Big Questions

Stephen Hawking's final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, tries to answer ten of the biggest ideas that people have struggled with or wondered over the last half century. From "Is there a God?" to "How do we shape the future?", he offers his thoughts in an easily-digestible manner that encourages further consideration and discussion. In this episode of Doubtfully Daily Matigo, I focus most of the time on just one of these: Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?

Brief Answers to the Big Questions

The short answer is "no" or, more accurately, "not anytime soon". There is a lot more to intelligence than being able to crunch numbers and humans are ideally positioned in the evolution of the universe to offer a lot of value beyond what a machine might provide. We, as a species, have a lot of future ahead of us so long as we, as a species, do not intentionally exterminate ourselves.

Brief Answers to the Big Questions Visual Synopsis image by Dani Saveker