Dr. Ben Goertzel appeared on Joe Rogan to speak on a range of topics, including artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and technology in general. For those who are unaware, Dr. Goertzel is the founder and CEO of SingularityNET, a blockchain-based AI marketplace. Joe Rogan hosts one of the most popular podcasts in the world, which allowed for a unique opportunity for an influential member of the cryptocurrency community to bring some exposure to blockchain technology and cryptocurrency markets. The interview between the two was live streamed on December 4, 2018, and already has accumulated over 900,000 views.

Topics Of Discussion

Goertzel spoke of the need for “new systems” with regards to technology. He pointed out that traditionally, governments have funded innovation for decades, and then the free markets have been responsible for bringing products to market, scaling accordingly, and reducing costs. He stated that the world is now changing, and that this “idea incubation” system isn’t conducive to modern innovation. He pointed out that cryptocurrency projects are currently trying to figure out how to use tokens to “incentivize independent scientists and inventors to do new stuff without them having to be at a government research lab or a big company.”

Goertzel is a global leader in the artificial intelligence space, and has written over 100 books on the subject, and has spent decades applying artificial intelligence to all sorts of sectors, including robotics, video games, national security, and more. He was featured prominently in various documentaries, one of which is entitled Singularity Or Bust, and is available on Youtube:

Goertzel spoke on how the “military” and “large corporation” modes of organization” will not ultimately be the most beneficial to society. He praised the idea of “open-source” organization, and praised the “better aspects” of the “blockchain and crypto” communities. He stated that a decentralized form of organization, with the right resources, could accomplish much more than a centralized authority.

Breaking Down Basic Concepts

He broke down the idea of a distributed ledger to Rogan, as well. He gave the example of how blockchain technology could be used to vote in elections, to which Rogan replied: “What’s ironic about it is that it’s probably one of the best ways ever conceived to vote in this country.” Goertzel also explained Ethereum to Rogan, who apparently was not quite aware of the term at all. Rogan stated, “That’s how out of the loop I am.”

Goertzel pointed out that cryptocurrency projects and the financial reward associated with ICOs is only a tiny aspect of blockchain technology and its potential. He spoke about decentralized voting mechanisms, supply chains, E-commerce, and stated: “In essence, just like computers and the Internet started with a certain small set of applications, and then pervaded into almost everything, right? It’s the same way with blockchain technology. It started with digital money, but the core technology is going to pervade almost everything, because there is almost no domain of human pursuit that couldn’t use security…some sort of participatory decision-making, and then distributed storage of information…these things are also valuable for AI, which is how I got into it in the first place.

 

You can find the interview below: