Renowned futurist predicts a "handoff to bots"

Kevin Kelly is a  co-founder of Wired Magazine and a renowned author and futurist.  Decades ago, Kevin predicted much of today's technological and cultural landscape. In this discussion, he presents his new bold vision for what’s coming next: The Handoff to Bots. In this episode, you’ll hear: - Why declining populations will radically reshape economies - What a bot-to-bot economy could look and feel like - Why people of the future might be paid to read emails - How AI could help humanity find deeper purpose - Why this future might be closer than you think **Kevin’s links:** - Website/blog: https://kk.org/ - Twitter/X: https://x.com/kevin2kelly - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevin2kelly/ **Azeem’s links:** - Substack: https://www.exponentialview.co/ - Website: https://www.azeemazhar.com/ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azhar?originalSubdomain=uk - Twitter/X: https://x.com/azeem **References:** - Peak Population May Be Coming Sooner Than We Think by John Burn-Murdoch: https://www.ft.com/content/3862923c-f7bd-42a8-a9ea-06ebf754bf14 - The Comedy of the Commons by Carol Rose: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclrev/vol53/iss3/1/ - The Global Collapse of Coupling & Fertility by Alice Evans: https://www.ggd.world/p/the-global-collapse-of-coupling-and - The Handoff to Bots by Kevin Kelly: https://kk.org/thetechnium/the-handoff-to-bots/ - Why Humanity needs AI by Azeem Azhar: https://www.exponentialview.co/p/why-humanity-needs-ai - World Population Prospects 2024 by United Nations: https://population.un.org/wpp/ **Timestamps:** (00:00) Intro (02:17) The baby black hole behind Kevin's theory (10:49) Kevin's thesis: The handoff to bots (15:05) This world is closer than we think (19:32) The role of humans in this new world (21:23) Could monopoly influence pose a problem? (28:33) The nature of “struggle” in this new world (32:42) Could we see countries competing for population? (36:06) How a scarcity of humans might change what we value (42:30) What would 1994 Kevin think of 2025 Kevin's blog? **Production:** Production by supermix.io