Nicolas Berggruen, investor and philanthropist, joins us to explore the dynamics of power, wisdom, technology and ideas in the 21st century.

Topics discussed in this episode include:

-What wisdom consists of

-The role of ideas in society and civilization 

-The increasing concentration of power and wealth

-The technological displacement of human labor

-Democracy, universal basic income, and universal basic capital 

-Living an examined life

You can find the page for this podcast here: https://futureoflife.org/2021/05/31/nicolas-berggruen-on-the-dynamics-of-power-wisdom-technology-and-ideas-in-the-age-of-ai/

Check out Nicolas' thoughts archive here: www.nicolasberggruen.com

Have any feedback about the podcast? You can share your thoughts here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/DRBFZCT

Timestamps: 

0:00 Intro

1:45 The race between the power of our technology and the wisdom with which we manage it

5:19 What is wisdom? 

8:30 The power of ideas 

11:06 Humanity’s investment in wisdom vs the power of our technology 

15:39 Why does our wisdom lag behind our power? 

20:51 Technology evolving into an agent 

24:28 How ideas play a role in the value alignment of technology 

30:14 Wisdom for building beneficial AI and mitigating the race to power 

34:37 Does Mark Zuckerberg have control of Facebook? 

36:39 Safeguarding the human mind and maintaining control of AI 

42:26 The importance of the examined life in the 21st century 

45:56 An example of the examined life 

48:54 Important ideas for the 21st century 

52:46 The concentration of power and wealth, and a proposal for universal basic capital 

1:03:07 Negative and positive futures 

1:06:30 Final thoughts from Nicolas

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