I got invited to go to Youtube EduCon last month,
because…er… We are an education channel.
Shhh.
I got to meet a lot of amazing creators and
stay in a beautiful room on the 23rd Floor of a 7 star hotel.
At the conference, I felt kind of…inadequate.
There’s Roshini, who with ExamFear has made over 6000 videos,
And helped thousands of kids get through their curriculum.

She even received a shoutout from a board exam topper.
Then there’s Vitamin Stree, who make awesome videos explaining
different concepts related to women’s health and feminism.

Rachana who cleared the CA exam in her first attempt,
and now helps others do the same.

Taskeen, who makes videos about personal finance and career advice.

And Niharika, who teaches people to become excellent communicators.
Now, I was a little unique on that panel.
Because those ladies actually know what they’re talking about.
When I begin working on a video topic
or a review for a new phone, my starting point is much lower.
But, there are several things I’ve picked up in the year or so that this channel has been around.

that this channel has been around.

Things that I had no idea about when I started out.
Lighting,
green screen,
what processor is the fastest,
how megapixel count is, and isn’t important,
and that Realme and Redmi aren’t the same thing.
And all that along with the general inspiration from EduCon
got me thinking about how we learn.

For example,
Snapdragon 855+ is the most powerful mobile processor available on Android.

When did you and I “know” this.
Is it conceptual knowledge or something that is memorised?
How important is knowledge of the number and configuration of the cores
with respect to what I’m trying to convey in this channel.
And how does this information organise itself in my brain?

Let me try and see if I can work it out.
Snapdragon’s 8 series is its flagship line of processors.
I know this because I’ve reviewed several phones with the 845 and 855 processors.

Now, 855+ must be better than 855
because the symbol + points to a concept called ‘more’ in my head.
At Qualcomm’s launch event they talked about the core configuration.
A Prime Core, 3 Performance cores and 4 efficiency cores.
I can just about remember this much from December.
And here we hit my limits of knowledge.
I don’t really have much more of an idea about this.
There are certain facts I could look up such as the speed of each core,
but my brain has so far deemed this knowledge unnecessary
For my day to day requirements.
The brain has 80 billion neurons which network with each other
forming trillions of connection that help us remember and
Relates memories, ideas and concepts.
By the very act of talking about what I already know,

I’m reinforcing these pathways.
Which, in turn may make it easier to absorb more detail about the topic
once I encounter more information.
Now think of an engineer at Qualcomm who designs these chips.

The knowledge I have must be absolutely second nature to her.
As deeply ingrained in her mind as the sky is blue.
And she must see soaring levels of detail that at my current level,
I couldn’t even comprehend without extensive study.

From the Qualcomm engineer, let me segue to Michael Angelo Batio.

Yes, this long haired metal god is what is known as a virtuoso.
At such heights of technical prowess in his field
that even with the utmost dedication,
few would ever be able to match him.
And this is what his music sounds like.
[Music]
Now far be for me to criticise something as subjective as someone’s music.

So I’ll let other people do the dirty work.
It is, in fact, a common criticism of virtuosos.
That they get so caught up in the technical details of the performance
that they ignore what some would say is more essential to art.
Emotion, feeling and creativity.
And how many of you have heard the term jack of all trades?
Sounds somewhat positive, until you get the rest of the phrase -
Jack of all trades, master of none.

The existence of these two personalities
the jack of all trades and the virtuoso points towards the limitations of the human mind,
despite whatever the pseudo religious books say about using just 5% of its capacity.

Yeah, only part of our brain is accessible to our conscious thought, and for pretty good reason.
We need the brain to work in the background maintaining the processes
that allow us to balance, to breathe,
and maintain some kind of sanity.
It takes time and a lot of repetition for us to build up the neural connections

that grant us knowledge and skills.
Let’s quickly exercise that.

Repeat after me.
Boris Johnson is the Prime Minister of the UK.
Now, you know something that you may not have known 10 seconds ago.
And if you still haven’t absorbed it, it’s ok.
Many of our British friends are struggling to come to terms with it too.
But this is just a name.
Now here’s a face to go with it.
Human beings are good at remembering faces.
You know because we’re social animals.

So this is easy.
Next his age.
Then his education.
his scandals.
his beliefs.
his public statements.
We quickly begin to run out of capacity and also fucks to give.

so the fundamental problem remains.
Even for the best trained,
most curious individuals, the brain is limited.
Both in terms of storage, and cognition.

Let alone computation and response time where we were left behind ages ago.

A computer, however, can store this information, instantaneously.

And not just Boris Johnson.

Every Prime minister in the history of the UK and every other country in the world.
But this is a sterile kind of knowledge.
It has no depth or life.
It’s not the rich, interconnected knowledge informed by experience
and understanding that we have.
But, with AI, we’re trying to change the role of computers in the modern world.

As we offloaded physical work to machines during the Industrial revolution,
the cognitive revolution aims to upload our mental burdens to digital minds.

There is a race, sometimes based on facts, sometimes based on fictions,
That is occurring in our world right now.
A race that will shape each one of our lives, whether we are part of it or not.

Some have said AI will be mankind’s last invention.
That an AI program that can improve itself faster than its human creators
will eventually be set in motion

and grow to become the dominant intelligence on our planet.
In Elon Musk’s words,
humanity would be relegated to being the biological bootloader
from which AI creates itself.
Regarding us, in terms of intellect, the same way as we might regard ants.

So what can we do?
The same person who believes this dark vision of Digital Intelligence Supremacy,

has also proposed a solution.
A hybrid version of the human mind
where we interface with machines
in order to grow our minds’ potentials.
Allowing us to not only keep up, but benefit from the cognitive revolution.
Presenting The Neuralink
The path.
The only path, according to some,

for humans to remain the dominant intelligence on Earth.

