Richard Jones on Transhumanism

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2016

⏱️ 72 minutes

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Summary

Will our brains ever be uploaded into a computer? Will we live forever? Richard Jones, physicist at the University of Sheffield and author of Against Transhumanism, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about transhumanism--the effort to radically transform human existence via technology. Jones argues that the grandest visions of the potential of technology--uploading of brains and the ability to rearrange matter via nanotechnology are much more limited and unlikely than proponents of these technologies suggest. The conversation closes with the role of government in innovation and developing technology.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:09.2	I'm your host, Russ Roberts, of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:13.7	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find
0:18.7	links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.7	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done
0:25.8	going back to 2006.
0:28.2	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:30.7	We'd love to hear from you.
0:34.6	Today is March 17th, 2016.
0:38.4	Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the first e-contalk episode.
0:43.2	I've been going for 10 years now in calendar time.
0:47.2	I want to thank all the listeners who have been with us, particularly those from the
0:50.2	beginning, those who have gone back to the beginning and been patient with my interviewing
0:56.3	skills as they have grown, I hope, over the years.
1:00.2	This will be episode number 523.
1:04.9	And my guest today is Richard Jones.
1:06.4	He is a provisement chancellor for research and innovation and professor of physics at the
1:11.1	University of Sheffield.
1:13.0	He has written extensively on both the technical aspects of nanotechnology and its social and
1:17.6	ethical implications.
1:20.1	His work as an experimental physicist concentrates on the properties of biological and synthetic
1:24.9	macro molecules at interfaces.
	...

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