Danny Hillis is an inventor, scientist, writer, and engineer. Whereas finishing his doctorate at MIT, he pioneered the parallel computer systems which might be the premise for the processors used for AI and most high-performance laptop chips. He has greater than 400 issued patents, masking parallel computer systems; disk arrays; most cancers diagnostics and therapy; varied digital, optical, and mechanical gadgets; and the pinch-to-zoom show interface. He’s a co-founder of The Lengthy Now Basis, and the designer of its 10,000-year mechanical clock.
Danny has based a number of corporations, however his solely common job was as the primary Disney Fellow at Disney Imagineering. He has printed scientific papers in Science, Nature, Fashionable Biology, and Worldwide Journal of Theoretical Physics and written extensively on expertise for Newsweek, Wired, and Scientific American. He’s the writer of The Sample on the Stone: The Easy Concepts That Make Computer systems Work and Connection Machine. He’s now a founding associate with Utilized Invention, engaged on new concepts in cybersecurity, drugs, and agriculture.
Kevin Kelly (@kevin2kelly) is the founding govt editor of WIRED journal, the previous editor and writer of the Complete Earth Overview, and a bestselling writer of books on expertise and tradition, together with Glorious Recommendation for Dwelling, The Inevitable, What Expertise Needs, and Vanishing Asia, his three-volume picture book-set capturing West, Central, and East Asia. Kelly is the writer of the favored essay “1000 True Followers.” Subscribe to Kevin’s e-newsletter, Recomendo, at recomendo.com. Each version options 6 temporary private suggestions of cool stuff.
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#782: Legendary Inventor Danny Hillis (Plus Kevin Kelly) — Unorthodox Classes from 400+ Patents, Fixing the Unattainable, Actual Al vs. ‘AI’, Hiring Richard Feynman, Working with Steve Jobs, Creating Parallel Computing, and A lot Extra
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Need to hear the final time Kevin Kelly was on this present? Take heed to our dialog right here by which we mentioned Kevin’s lengthy guess in opposition to the human inhabitants, resurrecting extinct species, energetic optimism vs. passive optimism, Kevin’s $20 time machine, the “dumbsmarten” way forward for AI, ideas for touring with kids, the thrill of being a vacationer in a single’s personal city, sabbaticals, and way more.
What was your favourite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know within the feedback.
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- Join with Danny Hillis:
- Join with Kevin Kelly:
Web site | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- A Multidisciplinary Innovation Firm | Utilized Invention
- Six Transient Private Suggestions of Cool Stuff | Recomendo
- Interview of Kevin Kelly, Co-Founding father of WIRED, Polymath, Most Fascinating Man In The World? | The Tim Ferriss Present #25, #26, & #27
- Stewart Model – The Polymath of Polymaths | The Tim Ferriss Present #281
- Sierra Diablo Mountain Vary | 10,000-Yr Clock
- Natra Mogen Clamp | eBay
- W. Daniel Hillis: Turning into a Disney Fellow | Net of Tales
- Protection Superior Analysis Tasks Company (DARPA)
- World Chief in Synthetic Intelligence Computing | NVIDIA
- Moore’s Regulation | Intel
- Solar Microsystems | Wikipedia
- 5 Information You Might Not Know About Disney and Dali’s Misplaced Challenge ‘Destino’ | Park West Gallery
- Disney On-line | Disney Wiki
- Learn how to Do a Tombstone Rubbing | ThoughtCo.
- The Steve Jobs Impact: Why We Want Visionary Founders and Skilled Leaders (Who Are a Little of Each) | Inc.
- Considering Machines Company | Wikipedia
- What Is Parallel Computing? | IBM
- Danny Hillis: The Organic Connection (Excerpt from Out of Their Minds) | NYU
- Intelligence as an Emergent Conduct or, The Songs of Eden | The Lengthy Now
- Amdahl’s Regulation: Understanding the Fundamentals | Splunk
- A New Identification-Conscious Community Safety Layer | ZPR
- Island by Aldous Huxley | Amazon
- Ocean’s Eleven (2001) | Prime Video
- Emblem Historical past | Emblem Basis
- W. Daniel Hillis: Programming Slot Machine | Net of Tales
- Tinkertoy Laptop | Laptop Historical past Museum
- A Fashionable, Open-Supply Smalltalk Programming System | Squeak
- How Feynman Diagrams Virtually Saved House | Quanta Journal
- Quantum Electrodynamics | Fermilab
- Complete Most cancers Info | Nationwide Most cancers Institute
- Danny Hillis: Understanding Most cancers By means of Proteomics | TED Speak
- David Agus: A New Technique within the Conflict on Most cancers | TED Speak
- Speaking with Walt Disney | The Disney Connection
- Life on the Pond | Mount Grace Land Conservation Belief
- Permaculture: You’ve Heard of It, However What the Heck Is It? | Fashionable Farmer
- TL;DR Shorts: Dr. Danny Hillis on the Automated Way forward for Analysis | Digital Science
- The Alliance for Studying Innovation | ALI
- The Large AI Analysis DARPA Is Funding This Yr | Protection One
- Dr. William Hillis: Man on a Mission | Baylor Faculty of Arts & Sciences
- W. Daniel Hillis: My Father Was a Physician | Net of Tales
- The Great Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron | Amazon
- The Execs and Cons of Homeschooling | Dad and mom
- The Rise and Fall of Considering Machines | Inc.
