What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?
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Ezra Klein had a decent enough monologue podcast this morning about the implications of AI. Some things he mentioned:
Google's CEO, a few years ago, described AI as a more significant technological advancement than fire or the printing press.
When pressed to define their motivations, people creating these AIs often say that they believe this form if intelligence deserves to live. In other words, they argue from the perspective of the AI. (Personally I don't think people need clear eyed, fundamental motivations to attempt to create things like this. It's probably better to say that they understand the potential risks, but they'd rather attempt to do it anyway, because they think it's fun and interesting.)
AIs can reach escape velocity when they begin to write themselves, and advancements could happen very, very quickly.
Societies are completely unprepared.
Nothing new in what he said, but it was a decent enough 15 minute synthesis.
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Coleman Hughes talked to Neil DeGrasse Tyson recently.
Link to videoI don't suggest listening to it, as Neil is an overbearing douche and not particularly thoughtful about anything other than his scientific discipline.
The most interesting thing to me was when Neil attempted to substantiate his experiences with racism over his life as a black academic. Keep in mind Neil is a pop cultural darling, and is invested in maintaining those narratives. He relates two stories where he was assumed to be stupid by a rando.
Once at a restaurant where he and a companion, who ordered identical things, got a bill with an odd number of cents. He decided this was impossible, and went to the register to ask them to provide separate bills, which he guessed would come out to one cent less in total. A customer behind him muttered that he must not understand the distributive property of math. (This was a college town where there are probably random math geeks at random diners.)
His other story was at a funeral where he was discussing popcorn and terminal velocity if it was dropped out of a plane. Someone overhears and presumes to correct him, but actually Neil was right all along.
So a few observations about these stories:
- None of those stories sniff of something that only a black person might experience.
- If a white male presented those stories as formative and important life experiences, they would be laughed at, and rightly so. It is infantile to consider those experiences as important. Only through the lens of the race narrative could they be taken remotely seriously.
- Neil has no compelling stories of racism, accumulated over his 64 years.
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Listening to a lot of Lex Fridman podcasts recently. He's a young AI researcher who is like a more intelligent and science-oriented version of Joe Rogan. Same open mindedness and gift for interesting questions. Longest conversations in the podcast game, with the longest I've seen over eight hours. Most are over three. First time I've ever heard Robin Hanson interviewed, so that was a treat. He's talked to almost everybody in the public intellectual game, many several times. Just got done with his conversation with Jordan Peterson, 3.5 hours long. Jordan made himself cry twice. Good stuff.
Education is extremely important.
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How the hell do you two have the time to listen to all of this crap? There’s only so much time in the day…
Sleep 6
Work 10
Family time - 2-3
Wife time - 2-3
Chores - 1-2
TNCR - 1Where do have any time for this?
Me/rry/Christmas
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@LuFins-Dad said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:
How the hell do you two have the time to listen to all of this crap? There’s only so much time in the day…
Sleep 6
Work 10
Family time - 2-3
Wife time - 2-3
Chores - 1-2
TNCR - 1Where do have any time for this?
Lots of tasks can be multitasked with audio only stuff.
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It’s always something.
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Here's Mr Peterson and Andrew Huberman discussing human and mammal brain stuff.
Link to videoI think it's easy to lose sight of how lucky we all are to be privy to such conversations. When I was a kid, I thought there were ivory tower intellectuals who were so much smarter than me. But here they are, presenting themselves, intentionally, talking about the leading edge of their thoughts, and lo and behold they are people just like you.
Not just like you, if you're a progressive. So sad, too bad. But there are literally no public intellectual conversations on the 'progressive' side of the cultural conversation. You can have your Jon Stewarts. He's as close as you'll get.
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@Horace said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:
Here's Mr Peterson and Andrew Huberman discussing human and mammal brain stuff.
Here's your bit of medical trivia. This podcast, at least in the early parts, talks about anxiety and the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve (cranial nerve #10) is the farthest reaching nerve from the brainstem (the medulla). In fact, the etymology of the name, "vagus", has as its root, the same basis as "vagrant," or wanderer. Unique among the nerves exiting the brainstem, the vagus goes all the way down to the GI tract.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Education is extremely important.
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Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
@Jolly said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:
Just as a dumb question...How much impact on the general public do podcasts have?
I have been exposing myself to the ideas of the world's most intelligent, thoughtful, and well-studied people, since the advent of the podcasts. At least my personal feed, is entirely devoted to that. It's just reality, and astonishing, and rather disheartening, that this is how humans can sound. They're actually almost all Jewish. It is what it is.
But I am not your average person. Most podcasts are garbage.
But the internet, which is the abstract of my podcast feed, allows for this.
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@Jolly said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:
Just as a dumb question...How much impact on the general public do podcasts have?
I think pretty small effect. I use for an example the forum thread about the Fox News hosts. Tucker Carlson replaced person B who replaced person A, who I think were very very popular when they were on Fox News. Both person A and B have podcasts? They may be quite popular, but do not have the same overall recognition or impact as they did before when they were on TV.
A lot of the people you mention here, I have never hear of before.
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This is an amazing conversation. I'd never heard of this guy, Balaji Srinivisan. He's a general partner at Mark Andreesen's venture capital business. Actually they remind me of each other, listening to them. He's got fascinating things to say about so many things. Health care, the FDA, crypto and its applications and importance, the future and past of humanity, too many to remember after one listen. It's an over 7 hour conversation. Among other things, the guy is clearly tireless. It did convince me that I should probably get off my butt and invest in bitcoin.
Link to video
