1 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Also media, step up to the slop trough. It's time 2 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:09,360 Speaker 1: for better offline and I'm your host ed ze Tron. 3 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:23,880 Speaker 1: As ever by the merchandise sign up to the newsletter 4 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:26,480 Speaker 1: message me on goot. I'm everywhere. But today I'm joined 5 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:28,560 Speaker 1: by the author of a book about how much I 6 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:30,840 Speaker 1: should be punished, what punishments I deserve, and how long 7 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:33,159 Speaker 1: I should be punished. I'm of course talking about more 8 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:36,120 Speaker 1: Everything Forever, written by astrophysicist Adam Becker. 9 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:38,199 Speaker 2: Adam, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me ed, 10 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:40,080 Speaker 2: It's good to be here. What's the book actually about? 11 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:42,839 Speaker 2: I apologize now, it's okay. The book is actually about 12 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:46,440 Speaker 2: the horrible ideas that tech billionaires have about the future 13 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:48,279 Speaker 2: that they're trying to shove down our throats, and why 14 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:48,760 Speaker 2: they don't work. 15 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:50,600 Speaker 1: You're an astrophysicist, right. 16 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:53,960 Speaker 2: Yeah, by training, what is that? Well, I did a 17 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 2: PhD in astrophysics looking at how much we could learn 18 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:01,080 Speaker 2: about what was happening right after the Big Bang by 19 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 2: looking at what was happening in the universe. You know 20 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:05,320 Speaker 2: what's happening in the universe right now. 21 00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:08,319 Speaker 1: So how did you get into the touching in the 22 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:10,479 Speaker 1: world of Silicon Valley because you have to talk about 23 00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:13,240 Speaker 1: some of the damnest bavots I've ever done. 24 00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:18,920 Speaker 2: Sane. Yeah. Well, I started out my career as a 25 00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:22,480 Speaker 2: science journalist straight out of grad school and was writing 26 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:23,440 Speaker 2: mostly about physics. 27 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:24,200 Speaker 1: Why are you writing? 28 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:27,000 Speaker 2: I was writing for pretty much everybody. I started at 29 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:29,680 Speaker 2: New Scientists and then moved on to writing for the BBC, 30 00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:33,040 Speaker 2: wrote a book about quantum physics, wrote some stuff for NPR, 31 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:36,679 Speaker 2: the New York Times, very co American. Yeah, and you know, 32 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:39,600 Speaker 2: like was sort of having a normal science journalist career, 33 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:42,760 Speaker 2: and then in twenty sixteen, the weirdest fucking thing happened. 34 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 2: What happened? You know? We elected a fascist? Oh right, yeah, 35 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:50,400 Speaker 2: that thing, yeah, that thing. 36 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: Yeah. 37 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:52,720 Speaker 2: And I thought, oh, you know I should be doing 38 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:56,920 Speaker 2: something more to, you know, directly combat this. If I 39 00:01:56,920 --> 00:01:58,920 Speaker 2: write another book, I would like it to have a 40 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:06,600 Speaker 2: more directly political angle, right, and uh. I live in Berkeley, 41 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:09,480 Speaker 2: I live in the San Francisco Bay area and just 42 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:12,519 Speaker 2: surrounded by tech bros constantly and was getting tired of 43 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:16,519 Speaker 2: their bullshit and it seemed more and more directly connected 44 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:22,880 Speaker 2: to the disintegration of American politics. And I thought, Okay, 45 00:02:22,919 --> 00:02:25,480 Speaker 2: you know, somebody needs to write about how they have 46 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:28,959 Speaker 2: these insane ideas about the future and how that informs 47 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:32,200 Speaker 2: their terrible politics. So how long have you lived in 48 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:35,520 Speaker 2: the Bay? God, oh, thirteen years? 49 00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:38,480 Speaker 1: Okay, so you've got like a good backing of where 50 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:41,080 Speaker 1: the bay has been in that time as well, because 51 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:43,519 Speaker 1: I think a lot of these people are transplants. And 52 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:45,040 Speaker 1: I say this is someone who literally moved to the 53 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:48,040 Speaker 1: Bay for two years in twenty fourteen. Yeah, like and 54 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 1: even then it was weird watching what they were doing. 55 00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:53,320 Speaker 1: Yeah but wait, so that was so you've been there 56 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:55,280 Speaker 1: thirteen years. But when did the book get started? Like, 57 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:57,760 Speaker 1: how did all this because it's this kind of came 58 00:02:57,800 --> 00:02:58,799 Speaker 1: out of no way in a good way. 59 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:03,200 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, No, I got started on the book probably 60 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,160 Speaker 2: the first inklings of it were around twenty nineteen or 61 00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 2: twenty twenty, right before the pandemic. I uncovered a online 62 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:16,560 Speaker 2: magazine that was trying to sanewash creationism and climate denial 63 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:20,040 Speaker 2: that was being funded by Peter Teel. Hell yeah yeah, 64 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:24,240 Speaker 2: And I broke that story and thought, oh, yeah, yeah, 65 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 2: these these tech bros are awful and everybody thinks they 66 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:32,919 Speaker 2: know a lot about science and technology. Even the people 67 00:03:32,919 --> 00:03:34,640 Speaker 2: who don't like them seem to think that they know 68 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:36,760 Speaker 2: a lot about science and technology, right, and it's just 69 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 2: not true. Like they don't know anything about physics, they 70 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:45,240 Speaker 2: don't know anything about biology. Peter Teel thinks that creationism 71 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:48,520 Speaker 2: is you know, plausible, or that evolution isn't the whole story. 72 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:52,800 Speaker 2: That's nonsense, you know. Elon Musk thinks that we can 73 00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:56,120 Speaker 2: live on Mars. That's nonsense, or at least he says that. 74 00:03:56,760 --> 00:03:58,320 Speaker 2: Whether he actually believes it, I don't know. 75 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:01,040 Speaker 1: But that's actually kind of my question. Yeah, how much 76 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:02,840 Speaker 1: of this shit do you actually think they believe? Because 77 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 1: I know Bezos is tied up with the long Now Foundation. Yeah, 78 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:08,840 Speaker 1: and they do make nice tea over there. However, the 79 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 1: rest of the stuff not so good. But how much 80 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:13,360 Speaker 1: do they really believe in this? Because I just I 81 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:17,880 Speaker 1: you've said that this is kind of a homecoming for them. 82 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:19,800 Speaker 1: This is kind of them coming back to the things 83 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:24,200 Speaker 1: they truly believe. I don't think they believe in anything thing. 84 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:27,040 Speaker 1: I think some of them don't believe in anything. Go 85 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:29,200 Speaker 1: into I'm not saying, I'm you know that's really right here? 86 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:34,440 Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah. So, like, for example, I think it's very plausible. Obviously, 87 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:35,800 Speaker 2: we can't know for sure, but I think it's very 88 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:38,520 Speaker 2: plausible that, say, Sam Altman doesn't believe in anything. Yeah, 89 00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:41,760 Speaker 2: that's quite possible. Yeah right. Karen Howell makes a good 90 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 2: case for that in her reporting and in her. 91 00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:46,040 Speaker 1: Books Excellent, being a guest on the show, she's fantastic. 92 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:49,880 Speaker 2: She's amazing. But at the other end of the spectrum, 93 00:04:49,920 --> 00:04:53,279 Speaker 2: I think it's very plausible that Jeff Bezos really really 94 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 2: does believe that we need to go to space. And 95 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:59,479 Speaker 2: the reason I say that is he when he was 96 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:02,800 Speaker 2: the vale edictorian of his high school down in Florida 97 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:07,000 Speaker 2: in like nineteen seventy eight or something like that, he 98 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:10,520 Speaker 2: gave a speech about how we need to go to space, 99 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:11,919 Speaker 2: we humanity need to go to That. 100 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:14,680 Speaker 1: Doesn't feel as ludicrous as a belief like we go 101 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:16,680 Speaker 1: to space. But what does go to space mean for 102 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:17,080 Speaker 1: this guy? 103 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:20,200 Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing. The specifics of that belief that 104 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:22,080 Speaker 2: he professed at the time are pretty similar to what 105 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:25,919 Speaker 2: he's saying now, and it is pretty ridiculous, like he 106 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:30,279 Speaker 2: has said very recently, and it echoes the stuff from 107 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:35,520 Speaker 2: his valedictorian speech when he was like eighteen, that we 108 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:38,880 Speaker 2: need to move into you know, hundreds of thousands or 109 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:42,440 Speaker 2: millions of enormous cylindrical space stations. Oh, of course. And 110 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:45,400 Speaker 2: have you know a trillion people living in the Solar. 111 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:48,000 Speaker 1: System tubes, yes, of trillions of peach exactly, do just 112 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:50,560 Speaker 1: work really well, like the hyperloop for example, Yeah, a 113 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:51,760 Speaker 1: successful tube. 114 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:54,320 Speaker 2: Yes, or you know the Internet itself a series of tubes. Yeah. 115 00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:56,400 Speaker 1: And because those tubes in the Internet worked, of course, 116 00:05:56,440 --> 00:05:57,479 Speaker 1: the tubes work in space. 117 00:05:57,640 --> 00:05:59,400 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I think that the bongo. 118 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:01,640 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, this is science. I believe I failed all 119 00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:04,440 Speaker 1: the sciences. I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry, but no, 120 00:06:04,560 --> 00:06:04,920 Speaker 1: keep going. 121 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:07,599 Speaker 2: Yeah. So you know, he said, then we can like 122 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:12,200 Speaker 2: make Earth into a beautiful park that you know, allows 123 00:06:12,279 --> 00:06:15,560 Speaker 2: us to you know, save the environments. I know. And 124 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:17,599 Speaker 2: he said, when we have a trillion people living in 125 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:20,280 Speaker 2: the Solar System, we can have a thousand Mozarts and 126 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:23,880 Speaker 2: a thousand Einstein's. I'm like, buddy, we probably already have 127 00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:27,120 Speaker 2: people who are just as talented as Mozart and Einstein 128 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:29,599 Speaker 2: and all the other geniuses of history who are living 129 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:32,520 Speaker 2: and dying in poverty. Yes, and you know you don't 130 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:36,080 Speaker 2: care about that, And you don't seem to care about 131 00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:39,320 Speaker 2: climate change because you know, the carbon footprint of the 132 00:06:39,320 --> 00:06:43,240 Speaker 2: Blue Origin rockets and the Amazon warehouses and all that stuff, right, 133 00:06:43,279 --> 00:06:46,440 Speaker 2: But instead of that, he's like, no, no, no, the solution 134 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:49,799 Speaker 2: is to go to space. Like, why that's not gonna work. 135 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:52,520 Speaker 1: Because more space is up in space, Adam, you put 136 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:55,280 Speaker 1: cube and sp It's really it's funny because these people 137 00:06:55,279 --> 00:06:58,400 Speaker 1: are insanely rich but also sound very stupid. Yeah, when 138 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:00,000 Speaker 1: you really get down to the trumps of its life, 139 00:07:00,279 --> 00:07:02,160 Speaker 1: what's your solution, Jeff of Gold, the money in the 140 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:07,360 Speaker 1: world tubes yep, tubes of space tubes, yep, trillion people, 141 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:10,200 Speaker 1: mozarts more mozarts, just sweating. 142 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:13,840 Speaker 2: Profusely, exactly. Yeah, And he does try to give an argument, 143 00:07:14,280 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 2: but the argument is hilariously bad. He says that we 144 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:21,720 Speaker 2: need to go to space, among other reasons, like he's 145 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:24,040 Speaker 2: all that environmental stuff, but he the thing he keeps 146 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:26,320 Speaker 2: harping on and coming back to is he says, we 147 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:30,360 Speaker 2: need to keep using more energy per capita? 