# Topics > Entities > Personalities >  Michio Kaku

## Airicist

Personal website - mkaku.org

facebook.com/michiokaku

twitter.com/michiokaku

linkedin.com/in/michio-kaku-ph-d-926766115

Michio Kaku on Wikipedia

Projects:

Book "The Future of the Mind", 2014

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## Airicist

THE FUTURE OF THE MIND by Michio Kaku 

 Published on Dec 17, 2013




> Dr. Kaku explains why he wrote this fascinating book about the frontiers and the future of human consciousness and how it connects to his work as a physicist.

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## Airicist

Michio Kaku: This is Your Brain on a Laser Beam 

Published on Feb 24, 2014




> Dr. Michio Kaku returns to Big Think studios to discuss his latest book, The Future of the Mind. Here he explains how we might transfer our consciousness to laser beams to explore the universe at the speed of light. 
> 
> Transcript -- Isaac Asimov was my favorite science fiction writer and his favorite science fiction story talked about an era far in the future when our bodies would be in pods and we would mentally control beings, beings of pure energy that would go flying around the universe. And, of course, it was science fiction but here's the idea. Mind without body. Pure consciousness roaming across the universe faster than any rocket ship. It turns out that that's actually a physical possibility. First of all the Obama administration and the European Union are pushing the Brain Project to delineate all the pathways of the human brain. This means that one day we might have a CD ROM called Brain 2.0. That is every single neuron encoded on a memory disc, your personality, your memories, who you are, the essence of your soul would be incorporated in this disc as pure information. Even if you die your consciousness, in some sense, may live on.
> 
> Now you as an organic being will have died. That means that your neurons will turn to dust. But the configuration of neurons that made your thinking process possible can be put on a disc in which case, in some sense you become immortal. Not only immortal but this could be the most efficient way to explore the galaxy just like Isaac Asimov predicted in his short story. Let's say I take your -- not your genome but your connectome, put it on a laser beam -- in fact in the book I actually calculate how big a laser beam will be required to put your consciousness as pure photons -- shine it into the heavens. You're now shooting consciousness into outer space at the speed of light. Forget booster rockets. Forget asteroid collisions. Forget radiation dangers and weightlessness and lack of oxygen. Forget all that. You are riding on a laser beam at the speed of light and then at the end there's a relay station.
> 
> A relay station which takes the laser beam and then puts into a surrogate. That is all the neural networks encoded into laser beam can be manifested as a robot on the other side of the galaxy. So in other words, it's like staying at a hotel. If you're a businessman you go from hotel to hotel and relax. The same way you'd be on a laser beam going from relay station to relay station and when you go to the relay station you take the robot body of a super human. You become superman on the other end of the rainbow. So is this a physical possibility? Yes. When might we have it? Well let's be honest. It would take perhaps a hundred years or so before we have a complete understanding of the connectome that is all the neuropathways of the brain. Perhaps another century beyond that before we have relay stations on which we could then shoot our consciousness into outer space. Is it mathematically and physically possible and the answer is yes.
> 
> Directed / Produced by Jonathan Fowler and Dillon Fitton

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## Airicist

Michio Kaku: Consciousness Can be Quantified 

 Published on Mar 4, 2014




> Dr. Michio Kaku returns to Big Think studios to discuss his latest book, The Future of the Mind. Here he explains how the quantifying approach common in physics can be used to model consciousness.
> 
> 
> Transcript: In the entire universe the two greatest scientific mysteries are first of all the origin of the universe itself. And second of all the origin of intelligence. Believe it or not, sitting on our shoulders is the most complex object that Mother Nature has created in the known universe. You have to go at least 24 trillion miles to the nearest star to find a planet that may have life and may have intelligence. And yet our brain only consumes about 20-30 watts of power and yet it performs calculations better than any large supercomputer. So it's a mystery. How is the brain wired up? And if we can figure that out what can we do with it to enhance our mental capabilities.
> 
> When you look at the brain and all the parts of the brain they don't seem to make any sense at all. The visual part of the brain is way in the back, for example. Why is the brain constructed the way it is? Is this nothing but an accident of evolution? Well one way to look at it is through evolution. That is, the back of the brain is a so-called reptilian brain. The most ancient primitive part of the brain that governs balance, territoriality, mating. And so the very back of the brain is also the kind of brain that you find in reptiles. Now when I was a child I would go to the science museum and look at the snakes sometimes and they would stare back at me. And I would wonder, "What are they thinking about?" Well, I think now I know. What they're thinking about was, "Is this person lunch?"
> 
> Then we have the center part of the brain going forward and that's a so-called monkey brain, the mammalian brain. The brain of emotions. The brain of social hierarchies. And then finally the front of the brain is the human brain, especially the prefrontal cortex. This is where rational thinking is. And when you ask yourself a question where am I anyway. The answer is right behind your forehead. That's where you really are.
> 
> ...

