full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Nick Bostrom: A philosophical quest for our biggest problems

Unscramble the Blue Letters


but the distinction between what is a technology — a gadget would be the archetype — and other ways of changing and rewriting human nature is quite subtle. So if you think about what it means to learn arithmetic or to learn to read, you're actually, literally rewriting your own brain. You're changing the microstructure of your barin as you go along. So in a baord sense, we don't need to think about tleognhcoy as only little gadgets, like these things here, but even institutions and techniques, psychological methods and so forth. Forms of organization can have a profound impact on hamun nature.

Open Cloze


but the distinction between what is a technology — a gadget would be the archetype — and other ways of changing and rewriting human nature is quite subtle. So if you think about what it means to learn arithmetic or to learn to read, you're actually, literally rewriting your own brain. You're changing the microstructure of your _____ as you go along. So in a _____ sense, we don't need to think about __________ as only little gadgets, like these things here, but even institutions and techniques, psychological methods and so forth. Forms of organization can have a profound impact on _____ nature.

Solution


  1. technology
  2. broad
  3. brain
  4. human

Original Text


but the distinction between what is a technology — a gadget would be the archetype — and other ways of changing and rewriting human nature is quite subtle. So if you think about what it means to learn arithmetic or to learn to read, you're actually, literally rewriting your own brain. You're changing the microstructure of your brain as you go along. So in a broad sense, we don't need to think about technology as only little gadgets, like these things here, but even institutions and techniques, psychological methods and so forth. Forms of organization can have a profound impact on human nature.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
big problem 5
existential risk 4
human nature 4
larger space 4
annual death 3
death rate 2
million volumes 2
percent probability 2
percentage point 2
account future 2
future generations 2
good life 2
greater subjective 2
modification technologies 2
neural machinery 2
worthwhile modes 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
account future generations 2

Important Words


  1. archetype
  2. arithmetic
  3. brain
  4. broad
  5. changing
  6. distinction
  7. forms
  8. gadget
  9. gadgets
  10. human
  11. impact
  12. institutions
  13. learn
  14. literally
  15. means
  16. methods
  17. microstructure
  18. nature
  19. organization
  20. profound
  21. psychological
  22. read
  23. rewriting
  24. sense
  25. subtle
  26. techniques
  27. technology
  28. ways