148 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:31,680 Speaker 1: Right, why? 149 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 2: Right? Why? Exactly? He never says exactly WHOA Okay, Yeah, 150 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:37,960 Speaker 2: he says. The only defense he gives for that is 151 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:39,840 Speaker 2: he says, if we don't do that, we'll have a 152 00:07:39,880 --> 00:07:42,600 Speaker 2: civilization of stagnation and stasis. 153 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:45,440 Speaker 1: As opposed to now when there's tons of innovation happening 154 00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:47,480 Speaker 1: and all of big tech is focused on a diverse 155 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:50,440 Speaker 1: series of options rather than one big expensive dogshit thing. 156 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:53,920 Speaker 2: Precisely, he nailed it. Yeah, and he says we have 157 00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:56,960 Speaker 2: to go to space because like otherwise, we're gonna run 158 00:07:56,960 --> 00:07:58,600 Speaker 2: out of energy here on Earth. We won't be able 159 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:01,840 Speaker 2: to keep expanding the energy we used per capita. What 160 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:02,640 Speaker 2: does the energy do? 161 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:02,960 Speaker 1: Well? 162 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:06,520 Speaker 2: Yeah, first of all, what does the energy do? And second, uh, 163 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:09,360 Speaker 2: this is this is actually my favorite part. Hell yeah, 164 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:14,240 Speaker 2: he is right that if you just like idiotically kept 165 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:17,680 Speaker 2: that trend going in a way that's physically impossible, you know, 166 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:20,400 Speaker 2: for for hundreds of years, you would run out of 167 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:22,600 Speaker 2: energy here on Earth. Like you, you wouldn't be able 168 00:08:22,640 --> 00:08:25,880 Speaker 2: to keep the energy users per capita growing at the 169 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:28,920 Speaker 2: exponential rate that it has been in about three hundred 170 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:30,560 Speaker 2: years of be using all the energy that we get 171 00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:32,480 Speaker 2: from the Sun here on the Earth. But if you 172 00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:35,040 Speaker 2: keep that trend going, if you try to do that 173 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:36,840 Speaker 2: by you know, going out and living in tubes in 174 00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:39,400 Speaker 2: the solar system, right, that only gets you like another 175 00:08:39,559 --> 00:08:42,360 Speaker 2: few hundred maybe one thousand years. Then you're using all 176 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:43,720 Speaker 2: the energy that comes from the sun. 177 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:46,400 Speaker 1: Right, and we've still not really established what we're using 178 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:52,040 Speaker 1: the energy for. Nope, nope, no, so Beata sentus Yeah, finally. 179 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:53,760 Speaker 2: Right, and this and this brings us to like the 180 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:56,600 Speaker 2: bullshit that Sam Altman said about building a dice and sphere. 181 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:00,640 Speaker 1: Exclaim what a dice sphere is? I thought it was 182 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:02,120 Speaker 1: the ball on the fucking vacuum. 183 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:06,520 Speaker 2: But yeah, no, that's the only kind of dice and 184 00:09:06,559 --> 00:09:09,760 Speaker 2: sphere that actually exists. No, a dice in sphere is 185 00:09:10,400 --> 00:09:14,800 Speaker 2: a giant, mega construction project, you know, beyond anything that 186 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:19,320 Speaker 2: anyone's ever actually built or probably could build. That just 187 00:09:19,679 --> 00:09:23,240 Speaker 2: encloses a star and captures all of the energy from 188 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:23,760 Speaker 2: that star. 189 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:27,080 Speaker 1: Right, and if we ever built anything like that, no, 190 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:31,280 Speaker 1: of course, okay, just making sure we So it's building 191 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:31,959 Speaker 1: a big. 192 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 2: Around the star to capture all of the energy from 193 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:38,320 Speaker 2: that star to use it for data. 194 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:41,400 Speaker 1: Where would the energy How would the energy get from 195 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:42,360 Speaker 1: the star to Earth? 196 00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:48,320 Speaker 2: I mean, oh, tubes, yeah, toobes exactly. Yeah, so I battery. 197 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:51,120 Speaker 1: Yeah, like, it's so safe, it's so cool. We live 198 00:09:51,160 --> 00:09:53,680 Speaker 1: in a site. I wish I could do what he does. 199 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:56,160 Speaker 1: I would be saying shit all the time. I just 200 00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:59,680 Speaker 1: I'd be like, yeah, actually, you need we can change 201 00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:01,480 Speaker 1: the world if we just create a series of tubes 202 00:10:01,520 --> 00:10:03,600 Speaker 1: that just gave me money every day. No, wait, that's 203 00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:06,040 Speaker 1: too that's that's too obvious. I'd need to come up 204 00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:06,400 Speaker 1: with the best. 205 00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:09,880 Speaker 2: Well no, I mean, I just think it's pretty interesting 206 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:12,160 Speaker 2: that these guys are spouting obvious bullshit and the only 207 00:10:12,160 --> 00:10:14,000 Speaker 2: reason people listen to them is that they're rich. Like 208 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:17,640 Speaker 2: if if they weren't saying this stuff, but then I 209 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:20,320 Speaker 2: went around saying this stuff, nobody would listen to me 210 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:21,400 Speaker 2: unless they funded me. 211 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:23,520 Speaker 1: If a guy on the street who smelled kind of 212 00:10:23,559 --> 00:10:25,199 Speaker 1: bad walked up to you and said, the price of 213 00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:28,120 Speaker 1: intelligence is getting too cheap to meet her, you'd be like, 214 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:31,840 Speaker 1: all right, mate, yeah, can't do anything but clammy Sammy 215 00:10:31,920 --> 00:10:33,840 Speaker 1: says it and everyone loses their fucking shit. 216 00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:36,280 Speaker 2: Well yeah, and that that Actually, that brings me to 217 00:10:36,320 --> 00:10:39,040 Speaker 2: something else that we were plenty to talk about, you know, 218 00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:41,680 Speaker 2: speaking of weird dudes on the street who are not 219 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:45,319 Speaker 2: billionaires making insane claims. Ellie azer yod Kowski. 220 00:10:45,160 --> 00:10:48,920 Speaker 1: That's how you say his name, don't even Liza, I 221 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:51,480 Speaker 1: don't really. Here's the thing. He's a disrespectful sex is 222 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:54,160 Speaker 1: more on Grift. So I really don't give a shit. 223 00:10:54,559 --> 00:10:57,400 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it is rather bizarre that anybody listens to 224 00:10:57,440 --> 00:10:59,760 Speaker 2: anything he has to say about anything he's So, who 225 00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:03,400 Speaker 2: is the fuck this fuck? Nun? No? No, the the 226 00:11:03,559 --> 00:11:07,200 Speaker 2: alternate title for my book, like in my head the 227 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:10,560 Speaker 2: head Kennon was these fucking people. Yeah, I love that. 228 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:13,240 Speaker 1: No, No, I write these fucking bosses a lot. Right, 229 00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:15,160 Speaker 1: Ellie's a Yudkowski? 230 00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:18,679 Speaker 2: Yes, who what does he do? Why does what does 231 00:11:18,679 --> 00:11:18,960 Speaker 2: he do? 232 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:22,160 Speaker 1: And why does so many seemingly smart people believe this tipshit? 233 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:27,760 Speaker 2: So Ellie as a Judkowski, I'm gonna give you, like 234 00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:31,880 Speaker 2: the formal version of who he is, what he might say, 235 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:34,520 Speaker 2: what would be in like his online bio, and then 236 00:11:34,559 --> 00:11:37,839 Speaker 2: I'll tell you the reality. Okay, so uh. Ellie as 237 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:40,800 Speaker 2: a jud Kowski is the co founder of the Machine 238 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:43,880 Speaker 2: Intelligence Research Institute, which has been around for about twenty 239 00:11:43,880 --> 00:11:49,840 Speaker 2: five years, and he has been researching artificial superintelligence for 240 00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:52,480 Speaker 2: all of that time and mostly going on about how 241 00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:57,400 Speaker 2: dangerous it could be if anybody built it without ensuring 242 00:11:57,600 --> 00:11:59,079 Speaker 2: that it would serve human. 243 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:00,600 Speaker 1: And this is just to be clear. He has no 244 00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:04,640 Speaker 1: scientific knowledge. Can he even code? Like? Does he have 245 00:12:04,679 --> 00:12:05,560 Speaker 1: any kind of. 246 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:08,079 Speaker 2: He doesn't even have a high school diploma. 247 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:10,640 Speaker 1: So I won't judge people for that, but I'll judge 248 00:12:10,679 --> 00:12:11,840 Speaker 1: him for all the rest of here's the thing. 249 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:14,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, no, I'm not judging him for not but that 250 00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:17,360 Speaker 2: it doesn't really make Filly full of confidence. No, no, no, no, 251 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:21,720 Speaker 2: he has no formal qualifications. And again, that's fine. You know, 252 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:24,600 Speaker 2: there are many people who've made major contributions to many 253 00:12:24,679 --> 00:12:28,440 Speaker 2: fields of human endeavor without any formal qualifications. Right, that's fine. 254 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:34,640 Speaker 2: The thing is, if you make extraordinary claims like he's making, 255 00:12:35,040 --> 00:12:39,160 Speaker 2: you need extraordinary evidence, and not having those qualifications, like 256 00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:43,800 Speaker 2: you said, doesn't really inspire confidence. He has made a 257 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:50,360 Speaker 2: series of really outlandish claims about what the future of 258 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:55,120 Speaker 2: AI could be, right, based on essentially nothing, based on 259 00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:58,120 Speaker 2: like reading a bunch of science fiction. He explicitly cites, 260 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:02,360 Speaker 2: uh science fiction. There's like verner VINGI, as you know, 261 00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:06,960 Speaker 2: oh verner Vingie wrote a bunch of books like Marooned 262 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:11,040 Speaker 2: in Real Time and uh god, I'm trying to remember 263 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:14,199 Speaker 2: the names of the others. It doesn't matter. Point is, yeah, 264 00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:16,920 Speaker 2: he's a fiction writer who's also I think a scientist 265 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:20,280 Speaker 2: of some stripe I don't remember what, but still writing 266 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:24,280 Speaker 2: fiction and VINGI came up with this idea, or was 267 00:13:24,320 --> 00:13:27,720 Speaker 2: one of the originators of and popularizers of an idea 268 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:32,800 Speaker 2: called the singularity. Right, So the singularity is this idea 269 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:36,880 Speaker 2: that the rate of technological change is just going to 270 00:13:36,920 --> 00:13:40,360 Speaker 2: keep getting faster and faster, and specifically, the rate of 271 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:44,720 Speaker 2: intelligence of AI is going to keep getting smarter and smarter, uh, 272 00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:47,000 Speaker 2: until we reach this sort of point of no return 273 00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:51,880 Speaker 2: where we have a singularity accompanied by an intelligence explosion that. 274 00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:54,880 Speaker 1: Leads to like the singularity moment. 275 00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:57,400 Speaker 2: Yeah, the singularity moment is very ill defined. 276 00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:00,920 Speaker 1: Oh and the I can't fucking believe this. Yeah, I've 277 00:14:00,960 --> 00:14:03,839 Speaker 1: heard this bollocks so many times. I thought they had 278 00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:05,560 Speaker 1: a moment. I thought they had a point. 279 00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:09,600 Speaker 2: No, not really, oh you yeah, So like Kurzweil, right, 280 00:14:09,760 --> 00:14:13,160 Speaker 2: the patron saint of evangelizing the Singularity, the guy who 281 00:14:13,160 --> 00:14:16,280 Speaker 2: read the Singularity is Nearer, and then the sequel last year, 282 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:20,360 Speaker 2: the Singularity is Nearer, which is the real fucking title. Bro, 283 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:22,680 Speaker 2: I know that's the real title of the book. 284 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:26,120 Speaker 1: But his next books just called sorry, yeah no, it's 285 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:29,520 Speaker 1: his next books, Like it's here again, you see, it 286 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:31,600 Speaker 1: is the Singularity in the room with us, Yes, exactly, 287 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:32,280 Speaker 1: but he doesn't. 288 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:36,520 Speaker 2: He tries to, but it's incredibly vague. He says, like 289 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:38,560 Speaker 2: Kurzweil says, the singularity is going to be here in 290 00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:41,680 Speaker 2: twenty forty five. He also said in two thousand and five, 291 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:45,000 Speaker 2: and the singularity is near that, you know, we would 292 00:14:45,040 --> 00:14:48,240 Speaker 2: have all kinds of nanotechnology by now. They love nanotechty, 293 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:51,600 Speaker 2: they love nanotechnology. They use it as a synonym for magic. 294 00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:53,600 Speaker 1: It was, I swear to God. Also, there was a 295 00:14:53,680 --> 00:14:58,200 Speaker 1: nanotechnology bubble briefly like ten years ago. I vaguely remember 296 00:14:58,240 --> 00:14:58,840 Speaker 1: them trying. 