5 minute summaries
1 quote, 3 ideas & 1 question from each episode
__________
24 Apr 2021
3hr 41mins
Owltail Summaries
1 quote, 3 ideas & 1 question from each episode
_________
Special Episode: Engineering the Apocalypse
24 Apr 2021
3hr 41mins
Quote
"COVID-19 is a dress rehearsal for potentially much worse and more dangerous viruses that will eventually happen in the future"
Ideas
1
Technology innovates on exponential levels, which is something that is almost impossible for us to understand or predict.
For example, the human genome project, went from costing $3billion over a 13 year project with the best biologists ending in 2003 to get 1 human genome, to now costing $300 that anyone can get, is the pace of change that we are simple unaccustomed to deal with, it goes against our intuition.
And as such, for technologies such as Artificial intelligence and synthetic biology, where there is inherent risk, it's incredibly important for both the people closest to the technology, who have a much better chance than the rest of us in foreseeing the risks as well as private sector leaders and governments, to do everything in their power to regulate and ask what the potential risks are.
And as such, for technologies such as Artificial intelligence and synthetic biology, where there is inherent risk, it's incredibly important for both the people closest to the technology, who have a much better chance than the rest of us in foreseeing the risks as well as private sector leaders and governments, to do everything in their power to regulate and ask what the potential risks are.
1
Technology innovates on exponential levels, which is something that is almost impossible for us to understand or predict.
For example, the human genome project, went from costing $3billion over a 13 year project with the best biologists ending in 2003 to get 1 human genome, to now costing $300 that anyone can get, is the pace of change that we are simple unaccustomed to deal with, it goes against our intuition.
And as such, for technologies such as Artificial intelligence and synthetic biology, where there is inherent risk, it's incredibly important for both the people closest to the technology, who have a much better chance than the rest of us in foreseeing the risks as well as private sector leaders and governments, to do everything in their power to regulate and ask what the potential risks are.
And as such, for technologies such as Artificial intelligence and synthetic biology, where there is inherent risk, it's incredibly important for both the people closest to the technology, who have a much better chance than the rest of us in foreseeing the risks as well as private sector leaders and governments, to do everything in their power to regulate and ask what the potential risks are.
2
Part of the risk is the technology becomes more dangerous, but a bigger part of the risk is the dangerous technology becoming more readily available to the general public.
Part of technology is innovating on the product, but another big part of technology is making it accessible to everyone.
You don't have to be a master of engineering or ballistics to now own & use the most powerful firearm available.
And some day, you won't have to be a virologist to engineer a sophisticated & dangerous virus.
Just like computers used to only be owned by a very small handful of people, now everyone in the palm of their hands has one that is more powerful than anything anyone had just a few decades ago.
You don't have to be a master of engineering or ballistics to now own & use the most powerful firearm available.
And some day, you won't have to be a virologist to engineer a sophisticated & dangerous virus.
Just like computers used to only be owned by a very small handful of people, now everyone in the palm of their hands has one that is more powerful than anything anyone had just a few decades ago.
2
Part of the risk is the technology becomes more dangerous, but a bigger part of the risk is the dangerous technology becoming more readily available to the general public.
Part of technology is innovating on the product, but another big part of technology is making it accessible to everyone.
You don't have to be a master of engineering or ballistics to now own & use the most powerful firearm available.
And some day, you won't have to be a virologist to engineer a sophisticated & dangerous virus.
Just like computers used to only be owned by a very small handful of people, now everyone in the palm of their hands has one that is more powerful than anything anyone had just a few decades ago.
You don't have to be a master of engineering or ballistics to now own & use the most powerful firearm available.
And some day, you won't have to be a virologist to engineer a sophisticated & dangerous virus.
Just like computers used to only be owned by a very small handful of people, now everyone in the palm of their hands has one that is more powerful than anything anyone had just a few decades ago.
3
One example out of many, of what we could potentially do to set things up for any potential future outbreaks.
With Covid, search traffic on search engines like Google were able to point to national outbreaks on average 16 days before case counts ed to spike.
This was because people would Googling their symptoms such as loss of smell as a first response.
So a solution to help detect future pandemics earlier, could be to continuously scan any known symptoms that spike outside of a seasonal norm.
Experts estimate a project like this would only cost low millions of dollars, but could potentially save us from losing billions of dollars and countless lives.
This was because people would Googling their symptoms such as loss of smell as a first response.
So a solution to help detect future pandemics earlier, could be to continuously scan any known symptoms that spike outside of a seasonal norm.
Experts estimate a project like this would only cost low millions of dollars, but could potentially save us from losing billions of dollars and countless lives.
3
One example out of many, of what we could potentially do to set things up for any potential future outbreaks.
With Covid, search traffic on search engines like Google were able to point to national outbreaks on average 16 days before case counts ed to spike.
This was because people would Googling their symptoms such as loss of smell as a first response.
So a solution to help detect future pandemics earlier, could be to continuously scan any known symptoms that spike outside of a seasonal norm.
Experts estimate a project like this would only cost low millions of dollars, but could potentially save us from losing billions of dollars and countless lives.
This was because people would Googling their symptoms such as loss of smell as a first response.
So a solution to help detect future pandemics earlier, could be to continuously scan any known symptoms that spike outside of a seasonal norm.
Experts estimate a project like this would only cost low millions of dollars, but could potentially save us from losing billions of dollars and countless lives.
Questions
1
Can you think of something that you never would've predicted to have happened that has already happened?
1
Can you think of something that you never would've predicted to have happened that has already happened?
What else is in the episode
1
Why something much worse than COVID will definitely happen at some point.
1
Why something much worse than COVID will definitely happen at some point.
2
Why Rob is much more worried about lone wolves than groups when it comes to dangerous acts.
2
Why Rob is much more worried about lone wolves than groups when it comes to dangerous acts.
3
he five components of what governments should do to ensure against dangerous threats with the innovation in potentially dangerous technology.
3
he five components of what governments should do to ensure against dangerous threats with the innovation in potentially dangerous technology.
Who is Rob Reid?
1
An author & podcasts covering topics such as synthetic biology, super-AI risk, Fermi's paradox and more. He's also a Managing Director at Resilience Reserve, a multi-phase venture capital fund and previously ran Listen.com, the company that created the 'first Spotify'.
1
An author & podcasts covering topics such as synthetic biology, super-AI risk, Fermi's paradox and more. He's also a Managing Director at Resilience Reserve, a multi-phase venture capital fund and previously ran Listen.com, the company that created the 'first Spotify'.
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