- The Enlightenment is Useless, Lengthy Reside the Entanglement | Journal of Design and Science
- The Coming Entanglement: Invoice Pleasure and Danny Hillis | Science Speak
- Out of Management: The New Biology of Machines, Social Programs, & the Financial World by Kevin Kelly | Amazon
- Fostering Lengthy-Time period Considering | The Lengthy Now Basis
- The Large Image | WIRED
- What’s a Neural Community? | IBM
- The Historical past of Synthetic Intelligence: Full AI Timeline | TechTarget
- W. Daniel Hillis: The Evolution of Synthetic Intelligence | Net of Tales
- Right here’s Why We Don’t Perceive What Electrical energy Is | Ribbon Farm
- Crops of the Gods — Dr. Mark Plotkin on Ayahuasca, Shamanic Information, the Curse and Blessing of Coca, and Extra | The Tim Ferriss Present #508
- Mantis Shrimp | Nice Barrier Reef Basis
- Synthetic Intelligence Issues: Is Skynet or The Matrix Attainable? | Ontario Society of Skilled Engineers
- Duck And Cowl (1951) | Nuclear Vault
- Smallpox and the Story of Vaccination | Science Museum
- Nineteen Fifties: Discover a Decade in LGBTQ+ Historical past | Delight & Progress
- Danny Hillis: Ought to We Create a Photo voltaic Shade to Cool the Earth? | TED Speak
- By 2060 the Whole Inhabitants of People on Earth Will Be Lower than It Is At this time. | Lengthy Bets
- Star Trek: The Unique Collection | Prime Video
- Smartphone Historical past: A Full Timeline | Textline
- Seven Methods the Web Has Modified the World (for Higher and for Worse) | Race Communications
- Babble: A Actual “Cone of Silence” | Lifehacker
- The Jetsons | Prime Video
- Herman Miller Babble | The BE Assortment
- Alzheimer’s Therapies: What’s on the Horizon? | Mayo Clinic
- Theranos: A Fallen Unicorn | Investopedia
- Danny Hillis: Breakthrough Instruments for Neuroscience | BrainMind Summit
- W. Daniel Hillis: Seeing the Future Rising from Goals | Net of Tales
- W. Daniel Hillis: My ‘Pinch-to-Zoom’ Invention | Net of Tales
- Pinch-to-Zoom: Apple Versus Samsung | Canadian Mental Property Weblog
- What Is a Patent in Easy Phrases? | Investopedia
- On the twentieth Anniversary, An Oral Historical past of the Net’s First Banner Adverts | Web Historical past Podcast
- Daniel Hillis Innovations, Patents, and Patent Purposes | Justia Patents Search
- How Claude Shannon Invented the Future | Quanta Journal
- W. Daniel Hillis: Why I Don’t Consider In Trigger and Impact | Net of Tales
- Quantum Computing: Definition, How It’s Used, and Instance | Investopedia
- The Sample on the Stone by W. Daniel Hillis | Amazon
- W. Daniel Hillis: Francis Crick and Consciousness | Net of Tales
- One thing That Goes Past Ourselves | Edge
- Neuroscientist David Eagleman — Exploring Consciousness, Sensory Augmentation, The Lazy Susan Technique of Extraordinary Productiveness, Dreaming, Enhancing Listening to with a Wristband, Synesthesia, Stretching Time with Novelty, Classes from Titans of Science, and A lot Extra | The Tim Ferriss Present #674
- The “Lengthy Tail” of Analysis Affect Is Engendered by Modern Dissemination Instruments and Significant Group Engagement | LSE
- The Clock of the Lengthy Now | The Lengthy Now Basis
- Indiana Jones and the Final Campaign | Prime Video
SHOW NOTES
- [07:56] How Danny and Kevin first met by Stewart Model.
- [09:58] The funniest one that ever opened Danny’s interview field of bizarre objects.
- [14:01] Danny’s transition to Disney as a Disney Fellow and Vice President of Imagineering.
- [19:12] The distinction between engineering and creative approaches to problem-solving.
- [28:56] The event of parallel computing and founding Considering Machines.
- [37:15] The three standards by which initiatives are chosen at Utilized Invention.
- [40:36] Zero-trust packet routing (ZPR) and the way forward for cybersecurity.
- [46:46] Studying by “hanging out” with specialists like Seymour Papert, Marvin Minsky, and Richard Feynman.
- [59:20] Danny’s work in biotechnology and most cancers analysis with David Agus.
- [01:07:44] Staying sustainable with systems-oriented pondering in agriculture — as nature meant.