297 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:01,080 Speaker 2: It didn't really go any I mean, there was also 298 00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:04,160 Speaker 2: a nanotech sort of hype bubble back in the eighties 299 00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:07,960 Speaker 2: and nineties, and it also didn't go anywhere. And it 300 00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:10,680 Speaker 2: didn't go anywhere because it turns out that like this 301 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:14,720 Speaker 2: idea of nanotech is like magic pixie dust that fixes 302 00:15:14,760 --> 00:15:19,960 Speaker 2: everything is nonsense and it's a real like it's being 303 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:22,840 Speaker 2: echoed right now in the AI bubble. Yeah right. It's 304 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:26,200 Speaker 2: the same kind of hype, often pushed by the same 305 00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:29,440 Speaker 2: people with the same logic, sometimes working at like the 306 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:34,880 Speaker 2: same nonprofits. I mean, Yudkowski talks about nanotech constantly. It's 307 00:15:34,920 --> 00:15:38,080 Speaker 2: in his new book it's all over you know, the 308 00:15:38,080 --> 00:15:39,800 Speaker 2: website that he's created. Uh. 309 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:43,600 Speaker 1: And his book is called if You Buy this book 310 00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:46,120 Speaker 1: called Mike Money. Yeah, that's sorry, It's called if They 311 00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:49,480 Speaker 1: Built This Everyone. It's such a stupid fucking title. 312 00:15:49,640 --> 00:15:51,680 Speaker 2: Sorry. Yeah, no, it's a very stupid title. I will 313 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:54,480 Speaker 2: say the one thing I'll say about Yudkowski. I am 314 00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:58,360 Speaker 2: sure that he is a true believer. He is not 315 00:15:58,400 --> 00:16:04,000 Speaker 2: a Yes, he's not a grifter. Why because, like it's 316 00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:06,800 Speaker 2: it's hard to explain, but I am so much more 317 00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:10,080 Speaker 2: sure about him than I am about anybody else, even base. 318 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:12,760 Speaker 1: I trust your judgment. It's just he gives off the 319 00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:16,400 Speaker 1: air of like a despot for a mad men. 320 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:19,800 Speaker 2: Yeah. I would say the best way to think about Yudkowski, 321 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:22,520 Speaker 2: like the way that I often think about him, is 322 00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:28,640 Speaker 2: imagine like a really smart, self educated fifteen year old. 323 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:32,080 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and like, you know, because if a fifteen 324 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:34,479 Speaker 2: year old was running around saying the stuff that Yudkowski 325 00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:37,200 Speaker 2: is saying right now, I'd be like, wow, bright kid. 326 00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:38,880 Speaker 1: I hope he grows out, and I hope his parents 327 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:40,760 Speaker 1: have a lock on the gung capin. 328 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:42,800 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, well, and also like I hope he 329 00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:44,040 Speaker 2: you know, I hope he grows up. 330 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:46,320 Speaker 1: Yes, and I'm still thinking that. 331 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:49,200 Speaker 2: Yeah, And like, and I don't think jud Kowski did. 332 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:50,880 Speaker 2: I think, you know, I think like. 333 00:16:51,400 --> 00:16:53,320 Speaker 1: I also think everybody fell for it. 334 00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:56,200 Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and that's the thing, Like he got a 335 00:16:56,240 --> 00:17:03,640 Speaker 2: lot of support online. He you know, he got money 336 00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:04,440 Speaker 2: from Peterman. 337 00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:07,720 Speaker 1: Sam Moltman said that he could, he should, he may 338 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:09,200 Speaker 1: win the Nobel Peace Prize. 339 00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:11,439 Speaker 2: One yeah, yeah, sam Moltman said that he should win 340 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:12,320 Speaker 2: a Nobel Peace Prize. 341 00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:14,080 Speaker 1: Falling down moment if that happens. 342 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:15,359 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that's not happening. 343 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:15,920 Speaker 1: Defense. 344 00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:18,960 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, there's no way. But like, look, he got 345 00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:22,679 Speaker 2: a bunch of money from Peter Teal because Teal thought that, 346 00:17:22,840 --> 00:17:27,080 Speaker 2: you know, j had Kowski was saying smart stuff about AI, right. 347 00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:30,040 Speaker 2: Teal now doesn't much like jud Kowski because he thinks 348 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:32,840 Speaker 2: jud Kowski is too pessimistic. But the sort of the 349 00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:33,600 Speaker 2: damage has been. 350 00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:38,920 Speaker 1: The ultimate Oh yeah yeah, classic old grins and smiles 351 00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:39,480 Speaker 1: of that foul. 352 00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:42,080 Speaker 2: Yeah no, too pessimistic for Peter Teal. 353 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:43,320 Speaker 1: That's actually bad. 354 00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:46,640 Speaker 2: Yeah no it is, no, it's but no, he's he's 355 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:48,639 Speaker 2: a true believer. He's just kind of nuts. 356 00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:51,159 Speaker 1: So what does he do all day? I say this 357 00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:55,240 Speaker 1: as a blogger pr person news, newsletter writer and podcaster 358 00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:57,560 Speaker 1: and all this ship Like I realize I have an 359 00:17:57,600 --> 00:18:00,119 Speaker 1: email job, Fine, but at least I can tell tell 360 00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:01,439 Speaker 1: you what I do all day. What does he do 361 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:03,800 Speaker 1: with like go to parties with people at Kevin Rusan 362 00:18:03,840 --> 00:18:05,520 Speaker 1: going the computer's going to kill us all. 363 00:18:05,640 --> 00:18:07,119 Speaker 2: I think that's a good chunk of it. And I 364 00:18:07,119 --> 00:18:09,479 Speaker 2: also think he writes an enormous amount right, Like, this 365 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:11,520 Speaker 2: is a guy who wrote that, you know, Harry Potter 366 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:14,639 Speaker 2: fan fiction that's longer than War in Peace. Right, he 367 00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:18,520 Speaker 2: wrote like a one and a half million word BDSM 368 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:20,600 Speaker 2: decision theory novel. 369 00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:23,439 Speaker 1: I say this as someone who writes a lot, a 370 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:26,280 Speaker 1: lot of words. That's an unhealthy amount of words. 371 00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:29,480 Speaker 2: I agree, and it does help. I think for him 372 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:31,320 Speaker 2: being able to write that many words, he's not a 373 00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:31,960 Speaker 2: very good writer. 374 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:36,439 Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean even again, I write fifteen thousand word blogs, 375 00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:39,040 Speaker 1: so I can't really judge him too harsh. But one 376 00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:41,399 Speaker 1: point five million words, how do you even know what 377 00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:41,840 Speaker 1: it's about? 378 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:44,240 Speaker 2: At that point? I only know what it's about because 379 00:18:44,240 --> 00:18:46,240 Speaker 2: that's what he said it's about. I haven't read that one. 380 00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:49,520 Speaker 2: I did read most of the Harry Potter one research. Yeah, bad, 381 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:52,160 Speaker 2: it was really really incredible. 382 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:56,800 Speaker 1: Any any sexism or racism in there, it's just strange. 383 00:18:57,119 --> 00:18:57,800 Speaker 1: I mean it's JK. 384 00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:01,080 Speaker 2: Rowling, So yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's a good question. I 385 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:05,440 Speaker 2: don't remember anything specif big good. 386 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:07,920 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's just strange. 387 00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:10,840 Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, he's definitely got a heart on for 388 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:13,360 Speaker 2: eugenics and. 389 00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:17,000 Speaker 1: These and this is somewhat paraphrasing the comic book Preacher, 390 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:19,040 Speaker 1: but it's like, why do these fucking guys always look 391 00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:19,400 Speaker 1: like that? 392 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:21,400 Speaker 2: If you're gonna claim. 393 00:19:21,119 --> 00:19:24,480 Speaker 1: You're like a eugenicist, you should not look like an 394 00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:28,320 Speaker 1: egg with a hat on. And I won't get into 395 00:19:28,359 --> 00:19:31,000 Speaker 1: but I don't generally get into personal appearance because I'm 396 00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:34,080 Speaker 1: self conscious myself. But it's like, if your whole thing 397 00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:36,280 Speaker 1: is like, yeah, we need to make the perfect human beings, 398 00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:40,720 Speaker 1: it's like, you can't look like that, mate, I'm sorry, 399 00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:42,760 Speaker 1: you can't do that. 400 00:19:43,119 --> 00:19:44,280 Speaker 2: Well I don't. 401 00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:46,360 Speaker 1: I guess you can. You'll be in the New York 402 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:47,040 Speaker 1: fucking Times. 403 00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:50,320 Speaker 2: Yeah. No, it's it's crazy. It is really crazy that 404 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:52,680 Speaker 2: anybody listens to him. But no, he's really into eugenics. 405 00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:53,960 Speaker 1: Why do they listen to him? 406 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:57,399 Speaker 2: He's really into evolutionary psychology, and he's got like the 407 00:19:57,440 --> 00:20:00,240 Speaker 2: sexism and racism that's like tied up in that. Why 408 00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:04,040 Speaker 2: do people listen to him? I mean part of it 409 00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:06,439 Speaker 2: is that he got that money from those billionaires, right. 410 00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:09,480 Speaker 2: He was hanging out in the bay saying the kind 411 00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:15,119 Speaker 2: of insane contrarian shit about AI that attracts the kind 412 00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:20,280 Speaker 2: of like brain dead billionaires like Peter Thiel. And then 413 00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:25,719 Speaker 2: you know, he became the guy and started, you know, 414 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:30,280 Speaker 2: a series of online platforms that attracted a following, right, 415 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:34,320 Speaker 2: like you know, Less Wrong, and then that spun off 416 00:20:34,359 --> 00:20:39,800 Speaker 2: this whole rationalist subculture. Yeah, that's a very good question. 417 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:48,399 Speaker 2: Less Wrong is an online platform that serve slash maybe 418 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:54,800 Speaker 2: served as a home and like epicenter for this movement 419 00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:57,840 Speaker 2: called the Rationalists, right, which are sort of formed around 420 00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:01,800 Speaker 2: Yudkowski's writing, include this set of writings he has called 421 00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:04,240 Speaker 2: The Sequences where he lays out, Oh he's a cult leader, 422 00:21:04,359 --> 00:21:06,480 Speaker 2: yeah in a way. Yeah. Yeah. 423 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:09,040 Speaker 1: The rationalists are just people, I'm guessing, guys with triobies 424 00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:12,760 Speaker 1: who say that we need to focus on ration, rational 425 00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:13,800 Speaker 1: thoughts and logic. 426 00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:15,520 Speaker 2: And there's a lot of it. I mean, some of 427 00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:17,280 Speaker 2: them are women, but some of them are non. 428 00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:19,160 Speaker 1: Baring, really surprising yeah. 429 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:23,280 Speaker 2: I mean, look, there are nerds of all stripes. 430 00:21:23,359 --> 00:21:28,080 Speaker 1: Yes, And also he's very much playing in the older Internet. Yes, 431 00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:30,120 Speaker 1: but the idea of a large forum with any kind 432 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:32,679 Speaker 1: of following is actually kind of adorable these days, except 433 00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:34,560 Speaker 1: when it's less wrong, it's not adorable. Well. 434 00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:38,159 Speaker 2: Also, less wrong's been around since the somewhat older Internet, right, 435 00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:39,959 Speaker 2: it's not been around since the nineties, but it's been 436 00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:42,440 Speaker 2: around since like the mid to late two thousands. Okay, 437 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:48,320 Speaker 2: And Yudkowski is you know, a lot of the rationalists 438 00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:51,960 Speaker 2: are in their twenties and maybe early thirties, but Yudkowski 439 00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:55,520 Speaker 2: himself is in his mid forties, right, because you know, 440 00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:59,400 Speaker 2: he he is terminally online. And I'm sure, like obviously 441 00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:00,920 Speaker 2: he'd be unhapy be with many of the things I've 442 00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:03,280 Speaker 2: said about him, but that one I'm sure he'd agree with. 443 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:07,000 Speaker 2: You know, like he's been online since he dropped out 444 00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:10,760 Speaker 2: of school at age what like thirteen or fourteen. He's 445 00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:14,119 Speaker 2: been online since the mid nineties on like butta yeah, 446 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:19,840 Speaker 2: and like you know, he was on transhumanist forums like 447 00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:23,280 Speaker 2: like you know, since the mid nineties, like email threats 448 00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:23,840 Speaker 2: and stuff like that. 449 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:26,679 Speaker 1: God, yeah, he really he is like the detritus of 450 00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:29,960 Speaker 1: the Internet in a way brought to like Katamari of 451 00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:32,360 Speaker 1: center right freaks. 452 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:36,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, bearing ever right. I wouldn't even say center right. 