AI World Summit 2022 Dr Iain McGilchrist on Artificial Intelligence and The Matter with Things

Dr Iain McGilchrist gives the keynote speech at the AI World Summit, October 2022 in Amsterdam, organised by Inspired Minds. In relation to artificial intelligence, he draws on his latest book, The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World
The world’s leading and largest AI summit gathers the global AI ecosystem of Enterprise, Big Tech, Startups, Investors and Science, the brightest brains in AI as speakers every October in Amsterdam to tackle head-on the most burning AI issues and set the global AI agenda.
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To purchase The Matter with Things
Hardback internationally Amazon.com and BookDepository.com
Hardback UK only ChannelMcGilchrist.com , Amazon.co.uk and other booksellers nationwide
Kindle on www.amazon.co.uk and www.amazon.com
To explore Dr Iain McGilchrist's work in greater depth and breadth, join Channel McGilchrist here channelmcgilchrist.com/join/

[@annieok654]

Utterly brilliant, stimulating, beautiful talk. Dr. McGilchrist is the wisest, most profound and creative intellectual of our era; I listen to all of his interviews and speeches, and am comforted. A sane voice in an insane world. Such a wonderful man.

[@janchmiel7302]

what a wise choice by the organisers of this event to chose Iain McGilchrist to do the keynote speech.. excellent

[@ld2906]

Yes. How very counterintuitive indeed...

[@pafe1985]

Why thank you ;)

[@garypuckettmuse]

Some might see it as a cynical way to get "all that" out of the way at the top of the program. Some public relation company's canny, unoriginal way to get ahead of negativity by taking up that space first. I'm kind of surprised Dr. McGilcrist didn't decline to be their token. On the other hand it's the perfect audience to hear his message even though no one involved "heard" it at all. We heard it. The Greek Choir. I wish they had given him 90 minutes so he could have told them how he really feels.

[@martin92177]

Stunning. Never seen him so passionate and angry.

[@dtcarrick]

I take solace in the fact that wiser minds than I have also found it difficult to express how profound Iain's work has been on my life.

[@S.G.Wallner]

Finally a real rant from Dr. M! His message had not wavered but the sharpness of this speech was fresh.

[@marielloyd8594]

Iain was meeting an assembly that is a fearsome embodiment of all that he dreads as coming even more strongly into possibility. I would call his state impassioned, as he would be if his child had slipped into a river. He would be absolutely unified in his focus and object. And he was.

[@cynthiaford6976]

Dr. McGilchrist rises like a Shelleyan lion!!! Thank the cosmos for his being in the world! 🙏🙏🙏

[@daviddrew7852]

"Consciousness is the stuff of the cosmos." Dr Iain McGilchrist

[@charleskershaw5341]

what is a shelleyan lion? I'm super curious.

[@noreenquinn3844]

Iain, don't dispair. We are listening. We do care and we will make life worth living. Thank you for making us aware. We had got a bit distracted.

[@wjcroft72]

Tremendous courage to speak this truth in front of the machine lords. Bravo. There was hearty applause at the end, so I can only conclude that this audience is aware of the morality around AI and Iain's message of different modes of perception.

[@kevinjns6]

Thank you Dr. McGilchrist.

[@ernestberry-songsrestored5637]

the fact he’s speaking here fills me with both dread and hope.

[@peterweston1356]

I have read both The Master and his Emissary and The Matter With Things. I have no words for their impact. Sadly I despair even more for the world. This does not mean I lack hope and even some optimism, but those who seem to be most visible in fighting for the remaking of the world just seem mainly angry, personally disturbed and want just to tear things down. For example they seem to show no compassion for other humans who don’t agree with their methods

[@lindosland]

The big question is, 'are they made like that; were their brains wired differently by early experience, and can this different mode of thinking be stimulated into action in them?' My current experience of family and friends makes me doubtful of the latter. Maybe we are destined to go through a bottleneck so that 'real' people can survive and start again.

[@peterweston1356]

@@lindosland I am truly sympathetic with your situation as described. I am learning to try not to characterise the ‘unmakers’ as separate groups from me… I find that hard viscerally, I am a work in progress. To your point, I think these folk draw energy from resistance, yet when pressed there is no coherent vision of an alternative future, or if there is there is no route to get there. So like a natural fire that burns through an evergreen forest making opportunities for renewal, maybe we do need the bottleneck. I think Hegel may have had a thing or two to say about that but I’m no student of philosophy. Thank you for you reply

[@adamwidawski]

Fiery speech, Iain! Loved it. The Matrix has trembled 🔥

[@elioxman8496]

Fully agree. Thank you for speaking out Iain.

