of deep uncertainty. Lempert's work aims to advance the state of art for organizations managing risk in today's conditions of fast-paced, transformative, and surprising change and help organizations adopt these approaches to help make proper stewardship of the future more commonly practised.
Worldbuilding Course
This session is a part of THE WORLDBUILDING CHALLENGE: CO-CREATING THE WORLD OF 2045. In this virtual and interactive course, we engage with the most pressing global challenges of our age—climate change, the risks of AI, and the complex ethical questions arising in the wake of new technologies. Our aim is to sharpen participants’ awareness and equip them to apply their skills to these significant and urgent issues.
Existential Hope
Existential Hope was created to collect positive and possible scenarios for the future so that we can have more people commit to creating a brighter future, and to begin mapping out the main developments and challenges that need to be navigated to reach it. Existential Hope is a Foresight Institute project.
Hosted by Allison Duettmann and Beatrice Erkers
Follow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Existential Hope Instagram
Explore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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