453 00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:39,960 Speaker 2: I would say techno libertarian. But that is just that's 454 00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:42,399 Speaker 2: just right. Oh, no, it is right wing. It's the 455 00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:43,680 Speaker 2: center part that I disagreed with. 456 00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:46,640 Speaker 1: Yeah, perhaps he started that when he was fifteen, before 457 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:49,200 Speaker 1: he learned yeah, the wrong things. 458 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:52,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, I will say he like I don't get the 459 00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:55,919 Speaker 2: sense that like he likes Donald Trump, but he certainly 460 00:22:56,359 --> 00:23:00,960 Speaker 2: like will parrot a lot of standard libertarian talking saints 461 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:03,800 Speaker 2: along the way to you know, making his The one thing. 462 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:05,800 Speaker 1: I keep thinking though, is I don't know if I 463 00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:08,440 Speaker 1: can shake this thing he's a grifter just because you're 464 00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:11,120 Speaker 1: taking a bunch of twenty year olds, you've got all 465 00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:13,879 Speaker 1: of this writing thing. He's either a grifter or a 466 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:16,160 Speaker 1: true cult leader. He may actually just be a cult leader. 467 00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:18,160 Speaker 2: Why I would say cult leader is. 468 00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:22,320 Speaker 1: Closer, Yeah, because he seems to I mean, dangerous is 469 00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:23,399 Speaker 1: probably the wrong word. 470 00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:24,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's straight. 471 00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:25,040 Speaker 1: He's not. 472 00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:27,240 Speaker 2: I wouldn't call him dangerous, but he is. 473 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:31,199 Speaker 1: You think the only dangerous to like a hot topic worker, 474 00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:35,640 Speaker 1: a very nerdy hot topic No, No, no, no to them, 475 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:52,720 Speaker 1: just just that he'd speak to them. It's just peculiar 476 00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:54,960 Speaker 1: as well, because and this actually gets into some of 477 00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:59,040 Speaker 1: your science background when you got my continual frustration because 478 00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:00,880 Speaker 1: I am self taught with all this economic stuff which 479 00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:03,840 Speaker 1: is insane, I probably shouldn't criticize you had Kowski quite 480 00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:07,600 Speaker 1: as much, but I will. I'm a hypocrite. I looking 481 00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:10,000 Speaker 1: through financial journalism and tech journalism. The thing that I 482 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:12,440 Speaker 1: keep noticing is that people keep accepting things that I've 483 00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:15,600 Speaker 1: just patently wrong. There's just shit that they say, like 484 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:17,840 Speaker 1: even with this in video Open AI deal, people saying 485 00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:20,520 Speaker 1: and Video invested one hundred billion dollars. They didn't. They're 486 00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:24,000 Speaker 1: investing progressively. When they do the first giga what gigawatts 487 00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:26,080 Speaker 1: of take like gig what of data center will take 488 00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:27,879 Speaker 1: about a year and a half two years. That though, 489 00:24:28,119 --> 00:24:31,080 Speaker 1: it's just bollocks. I imagine the last few years have 490 00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:33,000 Speaker 1: been a little bit mind bending for you hearing all 491 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:37,240 Speaker 1: this stuff about Agi and the future and all that. 492 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:45,200 Speaker 2: Yeah gobshite, Yes, yeah, I mean the AGI stuff, which, 493 00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:48,200 Speaker 2: like I started working on this book before chatch Ept 494 00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:50,560 Speaker 2: came out right, and it. 495 00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:53,040 Speaker 1: Was twenty nineteen, a few years into Open a eyes. 496 00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:57,720 Speaker 2: Yeah exactly. So like I knew about open AI, and 497 00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:00,719 Speaker 2: I knew about like transformer models, but like you know, 498 00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:05,439 Speaker 2: chat GPT comes out and and suddenly, you know, the 499 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:08,199 Speaker 2: public conversation shifts in a way that I didn't anticipate. 500 00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:10,800 Speaker 2: I realize, oh, this book is going to have to 501 00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:12,320 Speaker 2: be a little bit different than I thought it was 502 00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:16,320 Speaker 2: going to be. But also, you know, all of this 503 00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:20,960 Speaker 2: conversation about AGI, right, like in a way it helped 504 00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:22,600 Speaker 2: me for writing the book because I thought I was 505 00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:23,920 Speaker 2: going to have to spend a lot of time in 506 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:29,000 Speaker 2: the book explaining what AI is, what people think AGI is, right, 507 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,879 Speaker 2: There's gonna be a lot more explanation, And then all 508 00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:34,399 Speaker 2: of this stuff came out and I'm like, oh, actually, this, 509 00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:36,359 Speaker 2: you know, I can I can spend more time in 510 00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:38,080 Speaker 2: the meat of the book. This is this is helpful 511 00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:40,879 Speaker 2: for me because you could just quote them directly exactly. Yeah. 512 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:45,920 Speaker 2: But the thing is, AGI is this hopelessly ill defined 513 00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:49,600 Speaker 2: thing like super intelligence, this thing that that yed Kowski 514 00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:52,480 Speaker 2: is on about. Uh you know, what does it even mean? 515 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:54,639 Speaker 2: Like have you looked at the definition of AGI in 516 00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:57,960 Speaker 2: the open AI charter like the original one? Oh yeah, no, 517 00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:01,159 Speaker 2: it's great, Like the original charter from way back. It 518 00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:07,320 Speaker 2: says something like AGI is a machine that can reproduce 519 00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:13,199 Speaker 2: any economically viable or economically productive activity that humans engage in. 520 00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:15,840 Speaker 2: That's a bad definition. 521 00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:18,959 Speaker 1: That's anything. Yeah, I mean that could just mean anything 522 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:21,640 Speaker 1: that could. It's it's a machine that can do anything. 523 00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:26,600 Speaker 2: It's both vague and really narrow, right, because it's like, Okay, 524 00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:28,959 Speaker 2: I thought AGI was supposed to be like, you know, 525 00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:32,879 Speaker 2: commander data on Star Trek, right, and so that means 526 00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:35,159 Speaker 2: you know, it's gonna be sort of like humans. It 527 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:36,160 Speaker 2: can do the things that. 528 00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,000 Speaker 1: Humans do, also economically viable work. And the first thing 529 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:43,199 Speaker 1: they start with is fucking writing. Yeah, like Jesus Christ. 530 00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:47,600 Speaker 1: That's like, oh my god. Yeah, the first and the most. 531 00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:50,000 Speaker 1: We're gonna build boats and sell like we're gonna buy 532 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:53,040 Speaker 1: boats as an investment vehicle, like like what the fuck? 533 00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:55,240 Speaker 2: Yeah, these people don't do any real work. 534 00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:59,120 Speaker 1: It's it's so strange as well, because the AGI conversation 535 00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:02,040 Speaker 1: almost never happened. It's about AGI. It's because my favorite 536 00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:02,800 Speaker 1: thing to do is media. 537 00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:02,919 Speaker 2: Go. 538 00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:06,240 Speaker 1: Isn't this slavery? Because it is. It's like, oh, yeah, 539 00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:08,760 Speaker 1: we'll do an autonomous thing. We'll make do things, but 540 00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:10,720 Speaker 1: it will be conscious, which will allow it to work better. 541 00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:13,040 Speaker 2: Yep. And so then you get people talking about like 542 00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:15,959 Speaker 2: a data center filled with geniuses, and like, oh, okay, 543 00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:18,280 Speaker 2: wouldn't a data center filled with geniuses not want to 544 00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:18,760 Speaker 2: work for you? 545 00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:21,119 Speaker 1: Wouldn't a dat ascent of full of geniuses that can't 546 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:22,960 Speaker 1: leave and have to work be cold to prison? 547 00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:27,680 Speaker 2: Yep? Yeah? Cool, yeah, exactly. No, I I get into 548 00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:33,000 Speaker 2: this in my book. You know, the inspiration for a 549 00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:36,719 Speaker 2: lot of these ideas ultimately traces back to mid twentieth 550 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,600 Speaker 2: century science fiction, right, And so you get people like 551 00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:44,640 Speaker 2: Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark, right, Asimov's robot stories in particular. 552 00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:47,560 Speaker 2: If you go back and look at Asimov's robot stories, 553 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:51,080 Speaker 2: it is very hard with like a modern eye to 554 00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:54,640 Speaker 2: look at them as, especially certain ones of them. It's 555 00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:56,600 Speaker 2: hard to see them as anything other than like kind 556 00:27:56,640 --> 00:28:01,000 Speaker 2: of being about slavery and race relationships, because you get like, 557 00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:03,680 Speaker 2: for example, there's this one short story I think it's 558 00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:08,320 Speaker 2: called Oh God, I think it's called Catch that Robot, 559 00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:10,000 Speaker 2: but I might be confusing it with a different one. 560 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:11,520 Speaker 2: It might be a little Lost Robot. I get those 561 00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:15,080 Speaker 2: two confused. But either way, it's about a robot that 562 00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:20,400 Speaker 2: is trying to escape gain its freedom. And in that story, 563 00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:25,720 Speaker 2: the humans are like addressing a bunch of they're interviewing 564 00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,320 Speaker 2: a bunch of seemingly identical robots to try to find 565 00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:30,719 Speaker 2: the one that they're looking for that's trying to escape. 566 00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:35,200 Speaker 2: And they interview these robots and when they're interviewing them, 567 00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:40,360 Speaker 2: they address them as boy, and the robots called the 568 00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:45,680 Speaker 2: humans Master. Yeah, And these stories are from like nineteen 569 00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:48,800 Speaker 2: fifty five, like you know, the Jim Crow South is 570 00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:52,920 Speaker 2: alive and well, it's really bad, it's really really uncomfortable. 571 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:57,720 Speaker 2: And then like forty years later, in the nineteen nineties, 572 00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:01,720 Speaker 2: you get Werner Vingi writing about the singularity and how 573 00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:03,840 Speaker 2: great it's going to be when we all have these 574 00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:09,080 Speaker 2: robot assistants, and he refers to Asmov's wonderful dream of 575 00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:12,920 Speaker 2: and this is a direct quote from Vingi. Willing slaves 576 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:16,400 Speaker 2: Jesus fucking Christ. Yes, And that's something that someone wrote 577 00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:19,080 Speaker 2: in like nineteen ninety one. I mean, but that's what 578 00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:19,520 Speaker 2: this is. 579 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:23,120 Speaker 1: And this is an uncomfortable topic because that's what this is. 580 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:26,560 Speaker 1: It's what pisses me off, other than like nineteen other 581 00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:28,920 Speaker 1: things about Kevin Bruce at the time, because he's written 582 00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:31,520 Speaker 1: several things about AI and AGI and one thing about 583 00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:34,920 Speaker 1: AI welfare, and it's like the AI welfare begins with slavery. 584 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:37,360 Speaker 1: And if you can't write that, you're a fucking coward 585 00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:40,520 Speaker 1: and a bitch. I'm sorry you can't write. Yeah, everyone 586 00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:42,920 Speaker 1: is excited about slavery because that's what it is, and 587 00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:45,920 Speaker 1: it's nothing else. It's not oh well, it's like they 588 00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:49,200 Speaker 1: wouldn't be. They wouldn't be. They like doing it, and 589 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,320 Speaker 1: it's like, fuck you man, that it's slavery. What I 590 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:56,280 Speaker 1: really hope happens is if AGI happens, it's just a 591 00:29:56,760 --> 00:29:59,800 Speaker 1: just a regular dude, yep, and he's lazy and he's 592 00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:05,280 Speaker 1: a yeah, like you just do this. What I think 593 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:08,400 Speaker 1: that's way more likely is I don't think AGI is possible. 594 00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:11,000 Speaker 2: Yeah. No, Actually that's a good question. Do you think 595 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:13,720 Speaker 2: it's possible? Not really? No likely? 596 00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:16,040 Speaker 1: I say this is a non scientific person. 