In short
Phil Bell and Nicklas Berild Lundblad explore AI as a 'temporal mediator' that can bridge biological time (human, evolutionary pace) and computational time (machine speed). Rather than forcing humans to adapt to machine speeds, AI could let individuals build personalised relationships with time, an antidote to social media's exploitation. The conversation ranges across identity, memory, agency, autonomy-enhancing technology, collective intentionality, and how alien AI minds might become.
We usually ask what AI will do. This conversation asks something stranger and more interesting: how AI is changing our experience of time.
Nicklas Berild Lundblad, formerly DeepMind’s head of global policy, makes the case that the deep tension of modern life is a mismatch between biological time (our evolved, seasonal, human pace) and computational time (the machine speed our institutions increasingly run on). Social media exploited that gap. But AI, he argues, could instead mediate it: an interface that understands human time while operating at machine speed, helping us reclaim agency rather than surrender it.
From there the talk opens out into memory, identity, collective intentionality, and how genuinely alien an AI mind might become. It’s one of the most philosophical episodes, and a good answer to anyone who thinks AI can only accelerate the worst of the attention economy.
Key takeaways
- Modern institutions strain against the mismatch between biological time and computational time (e.g. high-frequency trading).
- AI can act as an interface that understands biological time while operating in computational time.
- Technology should be 'autonomy-enhancing', amplifying human will rather than manipulating it, the opposite of social media.
- Memory is narrative, not fact; selective forgetting is strategic identity construction that AI could disrupt or support.
- AI institutions freed from biological time could coordinate far faster, and AIs with alien sensoriums may develop incomprehensible worldviews.
Listen to the full episode
This is a summary. Listen to the full conversation on your platform of choice, or read the companion essay on Substack.
Frequently asked questions
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People & ideas in this piece
Topics: AI, Time & Society