Are governments and Hollywood films secretly pumping people's minds full of messages which push obedience, alcohol addiction, and disseminate'woke' theories? It's long been known that world governments are fascinated by mind control, with groups like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) allegedly conducting sinister experiments on the public. In the 1950s and 60s, the CIA's infamous MKUltra program recruited civilians, mental patients, and drug addicts in an effort to reprogram minds. However, some believe social media has given world governments and entertainment giants new tools to control minds. This includes mind control expert Jason Christoff.

In 1914, on the eve of the First World War, HG Wells published a novel about the possibilities of an even greater conflagration. The World Set Free imagines, 30 years before the Manhattan Project, the creation of atomic weapons that allow "a man [to] carry about in a handbag an amount of latent energy sufficient to wreck half a city". It takes the "establishment of a world government" to bring about peace. What concerned Wells was not simply the perils of a new technology, it was also the dangers of democracy. Wells' world government was not created through democratic will but imposed as a benign dictatorship.

One of the most celebrated physicists of our time, Stephen Hawking, died at the age of 76. The British scientist was known for his pioneering work on black holes and relativity, and has authored several popular books. In 2017, Cambridge University made Hawking's PhD thesis, which he completed in 1966, available to the public. "By making my PhD thesis Open Access, I hope to inspire people around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet; to wonder about our place in the universe and to try and make sense of the cosmos," Hawking said in a statement at that time. "Anyone, anywhere in the world should have free, unhindered access to not just my research, but to the research of every great and enquiring mind across the spectrum of human understanding."

On today's show, Kevin Kelly talks on how AI technology will shape organizations and why leaders need to adapt to company teaching mentality. Kevin Kelly is the Senior Maverick at Wired Magazine, co-founded Wired in 1993 and served as its Executive Editor for the first seven years. His new book is called The Inevitable, where he discusses the 12 technological forces that will change our future. Welcome to the Innovation Ecosystem, with me today is Kevin Kelly to talk about How AI technology will shape future organizations. Kevin, I have to say when we planned this program, you were the first person that I wanted onto this show. So, I'm really pleased that we managed to find some time in your calendar, and thank you very much for making that time. So, Kevin, you described your work as packaging ideas into books, websites, and making them interesting and pretty. Before we get into your new book, The Inevitable, which is about AI technology, can you give our listeners a sense of your back story? Yeah, I was a science nerd in high school, but also interested in photography, and the arts. Couldn't decide whether to go to art school or MIT. In the end, I decided to be a college dropout, and instead because I read the Whole Earth catalogue, I was inspired to make my own education, and went to Asia where I awarded myself a graduate degree in Asian studies by roaming around for eight years mostly photographing the disappearing traditions of Asia. I also caught a really bad dose of optimism in Asia because right before my eyes I saw people lifting themselves out of poverty very, very quickly, and becoming, from some of the poorest nations of the Earth, to some of the richest ones. This was in the 70s? This was in the 70s, right exactly. So, I came back in the 80s, and I was writing about travel because that was something I knew about. I got myself invited onto the earliest experimental online systems in the very early 80s, 1981, or something. I was reporting on it as if it was a new foreign country, like a travel reporter, and I saw something for the first time, which was high technology that was very human and organic.

In a book that's become the darling of many a Silicon Valley billionaire -- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind -- the historian Yuval Harari paints a picture of humanity's inexorable march towards ever greater forms of collectivization. From the tribal clans of pre-history, people gathered to create city-states, then nations, and finally empires. While certain recent political trends, namely Brexit and the nativism of Donald Trump would seem to belie this trend, now another luminary of academia has added his voice to the chorus calling for stronger forms of world government. Far from citing some ancient historical trends though, Stephen Hawking points to artificial intelligence as a defining reason for needing stronger forms of globally enforced cooperation. It's facile to dismiss Stephen Hawking as another scientist poking his nose into problems more germane to politics than physics.

Let's first take the case made by the naysayers who claim we are a long time away from AI posing any real threat to humanity. These are often the same people who suggest Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics are sufficient to ensure ethical behavior from machines – never mind that the whole thrust of Asimov's stories is to demonstrate how things can go terribly wrong despite of the three laws of robots. Leaving that aside, it's exceedingly difficult to keep pace with the breakneck pace of research in AI and robotics. One may be an expert in a small domain of AI or robotics, say pneumatic actuators, and have no clue what is going on in reinforcement learning. This tends to be the rule rather than the exception among experts, since their very expertise tends to confine them to a narrow field of endeavor.

Stephen Hawking, widely considered to be the most accomplished theoretical physicist in the entire world has made no secret of his fears that the technology behind artificial intelligence is developing faster than human beings can keep up with, and could eventually lead to a destruction of the human race. Now he has proposed a solution to this terrifying potential problem although he believes the solution could prove to be an even greater threat to the world. Speaking to The Times, Professor Hawking explained his fears about the threat posed by artificial intelligence. "Since civilization began, aggression has been useful since it has definite survival advantages, " he said, "It is hard-wired into our genes by Darwinian evolution. Now, however, technology has advanced at such a pace that this aggression may destroy us all by nuclear or biological war. We need to control this inherited instinct by our logic and reason."

March 9, 2017 --Physicist Stephen Hawking may be a proponent of artificial intelligence, but he has also been outspoken about the potential challenges it creates. In a recent interview, he sounded a similar tone, and offered a solution that conservatives may find hard to accept. Speaking to The Times of London to commemorate being awarded the Honorary Freedom of the City of London, a title that was conferred on him on Monday, Professor Hawking expressed optimism for the future. He added, however, that he is concerned about artificial intelligence (AI), as well as other global threats. "We need to be quicker to identify such threats and act before they get out of control," Hawking said.

Stephen Hawking is concerned about the rise of artificial intelligence. Physicist Stephen Hawking may be a proponent of artificial intelligence, but he has also been outspoken about the potential challenges it creates. In a recent interview, he sounded a similar tone, and offered a solution that conservatives may find hard to accept. Speaking to The Times of London to commemorate being awarded the Honorary Freedom of the City of London, a title that was conferred on him on Monday, Professor Hawking expressed optimism for the future. He added, however, that he is concerned about artificial intelligence (AI), as well as other global threats.

March 9, 2017 --Physicist Stephen Hawking may be a proponent of artificial intelligence, but he has also been outspoken about the potential challenges it creates. In a recent interview, he sounded a similar tone, and offered a solution that conservatives my find hard to accept. Speaking to The Times of London to commemorate being awarded the Honorary Freedom of the City of London, a title that was conferred on him on Monday, Professor Hawking expressed optimism for the future. He added, however, that he is concerned about artificial intelligence (AI), as well as other global threats. "We need to be quicker to identify such threats and act before they get out of control," Hawking said.