[@deegoto7486]

I have spent over 50 years gathering documentation on the Japanese experience in the US Pacific Northwest, starting the Special Collection at the U of WA Library Archives in 1970. In 1989 I completed a Masters Thesis on THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN AND HOW THEY USE SOCIAL SUPPORT. The research was of the difference between the right and left hemisphere of our brain and the fact that women have a larger Corpus Collosum. Therefore, I particularly value your writings and podcasts highlighting the Japanese Values. I am on the board of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington and have a priority of adding to our Seattle and larger community by sharing stories of our heritage values. Appreciate your insights. Working with members of the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Reparatory Theater to distribute these efforts for a better community.

[@billstimson]

I've never seen him so beautifully state this. In the future he will be seen as among the small handful of greatest humans who lived in this age of ours, just as our parents' and grandparents' generations saw Freud, Marx, and Darwin as the pivotal minds of their time. I've read McGilchrist's books and seen his videos but this is the best presentation ever. It's masterful! Deeply moving! And so obviously true!

[@ingunareinfelde4792]

Thank you for expressing it so beautifully.

[@scottjones-singersongwrite6193]

Visceral, penetrating and portentous. Thanks, Iain, for continuously going to bat for us. How limited the view that anyone at all will escape the consequences of our current malaise.

[@oeautobody3586]

Our current malaise?, not everyone is in the box 😂 . This speaker, Iain McGilcrest, is way smart but he is still selling something.

[@jacquelinekutt9371]

Well stated 11:05, thank you once again Dr. McGilchrist.

[@antoniobarbalau1107]

This is amazing. Thank you for everything ♥️

[@KR-jq3mj]

I hope we listen to this wisdom 🙏

[@samar1462]

I loved and cherished your talk in each of its passing minute. Thank you!

[@kipling1957]

Aimed right between the eyes, but poetically. I love Iain McGilchrist. I predict his work will go down in history as profoundly seminal.

[@marielloyd8594]

It will depend upon who authors our future...

[@kipling1957]

@@marielloyd8594 Or how far into the future.

[@suebayliss7208]

Wonderful and wise.

[@Dani68ABminus]

Bravo! In addition to the always superb content of your talks, I would also like to thank you for the frankness and fervor of this one. Also, as a fan of Erich Fromm, the distinctions between the right and left hemisphere remind me of his concept of the biophilic versus necrophilic individual.

[@marielloyd8594]

The great Erich Fromm...

[@anitastruthers1896]

A life worth living ❤️

[@roderickdickson8924]

brilliant

[@jeangophile]

Well done Dr. McGilchrist! "According to one of the first texts we have on the Golem, the prophet Jeremiah was busying himself alone with the Sefer Yetsirah when a heavenly voice went forth and said: 'Take a companion.' Jeremiah, obeying, chose his son Sira, and they studied the book together for three years. Afterward, they set about combining the alphabets in accordance with the Kabbalistic principles of combination, grouping, and word formation, and a man was created to them, on whose forehead stood the letters, יהוה אֱלֹהִים אֶמֶת (YHWH Elohim Emet), meaning: God the LORD is Truth. But this newly created man had a knife in his hand, with which he erased the letter א (alef) from the word אֶמֶת (emet), truth; there remained the word מֵת (met), dead. Then Jeremiah rent his garments (because of the blasphemy, God is dead, now implied in the inscription) and said: 'Why have you erased the א (alef) from אֶמֶת (emet)?' He replied: 'I will tell you a parable. An architect built many houses, cities, and squares, but no one could copy his art and compete with him in knowledge and skill until two men persuaded him to teach them the secret of the art. When they had learned how to do everything in the right way, they began to anger him with words. Finally, they broke with him and became architects on their own, except that what he charged a guinea for, they did for ten shillings. When people noticed this, they ceased honoring the artist and instead gave their commissions to his renegade pupils. So God has made you in His image and in His shape and form. But now that you have created a man like Him, people will say: There is no God in the world beside these two! Then Jeremiah said: 'What solution is there?' He said: 'Write the alphabets backward with intense concentration on the earth. Only do not meditate in the sense of building up, as you did before, but the other way around.' So they did, and the man became dust and ashes before their eyes. It is indeed significant that Nietzsche’s famous cry, 'God is dead,' should have gone up first in a Kabbalistic text warning against the making of a Golem and linking the death of God to the realization of the idea of the Golem...." (Gershom Scholem, The Weizmann Institute, June 17, 1965).

[@paulgrieve7031]

Blooming amazing that the Dutch probably understand all of that!

[@floydwilkes9904]

Bravo! Good Dr. McGilchrist

[@jaketaylor1031]

I ❤ Iain

[@kevinshari8262]

This is amazing

[@TheParadiseInc]

Classic Mcghilchrist audio difficulties. Love you!

[@TheGrubby96]

We need to get Dr. Iain McGilchrist and Dr. Gabor Maté in the same room..

[@Anna-mc3ll]

Thank you very much for sharing this insightful and though provoking speech on such a crucial issue for the entire humanity today! Kind regards, Anna

[@sapienspace8814]

Great talk, thank you for sharing!

