Escape, immortality, AI: Silicon Valley's blueprint for the future
About this episode
Elon Musk wants a million people living on Mars within 20 years. Jeff Bezos imagines a trillion humans in space, living in a constellation of space stations the size of major cities within a few generations. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is preparing for a future where rogue AI could destroy civilization, and is stockpiling land, gas masks, and gold in the event it leads to disaster.
These plans, which appear ripped from the world of science fiction, instead represent designs for the future held by some of the most powerful people in the world. Why are tech billionaires so consumed with escaping earth — and what does it mean for the rest of us?
Today, guest Adam Becker — an astrophysicist, journalist, and author of More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity — joins Front Burner to explain the dystopian future being planned by the tech elite: one defined by ideas like space colonization, “technological salvation,” AI superintelligence, and the pursuit of eternal life.
For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts
Get every episode summarized
Each time Front Burner publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Hosts & guests
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