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## Airicist

Michio Kaku on Alien Brains 

Published on Mar 10, 2014




> Dr. Michio Kaku returns to Big Think studios to discuss his latest book, The Future of the Mind. Here he discusses the minds of aliens and animals.
> 
> 
> Transcript -- I love to watch science fiction movies but I cringe -- I cringe whenever I see a depiction of the aliens. First of all the aliens speak perfect English. Not just British English. They speak perfect American English. And obviously they're a human inside some kind of monkey suit. I mean we have Hollywood special effects, right. So why can't we get better aliens. And then the aliens think just like us. They're territorial. They want to conquer. They want resources. They want -- they see humans as inferior. But you see, that's only a byproduct of our evolution. Look at other animals in the animal kingdom. Some animals are not territorial, okay. They don't have to conquer. We have other paradigms in the animal kingdom which are totally different form the way our brain is constructed. But when we look at aliens in the movies we're basically projecting our own consciousness in aliens. Our fears, our desires are projected and they are a mirror of who we are, not a mirror of who they really are.
> 
> For example, if we take a look at a bat or a dog, the dog's brain is mainly interested in smells. It's swirling in a universe of smells while a bat's brain mainly is concentrated on sonar, on detecting clicks and echoes. Same thing with the dolphin brain. Their consciousness is totally different from our consciousness because they see things differently than us because of their evolutionary history. For example when we see a cat and the cat comes up to us and tries to purr next to us, we say to ourselves, "Oh, nice cat. The cat is being affectionate." No. The cat is not being affectionate. It's simply rubbing his hormones on you and saying, "I own this human. This human is mine. I'm marking my territory. This human feeds me twice a day. I've trained him."
> 
> So a cat sees the universe totally different than we do and yet we impose our thinking on an alien. Now on the question of intelligence. If these aliens are more intelligent than us, how would they be more intelligent? In the book I say that one of the main ingredients of intelligence is to predict the future. The ability to simulate today so we see tomorrow. And that requires a high level of intelligence to be able to understand the laws of nature, the laws of people. What is the most likely outcome of a future event. That requires intelligence. If they are more intelligent than us they will see the future much better than us. They will see outcomes that we cannot foresee. They will simulate scenarios that we cannot even dream of. They can outwit us every time.
> 
> ...

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## Airicist

Michio Kaku on the Evolution of Intelligence

 Published on Mar 25, 2014




> Dr. Michio Kaku returns to Big Think studios to discuss his latest book, The Future of the Mind. Here he explains the evolution of human intelligence.
> 
> Transcipt - Some people think that intelligence is the crowning achievement of evolution. Well if that's true there should be more intelligent creatures on the planet Earth. But to the best of our knowledge we're the only ones. The dinosaurs were on the Earth for roughly 200 million years and to the best of our knowledge not a single dinosaur became intelligent. We humans, modern humans, had been on the Earth for roughly a hundred thousand years. Only a tiny fraction of the 4.5 billion years that the Earth has been around. So you come to the rather astounding conclusion that intelligence is not really necessary. That Mother Nature has done perfectly well with non-intelligent creatures for millions of years and that we as intelligent creatures are the new kid on the block.
> 
> And so then you begin to wonder how did we become intelligent? What separated us from the animals? Well there are basically three ingredients -- at least three that help to propel us to become intelligent. One is the opposable thumb. You need a tentacle, a claw, an opposable thumb in order to manipulate the environment. So that's one of the ingredients of intelligence -- to be able to change the world around you.
> 
> Second is eyesight. But the eyesight of a predator. We have eyes to the front of our face, not to the side of our face and why? Animals with eyes to the front of their face are predators -- lions, tigers and foxes. Animals with eyes to the side of their face are prey and they are not as intelligent -- like a rabbit. We say dumb bunny and smart as a fox. And there's a reason for that. Because the fox is a predator. It has to learn how to ambush. It has to learn how to have stealth, camouflage. It has to psych out the enemy and anticipate the motion of the enemy that is its prey. If you're a dumb bunny all you have to do is run. And the third basic ingredient is language because you have to be able to communicate your knowledge to the next generation.
> 
> And to the best of our knowledge animals do not communicate knowledge to their offspring other than by simply communicating certain primitive motions. There's no book. There's no language. There's no culture by which animals can communicate their knowledge to the next generation. And so we think that's how the brain evolved. We have an opposable thumb, we have a language of maybe five to ten thousand words. And we have eyesight that is stereo eyesight -- the eyesight of a predator. And predators seem to be smarter than prey. Then you ask another question. How many animals on the Earth satisfy these three basic ingredients. And then you come to the astounding conclusion -- the answer is almost none. So perhaps there's a reason why we became intelligent and the other animals did not. They did not have the basic ingredients that would one day propel us to become intelligent.
> ...

