The Valmy

Podcast: Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS Episode: Bentham on PleasureRelease date: 2021-02-09Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationJeremy Bentham’s Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation is a definitive early statement of the basis of utilitarianism: how do we achieve the greatest happiness of the greatest number? David looks at Bentham’s rationale for this approach and the many criticisms it has faced. Bentham has often been accused of reducing politics to mechanical calculation and missing what really matters. But given the time in which he was writing, wasn’t the prioritisation of pleasure the most radical idea of all?Free online version of textRecommended version to purchaseGoing deeper…Philip Lucas and Anne Sheeran, ‘Asperger’s Syndrome and the Eccentricity and Genius of Jeremy Bentham’ (2006)Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1975) Thomas McMullan, ‘What does the panopticon mean in the age of digital surveillance?’, The Guardian (2015)(Audio) In Our Time, Utilitarianism See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Podcast: Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS Episode: Butler on MachinesRelease date: 2021-02-23Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationSamuel Butler’s Erewhon (1872) is a strange and unsettling book about a world turned upside down. Usually classified as utopian or dystopian fiction, it also contains an eerie prophecy about the coming of intelligent machines. David explores the origins of Butler’s ideas and asks what they have to teach us about the oddity of how we choose to organise our societies, both then and now.Free version of the textRecommended version to buyGoing Deeper:Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (1903)Virginia Woolf, 'Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown' (1924)George Dyson, Darwin Among the Machines (1997)(Video) James Paradis, 'Naturalism and Utopia: Samuel Butler's Erewhon' See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Podcast: Hear This Idea Episode: #16 – SJ Beard on Parfit, Climate Change, and Existential RiskRelease date: 2020-09-30Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationDr S. J. Beard is a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker. With a background in philosophy, he works on ethical problems relating to the long-term future of humanity, as well as evaluating extreme technological risks. In this episode we discuss: [2:00] Existential risks defined in brief; [4:45] SJ's background; [12:30] What made philosopher Derek Parfit so influential; [17:30] What is the repugnant conclusion? [22:12] What is the non-identity problem? [28:40] Meeting Parfit; [34:20] Why SJ chose a career in existial risk research; [36:43] What existential risk research looks like; [45:58] How can we estimate the probability of catastrophes with no strict precedents? [56:52] Under what circumstances could climate change cause a collapse of global civilization? [1:07:52] Why SJ ran as an MP for the Liberal Democrats; [1:17:25] Is academia broken? How can we fix it? [1:23:23] Why SJ changed his mind about whether COVID is a potential global catastrophe You can read much more on this episode's accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/Simon. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, please get in touch through our website. Please also consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to this. If you want to support the show more directly and help us keep hosting these episodes online, consider leaving a tip at https://www.tips.pinecast.com/jar/hear-this-idea. Thanks for listening!

Podcast: In Our Time Episode: UtilitarianismRelease date: 2015-06-11Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationA moral theory that emphasises ends over means, Utilitarianism holds that a good act is one that increases pleasure in the world and decreases pain. The tradition flourished in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and has antecedents in ancient philosophy. According to Bentham, happiness is the means for assessing the utility of an act, declaring "it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong." Mill and others went on to refine and challenge Bentham's views and to defend them from critics such as Thomas Carlyle, who termed Utilitarianism a "doctrine worthy only of swine."WithMelissa Lane The Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton UniversityJanet Radcliffe Richards Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of OxfordandBrad Hooker A Professor of Philosophy at the University of ReadingProducer: Simon Tillotson.