- [01:16:10] Danny’s superpower.
- [01:17:48] Homeschooling, training on the transfer, and the affect of Mrs. Wilner.
- [01:22:00] The failure of Considering Machines and different regrets/surprises.
- [01:26:00] The “Entanglement” that blurs pure and technological boundaries.
- [01:30:54] The present state of AI versus true intelligence.
- [01:34:34] How AI could assist humanity higher perceive its place on the intelligence spectrum.
- [01:39:42] What the long run appears wish to a short-term pessimist/long-term optimist.
- [01:50:50] The cone of silence we by no means heard from once more.
- [01:53:10] Debugging dementia and different illnesses.
- [01:58:05] The MRI different Danny’s tackling.
- [02:00:51] We don’t now we have a freezer model of the patron microwave oven?
- [02:01:23] Danny’s place in pinch-to-zoom iPhone innovation historical past.
- [02:04:51] The professionals and cons of patents for inventors and society.
- [02:08:01] Inventors Danny finds inspiring.
- [02:10:04] Danny’s cause-and-effect heresy.
- [02:14:47] Quantum computing and its implications.
- [02:18:34] The scientific pursuit of understanding consciousness.
- [02:23:00] The query Danny asks himself earlier than investing time in a mission.
- [02:25:26] Danny’s 10,000-year billboard.
- [02:29:49] Parting ideas.
MORE DANNY HILLIS QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW
“What the inventor does is definitely a really small piece of it. What society does is it creates these preconditions for invention. And as soon as these preconditions are in place, then it’s only a matter of placing collectively the puzzle items and making it work.”
— Danny Hillis
“I’ve additionally developed the power to look out the individuals who actually know the factor and hang around with them … It’s not that I do know issues different individuals don’t, however possibly I do know a distinct mixture of issues that different individuals do know and I’m sort of keen to study the issues I don’t know and have a way of doing it by simply hanging out with people who find themselves smarter than I’m.”
— Danny Hillis
“Intelligence is a really difficult multifactored factor like life. It’s not only one factor. On the beginnings of AI, we thought the issues that have been exhausting for us to do have been the intelligence … Because it seems … the exhausting half was the stuff that we have been so good at, we didn’t even discover — like recognizing a face, leaping to a conclusion, having an instinct about one thing.”
— Danny Hillis
“It’s a lot more durable to think about options to issues than it’s to think about issues.”
— Danny Hillis
“Perhaps I’ve saved a superpower that children have … They’re not afraid to go in and see one thing new and unusual and begin enjoying with it.”
— Danny Hillis
“I attempt to ask the query, ‘Will this make a distinction over how a lot time and the way lengthy will that distinction matter?’ If it makes a whole lot of distinction after I’m lifeless, I’d reasonably do this.”
— Danny Hillis
“I learn sufficient papers that I’ve questions, since you’re losing the time of a Marvin Minsky or a Richard Feynman if you happen to don’t ask them one thing that makes them suppose. So I’d say most of my studying was from the individuals, not the papers. However I all the time do homework beforehand to see the place the attention-grabbing questions are.”
— Danny Hillis
“Nice academics … see the place you might be they usually stretch you to someplace you may get to.”
— Danny Hillis
“Lots of people’s use of computer systems is now, they sort of know the magic incantations that trigger this library to try this, however they don’t actually know all of the issues which might be occurring beneath that that make it work. And so it’s turning into extra like nature. Nature, we used to sort of know, ‘Effectively, right here’s the magic incantations we use for making beer. We don’t know actually why this makes good beer, this makes dangerous beer, or this makes champagne, however we all know once we do that, it does that,’ and that’s sort of turning into our relationship with computer systems. So I believe that what’s occurring … the excellence between the pure and the bogus is turning into entangled … it might simply sort of go away as a result of there nearly isn’t any pure nature and there nearly isn’t any pure expertise that we absolutely perceive.”
— Danny Hillis
“I’ve a granddaughter [who] can sit and speak to an electrician as if she is aware of what electrical energy is, simply through the use of the fitting phrases and saying phrases that she’s heard earlier than and so forth. And she will sort of faux it fairly effectively, however she has no thought what she’s speaking about. And that’s principally the place AI is true at this second.”
— Danny Hillis
“It could be simpler to truly make intelligence than to grasp intelligence.”
— Danny Hillis
“I believe people, as we all know them right this moment, are sort of midway between monkeys and what we’re going to change into. … We’re on this transitional section. We’ve nonetheless received a whole lot of monkey in us, and I’m actually excited by that factor that we’re going to change into.”
— Danny Hillis
“Normally, I’m a short-term pessimist and a long-term optimist.”
— Danny Hillis
“A lot better to be a peasant right this moment than to be a king a few centuries in the past by way of your well being, meals that you just ate, the way you spend your time … your consolation, every little thing.”
— Danny Hillis
“I don’t consider in trigger and impact.”
— Danny Hillis
“An thought has much more sticking energy than any bodily factor you could possibly construct.”
— Danny Hillis
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