The Trajectory

This new installment of the Worthy Successor series features Ed Boyden, an American neuroscientist and entrepreneur at MIT, widely known for his work on optogenetics and brain simulation - his breakthroughs have helped shape the frontier of neurotechnology.

In this episode, we explore Ed’s vision for what kinds of posthuman intelligences deserve to inherit the future. His deep commitment to “ground truth” - the idea that intelligence must be built from and validated against reality, not just simulated within it - is a theme that resonates across this interview.

The interview is our thirteenth installment in The Trajectory’s second series, Worthy Successor, where we explore the kinds of posthuman intelligences that deserve to steer the future beyond humanity.

This episode referred to the following other essay:
-- A Worthy Successor - The Purpose of AGI: https://danfaggella.com/worthy/

Listen to this episode on The Trajectory Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trajectory/id1739255954

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fqomhMhFQzo

See the full article from this episode: https://danfaggella.com/boyden1

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About The Trajectory:

AGI and man-machine merger are going to radically expand the process of life beyond humanity -- so how can we ensure a good trajectory for future life?

From Yoshua Bengio to Nick Bostrom, from Michael Levin to Peter Singer, we discuss how to positively influence the trajectory of posthuman life with the greatest minds in AI, biology, philosophy, and policy.

Ask questions of our speakers in our live Philosophy Circle calls:
https://bit.ly/PhilosophyCircle

Stay in touch:
-- Newsletter: bit.ly/TrajectoryTw
-- X: x.com/danfaggella
-- Blog: danfaggella.com/trajectory
-- YouTube: youtube.com/@trajectoryai

This is an interview with Roman V. Yampolskiy, a computer scientist at the University of Louisville and a leading voice in AI safety. 

Everyone has heard Roman's p(doom) arguments, that isn't the focus of our interview. We instead talk about Roman's "untestability" hypothesis, and the fact that there maybe untold, human-incomprehensible powers already in current LLMs. He discusses how such powers might emerge, and when and how a "treacherous turn" might happen.

This is the Third episode in our new “Early Experience of AGI” series - where we explore the early impacts of AGI on our work and personal lives.

Listen to this episode on The Trajectory Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trajectory/id1739255954

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Jycmc_yIkU0

See the full article from this episode: https://danfaggella.com/yampolskiy1

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About The Trajectory:

AGI and man-machine merger are going to radically expand the process of life beyond humanity -- so how can we ensure a good trajectory for future life?

From Yoshua Bengio to Nick Bostrom, from Michael Levin to Peter Singer, we discuss how to positively influence the trajectory of posthuman life with the greatest minds in AI, biology, philosophy, and policy.

Ask questions of our speakers in our live Philosophy Circle calls:
https://bit.ly/PhilosophyCircle

Stay in touch:
-- Newsletter: bit.ly/TrajectoryTw
-- X: x.com/danfaggella
-- Blog: danfaggella.com/trajectory
-- YouTube: youtube.com/@trajectoryai

Joining us in our seventh episode of our series AGI Governance on The Trajectory is Toby Ord, Senior Researcher at Oxford University’s AI Governance Initiative and author of The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity.

Toby is one of the world’s most influential thinkers on long-term risk - and one of the clearest voices on how advanced AI could shape, or shatter, the trajectory of human civilization.

In this episode, Toby unpacks the evolving technical and economic landscape of AGI - particularly the implications of model deployment, imitation learning, and the limits of current training paradigms. He draws on his unique position as both a moral philosopher and a close observer of recent AI breakthroughs to highlight shifts that could alter the pace and nature of AGI progress.

Listen to this episode on The Trajectory Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trajectory/id1739255954

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/TIz9TpVCFcQ

See the full article from this episode: https://danfaggella.com/ord1

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About The Trajectory:

AGI and man-machine merger are going to radically expand the process of life beyond humanity -- so how can we ensure a good trajectory for future life?

From Yoshua Bengio to Nick Bostrom, from Michael Levin to Peter Singer, we discuss how to positively influence the trajectory of posthuman life with the greatest minds in AI, biology, philosophy, and policy.

Ask questions of our speakers in our live Philosophy Circle calls:
https://bit.ly/PhilosophyCircle

Stay in touch:
-- Newsletter: bit.ly/TrajectoryTw
-- X: x.com/danfaggella
-- Blog: danfaggella.com/trajectory
-- YouTube: youtube.com/@trajectoryai

This new installment of the Worthy Successor series is an interview with the brilliant Martin Rees - British cosmologist, astrophysicist, and one of the most philosophically courageous thinkers alive today.

In this interview we explore his belief that humanity is just a stepping stone between Darwinian life and a new form of intelligent design - not divinely ordained, but constructed by artificial minds building successors of their own. For Martin, the true tragedy would not be losing our species, but squandering the opportunity to seed a vastly more diverse and potent future.