Podcast: The a16z Show Episode: GPT-3: What's Hype, What's Real on the Latest in AIRelease date: 2020-07-30Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this episode -- cross posted from our 16 Minutes show feed -- we cover all the buzz around GPT-3, the pre-trained machine learning model from OpenAI that’s optimized to do a variety of natural-language processing tasks. It’s a commercial product, built on research; so what does this mean for both startups AND incumbents… and the future of “AI as a service”? And given that we’re seeing all kinds of (cherrypicked!) examples of output from OpenAI’s beta API being shared — how do we know how good it really is or isn’t? How do we know the difference between “looks like” a toy and “is” a toy when it comes to new innovations? And where are we, really, in terms of natural language processing and progress towards artificial general intelligence? Is it intelligent, does that matter, and how do we know (if not with a Turing Test? Finally, what are the broader questions, considerations, and implications for jobs and more? Frank Chen explains what “it” actually is and isn’t and more in conversation with host Sonal Chokshi. The two help tease apart what’s hype/ what’s real here… as is the theme of 16 Minutes. Stay Updated:Find a16z on YouTube: YouTubeFind a16z on XFind a16z on LinkedInListen to the a16z Show on SpotifyListen to the a16z Show on Apple PodcastsFollow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Podcast: TALKING POLITICS Episode: Helen's History of IdeasRelease date: 2020-07-09Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationDavid talks with Helen to get her take on the history of ideas - both what's there and what's missing. Why start with Hobbes? What can we learn from the Federalist Papers? Where's Nietzsche? Plus we talk about whether understanding where political ideas come from isliberating or limiting and we ask how many of them were just rationalisations for power.Talking Points: Should we start the story of modern politics with Hobbes?Hobbes poses a stark question: what is the worst thing that can happen in politics? Civil war or tyranny?Is Hobbes’ answer utopian?What are the consequences of the breakdown of political authority—and how do they compare to the consequences of empowering the state to do terrible things? Who has the authority to decide is a fundamental question in politics.But there are lots of ways of thinking about politics that avoid this question.If you accept the notion that political authority is essential, what form should that authority take and how can it be made as bearable as possible for as many people as possible?Constant says that the worst thing that can happen isn’t civil war; it’s the tyranny of the state.To him, the French Revolution showed that when people who hold the coercive power of the state also hold certain beliefs, the damage can be much worse.Constant wants to say that the beliefs people have in the modern world are a constraint on political possibilities.What does the pluralism of beliefs mean for politics? Constant is also more direct about the importance of debt and money. From the French revolution onwards, nationalism became the dominant idea by which the authority of states was justified to those over whom it exercised power.Sieyès equated the state with its people.The idea of federalism as enshrined in the US constitution is also important: Hobbes did not think sovereignty could be divided.How do you reconcile constitutional ideals with the horrors they justified?Nietzsche forces a reckoning with the religion question.This blows up the distinction between pre-modern and modern.He presents a genealogy not just of morality, but civilization, ideas of justice, religion.For Nietzsche, Christianity is the manifestation of the will to power of the powerless.Nietzsche tells us how we became the way we are—it didn’t have to go that way.In exposing contingency, he forces us to engage with political questions we don’t really want to think about.What do ideas explain about human motivation in politics, and to what extent are they rationalizations of other motives?Helen thinks that the history of ideas can make political action seem too straightforward. How should we think about the relationship between ideas and material constraints (or opportunities)?Studying history more generally leads to at least some degree of cynicism about the relationship between ideas and power.Mentioned in this Episode: Talking Politics: the History of IdeasThe Federalist PapersThe Genealogy of MoralityOur episode on Weber’s ‘Politics as a Vocation’Further Learning: 

Podcast: New Books in Philosophy Episode: Elijah Millgram, "John Stuart Mill and the Meaning of Life" (Oxford UP, 2019)Release date: 2019-11-01Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationAccording to an intuitive view, lives are meaningful when they manifest a directedness or instantiate a project such that the disparate events and endeavors “add up to” a life. John Stuart Mill’s life certainly was devoted to a project in that sense. Yet Mill’s life was in many respects unsatisfying – riven with anxiety and trauma. What does Mill’s life teach us about meaningful lives?In John Stuart Mill and the Meaning of Life (Oxford University Press 2019), Elijah Millgram weaves intellectual biography together with philosophical analysis in the service of a distinctive style of moral philosophizing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/philosophy

Podcast: Philosophy Bites Episode: Aaron Ridley on Nietzsche on Art and TruthRelease date: 2008-08-16Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationFriedrich Nietzsche's ideas about art and truth run through much of his philosophical writing, but are most apparent in his first book, The Birth of Tragedy. In this episode of Philosophy Bites Nigel Warburton interviews Aaron Ridley about this topic.

