Advancing beneficial technology
Foresight Institute is a leading non-profit researching and fostering technologies of fundamental importance for the human future, focusing on molecular machine nanotechnology, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence.
If we push in the right directions — learning, teaching, arguing, shifting directions, and pushing further — then we may yet steer the technology race toward a future with room enough for our dreams.
—K. Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation
Join our reflection on creating positive futures
News and Updates
✨👽✨ We are very grateful for our community and to all of you who came to our salon with Anders Sandberg on Friday night. ✨👽✨
Questions were highly resonant and comments on points. Thank you for making the discussion excellent, lively, and fun!
For those who could not make it, keep an eye out - the video will be published soon on www.youtube.com/c/ForesightInstitute
In this Update: our latest Strengthening Civilization salon series video, a "how-to" guide for creating better futures, and more exciting news. - mailchi.mp/foresight/august2018update
Allison Dman on AI Safety at the O'Reilly AI Conference today. Say Hi if you're there!
conferences.oreilly.com
Allison Duettmann offers an overview of AI philosophy and explains why traditional approaches need updating, because they pave the way for a singleton AI that will hardly be benevolent. Allison the...How well can we actually predict the future? Katja Grace on why expert opinion isn’t a great guide to AI’s impact and how to do better.
How well can we actually predict the future?
80000hours.org
Katja Grace on whether we can trust experts' predictions about technology.
With 99,999999...% accuracy, given sufficient input and computing power. The real future is unknowable to those who are a part of it, as the observer must be a part of the prediction.
Some of you might want to apply: the Hackaday Prize is accepting projects revisioning how humans and computers can interface now until August 27th. Over its 5 years, the Prize has awarded over $1M to hundreds of open hardware initiatives building tech for a better future.
Read more here: hackaday.io/prize
Existentialhope.com was featured on ClearerThinking.org with a wonderful summary of the project. If you feel inspired to contribute, we now have a sign-up to get involved: bit.ly/xhope
clearerthinking.org
The author and humorist Douglas Adams once wrote that "nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its o...
I like this, truly though I haven’t read it. I just really believe in the future- still got hope! Love the kids!
Part 2 of one of our favorite salons so far is online: The Trajectory Of Civilization Part 2: Racing Where?
Robin Hanson, Paul Christiano, Peter Ecklesurname, Christine Peterson, Mark S. Miller, Alyssa Vance, and Allison Dman discuss races to the bottom, Xrisk predictions, AI foom, and strategies to create a civilization that is more robust across a variety of risk scenarios.This was a debate hosted by Foresight Institute between Robin D. Hanson (George Mason, Future of Humanity Institute) Paul Christiano (OpenAI) Christine Peter...
One of our favorite salons so far: The Trajectory Of Civilization Part 1: Ethics, Now and Tomorrow.
Robin Hanson, Paul Christiano, Christine Peterson, Peter Ecklesurname, Alyssa Vance, Mark S. Miller and Allison Dman discuss the foundations of ethics, value drift, current vs. future beings, and how to influence the long-term future.This was a debate hosted by Foresight Institute between Robin D. Hanson (George Mason, Future of Humanity Institute) Paul Christiano (OpenAI) Christine Peter...
Foresight co-founder and Senior Fellow Christine Peterson did an "Ask Me Anything" on Slashdot, which they just posted:
Interviews: Christine Peterson Answers Your Questions - Slashdot
news.slashdot.org
You asked questions, we've got the answers! Christine Peterson is a long-time futurist who co-founded the nanotech advocacy group the Foresight Institute in 1986. One of her favorite tasks has been co...The Trajectory of Civilization: Extinction, Race to the Bottom, or Upward Climbing? Thank you for this incredible discussion, especially to our panelists Robin Hanson, Paul Christiano, Peter Ecklesurname, Christine Peterson, Mark S. Miller, Alyssa Vance.