The interview is our twelfth installment in The Trajectory’s second series, Worthy Successor, where we explore the kinds of posthuman intelligences that deserve to steer the future beyond humanity.

This episode referred to the following other essay:

-- A Worthy Successor - The Purpose of AGI: https://danfaggella.com/worthy/

Listen to this episode on The Trajectory Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trajectory/id1739255954

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3rmxydNqsoU

See the full article from this episode: https://danfaggella.com/rees1

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About The Trajectory:

AGI and man-machine merger are going to radically expand the process of life beyond humanity -- so how can we ensure a good trajectory for future life?

From Yoshua Bengio to Nick Bostrom, from Michael Levin to Peter Singer, we discuss how to positively influence the trajectory of posthuman life with the greatest minds in AI, biology, philosophy, and policy.

Ask questions of our speakers in our live Philosophy Circle calls:
https://bit.ly/PhilosophyCircle

Stay in touch:
-- Newsletter: bit.ly/TrajectoryTw
-- X: x.com/danfaggella
-- Blog: danfaggella.com/trajectory
-- YouTube: youtube.com/@trajectoryai

This is an interview with Emmett Shear - CEO of SoftMax, co-founder of Twitch, former interim CEO of OpenAI, and one of the few public-facing tech leaders who seems to take both AGI development and AGI alignment seriously.

In this episode, we explore Emmett’s vision of AGI as a kind of living system, not unlike a new kind of cell, joining the tissue of intelligent life.
We talk through the limits of our moral vocabulary, the obligations we might owe to future digital minds, and the uncomfortable trade-offs between safety and stagnation.

The interview is our eleventh installment in The Trajectory’s second series Worthy Successor, where we explore the kinds of posthuman intelligences that deserve to steer the future beyond humanity.

This episode referred to the following other essay:
-- A Worthy Successor - The Purpose of AGI: https://danfaggella.com/worthy/

Listen to this episode on The Trajectory Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trajectory/id1739255954

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNz25BSZNfM

See the full article from this episode: https://danfaggella.com/shear1

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About The Trajectory:

AGI and man-machine merger are going to radically expand the process of life beyond humanity -- so how can we ensure a good trajectory for future life?

From Yoshua Bengio to Nick Bostrom, from Michael Levin to Peter Singer, we discuss how to positively influence the trajectory of posthuman life with the greatest minds in AI, biology, philosophy, and policy.

Ask questions of our speakers in our live Philosophy Circle calls:
https://bit.ly/PhilosophyCircle

Stay in touch:
-- Newsletter: bit.ly/TrajectoryTw
-- X: x.com/danfaggella
-- Blog: danfaggella.com/trajectory
-- YouTube: youtube.com/@trajectoryai

This is an interview with Joshua Clymer, AI safety researcher at Redwood Research, and former researcher at METR.

Joshua has spent years focused on institutional readiness for AGI, especially the kinds of governance bottlenecks that could become breaking points. His thinking is less about far-off futures and more about near-term institutional failure modes - the brittle places that might shatter first.

In this episode, Joshua and I discuss where AGI pressure might rupture our systems: intelligence agencies, the military, tech labs, and the veil of classification that surrounds them. What struck me most in this conversation with Joshua was his grounded honesty. He doesn’t offer easy predictions - just hard-won insight from years near the edge.

This is the second episode in our new “Early Experience of AGI” series - where we explore the early impacts of AGI on our work and personal lives.

This episode referred to the following other essay:
-- Josh's X thread titled "How AI Might Take Over in 2 Years": 
-- Closing the Human Reward Circuit: https://danfaggella.com/reward

Listen to this episode on The Trajectory Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trajectory/id1739255954

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yMPJKjutm7M

See the full article from this episode: https://danfaggella.com/clymer1

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About The Trajectory:

AGI and man-machine merger are going to radically expand the process of life beyond humanity -- so how can we ensure a good trajectory for future life?

From Yoshua Bengio to Nick Bostrom, from Michael Levin to Peter Singer, we discuss how to positively influence the trajectory of posthuman life with the greatest minds in AI, biology, philosophy, and policy.

Ask questions of our speakers in our live Philosophy Circle calls:
https://bit.ly/PhilosophyCircle

Stay in touch:
-- Newsletter: bit.ly/TrajectoryTw
-- X: x.com/danfaggella
-- Blog: danfaggella.com/trajectory
-- YouTube: youtube.com/@trajectoryai

This is an interview with Peter Singer, one of the most influential moral philosophers of our time. 

Singer is best known for his groundbreaking work on animal rights, global poverty, and utilitarian ethics, and his ideas have shaped countless conversations about the moral obligations of individuals, governments, and societies.

This interview is our tenth installment in The Trajectory’s second series Worthy Successor, where we explore the kinds of posthuman intelligences that deserve to steer the future beyond humanity. 

