Sam Harris speaks with Nick Bostrom about the problem of existential risk. They discuss public goods, "the vulnerable world hypothesis," the history of nuclear deterrence, "turnkey totalitarianism," the Doomsday Argument, and other topics.
By now we take for granted overriding the evolutionary programming of our bodies (e.g. reproduction), cognitive biases are indicating where we need to do that for our brains.
This is concerning. "The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson is usually taken to be referring to a bright future the rich are already enjoying, but it could be that the poor are already experiencing what is to be our distopian future...
Eric Schles describes his experiences working on social justice initiatives and the types of work that proved to be the most helpful to the groups that he was working with.
The story goes that Amsterdam in the 1630s was gripped by a mania for Tulip flowers. But then there was a crash in the market. People ended up bankrupt and threw themselves into canals. This story is still being trotted out when people talk about financial markets lately as a comparison to buying and selling bitcoin. But how much of what we know of the Tulip craze is fact, and how much is myth? We speak to Anne Goldgar at Kings College London who explains all.
Great conversation with Rodney Brooks (iRobot & Rethink Robotics) on the history & future of AI and robots, with some sobering arguments against the idea of a coming AI apocalypse.