Jaron Lanier, E. Glen Weyl, and Taylor Black join Beauty at Work for a wide-ranging conversation on artificial intelligence, innovation, and the deeper questions of meaning, faith, and human flourishing that surround emerging technologies.

Jaron Lanier coined the terms Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality and is widely regarded as a founding figure of the field. He has served as a leading critic of digital culture and social media, and his books include You Are Not a Gadget and Who Owns the Future? In 2018, Wired Magazine named him one of the 25 most influential people in technology of the previous 25 years. Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Jaron is currently the Prime Unifying Scientist at Microsoft’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, which spells out “Octopus”, in reference to his fascination with cephalopod neurology. He is also a musician and composer who has recently performed or recorded with Sara Bareilles, T Bone Burnett, Jon Batiste, Philip Glass, and many others.

E. Glen Weyl is Founder and Research Lead at Microsoft Research’s Plural Technology Collaboratory and Co-Founder of the Plurality Institute and RadicalxChange Foundation. He is the co-author of Radical Markets and Plurality and works at the intersection of economics, technology, democracy, and social institutions.

Taylor Black is Director of AI & Venture Ecosystems in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft and the founding director of the Leonum Institute on Emerging Technologies and AI at The Catholic University of America. His background spans philosophy, law, and technology leadership.

In our conversation, we discuss:

1. How aesthetic experience shapes worldview, imagination, and intellectual vocation
2. The historical rivalry between artificial intelligence and cybernetics
3. The danger of treating AI as an object of faith or a replacement for human meaning
4. The psychological and spiritual costs of assuming people will become obsolete
5. A tension between two different modalities of beauty
6. The idea that modern technology and AI, in particular, have taken on religious or idolatrous qualities
7. Why the Talmud offers a powerful model for collective intelligence without erasing individual voices
8. The dangers of excessive anonymity in digital systems and AI training
9. The idea of “superintelligences” as collective human systems like corporations, democracies, and religions
10. Vatican-led efforts toward algorithmic ethics and the protection of human dignity
11. Where Glen and Jaron disagree about human-centered AI
12. AI as a tool for metacognition
13. How imagination, storytelling, and shared meaning can shape the future of innovation

To learn more about Jaron, Glen and Taylor’s work, you can find them at:
Jaron Lanier - https://www.jaronlanier.com/
Glen Weyl - https://glenweyl.com/
Taylor Black - https://www.linkedin.com/in/blacktaylor/

Books and Resources mentioned:
You Are Not a Gadget (Jaron Lanier) - https://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Not-Gadget-Manifesto/dp/0307389979
Who Owns the Future? (Jaron Lanier) - https://www.amazon.com/Who-Owns-Future-Jaron-Lanier/dp/1451654979
Radical Markets (Eric Posner & E. Glen Weyl) - https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Markets-Uprooting-Capitalism-Democracy/dp/0691177503
Plurality (Audrey Tang & E. Glen Weyl) - https://www.amazon.com/%E6%95%B8%E4%BD%8D-Plurality-Collaborative-Technology-Democracy/dp/B0D4WT6BXY
The Human Use of Human Beings (Norbert Wiener) - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/153954.The_Human_Use_of_Human_Beings
The Fellowship of the Ring (J.R.R. Tolkien) - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61215351-the-fellowship-of-the-ring

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This episode is sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust (https://templetonreligiontrust.org/)

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