{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "slug": "why-neurotech-matters",
  "title": "Why neurotech is maybe the only thing that matters",
  "outlet": "ZuConnect Istanbul / StreamETH",
  "displayDate": "ZuConnect Istanbul · October 31, 2023 · posted January 30, 2024",
  "dateRecorded": "2023-10-31",
  "datePublished": "2024-01-30",
  "durationDisplay": "6 min",
  "sourceUrl": "https://streameth.org/65a90bfc7932ebe436ba9375/watch?session=65b8f8d4a5b2d09b88ec171f",
  "description": "A short talk on neurotechnology’s relevance to AI safety and progress.",
  "schemaType": "VideoObject",
  "durationSeconds": 388.913,
  "transcriptPublishedDate": "2026-07-22",
  "transcriptGeneratedAt": "2026-07-22T04:21:41.391240Z",
  "model": "mlx-community/whisper-large-v3-mlx",
  "humanReviewStatus": "not-human-reviewed",
  "validationStatus": "passed",
  "segments": [
    {
      "start": 4.38,
      "end": 25.68,
      "text": "There's some pretty fantastic claims from the meditators, I will say. So Shinzen Young has made a couple claims. One is that the sort of counterfactual claim of him having a regular good practice, that he's literally 10x'd his subjective moment-to-moment experience."
    },
    {
      "start": 25.68,
      "end": 34.9,
      "text": "It's just literally 10 times better because of his meditation. And that's a lot. It's not just 10% more, it's 10 times better."
    },
    {
      "start": 35.28,
      "end": 51.08,
      "text": "So that's something like if there are those kind of gains up for grabs, then is there maybe another 10x? Is there 100x?"
    },
    {
      "start": 51.28,
      "end": 55.56,
      "text": "Can we... Right now, having a good meditation practice is very hard."
    },
    {
      "start": 55.68,
      "end": 59.76,
      "text": "It takes time. It takes effort. It's a lot of sitting on the ground with your eyes closed."
    },
    {
      "start": 60.96,
      "end": 64.92,
      "text": "Can we speed it up so it doesn't take 10 years, 30 years, etc.?"
    },
    {
      "start": 64.92,
      "end": 68.24,
      "text": "So I think this is also very important."
    },
    {
      "start": 70.18,
      "end": 81.02,
      "text": "One of the main promises from the 60s, and especially with this psychedelic or pathogen MDMA,"
    },
    {
      "start": 81.16,
      "end": 85.66,
      "text": "was that it could offer some sort of penicillin for the brain."
    },
    {
      "start": 85.68,
      "end": 97.1,
      "text": "And this is a very powerful phrase that the world really changed when penicillin sort of became available."
    },
    {
      "start": 97.8,
      "end": 100.8,
      "text": "It used to be that getting a scratch, you could die."
    },
    {
      "start": 101.02,
      "end": 104.22,
      "text": "And now that's not the case."
    },
    {
      "start": 104.42,
      "end": 113.58,
      "text": "And if there's some kind of analog for sort of mental well-being that's sort of very simple, that could be very, very significant."
    },
    {
      "start": 114.68,
      "end": 115.2,
      "text": "So..."
    },
    {
      "start": 116.18,
      "end": 117.86,
      "text": "Psychedelics haven't quite..."
    },
    {
      "start": 118.68,
      "end": 121.92,
      "text": "Like, they have some downsides, but neurotech..."
    },
    {
      "start": 123,
      "end": 124.12,
      "text": "Who knows?"
    },
    {
      "start": 126.36,
      "end": 130.22,
      "text": "So the next item that I would want to mention is that..."
    },
    {
      "start": 131.44,
      "end": 133.28,
      "text": "Zuzalu won, we can say."
    },
    {
      "start": 133.66,
      "end": 139.5,
      "text": "Nate Soares mentioned that he's very interested in what is a mind and how do we align them?"
    },
    {
      "start": 140.1,
      "end": 143.9,
      "text": "And I just think that you can't really answer this"
    },
    {
      "start": 145.68,
      "end": 148.1,
      "text": "with what is a brain and how does it work."
    },
    {
      "start": 149.9,
      "end": 159.48,
      "text": "And sort of, you know, there's this beautiful dance of multi-level alignment that evolution has sort of prepared for humans."
    },
    {
      "start": 159.68,
      "end": 162.5,
      "text": "And yeah, just digging into that."
    },
    {
      "start": 162.78,
      "end": 166.8,
      "text": "And I think that that road leads through neurotech."
    },
    {
      "start": 168.22,
      "end": 171.2,
      "text": "And finally, a little bit more philosophically."
    },
    {
      "start": 171.64,
      "end": 175,
      "text": "So my background is originally in philosophy."
    },
    {
      "start": 175.68,
      "end": 177.02,
      "text": "So apologies."
    },
    {
      "start": 177.26,
      "end": 181.46,
      "text": "But there's this question of what's special about humans."
    },
    {
      "start": 182.04,
      "end": 189.02,
      "text": "There's a lot of sort of comments about AI and AI risk and what's at stake and what could be lost."