597 00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:21,320 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I don't think that you can build. Well, 598 00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:24,280 Speaker 2: first of all, I think AGI is just hopelessly ill defined, right, 599 00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:27,880 Speaker 2: But if we want to say, like an artificial machine 600 00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:33,120 Speaker 2: that has the cognitive capacities of a human, like they 601 00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:35,400 Speaker 2: can do all of the tasks, like all of the 602 00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:38,760 Speaker 2: things that humans do. First of all, I think you're 603 00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:41,080 Speaker 2: gonna need a completely different kind of machine. I don't. 604 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:43,160 Speaker 2: I don't think certainly. I don't think that you know, 605 00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:46,600 Speaker 2: scale is all you need. And if just scale attention, yeah, 606 00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:48,440 Speaker 2: give it, give it more data. And if you don't 607 00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:51,160 Speaker 2: have enough data to make more synthetic data with more LLM, 608 00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:56,280 Speaker 2: like dude, that why why wouldn't know? Absolutely not? But 609 00:30:56,280 --> 00:31:00,160 Speaker 2: but I also think that like there is, there's is 610 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:05,600 Speaker 2: very simplistic set of ideas behind the idea of AGI, right, 611 00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:09,240 Speaker 2: and and the two that I keep coming back to 612 00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:13,160 Speaker 2: are the idea of the brain as a computer and 613 00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:16,960 Speaker 2: the idea of our bodies as like meat spacesuits for 614 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,040 Speaker 2: our brains. And both of those are just wrong. The 615 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:23,080 Speaker 2: brain is not really very much like a computer. It 616 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:25,520 Speaker 2: is more like a computer than it is like say, 617 00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:29,840 Speaker 2: a clock. But there was a long history of comparing 618 00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:34,320 Speaker 2: the brain to you know, the most complex piece of 619 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:36,640 Speaker 2: machinery that humans have at the time, right before it 620 00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:39,520 Speaker 2: was a brain, or before the brain was like a computer, 621 00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:42,120 Speaker 2: it was like a telephone network. Before that, it was 622 00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:44,000 Speaker 2: like a hydraulic system. Before that, it was like a 623 00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:47,680 Speaker 2: clock or a windmill, right, And it's not really actually 624 00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:50,040 Speaker 2: like I mean, it's a little like some of those things. 625 00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:52,800 Speaker 2: But the brain is like the brain, and the main different. 626 00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:55,360 Speaker 1: We don't understand thinking, no, and we don't. 627 00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:57,760 Speaker 2: Understand exactly how the brain works. And part of that 628 00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:01,400 Speaker 2: is that the brain was not built. The brain evolved. Right. 629 00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:06,080 Speaker 2: But also we are not our brains. We are our 630 00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:10,320 Speaker 2: bodies in our environments. Right. The brain is inextricably connected 631 00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:13,400 Speaker 2: to the body, and the body works in an environment 632 00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:18,240 Speaker 2: surrounded by other bodies, in a culture, a society, a world. Right. 633 00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:22,000 Speaker 2: You need all of those things in order to get 634 00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:26,160 Speaker 2: the human cognition that you know. These guys are so 635 00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:30,840 Speaker 2: you know, determined to reproduce inside of a computer. If 636 00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:34,080 Speaker 2: you just take a human baby and like leave it 637 00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:37,800 Speaker 2: with a bunch of food in the woods, even if 638 00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:39,320 Speaker 2: you get rid of all the predators and everything, that 639 00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:42,000 Speaker 2: baby's gonna starve to get a bunch of books, man, right, yeah, 640 00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:44,719 Speaker 2: like the baby books. Yeah, if you give the if 641 00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:46,920 Speaker 2: you somehow, if you feed the baby but don't talk 642 00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:49,960 Speaker 2: to it, the baby will not grow up being able 643 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:51,320 Speaker 2: to think properly. 644 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:53,560 Speaker 1: Or Speakit's thinking will be vastly different. 645 00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:58,040 Speaker 2: Exactly. Yeah, and so like you need so much more 646 00:32:58,160 --> 00:32:59,160 Speaker 2: than just the brain. 647 00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:03,480 Speaker 1: It also compresses human experience. They can play experience with learning. 648 00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:04,120 Speaker 2: Yep. 649 00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:06,400 Speaker 1: When we don't know how we learn, like we learn, 650 00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:11,080 Speaker 1: we learn intentionally but also unintentionally societal yup conditions around us, 651 00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:13,480 Speaker 1: how we felt in a particular moment. Vastly memory is 652 00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:16,680 Speaker 1: also insane yep, yep. We experience the world in this 653 00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:19,000 Speaker 1: is my personal experience. My experience of the world is 654 00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:21,440 Speaker 1: vastly different to my memory. My memory is like crystal 655 00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,440 Speaker 1: clear and beautiful, and my real life is a mixture 656 00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:28,120 Speaker 1: of slops. Yeah, and it's it's frustrating as well. Books 657 00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:30,840 Speaker 1: of these people also donut pits are like people. They 658 00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:32,720 Speaker 1: don't they don't like the human brain is kind of 659 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:35,080 Speaker 1: like human bodies, even the dumbest dumb dumb it's kind 660 00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:36,480 Speaker 1: of amazing yep thing. 661 00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:39,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, And one of the things that's amazing is, Yeah, 662 00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:41,480 Speaker 2: we don't know how the human brain works. We don't 663 00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:43,840 Speaker 2: know how thinking or learning works. But what we do 664 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:46,200 Speaker 2: know is that we don't do it in anything like 665 00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:51,280 Speaker 2: any way anything like on LLM. Yes, right, because the 666 00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:56,040 Speaker 2: amount of you know, material that we take in over 667 00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:58,520 Speaker 2: the course of the first three years of our lives. 668 00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:00,360 Speaker 2: When we go from not knowing a length which to 669 00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:04,360 Speaker 2: knowing a language, maybe multiple languages, is nowhere near the 670 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:07,240 Speaker 2: amount of material that is, you know, force fed into 671 00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:10,120 Speaker 2: these llms, And yet we get the trick done, and 672 00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,000 Speaker 2: three year olds know things that no LLM knows. 673 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:15,640 Speaker 1: Also, there's no affordance for the fact fact that some 674 00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:18,120 Speaker 1: people can't learn stuff like I cannot learn languages. 675 00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:20,200 Speaker 2: I've really tried. I'm pretty trash of that too. 676 00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:21,719 Speaker 1: But I also was really bad at like I was 677 00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:23,400 Speaker 1: uniquely bad at a lot of things. I have my 678 00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:27,359 Speaker 1: various no but I have ADHD, dyspraxia and other stuff 679 00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:30,680 Speaker 1: I won't get into. But it's I can't like certain things, 680 00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:33,360 Speaker 1: don't like the things that I pick up insanely quickly. 681 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:36,280 Speaker 1: Other people can't. Other people can't even see the connections. 682 00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:38,319 Speaker 1: It doesn't Robert Evans actually had a really good point 683 00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:40,280 Speaker 1: on the subreddit Yes Robert, I read all your stuff, 684 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:43,399 Speaker 1: where he was saying that like he is very good 685 00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:45,840 Speaker 1: at like picking up stuff like almost to me, he 686 00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:47,879 Speaker 1: can read fast than most people as long as it's 687 00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:51,279 Speaker 1: about conflict and it's no, but it's true, and it's 688 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:53,440 Speaker 1: one of the remarkable things about the human brain. And 689 00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:56,920 Speaker 1: I think that it's actually kind of disgusting how little 690 00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:59,520 Speaker 1: appreciation that is for like human bodies and the brain, 691 00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:02,640 Speaker 1: how incredible the average busts, even average people are. 692 00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:04,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, and this is this is the thing. These 693 00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:08,160 Speaker 2: guys don't have a proper appreciation for the human brain 694 00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:11,360 Speaker 2: and the human body. And going back to the tech billionaires, 695 00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:13,759 Speaker 2: and I guess Yodkowski as well, they don't have an 696 00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:17,640 Speaker 2: appreciation for how remarkable Earth is in particular, right, you 697 00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:22,800 Speaker 2: know they you know, especially when you talk about somebody 698 00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:26,320 Speaker 2: like Bezos or Musk, they talk about Earth like it's doomed, 699 00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,160 Speaker 2: Like we need to get off of this planet. Yeah, 700 00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:32,720 Speaker 2: like this is this is our home. It's a remarkable place, 701 00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:36,480 Speaker 2: and there is nowhere that we could get to in 702 00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:39,360 Speaker 2: the Solar System. There's nowhere else in the Solar System 703 00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:43,480 Speaker 2: that's remotely as as hospitable as the Earth. 704 00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:45,920 Speaker 1: I also think that they want more. They want their 705 00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:48,000 Speaker 1: own land, they want their own countries, they want they 706 00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:49,160 Speaker 1: want to escape governance. 707 00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:51,799 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they see they see spaces and escape from 708 00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:55,720 Speaker 2: politics because they they're like living a libertarian wet drenk, which. 709 00:35:55,600 --> 00:35:56,080 Speaker 1: Is really funny. 710 00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:58,360 Speaker 2: Because when they get that, they'll immediately do fascism. 711 00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:00,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what's on the agenda. 712 00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:03,439 Speaker 2: Second, can't you cannot run away from politics to minute 713 00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:06,240 Speaker 2: you have more than one person in a room, there's good. 714 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:08,239 Speaker 2: It's just really sad. 715 00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:10,279 Speaker 1: And I actually think on a grander scale, they don't 716 00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:12,600 Speaker 1: have an appreciation for tech. I was just writing something 717 00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:14,759 Speaker 1: last night. It was on the way to New York 718 00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:18,120 Speaker 1: where it was like the actual state of technology is 719 00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:20,560 Speaker 1: kind of fucking amazing. Yeah, like we can message I 720 00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:22,800 Speaker 1: could message you happen to be in town, you message 721 00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:25,600 Speaker 1: me on blue Sky hundreds of miles thousands of miles away. 722 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:27,880 Speaker 1: I was like, I'm able to write a note that 723 00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:30,880 Speaker 1: was on my computer, that's on my iPad here. I 724 00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:33,439 Speaker 1: know that this sounds like boosting, but it really isn't. 725 00:36:33,600 --> 00:36:36,520 Speaker 1: We have the raw tools that are just fucking incredible. Yeah, 726 00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:39,640 Speaker 1: and these people do not appreciate them. They don't appreciate them, 727 00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:41,960 Speaker 1: which is why general if AI is so fucking ugly 728 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:45,399 Speaker 1: because it's bad technology. It's not even good technology. It's 729 00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:50,520 Speaker 1: poorly run, inefficient, endlessly expensive, and directionless. 730 00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:54,880 Speaker 2: Yeah, and it inflicts harms on users that like we 731 00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:58,400 Speaker 2: would not accept from anything that was not subjected to 732 00:36:58,440 --> 00:36:59,719 Speaker 2: such an enormous hype cycle. 733 00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:02,840 Speaker 1: Right literally nothing, yeah, nothing, No, if ten. 734 00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:07,840 Speaker 2: Years ago you you know, took any you know person 735 00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:11,480 Speaker 2: off the street and said, hey, there's this cool new technology. 736 00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:16,800 Speaker 2: It takes up enormous amounts of electricity. It can do things. 737 00:37:16,880 --> 00:37:18,919 Speaker 2: It can do things that you know, no other piece 738 00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:22,279 Speaker 2: of technology you've ever seen can do. Also, it's very 739 00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:25,279 Speaker 2: good at talking teenagers into killing themselves. Yes, should we 740 00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:27,160 Speaker 2: release it into the you know, wider. 