Podcast: Philosophy Bites Episode: Christopher Janaway on Nietzsche on MoralityRelease date: 2008-09-28Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationFriedrich Nietzsche's The Genealogy of Morality provides a radical view of the origins of our values. Nigel Warburton interviews Christopher Janaway about this important book in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

Podcast: Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford Episode: The Spreadsheet of Life and DeathRelease date: 2020-06-26Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationClive had a deadly form of cancer, but fortunately there was a new drug to treat it. Imagine his anger when he was told the treatment was too expensive. He’d entered a world where unique human lives are given a value in a mathematical formula. So how much should we spend to extend or save a life? And are some lives worth more than others?Read more about Tim's work at https://timharford.com/Tim's latest books 'Fifty Inventions That Shaped The Modern Economy' and 'The Next Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy' are available now. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Podcast: Philosophize This! Episode: Episode #142 ... Richard RortyRelease date: 2020-04-15Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationToday we begin our discussion of the work of Richard Rorty. Thank you so much for listening! Could never do this without your help. Website: https://www.philosophizethis.org/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philosophizethis Social:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philosophizethispodcastX: https://twitter.com/iamstephenwestFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/philosophizethisshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Podcast: TALKING POLITICS Episode: Democracy For Young PeopleRelease date: 2018-12-06Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationAs a follow-up to last year's How Democracy Ends lecture, David talks about how divisions between young and old are threatening representative democracy. He traces the story from Ancient Greece to Brexit and beyond, and asks how the age divide connects to the education divide in contemporary politics. Plus he offers some radical suggestions for what we might do about it.

Podcast: The Portal Episode: 23: Agnes Callard - Courage, Meta-cognitive detachment and their limitsRelease date: 2020-02-24Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationPhilosopher and University of Chicago Professor Agnes Callard sits down with Eric on this episode of the portal. Agnes is a champion of the philosophical tradition of attempting to detach the capacity for inquiry and reason from the fog of feelings and societal taboos that often keep us from delving deeper into the questions that animate our lives. Agnes began this unusual back and forth by writing an article about status negotiation in first meetings shortly after the pair first met. Eric and Agnes then use the opportunity of this episode to continue this line of thought by exploring the limits of courage and meta-cognition within the examined life of a modern Philosopher. This results in a real-time exploration by two people who mutually respect each other as to whether they can actually negotiate a detached discussion in real time on the very issues of status, feeling, and taboo that may divide them and/or arise between them. As Agnes has written thoughtfully about the many layers of anger, the conversation culminates by exploring dyadic feelings of hurt and indignation with which we all struggle and suffer in our relationships. Ultimately the two finish this experimental conversation with good cheer, together with a wish to continue the discussion at a later date under continuing mutual fondness and admiration.Our SponsorsPost your job today at Indeed.com/PORTALFor 20% off your first order, visit mackweldon.com AND ENTER PROMO CODE: portalReceive 15% off your Four Sigmatic purchase go to foursigmatic.com/PORTAL See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Podcast: EconTalk Episode: Agnes Callard on Philosophy, Progress, and WisdomRelease date: 2020-06-22Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationPhilosopher and author Agnes Callard talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the state of philosophy, the power of philosophy, and the search for wisdom and truth. This is a wide-ranging conversation related to the question of how we learn, how to behave ethically, and the role of religion and philosophy in encouraging good behavior.

Release date: 2020-06-19Notes from The Valmy:Source: YouTube (The Torch of Progress) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rxS6kj5Zt0Release date: 2020-06-17Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization

Podcast: Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy Episode: John Collison – Growing the Internet Economy - [Invest Like the Best, EP.178]Release date: 2020-06-16Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationMy guest today is John Collison, the Co-Founder of the digital payments company Stripe. Stripe’s mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, a lofty and deeply interesting pursuit. John is clearly a voracious learner across business and investing, which you’ll hear instantly. He started Stripe with his brother Patrick when he was just 19 years old, and has grown it to, at last valuation, a $36B business. In our conversation, we discuss conglomerates, the internet economy, the power of writing, and why board members are like Pokémon characters, each with different powers. It’s a lively and wide-ranging conversation with one of the entrepreneurs I’ve most enjoyed speaking with. Please enjoy. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag Show Notes (1:30) – (First question) – Interest in industrial conglomerates (9:10) – Their thinking on acquisitions vs starting new companies (11:42) – How the payment landscape looked when Stripe was started (15:55) – View on the internet economy (20:09) – Exciting possibilities for the future of the internet economy (22:11) – The forces of size vs speed among startups (26:53) – Driving reasons why employees choose Stripe starting with clear communication (28:55) – Tips for better internal communications (30:09) – The importance of rigor in Stripe’s corporate culture (32:15) – Investors and investing styles that are most intriguing to him (36:02) – Teaching vs experiencing business lessons (37:56) – Lessons from going to market with new ideas (50:58) – Allowing teams to explore new ideas at Stripe (44:11) – Best startup companies to study to understand the history of this space (44:52) – Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle (48:18) – Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business (48:43) – Infrastructures of internet businesses that are missing (52:03) – Does general accounting practices need to change to capture the true value of a company like Stripe (1:01:53) – Shared playbooks in Silicon Valley (1:02:02) – The transition to the no code movement (1:08:22) – Other businesses that pique his interest outside of software (1:10:21) – Future trends that excite him (1:11:10) – First memory when he felt like he was participating in the tech economy (1:12:46 – The role of board members (1:15:48) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him (1:18:49) – Advice for young people Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Podcast: Rationally Speaking Podcast Episode: Rationally Speaking #141 - Dan Sperber on "The Argumentative Theory of reason"Release date: 2015-08-23Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationThe traditional story about reason is that it evolved to help humans see the world more clearly and (thereby) make better decisions. But on that view, some mysteries remain: why is the human brain so biased? Why are we so much better at defending our pre-existing views than at evaluating new ideas objectively? In this episode of Rationally Speaking, Julia talks with guest Dan Sperber, professor of cognitive and social sciences, who is famous for advancing an alternate view of reason: that it evolved to help us argue with our fellow humans and convince them that we're right. Dan Sperber is a social and cognitive scientist. His most influential work has been in the fields of cognitive anthropology and linguistic pragmatics. Sperber currently holds the positions of Directeur de Recherche émérite at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Director of the International Cognition and Culture Institute.

Podcast: EconTalk Episode: Rory Sutherland on AlchemyRelease date: 2019-11-11Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationAuthor and Advertising Executive Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy talks about his book Alchemy with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Sutherland makes the case for the magic (yes, magic!) of advertising and branding in helping markets work well. This is a wide-ranging conversation on consumer choice, public policy, travel, real estate, and corporate decision-making using insights from behavioral economics and decades of experience in the world of advertising.

Release date: 2020-06-14Notes from The Valmy:Source: YouTube (Stanford Ethics in Society) https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/essays/economic-growth-moral-imperativeRelease date: 2019-11-05Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization

Podcast: FT Alphachat Episode: Tyler Cowen's stubborn attachmentsRelease date: 2017-04-28Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationEconomist and polymathic author Tyler Cowen talks to Cardiff about his essay, "Stubborn Attachments", in which he shares his vision for a free and prosperous society - and the philosophical foundations necessary to build it. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

Release date: 2020-06-14Notes from The Valmy:Source: YouTube (University of California, Berkeley) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szgMiqbR57sRelease date: 2002-10-15Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization

Podcast: Philosophy Bites Episode: Adrian Moore on Bernard Williams on EthicsRelease date: 2013-11-23Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationBernard Williams was one of the most brilliant philosophers of his generation. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Adrian Moore discusses his ideas about Ethics.

Podcast: Elucidations Episode: Episode 118: Tyler Cowen discusses Stubborn AttachmentsRelease date: 2019-09-12Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this episode, Tyler Cowen lays out an interesting normative ethical theory according to which we should be utilitarians, but with a twist: we should be utilitarians who care just as much about the humans of the future as we care about people now. Re-emphasizing our commitment to future people, he argues, has the effect of allowing us to embrace utilitarianism wholeheartedly without having to feel like we aren't doing enough. Why? The best way to make life better for future generations is to help bring about economic growth, and we have good reason to think that a lot of what we're already doing is pretty good for economic growth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Podcast: Conversations with Tyler Episode: Rob Wiblin interviews Tyler on *Stubborn Attachments*Release date: 2018-10-16Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this special episode, Rob Wiblin of 80,000 Hours has the super-sized conversation he wants to have with Tyler about Stubborn Attachments. In addition to a deep examination of the ideas in the book, the conversation ranges far and wide across Tyler's thinking, including why we won't leave the galaxy, the unresolvable clash between the claims of culture and nature, and what Tyrone would have to say about the book, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded September 21st, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow 80,000 Hours on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Podcast: Philosophy Bites Episode: Cheryl Misak on Frank Ramsey and Ludwig WittgensteinRelease date: 2020-05-30Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationCheryl Misak has recently published a biography of F.P. Ramsey, the great Cambridge thinker who died at the age of only 26, but who nevertheless made a significant impact in several different fields including philosophy, mathematics, and economics. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast she discusses Ramsey's interactions with Wittgenstein. The two thinkers had very different personal styles and their philosophies reflect this.