[@daviddrew7852]

Mind blowing. Metaphorically, and perhaps literally for the more hard of thinking.

[@shanokapadia6451]

How amazing, brilliant and inspiring, beyond words to express gratitude. Thanks a million to make us aware how to think in this complex world especially to understand how to manage AI. Brilliant!! Thank you .🙏❤️

[@levcimac]

I have a proposal: AI can become an exquisite emissary which learns to become profecient at enabling humans to build bridges across the ecological and cultural divides by helping us understand each other and the complexity of the natural world so that we can grow into our human ideals and deepen our virtues.

[@lindosland]

No, it can't, because it is a closed system using only what is written, not real experience. What is written on this topic is mostly wrong. We have to look inside out minds. Anyway, I don't want to build bridges, I want what Putin calls a multipolar world - let different approaches flourish and compare.

[@jamesboswell9324]

Artificial Intelligence? These guys can't even get the fricking sound levels right!

[@pafe1985]

I was very disappointed with the quality of the footage from the whole event TBH, especially after working so hard to make this talk happen :( AV team let the side down. Sorry!

[@Krasbin]

Loved the speech, could have used a little boost in volume (I like to listen to talks during cooking, which is not always quiet).

[@macoeur1122]

Yes, but I found it compelling enough to stop and give it my full attention. He's one of the few I can manage to do this for these days.

[@roderickdickson8924]

great

[@PromoMIAR]

Love it

[@joanpaulbeck3335]

Thanks, exactly true,😢.

[@aliceinwonderland887]

"But you Daniel shut up these words and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, knowledge shall increase." Daniel 12: 4

[@jamescastro2037]

Noch Noch, trick or treat? Silence is broken A chatter from the leaves The wind has spoken - Son of Man

[@4real277]

Bravo🙌🏼

[@pencilcase46]

I think Thích Nhất Hạnh said something like: Maybe the next Buddha is the Sangha 💚💜🧡

[@feddedevries8890]

Hero.

[@kathrynpearce9658]

I would also love to hear him compare colonial thinking to Indigenous thinking. I feel like it has some similar parallels to left brain vrs right brain

[@MrPochybovac]

This is was one daring talk!! Any chance of getting text version?

[@Courage-to-BE]

This made me cry the whole way through... I am asking myself this question every day. It has become a daily practice to ask myself this question. It is imperative that we learn to face the unknown, as this is the only place from which real growth can happen - otherwise, we are just trapped within a hell of our own collective making without a purpose.

[@chriswalth]

Couldn’t it be that this worrisome development we are experiencing is part of the unknown? With all what’s coming, I have stopped trying to understand it. I do my part to hold up the values of life. And I watch.

[@Courage-to-BE]

@@chriswalth That sounds like a solid approach. :)

[@joanpaulbeck3335]

Check out Anne Baring’s interviews and works.

[@coolhandeddie]

The opening music reminds me of a Zoolander walk off - hilariously inappropriate for Iain's entrance

[@lindosland]

My thought exactly; I was waiting for him to say something like 'we could do without that'.

[@abcrane]

absolutely phenomenological!

[@switchoffyourdevices7142]

👏👏👏

[@marielloyd8594]

...or better yet, use them to follow Iain and others with whom we can be meaningfully present and deeply affected.

[@BcClarity]

My ISP makes me sick when on AND off now,

[@denisd1433]

Viva la AI!

[@mariavarelas8041]

ForAllBeings.

[@humanistastv]

Explaining how reality really is to a bunch of immature kids!

[@margueritespringer3687]

The sound quality was poor, sadly.

[@annieok654]

Agree. I had to press headphones against my ears to hear anything at all. Hope this technological incompetence spills over to the AI technology.

[@oeautobody3586]

I'm not very intelligent, still I've been blessed from not feeling 'wretched'. As a person of age my luck came with strong community, good parents and rural America upbringing.. Mega crisis and fear in the new mega cities of the future of global domination 😂 I'll escape this planet just in time. Cheers 🎉

[@oeautobody3586]

Do I understand correctly, he also wants to shred modern urban "western world. ..middle class?

[@nupraptorthementalist3306]

What a nightmare.

[@realitycheck4086]

McGilchrist’s stab at Putin at the beginning of this talk was a cheap shot and quite frankly very disappointing. How on earth does McGilchrist know Putin has the most expensive lavatory paper dispenser in the world - has he read in in Hello magazine perhaps.

[@lindosland]

I too was disappointed. I would have thought that Alexander Dugin's ideas would be of great interest to him. Putin is a man struggling to bring about Dugin's 'Great Restoration against the great reset'. He wants a multipolar world. IF he is genuine (and his past in the USSR may give cause to wonder) then he is on our side.

[@robinhampshire8923]

A god with feet of clay? Well observed rc.

[@Existentialist946]

The first 2 mins or so sounded promising, but then he launches into a soporific materialist interpretation of the roles of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. At that point I switched off.