741 00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:29,759 Speaker 1: World, And they'll say, well, no, but can do anything else? 742 00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:31,560 Speaker 1: And you, of course would say yeah. It can sometimes 743 00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:35,000 Speaker 1: write code, yeah exactly. And sometimes it also gets things 744 00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:36,520 Speaker 1: horribly wrong and. 745 00:37:36,680 --> 00:37:40,879 Speaker 2: It writes bad pros. Yeah like, and it just kind 746 00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:43,719 Speaker 2: of makes everything feel kind of mediocre and smeared out, 747 00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:49,000 Speaker 2: yes exactly, like, yeah exactly, and it makes some people 748 00:37:49,239 --> 00:37:50,160 Speaker 2: go crazy. 749 00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:52,600 Speaker 1: And yeah, it drives people to actually, yeah, how do 750 00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:55,279 Speaker 1: you feel about that? Like, how do you like did 751 00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:57,200 Speaker 1: you see this coming? Because this really jumped out No. 752 00:37:57,520 --> 00:37:59,759 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, no, this surprised me. This did surprise the hell 753 00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:05,279 Speaker 2: out of me because I think that you know, these machines, 754 00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:08,800 Speaker 2: I don't even like calling them AI right, because I 755 00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:11,000 Speaker 2: think that's a marketing term. It is. Yeah, like if 756 00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:14,320 Speaker 2: you go back in time to you know, nineteen ninety 757 00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:18,000 Speaker 2: and tell me when I'm a kid, Hey, I have 758 00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:20,000 Speaker 2: a little device in my pocket that lets me talk 759 00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:24,560 Speaker 2: to an AI and and then you know, I would 760 00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:27,000 Speaker 2: have thought, oh, like that lets me talk to you know, 761 00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:30,879 Speaker 2: like command or data from start exciting, And instead it's this, 762 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:32,799 Speaker 2: and I would have been like, what the hell is that? No, 763 00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:37,440 Speaker 2: AI is this marketing term. It's it's a text generation engine. 764 00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:44,440 Speaker 2: It it it produces you know, homogenized thought like product. 765 00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:45,920 Speaker 2: I was. 766 00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:49,080 Speaker 1: Also, I'm in the midst of a long one as usual. 767 00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:54,200 Speaker 1: It also conflates doing stuff with outputs. I know that 768 00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:56,200 Speaker 1: sounds kind of flat, but it's like that everything is 769 00:38:56,239 --> 00:38:59,359 Speaker 1: a unit of work rather than actually creating stuff. Well 770 00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:00,920 Speaker 1: that you pay an you pay a person for their 771 00:39:00,960 --> 00:39:04,640 Speaker 1: experience too. And it's just also not very good at 772 00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:08,280 Speaker 1: Stuff's pissing me. No, really, it's really bad at stuff. 773 00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:10,360 Speaker 2: It is. And I think, and I think that's where 774 00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:13,640 Speaker 2: you know, this sort of driving people insane is coming from, right, 775 00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:18,600 Speaker 2: Like I I like what I missed. The reason I 776 00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:21,080 Speaker 2: think I didn't see that coming is I failed to 777 00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:26,279 Speaker 2: think about how like I knew that these things just 778 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:28,200 Speaker 2: generate text and in a lot of ways they just 779 00:39:28,239 --> 00:39:31,960 Speaker 2: sort of spit out back to you what you put 780 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:34,640 Speaker 2: in right, right, which is which is an old thing 781 00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:37,400 Speaker 2: with chatbots that goes way before the LMS, goes all 782 00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:38,920 Speaker 2: the way back to Eliza, right. 783 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:41,600 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and that was the first the first AI computer. 784 00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:44,839 Speaker 2: Yeah, the first chapter. I wouldn't even call Eliza AI, right, 785 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:45,520 Speaker 2: And even. 786 00:39:45,320 --> 00:39:47,719 Speaker 1: The creator of Eliza, god huz. Yeah, this is from 787 00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:50,640 Speaker 1: Karen Howe's Empire of AI. Great bit about it in there. 788 00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:53,440 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Yeah, no, no, no, Eliza. Eliza was just 789 00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:56,520 Speaker 2: like a one hundred or so lines of code that 790 00:39:56,600 --> 00:39:58,360 Speaker 2: you know, you'd say I'm having a bad day, and 791 00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:00,319 Speaker 2: it would say, oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah, 792 00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:03,279 Speaker 2: why are you having a bad day? Right? 793 00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:08,400 Speaker 1: But like the gassing engine, the yeah. 794 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:10,759 Speaker 2: Like that's the thing I didn't think about. Oh wait, 795 00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:13,200 Speaker 2: if it just repeats back what you put in, but 796 00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:15,600 Speaker 2: it does it in a way that's compelling and convincing 797 00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:18,160 Speaker 2: to some people, that's going to just get them sort 798 00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:21,400 Speaker 2: of caught in this like dope meine self validation loop, 799 00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:23,560 Speaker 2: and that could drive them off the edge. 800 00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:26,400 Speaker 1: And I think that there is a condescension. I judge 801 00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:28,480 Speaker 1: myself for this where I was like, oh, this doesn't 802 00:40:28,480 --> 00:40:32,480 Speaker 1: fool me, and it's like, but the harm also of 803 00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:34,759 Speaker 1: I'm very I'm blessed to have tons of people who 804 00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:38,360 Speaker 1: love me who also you give me clear feedback, which 805 00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:40,040 Speaker 1: is not just what I want to hear. But I 806 00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:42,960 Speaker 1: definitely when I was younger and very depressed, like crave 807 00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:45,719 Speaker 1: validation and crave someone to just tell me what I 808 00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:49,080 Speaker 1: want to hear, I definitely never thought what if someone did, 809 00:40:49,280 --> 00:40:53,719 Speaker 1: and the actual danger of having every fucking thought validated, 810 00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:57,000 Speaker 1: and also just the sheer horrors Like Matt Hughes, my 811 00:40:57,160 --> 00:40:58,960 Speaker 1: editor just did a great story about this kind of 812 00:40:58,960 --> 00:41:01,560 Speaker 1: horrible story where he's simulated someone going through a mental 813 00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:05,120 Speaker 1: health episode, and Claude was very clear to go, yeah, man, 814 00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:07,240 Speaker 1: you don't seem so good, chatchip. It's like, no, everyone 815 00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,719 Speaker 1: is not to get you made. Yeah, actually, it's in 816 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:12,719 Speaker 1: any other tick in the world did this. You'd shut 817 00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:15,400 Speaker 1: the ship down immediately. Yeah, exactly, close it, you know, 818 00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:18,200 Speaker 1: But where's fucking Eliezer on this bullshit? 819 00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:19,479 Speaker 2: Because this feels like. 820 00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:22,279 Speaker 1: If you write a book about how everyone dies, this 821 00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:24,720 Speaker 1: should be the thing that if he actually believed in anything, 822 00:41:25,160 --> 00:41:27,360 Speaker 1: would he should be up saying like, hey, look, this 823 00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:28,560 Speaker 1: is what I was talking about. 824 00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:30,719 Speaker 2: Oh, I mean I I do think that he thinks 825 00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:34,120 Speaker 2: this is like an incipient version of what he's talking about. 826 00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:36,120 Speaker 2: I think, like a baby version. I think he loves it. 827 00:41:36,239 --> 00:41:39,279 Speaker 2: I think I think it helps him out well. I 828 00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:43,680 Speaker 2: think that he finds that useful for making the argument 829 00:41:43,719 --> 00:41:46,680 Speaker 2: that he made exactly. But he is not again the 830 00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:48,920 Speaker 2: argument he's making. And this is the only nice thing 831 00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:52,040 Speaker 2: I'll say about him. He means it, seriously, He's not 832 00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:55,520 Speaker 2: a grifter. He's three anxiety disorders in a trench coat. 833 00:41:56,960 --> 00:42:00,560 Speaker 1: Damn you put that on a fucking book, coach, stupid ass. 834 00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:16,400 Speaker 1: I can't think of any other movement in tech ever, Yeah, 835 00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:19,120 Speaker 1: there is anything like this, specifically because of how much 836 00:42:19,160 --> 00:42:21,000 Speaker 1: it sucks us, Like, I can't think of any maybe 837 00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:23,160 Speaker 1: the metavers and crypto, but even then, I don't like 838 00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:25,560 Speaker 1: the comparison. Yeah, they're so much smaller. 839 00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:29,279 Speaker 2: Honestly, what I keep thinking about is is that in 840 00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:33,600 Speaker 2: a way, it is taking the daily experience of the 841 00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:37,399 Speaker 2: tech billionaires and like bringing it to the masses, right, 842 00:42:37,440 --> 00:42:38,120 Speaker 2: because what is it? 843 00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:38,480 Speaker 1: Low? 844 00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:43,440 Speaker 2: Yeah, what is it like to be Sam Altman? 845 00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:43,839 Speaker 1: Right? 846 00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:47,479 Speaker 2: You've got billions of dollars and you're surrounded by people 847 00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:50,520 Speaker 2: who will never tell you no and validate your every thought. 848 00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:53,400 Speaker 1: And they'll convince you that you understand every subject exactly. 849 00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:55,959 Speaker 2: Yeah, and now, well. 850 00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:58,239 Speaker 1: I've been saying this as well, because if you're an executive, 851 00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:01,520 Speaker 1: a machine that can write emails, readium and otherwise you 852 00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:03,600 Speaker 1: go to lunch, it's kind of magic. Yeah, but no, 853 00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:05,839 Speaker 1: I like this idea that it's the extension as well, 854 00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:09,360 Speaker 1: just this completely like separate thing that just as Yeah, 855 00:43:09,400 --> 00:43:11,160 Speaker 1: that's completely right, man, I fully agree. 856 00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:14,080 Speaker 2: Right, And so of course they don't see the harm 857 00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:17,800 Speaker 2: because that's their entire goddamn all that happens, and so 858 00:43:17,840 --> 00:43:19,800 Speaker 2: the well, but if this were bad for people, that 859 00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:21,880 Speaker 2: would mean that, you know, I'm in a bad environment. 860 00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:24,600 Speaker 2: That's unhealthy for me, and like, yeah, actually it is, 861 00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:26,719 Speaker 2: but they don't think they don't think that. But I 862 00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:31,359 Speaker 2: genuinely believe that like the best thing for the tech 863 00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:33,680 Speaker 2: billionaires themselves that could happen to them would be to 864 00:43:33,719 --> 00:43:35,319 Speaker 2: lose all their money, would be the best thing for 865 00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:37,040 Speaker 2: their mental health, put man of them. 866 00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:39,960 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, let me get them on the show. I 867 00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:41,799 Speaker 1: think that I could have a great chat with any 868 00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:45,400 Speaker 1: of them. Sure, just because I went to a private school. 869 00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:48,719 Speaker 1: Like a lot of these American billionaires as well, they 870 00:43:48,719 --> 00:43:52,440 Speaker 1: would get destroyed by the average scum aristocrats of old 871 00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:55,160 Speaker 1: in England, like the real blood drinkers. 872 00:43:56,520 --> 00:43:57,680 Speaker 2: They're amateur vampire. 873 00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:01,759 Speaker 1: No they really are though, like like they It's the 874 00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:05,120 Speaker 1: classic thing why British colonialism and American colonialism have never 875 00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:08,240 Speaker 1: matched up, because Britain was just evil. They just fucking 876 00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:10,480 Speaker 1: murdered people and destroyed communities. And they're like, why are 877 00:44:10,440 --> 00:44:11,960 Speaker 1: we're doing this? Of course we're British. This is what 878 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:14,880 Speaker 1: we do here. What do you mean, what's a moral? 879 00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:15,640 Speaker 1: I've not heard of that. 880 00:44:16,200 --> 00:44:17,040 Speaker 2: No, what do you mean? 881 00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:19,840 Speaker 1: No? No, send my send my eighth cousin to to Africa, 882 00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:23,240 Speaker 1: shoot whoever you see. Like that was the horrifying stuff. 883 00:44:23,280 --> 00:44:26,680 Speaker 1: But they knew they didn't care about what people think. 884 00:44:26,719 --> 00:44:28,240 Speaker 1: I still think the billionaires care. 885 00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:30,360 Speaker 2: Oh, they definitely do. Like this is this is the 886 00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:31,160 Speaker 2: thing that which. 887 00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:33,040 Speaker 1: Is insane to me. If I had had one billion dollars, 888 00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:34,160 Speaker 1: I would no longer care. 889 00:44:34,280 --> 00:44:36,360 Speaker 2: Well, if I had a billion dollars, I would just 890 00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:39,040 Speaker 2: try to make sure that nobody knew my name and 891 00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:40,480 Speaker 2: that you know, it's the same amount. 