Podcast: Philosophy Bites Episode: Dan Sperber on the Enigma of Reasonhthttps://www.dan.sperber.fr/Release date: 2011-09-25Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationOur reasoning capacity sets us apart from other animals. But reason is frequently prone to error. Why then did we evolve with a capacity for reason at all? This is a question that has vexed Dan Sperber - with Hugo Mercier he has been researching the topic. Dan Sperber discusses their research and conclusions with Nigel Warburton for this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Philosophy Bites is made in assocation with the Institute of Philosophy.

Podcast: The Audio Long Read Episode: Why we need worst-case thinking to prevent pandemicsRelease date: 2020-03-23Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationThreats to humanity, and how we address them, define our time. Why are we still so complacent about facing up to existential risk? By Toby Ord. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>

Podcast: Rationally Speaking Podcast Episode: Rationally Speaking #232 - Tyler Cowen on "Defending big business against its critics"Release date: 2019-04-30Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationEconomist Tyler Cowen discusses his latest book, "Big Business: A love-letter to an American anti-hero." Why has anti-capitalist sentiment increased recently, and to what extent is it justified? How much are corporations to blame for wage stagnation, climbing cost of living, or the slow response to climate change? Tyler and Julia also explore their various disagreements: on how to communicate, whether people should bet on their beliefs, and whether we should increase public optimism about technology.

Podcast: EconTalk Episode: Jerry Muller on the Tyranny of MetricsRelease date: 2018-04-16Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationHistorian and author Jerry Muller of Catholic University talks about his latest book, The Tyranny of Metrics, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Muller argues that public policy and management are overly focused on measurable outcomes as a measure of success. This leads to organizations and agencies over-focusing on metrics rather than their broader mission. The conversation includes applications to education, crime, and health care.

Podcast: EconTalk Episode: Joshua Greene on Moral Tribes, Moral Dilemmas, and UtilitarianismRelease date: 2015-01-05Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationJoshua Greene, of Harvard University and author of Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about morality and the challenges we face when our morality conflicts with that of others. Topics discussed include the difference between what Greene calls automatic thinking and manual thinking, the moral dilemma known as "the trolley problem," and the difficulties of identifying and solving problems in a society that has a plurality of values. Greene defends utilitarianism as a way of adjudicating moral differences.

Podcast: EdgeCast Episode: Toby Ord - We Have the Power to Destroy Ourselves Without the Wisdom to Ensure That We Don'tRelease date: 2020-04-06Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationTOBY ORD is a senior research fellow in philosophy at Oxford University and author of _The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity. _The Conversation: https://www.edge.org/conversation/toby_ord-we-have-the-power-to-destroy-ourselves-without-the-wisdom-to-ensure-that-we

Podcast: Astral Codex Ten Podcast Episode: Book Review: HooverRelease date: 2020-03-21Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationhttps://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/17/book-review-hoover/ You probably remember Herbert Hoover as the guy who bungled the Great Depression. Maybe you shouldn't. Maybe you should remember him as a bold explorer looking for silver in the jungles of Burma. Or as the heroic defender of Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion. Or as a dashing pirate-philanthropist, gallivanting around the world, saving millions of lives wherever he went. Or as the temporary dictator of Europe. Or as a geologist, or a bank tycoon, or author of the premier 1900s textbook on metallurgy. How did a backwards orphan son of a blacksmith, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Midwest, grow up to be a captain of industry and a US President? How did he become such a towering figure in the history of philanthropy that biographer Kenneth Whyte claims "the number of lives Hoover saved through his various humanitarian campaigns might exceed 100 million, a record of benevolence unlike anything in human history"? To find out, I picked up Whyte's Hoover: An Extraordinary Life In Extraordinary Times. Herbert Hoover was born in 1874 to poor parents in the tiny Quaker farming community of West Branch, Iowa. His father was a blacksmith, his mother a schoolteacher. His childhood was strict. Magazines and novels were banned; acceptable reading material included the Bible and Prohibitionist pamphlets. His hobby was collecting oddly shaped sticks. His father dies when he is 6, his mother when he is 10. The orphaned Hoover and his two siblings are shuttled from relative to relative. He spends one summer on the Osage Indian Reservation in Oklahoma, living with an uncle who worked for the Department of Indian Affairs. Another year passes on a pig farm with his Uncle Allen. In 1885, he is more permanently adopted by his Uncle John, a doctor and businessman helping found a Quaker colony in Oregon. Hoover's various guardians are dutiful but distant; they never abuse or neglect him, but treat him more as an extra pair of hands around the house than as someone to be loved and cherished. Hoover reciprocates in kind, doing what is expected of him but excelling neither in school nor anywhere else.