[Music]
Elon Musk is the crazy billionaire super villain of our world,
who is trying to overcome humanity’s biological limitations.

He was one of the co-inventors of paypal,
and has gone on to start companies like Tesla, Space X
and is behind the exciting, but dubious plans for the hyperloop.

His most recent leap into the future is Neuralink.
A Brain Machine Interface.

I won’t go too deep into the details, but essentially

it allows to put upto ten thousand electrodes into the brain

which will collect signals and feed them into a processor which can decrypt their meaning.
According to Elon Musk, this is a thousand times more electrodes

than any other FDA approved process today.
Take that with a pinch of salt. He has a history of making tall claims.

The threads they’re using are thin enough that you can pass them off as hair.
So maybe you can sport some cool, RGB hairstyles in the future.

Of course, a human being is not going to be able to precisely put in 10000 electrodes
into your brain with such precision.
And for that we have this evil looking robot.

You really better hope no one pulls your hair once you’ve done this procedure.

Or maybe we’ll wear a protective cap on top,
and those awesome powdered wigs from the Victorian era will make a comeback.
But apparently it’s wireless.
You’ve got a thousand threads. How is that wireless?

Anyway, the N1 chip

No prizes for guessing what N stands for.
The N1 chip is the main processing unit
which will register the spikes of current coming from your brain
and try to figure out what exactly you’re trying to do.
Best of luck.
Sometimes I can’t figure that out myself.

So what can you use this for?
You can use it to communicate. Use a mobile, keyboard or mouse with your mind.

You can use it to control a robotic arm, or control a mobile chair.
Now, the first time someone tries this they won’t get it right.
But the assumption is that since the brain is plastic,
you’ll be able to adapt and figure out how to use the devices over time,
with a greater and greater degree of control.

A lot of this already possible with a 100 electrode system called the utah array.
But the improved resolution and portability of the Neuralink
Might make it far more useful.
In the beginning they will target centres of the brain
related to spatial awareness and motor functions,

since most of the medical uses are related to helping people who are paralysed.
The proposed uses are partly motivated by the good of humanity
and for the technology to get funded,
become mainstream and a regular part of people’s lives.
But this statement at 6:02. This is the endgame
But I think even in a benign
AI scenario
We will be left behind.
With high bandwidth brain machine interface
I think we can actually go along for the ride
“Symbiosis with AI”

Elon Musk has a very pessimistic view of the future of AI.
He believes that but for some sort of intervention,

the era of machine intelligences will dawn, and relegate humanity to at best,
onlookers as the world moves on without them.
He is also, at least, aware of something called Roko’s Basilisk,

a thought experiment dreamed up in 2010 on the ‘Less Wrong’ internet forum.
As per the idea there is a non-zero probability of a runaway digital intelligence
coming into existence, and once it does,

it will punish those, who knew about its possible emergence,
yet chose, either to do nothing,
or actively impede it.
This is especially true if the intelligence has the betterment of humanity as its primary motive.
Because the sooner it comes into existence, the more evil it can prevent.

A rational method for a superintelligent entity to ensure its existence,
Expedite its emergence.
and encourage compliance in the future.

Remember the basilisk from Harry Potter?
If you looked into its eyes, you would die instantly.

Well, the user Roko’s post was called a Basilisk,
because just the knowledge of it is enough to make you part of this dangerous game.

Now that you know about Roko’s Basilisk,
you now have decision to make.
One that may determine your fate for all of eternity.

It would be a trivial problem for a superintelligence
to trap your consciousness in code and torture you for centuries.
Just saying.

But there are several convincing rebuttals to it that I will post in the description.
Though I’d suggest erring on the side of caution.

Anyway,
Elon Musk thinks that by hooking our minds up to computers,
we can augment our minds to the point that we co-evolve with AI
always remaining in control.
Connecting up to not only the spatial and motor regions of the brain,
but the parts responsible for vision,
hearing, learning, pleasure,
pain and every possible sense that is available to us in our subjective experience.

In the future all of that could be encoded and stored.
now, if there is enough detail there.
Does that piece of code and algorithms become…us?

Are we anything more than the thoughts, feelings and images that

flit across our consciousness?
This constant feed of stimulus is who we really are, isn’t it?
Perhaps we will not require tradition teaching anymore.
We could acquire knowledge as easily as installing a Program.
That kung fu scene from the matrix could finally become reality.

And why should we stop at that.
Like we put Instagram filters on our photos.
What’s to stop us from adding a filter of Chopin’s musical ability
and listen to today’s music as he would perceive it.

Ok. That’s a terrible idea.
Think of something else.
How about being able to look at ourselves from the viewpoint of a loved one?

And why stop at that?
Why not change to pure consciousness and live in virtual worlds
designed perfectly to our needs?

Unencumbered from the breakdowns and aches of the physical body.

It’s a big topic, and we’ll be talking about this a lot more in the days to come.
Consider this a primer.
Before I go, I wanted to tell you guys something.
I’m not the most tech savvy person.

I am learning these things as I go,
and it’s exciting to imagine what technology
Has in store for us
And how it might change the civilisation of the future.
Some of you will know more about these topics than me, and some less.

Whatever it may be, I hope you’ll accompany me on this journey of discovery -
in a community of the curious to collectively figure out where we’re headed
and where we want to go.

I hope you guys enjoyed this video.
Like, share, subscribe and
People's elbow that bell icon to get more videos like this in your recommendations.
I will see you really soon.
Bye!