892 00:44:40,640 --> 00:44:42,759 Speaker 1: Yeah, well I would be posting. 893 00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:45,080 Speaker 2: No, I think I think I'd just be done. Man, 894 00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:47,800 Speaker 2: I'd be like, okay, cool, you know, I'm gonna donate 895 00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:50,279 Speaker 2: to a bunch of causes that mattered to men, and 896 00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:52,399 Speaker 2: you know, like I still think it's bad for them 897 00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:54,640 Speaker 2: to be billionaires, and I try to try to change that, 898 00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:57,200 Speaker 2: but also like I'm just just gonna, like, you know, 899 00:44:57,400 --> 00:44:59,400 Speaker 2: hang out in a nice house with my friends and 900 00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:00,000 Speaker 2: have a good time. 901 00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:03,000 Speaker 1: That's the problem though they don't have those. 902 00:45:03,160 --> 00:45:04,480 Speaker 2: Well, yeah, because you've heard that. 903 00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:06,799 Speaker 1: Have you ever heard the really depressing story about Elon 904 00:45:06,880 --> 00:45:10,080 Speaker 1: Musk and this guy called here was this investor who 905 00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:13,560 Speaker 1: got really cooked by COVID Peter something, and he know 906 00:45:13,680 --> 00:45:15,920 Speaker 1: this story of going over to Elon Musk's house and 907 00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:18,839 Speaker 1: there was a decanter of wine and Elon Musk picked 908 00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:21,160 Speaker 1: up the wine before it's done decanting, and then something 909 00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:23,319 Speaker 1: said something along the lines of honey, badger, don't care. 910 00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:25,120 Speaker 1: And I just want to say, that's one of the 911 00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:29,040 Speaker 1: saddest fucking things I've heard in my life, just absolutely, 912 00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:32,160 Speaker 1: just unfathomably depressing. Because you can get things like a 913 00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:34,760 Speaker 1: coravan that can kind of aerrate it. There are various 914 00:45:34,760 --> 00:45:37,160 Speaker 1: ways around ourration. If you're really feeling it and you 915 00:45:37,280 --> 00:45:40,240 Speaker 1: have hundreds of billions or what, however many many dollars 916 00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:44,520 Speaker 1: Elon has liquid, you could just have someone whose job 917 00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:46,799 Speaker 1: is to make sure the wine is errated. They could 918 00:45:46,840 --> 00:45:48,560 Speaker 1: make two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. It 919 00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:50,520 Speaker 1: wouldn't matter to you. That's what you lose in the couch. 920 00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:53,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, but I think that what matters to Elon is 921 00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:56,120 Speaker 2: not doing what he's supposed to do, right. Yeah, he 922 00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:57,719 Speaker 2: can be seen as cool. 923 00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:00,319 Speaker 1: Or just drinking as quickly well, because otherwise he might 924 00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:01,080 Speaker 1: feel something. 925 00:46:01,280 --> 00:46:04,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I just he desperately wants to be 926 00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:06,680 Speaker 2: liked and it's never gonna happen. 927 00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:08,839 Speaker 1: It's so funny as well, because it could be so 928 00:46:08,920 --> 00:46:10,920 Speaker 1: easy for him. I know, he could just post this 929 00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:12,759 Speaker 1: lunch every day and nothing else. Then would be like, 930 00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:15,560 Speaker 1: look at this is actually what pisses me off as well, though, 931 00:46:15,560 --> 00:46:18,239 Speaker 1: because people like el must fucking sucks. It's like he 932 00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:21,720 Speaker 1: was sending people off to Aaron Bieber, a science reporter. 933 00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:23,839 Speaker 2: In twenty one's a friend of mine. 934 00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:26,680 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's p and like when that happened, not a 935 00:46:26,719 --> 00:46:29,120 Speaker 1: single Kara Swisher didn't say shit, then here Kevin Rouse 936 00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:31,480 Speaker 1: Case and you and on these fucking people I thought necessary, 937 00:46:31,520 --> 00:46:31,920 Speaker 1: but now. 938 00:46:31,800 --> 00:46:33,960 Speaker 2: Like must have such a bad guy. He's such a 939 00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:35,480 Speaker 2: bad No, he's always been like. 940 00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:38,040 Speaker 1: And also he called a guy a pedophile for saving 941 00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:41,600 Speaker 1: children yep, because he wasn't allowed to send his submarine. 942 00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:45,000 Speaker 2: No, he's never been good like this is this is 943 00:46:45,040 --> 00:46:46,000 Speaker 2: the thing that I. 944 00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:48,399 Speaker 1: Don't think any of these people enjoy anything as much 945 00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:51,680 Speaker 1: as I enjoyed diet coke. Like I'm one hundred percent 946 00:46:51,680 --> 00:46:53,600 Speaker 1: sure of that, because I love these things. Like it's 947 00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:56,040 Speaker 1: if this kills me, if this shit's meant to like 948 00:46:56,120 --> 00:46:58,719 Speaker 1: in three years, they're like, it's rat blood, Like I'm like, 949 00:46:58,800 --> 00:46:59,200 Speaker 1: I will. 950 00:46:59,120 --> 00:47:02,160 Speaker 2: Keep drinking offline brought to you by Diet Coke. 951 00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:06,719 Speaker 1: It's rap blood. I really hope that you spokes the 952 00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:09,239 Speaker 1: show at one point, so that's the commercial. But that's 953 00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:11,640 Speaker 1: the thing, Like I'm only kind of joking because it's 954 00:47:11,840 --> 00:47:13,840 Speaker 1: I really enjoyed that coke. I'm sitting down chat and 955 00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:15,719 Speaker 1: chew with my friends. I love watching football with chat 956 00:47:15,719 --> 00:47:18,160 Speaker 1: with my friends. Like it's like there are very basic 957 00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:20,560 Speaker 1: things I enjoy. What do these people Like? These people 958 00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:23,240 Speaker 1: just must walk around in this haze of anger, yeah, 959 00:47:23,320 --> 00:47:24,640 Speaker 1: or like emptiness. 960 00:47:24,719 --> 00:47:27,160 Speaker 2: I think they're they're really cut off from their own emotions, 961 00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:29,640 Speaker 2: right and like and again, that's gonna happen if you 962 00:47:29,680 --> 00:47:33,040 Speaker 2: just constantly get validation, right, you know. One of one 963 00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:36,360 Speaker 2: of the many tweets from back when Twitter was less shitty, 964 00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:40,080 Speaker 2: before Musk bought it. There are many tweets that just 965 00:47:40,120 --> 00:47:41,840 Speaker 2: like live rent free in my head, and one of 966 00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:48,239 Speaker 2: them is about the cognitive impact of being a billionaire. Yeah, 967 00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:50,840 Speaker 2: it ends. It's like, you know, like everything around you 968 00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:56,160 Speaker 2: is really expensive. It's just a constant every chair fifty Yeah, 969 00:47:56,160 --> 00:47:58,600 Speaker 2: in terms of the cognitive impact, it must be you know, 970 00:47:58,680 --> 00:48:00,719 Speaker 2: roughly equivalent to being kicked in the head by a 971 00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:02,719 Speaker 2: horse every day exactly. Yeah. 972 00:48:02,760 --> 00:48:06,600 Speaker 1: I think I'd be fine, but that's my pathology, I guess, 973 00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:10,080 Speaker 1: but it no, but it's they have this weird isolated thing. 974 00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:13,120 Speaker 1: And even Benioff, who used to seem okay. 975 00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:15,400 Speaker 2: Well, I mean he his whole game was like to 976 00:48:15,480 --> 00:48:17,480 Speaker 2: be the best of the billionaires. 977 00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:19,359 Speaker 1: Which love are, and then he was just like, ah, 978 00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:22,480 Speaker 1: fuck it, yep, just fuck it. I don't give a 979 00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:26,200 Speaker 1: shit anymore. Yeah, Agent Force, it doesn't sell to anyone. 980 00:48:26,239 --> 00:48:28,600 Speaker 1: No one likes it, but it's the future agent for 981 00:48:28,719 --> 00:48:30,680 Speaker 1: us Jesus, he's. 982 00:48:30,520 --> 00:48:32,160 Speaker 2: Donated to all. I know, it's so cool. 983 00:48:32,239 --> 00:48:34,480 Speaker 1: It must be really cool being a guy who actually 984 00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:38,799 Speaker 1: has qualifications and from from proving things to watch the 985 00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:40,880 Speaker 1: world like all these guys being like, yeah, this is 986 00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:43,279 Speaker 1: the future and just because want to go it doesn't work. 987 00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:45,960 Speaker 2: No one likes it. Yeah, I mean cool is one word. 988 00:48:46,120 --> 00:48:47,800 Speaker 2: Incredibly frustrating is another. 989 00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:50,920 Speaker 1: Right, this is this is stymying real innovation. 990 00:48:51,160 --> 00:48:54,440 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I know there's opportunity costs and and also 991 00:48:54,640 --> 00:48:59,080 Speaker 2: just like actual stifling of real innovation in the effort 992 00:48:59,160 --> 00:49:02,319 Speaker 2: to achieve even possible ends that would be bad even 993 00:49:02,360 --> 00:49:03,560 Speaker 2: if we could achieve them. 994 00:49:03,719 --> 00:49:08,040 Speaker 1: So slight directional shift. Is there anything within like science 995 00:49:08,040 --> 00:49:10,640 Speaker 1: and tech innovation that you're actually excited about? Anything you 996 00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:12,400 Speaker 1: look at and like that's fucking cool. 997 00:49:12,560 --> 00:49:14,759 Speaker 2: I mean mRNA vaccines are the first thing that comes 998 00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:16,760 Speaker 2: about exactly. Yeah, they're really awesome. 999 00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:17,520 Speaker 1: Tell them. 1000 00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:21,160 Speaker 2: I mean, like, look, you know the fact and what is. 1001 00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:24,279 Speaker 1: An mri NA vaccine said flawlessly. 1002 00:49:23,960 --> 00:49:31,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, an m now I'm able. Yeah, and mRNA vaccine. 1003 00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:36,640 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the kind of thing that that you know, 1004 00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:41,799 Speaker 3: we have with the COVID vaccines, right, Basically, the thing 1005 00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:43,880 Speaker 3: that's so exciting about them is that they are so 1006 00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:49,560 Speaker 3: much easier and faster to synthesize, right than previous vaccines. 1007 00:49:50,520 --> 00:49:53,960 Speaker 2: You know, I think the previous record before the COVID vaccine, 1008 00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:58,080 Speaker 2: for you know, how long it took to develop a safe, 1009 00:49:58,080 --> 00:50:02,000 Speaker 2: widely deployed vaccine with something like five to ten years, Jesus, 1010 00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:05,719 Speaker 2: And then this vaccine. Most of the time delay, most 1011 00:50:05,719 --> 00:50:08,200 Speaker 2: of that year that we were waiting for the vaccine 1012 00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:12,480 Speaker 2: was actually a little less than a year. Most of 1013 00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:15,640 Speaker 2: that was testing. The actual time that it took to 1014 00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:18,399 Speaker 2: synthesize the damn thing was I believe on the order 1015 00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:19,000 Speaker 2: of weeks. 1016 00:50:19,040 --> 00:50:22,200 Speaker 1: And what's crazy is I believe that was venture backed, right, Yeah, 1017 00:50:22,200 --> 00:50:24,000 Speaker 1: some of it was venture backed, which is like, see 1018 00:50:24,040 --> 00:50:25,440 Speaker 1: venu capital can be useful. 1019 00:50:25,239 --> 00:50:28,880 Speaker 2: Yeah, it can be, but once Yeah, some of it 1020 00:50:28,920 --> 00:50:31,080 Speaker 2: was venture backed. Some of it was backed by you know, 1021 00:50:31,239 --> 00:50:35,279 Speaker 2: NIH grants. We do need those, yeah, we surefucking do. 1022 00:50:36,239 --> 00:50:36,319 Speaker 1: No. 1023 00:50:36,480 --> 00:50:41,279 Speaker 2: Government funding of basic research is important and not just 1024 00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:45,640 Speaker 2: because it leads to amazing technological breakthroughs like mRNA vaccines, 1025 00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:50,480 Speaker 2: but also because, like basic scientific research is an important 1026 00:50:50,560 --> 00:50:54,400 Speaker 2: thing for humans to do, like the same way that 1027 00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:58,839 Speaker 2: art is important, right, right, but it also does enable 1028 00:50:58,880 --> 00:51:04,480 Speaker 2: a massive scientific and technological breakthroughs. And I you know, 1029 00:51:04,880 --> 00:51:08,840 Speaker 2: there's promise for MR and A vaccines to like open 1030 00:51:08,960 --> 00:51:12,920 Speaker 2: up a whole new class of vaccines that you know, 1031 00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:16,200 Speaker 2: for things that were previously very hard to vaccinate against. 1032 00:51:17,080 --> 00:51:19,120 Speaker 2: I am not an expert in the field, but like 1033 00:51:19,200 --> 00:51:23,480 Speaker 2: everyone I know who works in biomedicine, they they're all 1034 00:51:23,600 --> 00:51:26,040 Speaker 2: very excited about this, and they're all really depressed by 1035 00:51:26,080 --> 00:51:30,560 Speaker 2: the fact that, you know, we have an antifactor who 1036 00:51:30,680 --> 00:51:33,840 Speaker 2: sounds like a fork that got stuck in a fucking 1037 00:51:33,960 --> 00:51:36,320 Speaker 2: garbage disposal as the Health. 1038 00:51:36,480 --> 00:51:39,680 Speaker 1: And Rise from your Grave guy from that one video. Yeah, yeah, 1039 00:51:39,920 --> 00:51:43,160 Speaker 1: very depressing. I I just wish we were like green 1040 00:51:43,280 --> 00:51:44,840 Speaker 1: energy as well. Feels like an oh. 1041 00:51:44,719 --> 00:51:47,720 Speaker 2: Yeah, green energy was the next thing I was gonna say, Yeah, batteries, 1042 00:51:47,800 --> 00:51:49,400 Speaker 2: solar panels. It's incredible. 1043 00:51:50,960 --> 00:51:54,400 Speaker 1: Uh, this opportunity is there. Yeah, it's we need to innovate, 1044 00:51:55,040 --> 00:51:56,040 Speaker 1: Like we are innovating. 1045 00:51:56,120 --> 00:51:59,440 Speaker 2: But like, yeah, and also like we even had the 1046 00:51:59,560 --> 00:52:02,000 Speaker 2: legislation that we needed, right or some of it right, 1047 00:52:02,120 --> 00:52:06,319 Speaker 2: like the you know Biden's big bill, the Build Back 1048 00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:11,080 Speaker 2: Better It uh, you know, was not a perfect bill, 1049 00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:16,440 Speaker 2: but it was the best environmental bill in American history. Yeah, 1050 00:52:16,480 --> 00:52:20,439 Speaker 2: and and now you know, it's being destroyed because we 1051 00:52:20,560 --> 00:52:23,200 Speaker 2: have a government in this country that that you know, 1052 00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:26,960 Speaker 2: does not believe in climate change and doesn't believe in 1053 00:52:27,000 --> 00:52:29,400 Speaker 2: anything other than short term profits at the expense of 1054 00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:32,640 Speaker 2: everybody else, and also doesn't believe in democracy. 