    },
    {
      "start": 189.42,
      "end": 195.36,
      "text": "And I guess the most common phrase is like, we could all die."
    },
    {
      "start": 195.68,
      "end": 197.36,
      "text": "And maybe that's true."
    },
    {
      "start": 197.56,
      "end": 202.32,
      "text": "But I also think that in an uncareful future,"
    },
    {
      "start": 202.48,
      "end": 205.66,
      "text": "if we don't sort of know why we're doing this,"
    },
    {
      "start": 205.68,
      "end": 206.76,
      "text": "why humans are beautiful,"
    },
    {
      "start": 207.46,
      "end": 208.52,
      "text": "we could lose it."
    },
    {
      "start": 209.54,
      "end": 216.28,
      "text": "And that forms of beauty that are legible are more likely to persist under transformations."
    },
    {
      "start": 216.74,
      "end": 219.56,
      "text": "And I think we're going to see a lot of transformations in the future."
    },
    {
      "start": 220.26,
      "end": 226.12,
      "text": "And again, I think that just having an experimental mode for building things for the brain,"
    },
    {
      "start": 226.38,
      "end": 228.8,
      "text": "this is the way to get clarity on that."
    },
    {
      "start": 230.94,
      "end": 234.8,
      "text": "So two empirical things that I'm particularly looking at."
    },
    {
      "start": 236.12,
      "end": 240.52,
      "text": "Understanding, so my latest research is on understanding cognition and emotion"
    },
    {
      "start": 240.52,
      "end": 243.36,
      "text": "from the interaction between the neural and the vascular system"
    },
    {
      "start": 243.36,
      "end": 249.38,
      "text": "and how this can help parameterize drugs and different illnesses and so on."
    },
    {
      "start": 251.4,
      "end": 251.9,
      "text": "And"
    },
    {
      "start": 252.68,
      "end": 259.12,
      "text": "And I'm also like, I guess if I had to give one vision today,"
    },
    {
      "start": 259.26,
      "end": 264.62,
      "text": "one sort of picture for all of you to sort of try to see, like,"
    },
    {
      "start": 265.68,
      "end": 267,
      "text": "oh, wow, that's cool."
    },
    {
      "start": 267.12,
      "end": 270.24,
      "text": "Or like, what would it feel like to live in this kind of world?"
    },
    {
      "start": 272.34,
      "end": 274.88,
      "text": "If we could see the electromagnetic field,"
    },
    {
      "start": 276.2,
      "end": 279.54,
      "text": "if, for example, you know, in a meditation hall,"
    },
    {
      "start": 279.76,
      "end": 284.58,
      "text": "if there were 20 people sort of all just meditating very carefully"
    },
    {
      "start": 284.58,
      "end": 286.72,
      "text": "and they all had EEGs on,"
    },
    {
      "start": 287.82,
      "end": 290.82,
      "text": "so they could sort of measure brain activity."
    },
    {
      "start": 291.32,
      "end": 294.12,
      "text": "And then the meditation teacher"
    },
    {
      "start": 295.68,
      "end": 298.18,
      "text": "in the meditation hall had an Apple Vision Pro on."
    },
    {
      "start": 299,
      "end": 300,
      "text": "And could"
    },
    {
      "start": 300,
      "end": 305.16,
      "text": "the configuration of each person's EM"
    },
    {
      "start": 305.26,
      "end": 312.72,
      "text": "When William Field was sort of projected onto his display, he could see what people were doing with their minds."
    },
    {
      "start": 312.86,
      "end": 319.68,
      "text": "He could see, oh, like, you're doing something right here, or, oh, I know this pattern."
    },
    {
      "start": 320.2,
      "end": 321.56,
      "text": "I know what you're doing wrong."
    },
    {
      "start": 321.78,
      "end": 322.96,
      "text": "Maybe you can try something else."
    },
    {
      "start": 323.32,
      "end": 330.74,
      "text": "So I find that humans are such visual creatures that we like to see things."
    },
    {
      "start": 330.74,
      "end": 334.42,
      "text": "And when we see things, we can understand things."
    },
    {
      "start": 335.14,
      "end": 346.3,
      "text": "So I guess I'm very personally excited about, like, real-time visualization, sort of AR visualization of the EM field."
    },
    {
      "start": 346.52,
      "end": 360.14,
      "text": "So I guess my sort of wish to hyperstition something into being here would be if someone would write up a white paper spec"
    },
    {
      "start": 360.74,
      "end": 366.64,
      "text": "on what would be needed to do this and sorting out if it's more of a hardware problem."
    },
    {
      "start": 366.94,
      "end": 367.94,
      "text": "I don't think so."
    },
    {
      "start": 368,
      "end": 369.34,
      "text": "I think off-the-shelf stuff could work."
    },
    {
      "start": 369.48,
      "end": 373.8,
      "text": "Or if it's more of a hardware integration problem or a user interface problem."
    },
    {
      "start": 376.4,
      "end": 378.12,
      "text": "So that's what I have today."
    },
    {
      "start": 379,
      "end": 379.6,
      "text": "Thank you."
    }
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