Former street police officer, then futurist-in-residence with the FBI and senior adviser to Interpol; founded the Future Crimes Institute, chairs policy, law and ethics at Singularity University.
Future Crimes Institute
Singularity University
4 books they recommend · 17 appearances
Why machines smarter than humans pose a control problem to solve before they arrive.
Also recommended by: Patrick Collison, Brad Feld, Brett Adcock and 5 others
Kurzweil's optimistic counterpoint to the safety literature. His law of accelerating returns and the vision of intelligence explosion as fundamentally benign is the premise that alignment researchers are most directly arguing against. Reading it gives the other side of the debate its strongest formulation.
Also recommended by: Brian Armstrong, Patrick Collison and 5 others
A New York detective's case draws in the Mossad, Muslim extremists and the US Army.
Tim Ferriss's book belongs on a personal-finance list not for its investment advice but for its income argument: the fastest way to reach financial independence may be redesigning how and where you work rather than cutting spending to the bone. The 'new rich' framework is deliberately provocative, and the specific tactics age poorly, but the income-side case remains underweighted in most FIRE writing.
Also recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Ev Williams and 19 others