Currents 048: Welf von Hören on Potential



Jim has a wide-ranging talk with Welf von Hören, co-founder of the recently beta-launched Potential app…

Jim has a wide-ranging talk with Welf von Hören, co-founder of the recently beta-launched Potential app. (Listeners who download the app can use the invitation code “jimruttshow”.) They discuss Potential’s goal of upgrading the human capacity for omni-considerate choices, the co-evolutionary relationship between increasing individual capacity & improving institutions, the risk of creating “more efficient destroyers of the universe,” GameB’s three-part model of sovereignty, online as the primary conditioning environment, asymmetry between the human mind & AI-driven platforms, bridging the intention-action gap, the decision to be a public-benefit for-profit corporation, aligning the value proposition with the user’s best interests, how the app actually works, a more monastic digital environment, enabling communities of practice, facing the moral challenges of data collection, and much more.

Welf von Hören is an applied philosopher, designer and entrepreneur. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Potential, a public benefit corporation dedicated to making technology that’s aligned with our best interest. He’s an expert for the intersection between Humane and Persuasive Technology.