Taking on the Singularity: Jason Silva and me at the 92Y


Here’s a fascinating discussion I’ve been meaning to have for a long long time with Jason Silva, about psychedelics, technology, and the “designer reality” I’ve been writing about since 1988. I talk a bit too much here, but it’s probably because I have been storing it up for a while.

What I’m trying to argue is that we don’t yet know what’s happening right here in this realm – so it might be a little early and foolhardy to be talking about uploading humanity to a new, technologically mediated platform. The opportunity of a digital age – of any new age – is to regain a sense of purpose. Whether it’s reevaluating what our economy is for, or reevaluating what technology is for. Or even to consider the value system of “progress” and its own embedded biases.

Anyway, it’s a fun talk with a taller, much handsomer version of me from twenty years ago.