Interview with Tech Philosopher Nick Bostrom
Nick Bostrom is a philosopher.
More or Less Wrong
Max Raskin: During the last industrial revolution, I think there weren’t so many philosophical problems raised by the steam engine, for instance. Maybe certain technologies made it easier to study cosmology or something, but consciousness was certainly not in the news as much as it is today. That’s made you a bit of a rockstar. Do you feel like a rockstar? Do people recognize you on the street?
Nick Bostrom: Occasionally. I’ve never been a literal rockstar, so I don’t know exactly what that’s like.
Certainly it is the case that a lot more attention is now being focused on these issues, AI especially. But also a bunch of other big picture questions for humanity, which I’ve been laboring over for a long time.
MR: So if you’re Tom Nagel writing about consciousness in 1974, there’s only so much news coming out that’s relevant. It’s a flood now. Do you stay abreast of the daily news?