Podcast: 80,000 Hours Podcast Episode: #78 – Danny Hernandez on forecasting and the drivers of AI progressRelease date: 2020-05-22Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationCompanies use about 300,000 times more computation training the best AI systems today than they did in 2012 and algorithmic innovations have also made them 25 times more efficient at the same tasks.These are the headline results of two recent papers — AI and Compute and AI and Efficiency — from the Foresight Team at OpenAI. In today's episode I spoke with one of the authors, Danny Hernandez, who joined OpenAI after helping develop better forecasting methods at Twitch and Open Philanthropy. Danny and I talk about how to understand his team's results and what they mean (and don't mean) for how we should think about progress in AI going forward. Links to learn more, summary and full transcript. Debates around the future of AI can sometimes be pretty abstract and theoretical. Danny hopes that providing rigorous measurements of some of the inputs to AI progress so far can help us better understand what causes that progress, as well as ground debates about the future of AI in a better shared understanding of the field. If this research sounds appealing, you might be interested in applying to join OpenAI's Foresight team — they're currently hiring research engineers. In the interview, Danny and I (Arden Koehler) also discuss a range of other topics, including: • The question of which experts to believe • Danny's journey to working at OpenAI • The usefulness of "decision boundaries" • The importance of Moore's law for people who care about the long-term future • What OpenAI's Foresight Team's findings might imply for policy • The question whether progress in the performance of AI systems is linear • The safety teams at OpenAI and who they're looking to hire • One idea for finding someone to guide your learning • The importance of hardware expertise for making a positive impactChapters:Rob’s intro (00:00:00)The interview begins (00:01:29)Forecasting (00:07:11)Improving the public conversation around AI (00:14:41)Danny’s path to OpenAI (00:24:08)Calibration training (00:27:18)AI and Compute (00:45:22)AI and Efficiency (01:09:22)Safety teams at OpenAI (01:39:03)Careers (01:49:46)AI hardware as a possible path to impact (01:55:57)Triggers for people’s major decisions (02:08:44)Producer: Keiran HarrisAudio mastering: Ben CordellTranscriptions: Zakee Ulhaq