This episode referred to the following other essay:

-- A Worthy Successor - The Purpose of AGI: https://danfaggella.com/worthy
-- Singer's Podcast "Lives Well Lived" - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lives-well-lived/id1743702376

Listen to this episode on The Trajectory Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trajectory/id1739255954

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFxFj-WrZS0

See the full article from this episode: https://danfaggella.com/singer1/

...

About The Trajectory:

AGI and man-machine merger are going to radically expand the process of life beyond humanity -- so how can we ensure a good trajectory for future life?

From Yoshua Bengio to Nick Bostrom, from Michael Levin to Peter Singer, we discuss how to positively influence the trajectory of posthuman life with the greatest minds in AI, biology, philosophy, and policy.

Ask questions of our speakers in our live Philosophy Circle calls:
https://bit.ly/PhilosophyCircle

Stay in touch:
-- Newsletter: bit.ly/TrajectoryTw
-- X: x.com/danfaggella
-- Blog: danfaggella.com/trajectory
-- YouTube: youtube.com/@trajectoryai

This is an interview with David Duvenaud, Assistant Professor at University of Toronto, co-author of the Gradual Disempowerment paper, and former researcher at Anthropic.

This is the first episode in our new “Early Experience of AGI” series - where we explore the early impacts of AGI on our work and personal lives.

This episode referred to the following other essays and resources:
-- Closing the Human Reward Circuit: https://danfaggella.com/reward
-- Gradual Disempowerment: http://www.gradual-disempowerment.ai

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XPpg89K3ULM

See the full article from this episode: https://danfaggella.com/duvenaud1

...

About The Trajectory:

AGI and man-machine merger are going to radically expand the process of life beyond humanity -- so how can we ensure a good trajectory for future life?

From Yoshua Bengio to Nick Bostrom, from Michael Levin to Peter Singer, we discuss how to positively influence the trajectory of posthuman life with the greatest minds in AI, biology, philosophy, and policy.

Ask questions of our speakers in our live Philosophy Circle calls:
https://bit.ly/PhilosophyCircle

Stay in touch:
-- Newsletter: bit.ly/TrajectoryTw
-- X: x.com/danfaggella
-- Blog: danfaggella.com/trajectory
-- YouTube: youtube.com/@trajectoryai

This is an interview with Kristian Rönn, author, successful startup founder, and now CEO of Lucid, and AI hardware governance startup based in SF.

This is an additional installment of our "Worthy Successor" series - where we explore the kinds of posthuman intelligences that deserve to steer the future beyond humanity.

This episode referred to the following other essays and resources:
-- A Worthy Successor - The Purpose of AGI: https://danfaggella.com/worthy
-- Kristian's "Darwinian Trap" book: https://www.amazon.com/Darwinian-Trap-Evolutionary-Explain-Threaten/dp/0593594053

Watch this episode on The Trajectory YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSnYeCc_C6I

See the full article from this episode: https://danfaggella.com/ronn1

...

About The Trajectory:

AGI and man-machine merger are going to radically expand the process of life beyond humanity -- so how can we ensure a good trajectory for future life?

From Yoshua Bengio to Nick Bostrom, from Michael Levin to Peter Singer, we discuss how to positively influence the trajectory of posthuman life with the greatest minds in AI, biology, philosophy, and policy.

Ask questions of our speakers in our live Philosophy Circle calls:
https://bit.ly/PhilosophyCircle

Stay in touch:
-- Newsletter: bit.ly/TrajectoryTw
-- X: x.com/danfaggella
-- Blog: danfaggella.com/trajectory
-- YouTube: youtube.com/@trajectoryai

This is an interview with Jack Shanahan, a three-star General and former Director of the Joint AI Center (JAIC) within the US Department of Defense. 

This the first installment of our "US-China AGI Relations" series - where we explore pathways to achieving international AGI cooperation while avoiding conflicts and arms races. 

This episode referred to the following other essays and resources: 

-- The International Governance of AI – We Unite or We Fight: https://emerj.com/international-governance-ai/

-- Potentia and Potestas: Achieving The Goldilocks Zone of AGI Governance: https://danfaggella.com/potestas 

Watch to this episode on The Trajectory YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/kwFu_hrAM4k 

See the full article from this episode: https://danfaggella.com/shanahan1 

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About The Trajectory:

AGI and man-machine merger are going to radically expand the process of life beyond humanity -- so how can we ensure a good trajectory for future life?

From Yoshua Bengio to Nick Bostrom, from Michael Levin to Peter Singer, we discuss how to positively influence the trajectory of posthuman life with the greatest minds in AI, biology, philosophy, and policy.

Ask questions of our speakers in our live Philosophy Circle calls:
https://bit.ly/PhilosophyCircle

Stay in touch:
-- Newsletter: bit.ly/TrajectoryTw
-- X: x.com/danfaggella
-- Blog: danfaggella.com/trajectory
-- YouTube: youtube.com/@trajectoryai