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## Airicist

Michio Kaku: Are Robonauts Better Than Astronauts?

Published on Apr 15, 2014




> Transcript -- When you saw the movie Surrogates you said, "Well, that's science fiction" when Bruce Willis has a mechanical robot who is perfect. Absolutely perfect. Handsome with superpowers and you put your consciousness into the robot. So you go into a pod. Your body ages. Your body is strapped to a pod but you mentally control an avatar, a surrogate who has superpowers, perfectly formed and has all your abilities. This sounds like science fiction, right? Or the movie Avatar where again you're put inside a pod and you control an alien being on another planet breathing poisonous air. Is that possible? The answer is definitely yes. In Japan scientists at Honda Corporation have made a robot called ASIMO. It's one of the most advanced robots ever made.
> 
> ASIMO, the size of a young boy, can run, walk, climb up stairs and even dance. In fact he dances better than me. I've been on science specials with him and he out dances me every time. Honda Corporation has now taken a worker, put on an EEG helmet and have him control the robot. So it's now possible that you can have a surrogate. This could be the future of the space program. Why is outer space not opened up for tourists? Because of a dirty four letter word that begins with C -- cost. It costs ten thousand dollars to put a pound of anything in near Earth orbit. That is your weight in gold. Think of your body made out of solid gold. That's what it costs to put you in near Earth orbit. To put you on the moon costs about a hundred thousand dollars a pound. And to put you on Mars is about a million dollars a pound. So you're talking about your weight in diamonds to go to the planet Mars.
> 
> Why not put a surrogate? Because it's life support. Life support that makes things so expensive in outer space. You see, robots don't have to breathe. They don't have to eat. They don't bellyache. And most important, they don't have to come back. So why not put surrogates on Mars, surrogates on the Moon and you the astronaut can just take a breather and go into your living room and mentally communicate with a robot on the Moon. This would be by far the cheapest way to have a permanent Moon base and that would be, to you the astronaut, communicating with a surrogate by radio.
> 
> Directed/Produced by Jonathan Fowler and Dillon Fitton

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## Airicist

Michio Kaku on Reading Minds, Recording Dreams, and Brain Imaging 

Published on Apr 29, 2014

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## Airicist

Michio Kaku on Singularity 1 on 1: Science is the Engine of Prosperity! 

 Published on Jun 6, 2014




> Dr. Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist, bestselling author, acclaimed public speaker, renowned futurist, and popularizer of science. As co-founder of String Field Theory, Dr. Kaku carries on Einstein's quest to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into a single grand unified theory of everything. You will not be surprised to hear that Michio Kaku has been on my guest dream-list since I started Singularity 1 on 1, and I was beyond ecstatic to finally have an opportunity to speak to him.
> 
> During our 90 min conversation with Dr. Michio Kaku we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he shifted his focus from the universe to the human mind; his definition, classification and ranking of consciousness; his take on the Penrose-Hameroff Orch OR model; Newton, Einstein, determinism and free will; whether the brain is a classical computer or not; Norman Doidge's work on neuro-plasticity and The Brain That Changes Itself; the underlying reality of everything; his dream to finish what Einstein has started and know the mind of God; The Future of the Mind; mind-uploading and space travel at the speed of light; Moore's Law and D-Wave's quantum computer; the Human Brain Project and whole brain simulation; alternatives paths to AI and the Turing Test as a way of judging progress; cryonics and what is possible and impossible...
> 
> "Michio Kaku on Singularity 1 on 1: Science is the Engine of Prosperity!"
> 
> by Socrates
> June 6, 2014

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## Airicist

Michio Kaku: Future of humans, aliens, space travel & physics | Artificial Intelligence (AI) Podcast

Oct 22, 2019




> Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist, futurist, and professor at the City College of New York. He is the author of many fascinating books on the nature of our reality and the future of our civilization. This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast.

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