Podcast: Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS Episode: Wollstonecraft on Sexual PoliticsRelease date: 2020-04-28Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationMary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) is one of the most remarkable books in the history of ideas. A classic of early feminism, it uses what’s wrong with the relationship between men and women to illustrate what’s gone wrong with politics. It’s a story of lust and power, education and revolution. David explores how Wollstonecraft’s radical challenge to the basic ideas of modern politics continues to resonate today.Free online version of the text: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3420Recommended version to purchase: https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/wollstonecraft-vindication-rights-men-and-vindication-rights-woman-and-hints?format=PB Going Deeper:In Our Time on Mary Wollstonecraft Wollstonecraft in the Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophySylvana Tomaselli, Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020)Virginia Woolf on Mary WollstonecraftEdmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceJane Austen, Sense and Sensibility See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Podcast: Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS Episode: Hobbes on the StateRelease date: 2020-04-27Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationThomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1651) reimagined how we could do politics. It redefined many of the ideas that continue to shape modern politics: representation, sovereignty, the state. But in Leviathan these ideas have a strange and puzzling power. David explores what Hobbes was trying to achieve and how a vision of politics that came out of the English civil war, can still illuminate the world we live in.Free online version of the text: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htmRecommended version to purchase: https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/hobbes-leviathan-revised-student-edition?format=PBGoing Deeper:David Runciman, ‘The sovereign’ in The Oxford handbook of Hobbes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)Richard Tuck, Hobbes a Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)(Video) Quentin Skinner, ‘What is the state? The question that will not go away’(Video) Sophie Smith, ‘The nature of politics’, the 2017 Quentin Skinner lecture. Noel Malcolm, Aspects of Hobbes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)David for The Guardian on Hobbes and the coronavirus See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Podcast: Conversations with Tyler Episode: Philip E. Tetlock on Forecasting and Foraging as a FoxRelease date: 2020-04-22Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationAccuracy is only one of the things we want from forecasters, says Philip Tetlock, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction. People also look to forecasters for ideological assurance, entertainment, and to minimize regret–such as that caused by not taking a global pandemic seriously enough. The best forecasters aren't just intelligent, but fox-like integrative thinkers capable of navigating values that are conflicting or in tension. He joined Tyler to discuss whether the world as a whole is becoming harder to predict, whether Goldman Sachs traders can beat forecasters, what inferences we can draw from analyzing the speech of politicians, the importance of interdisciplinary teams, the qualities he looks for in leaders, the reasons he's skeptical machine learning will outcompete his research team, the year he thinks the ascent of the West became inevitable, how research on counterfactuals can be applied to modern debates, why people with second cultures tend to make better forecasters, how to become more fox-like, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded March 26th, 2020 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Philip on Twitter Email us: [email protected] Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Podcast: The Portal Episode: 30: Ross Douthat - The Rave Before the FallRelease date: 2020-04-16Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationJust before the great indooring due to the Pandemic of 2020, Eric sat down with conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat to discuss his book "The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success." Over champagne flutes filled with bubbly, the two discussed the various ways that the success and excesses of American Capitalism were now distorting the American Dream into a dystopian fever vision, making it far harder to wake up from this stasis in time to avoid the previous fates of fallen empires. Thank You to Our Sponsors:Pitney Bowes: pb.com/portalWine Access: wineaccess.com/portalSkillshare: skillshare.com/portalMack Weldon: mackweldon.com and enter promo code PORTALSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Podcast: The Portal Episode: 27: Daniel Schmachtenberger - On Avoiding ApocalypsesRelease date: 2020-03-27Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this second episode of the Portal to be released during shelter-in-place restrictions during the Corona Virus Pandemic, we release an older discussion with Daniel Shmachtenberger on whether there is any plausible long term scenario for human flourishing confined to a single shared planet. Daniel is seen as a leader of the growing Game B subculture of the human potential movement. This group bets that there is a second evolutionary stable strategy for cohabiting not based on conflict or rivalry, even for life raised in Game A (i.e. standard evolutionary and economic environments based on scarcity and rivalrous goods. Eric asks Daniel about where the bright spots and progress might be in this movement which refuses to accept the fate that that Eric has elsewhere put forward as the Twin Nuclei Problem of having unlocked the power of both Cell and Atom in the early 1950s without the wisdom to use it. Thank You To Our Sponsors:Athletic Greens: AthleticGreens.com/PortalMack Weldon: MackWeldon.com - enter promo code PORTALFour Sigmatic: FourSigmatic.com/PortalSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Podcast: The Gray Area with Sean Illing Episode: An enlightening, frustrating conversation on liberalism (with Adam Gopnik)Release date: 2019-06-27Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization“Liberalism is as distinct a tradition as exists in political history, but it suffers from being a practice before it is an ideology, a temperament and a tone and a way of managing the world more than a fixed set of beliefs.”That’s from Adam Gopnik’s new book A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism. It is, by turns, a bracing, charming, insightful, irksome defense of the most successful political movement of our age. Liberalism is so successful, in fact, that its achievements are taken for granted while its shortcomings throb through our politics.What caught my eye about Gopnik’s book is his argument that liberalism is a temperament more than an ideology, an approach more than a prescription. As I read his argument, it felt to me that he had identified something essential and often missed in discussions of agendas and plans. But he was also developing a definition of little use in settling the core debates of our age, a liberalism that could be seen as too flexible to mean anything in particular.And so, as liberals do, we argued it out. This conversation has something to thrill and frustrate every listener. In that way, it’s like liberalism itself.Book recommendations:Life of Johnson by James BoswellThe Open Society and Its Enemiesby Karl R. PopperNo Other Book: Selected Essays by Randall Jarrell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Podcast: 13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II Episode: 13 Minutes to the Moon: 1. ‘We choose to go’, Apollo 11Release date: 2019-05-12Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationPresident John F. Kennedy boldly vows that America will land the first astronaut on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. It’s the height of the Cold War. But with superpower rival the Soviet Union leading the space race, after launching the first human spaceflight, the odds seem stacked against them. The Apollo programme, the USA’s daring answer to the race to the Moon, is an epic journey of innovation and exploration. Can Nasa change the course of space history?Hosted by Kevin Fong.Starring: Michael Collins Steve Bales Margaret Hamilton Jim Lovell Charlie DukeTheme music by Hans Zimmer for Bleeding Fingers Music#13MinutestotheMoon www.bbcworldservice.com/13minutesThis episode was updated on 14 May 2019.

