What Is Intelligence?

What is intelligence and how can one enhance it? With all the wonderful technological advancements announced this week from Anthropic to Google and OpenAI, the burning questions I am left with are a/ how do ensure humans continue to become more intelligent (and what role can AI play in that from school years to adult) and, b/ how do we make our AI more intelligent? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments…

PS You might like this conversation I had with Leslie Valiant where we discuss this question too.

Welcome to The Art of The Impossible, the weekly newsletter where I unearth five pieces of content which I hope will both inspire and embolden you.

When I was in the depths of working in startups, I always wished I could find some respite and inspiration on my weekends, and this newsletter is the thing I wish existed so I do hope you enjoy it.

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PODCAST

Laura Deming — On Pausing Biological Time & Preserving the Continuous Self with Joe Walker

“You just get trained when you come here (Silicon Valley) to overfit to these very specific patterns of being that are just so…. They really destroy a lot of originality, I think, and a lot of very, very interesting stuff that is at the heart of doing new things.”

I am a big fan of founder and investor Laura Deming and, also, podcaster Joe Walker so it’s great to hear them talk together on this very interesting episode.

Laura Deming is a technologist and venture capitalist focused on anti-ageing and life extension. At 17, she founded The Longevity Fund - followed by age1 - the first VC firm dedicated to longevity biotech, after being selected in the initial cohort of Thiel fellows (2011).

Today she is also CEO and co-founder of Cradle, a startup pursuing human whole-body reversible cryopreservation.

In this wide ranging conversation, Joe and Laura discuss the philosophical question of personal identity, and what of that should we preserve to what a more humane transhumanism might look like, the game-theory of 200-year lives, scientific awe as a research tool, embodied thought-experiments to see inside the cell, how the FDA could shave years off longevity-drug timelines, the anti-memetic qualities of reversible cryopreservation, and why it might be the most leveraged problem in longevity.

Watch/listen to the episode here.

QUOTE

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.”

Albert Einstein

INTERVIEW

Shirley Jackson

As the first African American woman to graduate with a doctorate in Theoretical Elementary Particle Physic at MIT, Dr. Shirley Jackson’s inventions are the foundation for a great deal of modern technology.

She started her career in the Theoretical Physics Research Department at AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1976, examining the fundamental properties of various materials that could be used in the semiconductor industry.

She also worked in the Scattering and Low Energy Physics Research Department from 1978, and moved to the Solid State and Quantum Physics Research Department in 1988. At Bell Labs, Jackson researched the optical and electronic properties of two-dimensional and quasi-two-dimensional systems.

She helped to invent touch-tone dialing and call-waiting and her work led to the invention of fiber-optic cables, an assembly that links communication systems around the world.

Her work at Bell Labs laid the groundwork for understanding light transmission in materials, which ultimately enabled the development of these cables. This research also significantly contributed to their development and broader adoption in telecommunications.

Time Magazine described her as, “Perhaps the ultimate role model for women in science”, thanks to her further senior leadership positions in government, education, and industry. Dr. Jackson was named the chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a position she held until becoming the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest technological institute in the United States.

Learn more about her achievements here.

Watch the full interview here.

BOOK

What Is Intelligence? Lessons from AI About Evolution, Computing, and Minds by Blaise Agüera y Arcas

What intelligence really is, and how AI’s emergence is a natural consequence of evolution. In What Is Intelligence?, Blaise Agüera y Arcas (AI researcher, VP, Fellow and CTO of Technology & Society at Google,) takes up this idea—that prediction is fundamental not only to intelligence and the brain, but to life itself—and explores the wide-ranging implications. These include radical new perspectives on the computational properties of living systems, the evolutionary and social origins of intelligence, the relationship between models and reality, entropy and the nature of time, the meaning of free will, the problem of consciousness, and the ethics of machine intelligence. The book offers a unified picture of intelligence from molecules to organisms, societies, and AI, drawing from a wide array of literature in many fields, including computer science and machine learning, biology, physics, and neuroscience. It also adds recent and novel findings from the author, his research team, and colleagues. Combining technical rigor and deep up-to-the-minute knowledge about AI development, the natural sciences (especially neuroscience), and philosophical literacy, What Is Intelligence? argues—quite against the grain—that certain modern AI systems do indeed have a claim to intelligence, consciousness, and free will.

More info on the book and its concepts here. Pre-order the book here (out 16th September 2025).

Watch this recent talk from Blaise here.

WATCH

Why we should use AI to expand what it means to be human | Sari Azout

I really recommend watching this optimistic talk on AI from

Sari Azout, founder of Sublime, which I was lucky enough to try out in Beta back in 2023.

“Technology just doesn’t make old tasks easier. It creates entirely new standards.”

Watch the full talk here.

As always, thank you so much for reading this newsletter and for listening to the podcast. If you have a minute spare, I would so appreciate a review of the pod or a heart on this newsletter - both help others to find it and my goal is to inspire as many people as possible with the stories I share.

Thank you and I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Danielle

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