There are many technological races taking place right now. Three of them have been fairly regular topics of discussion on this show:

The Space Race

The Race Against Aging

The AI Race

Which of these races should we be focused on right now?

In space, as we have noted, nation states are racing against private entities. The race against aging is currently taking place mostly in the private sector. We ALL have a personal stake in that one. A recent Internet meme showed Elon Musk and his mom and suggested that rather than racing to Mars he should be racing to reverse aging.

The AI race is more nearly a clash of world powers, although the US is currently splitting its leadership position between businesses on one side and universities and the military on the other. China has an aggressive plan to move ahead. But this time out, everyone is playing.

AI is the new space race. Here’s what the biggest countries are doing

https://bit.ly/2rhhlIx

Which of these races is the most urgent?

If they don’t end aging, I’m going to die.

But if we don’t win the AI race, we may face total economic defeat by the winning power. Also, AI has the potential to end the world.

On the other hand, who is more likely to conquer aging: a country that is ahead in AI or a country that is not? Same goes for space.

Maybe when you come down to it, there is really only one race going.

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Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

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