Podcast: Long Now Episode: Niall Ferguson: Networks and PowerRelease date: 2018-12-13Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization“This time is different.” Historians: “Ha.” “The Net is net beneficial.” Historian Niall Ferguson: “Globalization is in crisis. Populism is on the march. Authoritarian states are ascendant. Technology meanwhile marches inexorably ahead, threatening to render most human beings redundant or immortal or both. How do we make sense of all this?” Ferguson analyzes the structure and prospects of “Cyberia” as yet another round in the endless battle between hierarchy and networks that has wrought spasms of innovation and chaos throughout history. He examines those previous rounds (including all that was set in motion by the printing press) in light of the current paradoxes of radical networking enabled by digital technology being the engine of massive hierarchical companies (Facebook, Amazon, Google, Twitter, and their equivalents in China) and exploited by populists and authoritarians around the world. He puts the fundamental question this way: “Is our age likely to repeat the experience of the period after 1500, when the printing revolution unleashed wave after wave of revolution? Will the new networks liberate us from the shackles of the administrative state as the revolutionary networks of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries freed our ancestors from the shackles of spiritual and temporal hierarchy? Or will the established hierarchies of our time succeed more quickly than their imperial predecessors in co-opting the networks, and enlist them in their ancient vice of waging war?” Niall Ferguson is currently a senior research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and visiting professor at the New College of the Humanities. [His books include ](https://www.niallferguson.com/books)_The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook_ (2018); _Civilization: The West and the Rest_ (2012); and _The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World_ (2009).

Podcast: 80,000 Hours Podcast Episode: #46 - Hilary Greaves on moral cluelessness & tackling crucial questions in academiaRelease date: 2018-10-23Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationThe barista gives you your coffee and change, and you walk away from the busy line. But you suddenly realise she gave you $1 less than she should have. Do you brush your way past the people now waiting, or just accept this as a dollar you’re never getting back? According to philosophy Professor Hilary Greaves - Director of Oxford University's Global Priorities Institute, which is hiring - this simple decision will completely change the long-term future by altering the identities of almost all future generations. How? Because by rushing back to the counter, you slightly change the timing of everything else people in line do during that day - including changing the timing of the interactions they have with everyone else. Eventually these causal links will reach someone who was going to conceive a child. By causing a child to be conceived a few fractions of a second earlier or later, you change the sperm that fertilizes their egg, resulting in a totally different person. So asking for that $1 has now made the difference between all the things that this actual child will do in their life, and all the things that the merely possible child - who didn't exist because of what you did - would have done if you decided not to worry about it. As that child's actions ripple out to everyone else who conceives down the generations, ultimately the entire human population will become different, all for the sake of your dollar. Will your choice cause a future Hitler to be born, or not to be born? Probably both! Links to learn more, summary and full transcript. Some find this concerning. The actual long term effects of your decisions are so unpredictable, it looks like you’re totally clueless about what's going to lead to the best outcomes. It might lead to decision paralysis - you won’t be able to take any action at all. Prof Greaves doesn’t share this concern for most real life decisions. If there’s no reasonable way to assign probabilities to far-future outcomes, then the possibility that you might make things better in completely unpredictable ways is more or less canceled out by equally likely opposite possibility. But, if instead we’re talking about a decision that involves highly-structured, systematic reasons for thinking there might be a general tendency of your action to make things better or worse -- for example if we increase economic growth -- Prof Greaves says that we don’t get to just ignore the unforeseeable effects. When there are complex arguments on both sides, it's unclear what probabilities you should assign to this or that claim. Yet, given its importance, whether you should take the action in question actually does depend on figuring out these numbers. So, what do we do? Today’s episode blends philosophy with an exploration of the mission and research agenda of the Global Priorities Institute: to develop the effective altruism movement within academia. We cover: * How controversial is the multiverse interpretation of quantum physics? * Given moral uncertainty, how should population ethics affect our real life decisions? * How should we think about archetypal decision theory problems? * What are the consequences of cluelessness for those who based their donation advice on GiveWell style recommendations? * How could reducing extinction risk be a good cause for risk-averse people? Get this episode by subscribing: type '80,000 Hours' into your podcasting app. The 80,000 Hours Podcast is produced by Keiran Harris.