1055 00:52:32,719 --> 00:52:34,920 Speaker 1: That feels that feels like a big problem though, the 1056 00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:37,279 Speaker 1: growth it all cause, Yeah. 1057 00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:39,400 Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's the thing. And that's why my 1058 00:52:39,440 --> 00:52:42,200 Speaker 2: book has the actual title that it does, rather than 1059 00:52:42,239 --> 00:52:43,800 Speaker 2: going with the title these fucking people. 1060 00:52:44,040 --> 00:52:46,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, so these fucking people or just the Bostards. I 1061 00:52:46,600 --> 00:52:47,960 Speaker 1: think it is also very good too. 1062 00:52:48,080 --> 00:52:50,800 Speaker 2: I think so too. I mean, like there's ah, it 1063 00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:52,600 Speaker 2: would be so easy for them to do better, No, 1064 00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:57,360 Speaker 2: like you know, to forget forget the best thing that 1065 00:52:57,360 --> 00:52:59,840 Speaker 2: they could do. They're doing some of the worst things 1066 00:52:59,840 --> 00:53:01,759 Speaker 2: that they could do. Doing better than they are right 1067 00:53:01,760 --> 00:53:03,239 Speaker 2: now is just an incredibly low but. 1068 00:53:03,560 --> 00:53:09,360 Speaker 1: Even through like very poorly guided generosity, they could very easily. Yeah, 1069 00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:11,880 Speaker 1: they could just fund media outlets versus whatever it is 1070 00:53:11,880 --> 00:53:14,560 Speaker 1: they're doing to them, tearing them down. 1071 00:53:14,680 --> 00:53:17,440 Speaker 2: But that would mean, you know the possibility of losing 1072 00:53:17,480 --> 00:53:22,320 Speaker 2: control and losing you know, losing some of their power 1073 00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:24,359 Speaker 2: and money, and they just are not willing to do 1074 00:53:24,400 --> 00:53:27,200 Speaker 2: that because they've got something broken in their hearts. 1075 00:53:27,920 --> 00:53:30,680 Speaker 1: We need to heal them. No, now I think that, 1076 00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:31,320 Speaker 1: I think. 1077 00:53:31,239 --> 00:53:32,960 Speaker 2: I think we need to tax their money away. 1078 00:53:33,080 --> 00:53:36,320 Speaker 1: I think that too, but I think we actually true. 1079 00:53:36,360 --> 00:53:38,680 Speaker 1: My truth here is that we need to change how 1080 00:53:38,719 --> 00:53:41,360 Speaker 1: we do that though. We need to start doing executive 1081 00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:44,160 Speaker 1: liability hmmm. We need to make it so if like 1082 00:53:44,200 --> 00:53:48,160 Speaker 1: CrowdStrike happens again, like a bunch of people potentially get 1083 00:53:48,200 --> 00:53:50,560 Speaker 1: diye in the NHS system because the computer shuts down, 1084 00:53:50,560 --> 00:53:52,719 Speaker 1: that satch and a DELA can lose something because it 1085 00:53:52,800 --> 00:53:55,160 Speaker 1: isn't enough to find the companies. Finding the company is 1086 00:53:55,200 --> 00:53:58,360 Speaker 1: not going to do shit unless you do scaling revenue 1087 00:53:58,440 --> 00:54:00,960 Speaker 1: percentage of revenue. This is this and more and how 1088 00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:01,799 Speaker 1: I become the FTC. 1089 00:54:01,960 --> 00:54:03,120 Speaker 2: No, they I'm not kind of let me. 1090 00:54:03,560 --> 00:54:07,160 Speaker 1: But it's just I feel the one of the wonderful 1091 00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:08,600 Speaker 1: things of having you on is you're able to come 1092 00:54:08,640 --> 00:54:11,480 Speaker 1: at this from a science communicator perspective. You're actually able 1093 00:54:11,480 --> 00:54:14,160 Speaker 1: to because it's not just about what these people want. 1094 00:54:14,200 --> 00:54:17,239 Speaker 1: It's the practicality of it, which is the nothing's really 1095 00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:20,080 Speaker 1: happening yep. But that's the actual weirdest thing about the 1096 00:54:20,480 --> 00:54:23,360 Speaker 1: real nihilism of this is that nothing seems to actually 1097 00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:24,480 Speaker 1: be occurring. 1098 00:54:24,680 --> 00:54:26,840 Speaker 2: Yeah, and they also act like there's not going to 1099 00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:30,439 Speaker 2: be any accountability for like, forget their actions, just even 1100 00:54:30,480 --> 00:54:34,040 Speaker 2: their words. Right, you know, Sam Altman says, you know, 1101 00:54:34,120 --> 00:54:36,080 Speaker 2: like this this thing that just drove me up a 1102 00:54:36,120 --> 00:54:38,840 Speaker 2: wall that he said about a month ago, he said that, 1103 00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:40,960 Speaker 2: you know, in ten years, college graduates are going to 1104 00:54:41,000 --> 00:54:43,880 Speaker 2: have really cool jobs going out to explore the solar 1105 00:54:43,920 --> 00:54:47,560 Speaker 2: system in the spaceships enabled by AI. That is not happening, 1106 00:54:47,960 --> 00:54:51,279 Speaker 2: like on the list of things that are not happening exploration. No, No, 1107 00:54:51,520 --> 00:54:56,399 Speaker 2: that's not happening. He is just wrong. He's lying, right, 1108 00:54:56,640 --> 00:54:59,000 Speaker 2: and he is probably still going to be alive in 1109 00:54:59,040 --> 00:55:01,560 Speaker 2: ten years, and you and I are also likely still 1110 00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:03,439 Speaker 2: going to be alive in ten years. And then we're 1111 00:55:03,480 --> 00:55:06,600 Speaker 2: gonna say, hey, remember when he said that that, you know, 1112 00:55:06,680 --> 00:55:10,560 Speaker 2: now we we can show he's just wrong and he 1113 00:55:10,719 --> 00:55:12,160 Speaker 2: and nothing's gonna happen to. 1114 00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:14,000 Speaker 1: Him and what these like this is why I'm so 1115 00:55:14,080 --> 00:55:16,319 Speaker 1: harsh on media criticism as well. Yeah, the one thing 1116 00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:18,920 Speaker 1: you can do is at least say area man full 1117 00:55:18,960 --> 00:55:21,920 Speaker 1: of shit. Yes, stupid bastard wanks off again. 1118 00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:23,719 Speaker 2: Well, this is my this is what I attempted to do. 1119 00:55:23,719 --> 00:55:24,120 Speaker 2: What you do? 1120 00:55:24,239 --> 00:55:27,560 Speaker 1: Well, yeah, and it's I think that the change that 1121 00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:29,440 Speaker 1: we need in our hearts is to just regularly say 1122 00:55:29,440 --> 00:55:30,960 Speaker 1: this stuff. I regularly say on the show. I don't 1123 00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:34,680 Speaker 1: care if you quote me, just say this shit about them. Yeah, clammy, Sammy. 1124 00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:37,080 Speaker 1: He's been promising. He said that this was the year 1125 00:55:37,120 --> 00:55:40,840 Speaker 1: of agents. He said that. I don't, but now I 1126 00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:43,360 Speaker 1: read in the Information dot Com the next year is 1127 00:55:43,400 --> 00:55:46,600 Speaker 1: the year of agents, So maybe I do. Actually, here's 1128 00:55:46,600 --> 00:55:48,880 Speaker 1: a question for you. Yeah, AI twenty twenty seven. Do 1129 00:55:48,920 --> 00:55:49,440 Speaker 1: you read that. 1130 00:55:50,040 --> 00:55:53,200 Speaker 2: He've read a little bit of it. It's nonsense. It's nonsense. Yeah. 1131 00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:56,400 Speaker 1: Why do you think things like that fool so many people? 1132 00:55:56,440 --> 00:55:56,680 Speaker 2: Though? 1133 00:55:57,680 --> 00:55:59,879 Speaker 1: Why do you think it got the media coverage it did? 1134 00:56:00,320 --> 00:56:03,879 Speaker 2: See? Sh I mean? Part of it is bad journalism, right. 1135 00:56:03,920 --> 00:56:07,400 Speaker 2: Part of it is is that Kevin Russ has confused 1136 00:56:09,840 --> 00:56:16,600 Speaker 2: Kevin and Russ has confused reiterating the views of the wealthy, 1137 00:56:16,640 --> 00:56:22,120 Speaker 2: influential and powerful with taking a brave contrarian stance. And 1138 00:56:22,160 --> 00:56:24,880 Speaker 2: how he made that mistake I don't know, but you know, 1139 00:56:25,000 --> 00:56:26,919 Speaker 2: I really get the sense that he thinks he's being 1140 00:56:27,000 --> 00:56:30,960 Speaker 2: very brave when he's doing exactly what journalists are not 1141 00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:34,840 Speaker 2: supposed to do, which is just uncritically parroting powerful. 1142 00:56:34,440 --> 00:56:36,919 Speaker 1: And it feels like it's the large language model again. 1143 00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:38,759 Speaker 1: It's just the affirming thing. It's like, oh, I'm being 1144 00:56:38,760 --> 00:56:41,040 Speaker 1: contrarian by stepping out against these people who say it 1145 00:56:41,040 --> 00:56:43,120 Speaker 1: isn't making any money and isn't very good at stuff. 1146 00:56:43,160 --> 00:56:46,160 Speaker 2: And it's like, look, buddy, if there's you know, if 1147 00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:49,080 Speaker 2: there's a two sides to a debate, I mean, obviously 1148 00:56:49,120 --> 00:56:51,040 Speaker 2: there's more than two sides, but like if on one 1149 00:56:51,120 --> 00:56:55,359 Speaker 2: side you have the wealthiest people in the world and 1150 00:56:55,400 --> 00:56:57,640 Speaker 2: on the other side you have people who say mean 1151 00:56:57,719 --> 00:57:02,400 Speaker 2: things about you personally online, and you think that you know, 1152 00:57:02,880 --> 00:57:07,320 Speaker 2: it's the first side that's the contrarian underdog. Yeah, something 1153 00:57:07,400 --> 00:57:09,359 Speaker 2: is wrong with your brain, and that's the thing. 1154 00:57:09,719 --> 00:57:12,240 Speaker 1: But this is, and this, I think is a weird 1155 00:57:12,239 --> 00:57:14,560 Speaker 1: thing in our society that we just people trust the 1156 00:57:14,680 --> 00:57:17,200 Speaker 1: rich and the media has got to a point where 1157 00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:19,840 Speaker 1: they've just bred out the real cynicism because I swear, 1158 00:57:19,880 --> 00:57:22,640 Speaker 1: like ten to fifteen years ago, you used to have 1159 00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:25,400 Speaker 1: some tech journalism, Like I read a thing about Amazon 1160 00:57:25,480 --> 00:57:28,400 Speaker 1: web services that Kevin Ross wrote and it was actually 1161 00:57:28,440 --> 00:57:30,760 Speaker 1: pretty cynical about it. Really, yeah, it was actually pretty critical. 1162 00:57:30,800 --> 00:57:32,640 Speaker 1: He then he made I feel bad for him because 1163 00:57:32,640 --> 00:57:34,600 Speaker 1: this can't be in his fault. He basically said at 1164 00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:37,440 Speaker 1: the end, Yeah, they'll never be profitable. No, no, no, 1165 00:57:37,480 --> 00:57:40,600 Speaker 1: it gets worse at a month later, Amazon announced that 1166 00:57:40,640 --> 00:57:44,400 Speaker 1: AWS is profitable for the first time. Just like Buddy 1167 00:57:45,600 --> 00:57:46,280 Speaker 1: miss the bean. 1168 00:57:46,360 --> 00:57:49,640 Speaker 2: Come on, whoa, Yeah, maybe that's the origin story. Maybe 1169 00:57:49,680 --> 00:57:51,080 Speaker 2: he was like, oh wow, I screwed that up. 1170 00:57:51,080 --> 00:57:54,320 Speaker 1: I guess I believe the origin story is actual social media. 1171 00:57:54,360 --> 00:57:56,720 Speaker 1: I think I think he felt. I actually think a 1172 00:57:56,720 --> 00:57:58,680 Speaker 1: lot of journalists think that they missed the boat on 1173 00:57:58,720 --> 00:58:02,240 Speaker 1: social media. I have been in media relations since two 1174 00:58:02,240 --> 00:58:04,919 Speaker 1: thousand and eight. I have read and this sounds insane, yeah, 1175 00:58:04,920 --> 00:58:07,520 Speaker 1: but it's true. I think I've read just about everybody's 1176 00:58:07,560 --> 00:58:11,080 Speaker 1: work since then within the tech media, at least, including Kevin's, 1177 00:58:11,400 --> 00:58:13,760 Speaker 1: and he has always had a little bit of anxiety 1178 00:58:13,800 --> 00:58:17,200 Speaker 1: that he missed social media. Nobody missed social media, not 1179 00:58:17,240 --> 00:58:20,000 Speaker 1: a single fucking one since two thousand and eight. Everybody 1180 00:58:20,120 --> 00:58:23,760 Speaker 1: was on Zuckerberg's zuck. He sucked him off at hardcore. 1181 00:58:23,840 --> 00:58:26,720 Speaker 1: Sorry sorry, but nevertheless, they were on top of this, 1182 00:58:26,760 --> 00:58:29,240 Speaker 1: they wrote about some social media was written about immediately. 1183 00:58:29,440 --> 00:58:31,760 Speaker 1: If anything, I think the media was a little slow 1184 00:58:31,800 --> 00:58:33,920 Speaker 1: to get on apps. Then they gone on hardcore. I 1185 00:58:34,120 --> 00:58:36,280 Speaker 1: know the history of this shit. I have been taking 1186 00:58:36,320 --> 00:58:40,360 Speaker 1: detailed notes. They sound crazy, but I think that there's 1187 00:58:40,440 --> 00:58:42,720 Speaker 1: just there is this weird thing of like the powerful 1188 00:58:42,760 --> 00:58:45,600 Speaker 1: would never lie to us. And then Prism came out, 1189 00:58:45,960 --> 00:58:49,600 Speaker 1: and then Cambridge Analytic happened and people are like, maybe 1190 00:58:49,680 --> 00:58:52,400 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg's bad, but he wouldn't lie to us. He would 1191 00:58:52,640 --> 00:58:55,560 Speaker 1: and they're like, well they know things we don't know. 1192 00:58:55,720 --> 00:58:58,200 Speaker 1: And that's actually another that's my favorite. AI think when 1193 00:58:58,200 --> 00:59:01,280 Speaker 1: it's like the secret things they're working on, secret things, 1194 00:59:01,640 --> 00:59:04,160 Speaker 1: secret things, sitting in the waiting in the wings, you'll 1195 00:59:04,160 --> 00:59:06,640 Speaker 1: never believe what's coming. And it's just I actually think 1196 00:59:06,720 --> 00:59:10,320 Speaker 1: it's just what's his name, Iliasuitskeva just goes to Bar's occasion. 1197 00:59:10,320 --> 00:59:13,040 Speaker 1: He's like, you'll never guess when I said, you never get. 1198 00:59:13,080 --> 00:59:15,680 Speaker 2: A okay, okay, no, I I have a thing to 1199 00:59:15,680 --> 00:59:19,240 Speaker 2: say about when like this is this is me just 1200 00:59:19,320 --> 00:59:21,400 Speaker 2: being petty and making a point that other people have 1201 00:59:21,440 --> 00:59:23,440 Speaker 2: made that yeah, of course. 1202 00:59:23,680 --> 00:59:23,760 Speaker 1: No. 1203 00:59:23,880 --> 00:59:26,480 Speaker 2: When he when he announced that he was you know, 1204 00:59:26,600 --> 00:59:30,320 Speaker 2: putting together a team to you know, just go straight 1205 00:59:30,400 --> 00:59:34,240 Speaker 2: for safe super intelligence. He meant to say when he 1206 00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:36,440 Speaker 2: posted this on social media, that he was putting together 1207 00:59:36,520 --> 00:59:39,800 Speaker 2: a crack team, but that's not what he wrote. What 1208 00:59:39,960 --> 00:59:41,840 Speaker 2: he right, He wrote that he was putting together a 1209 00:59:42,000 --> 00:59:48,000 Speaker 2: cracked team. Hmmm, crack ed, cracked, and like, yeah, actually 1210 00:59:48,040 --> 00:59:49,880 Speaker 2: you know what, Yeah, I think that's true. 1211 00:59:49,920 --> 00:59:53,280 Speaker 1: I agree, yeah, exactly. I also think him and Mary 1212 00:59:53,360 --> 00:59:57,720 Speaker 1: Moralty I can't. And so for the for the listeners, Illocitskava, 1213 00:59:57,760 --> 00:59:59,840 Speaker 1: one of the co founders of OPE and I, raised 1214 01:00:00,320 --> 01:00:03,439 Speaker 1: two billion dollars at a thirty billion dollar valuation. Mira 1215 01:00:03,520 --> 01:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Mourati did a billion some amounts some bullshit. Neither of 1216 01:00:07,840 --> 01:00:11,400 Speaker 1: these companies have told their investors how they will spend 1217 01:00:11,400 --> 01:00:13,920 Speaker 1: the money, or what on or what they will build. 1218 01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:17,080 Speaker 1: And you may think I'm being facetious. Mira Murati literally 1219 01:00:17,120 --> 01:00:20,520 Speaker 1: said to investors, I will not tell you, and then 1220 01:00:20,600 --> 01:00:24,480 Speaker 1: said I and has board rights where she can veto everyone, 1221 01:00:25,240 --> 01:00:28,120 Speaker 1: I will be honest, go for it. Fuck yeah, I 1222 01:00:28,240 --> 01:00:30,480 Speaker 1: think I think at this stage, if these people are 1223 01:00:30,480 --> 01:00:33,720 Speaker 1: so fucking stupid that you're just like, I promise you 1224 01:00:33,800 --> 01:00:37,320 Speaker 1: literally nothing. I won't give you you hogs a single 1225 01:00:37,440 --> 01:00:39,600 Speaker 1: oinc You're not gonna get anything from me. Give me 1226 01:00:39,680 --> 01:00:42,560 Speaker 1: money now, fuck yeah, go for it. But on the 1227 01:00:42,560 --> 01:00:45,120 Speaker 1: other hand, I cannot wait for the investigation. 1228 01:00:46,400 --> 01:00:48,360 Speaker 2: I just hope there is one. Right. These people are 1229 01:00:48,400 --> 01:00:53,480 Speaker 2: acting with impunity like and and also like again accountability 1230 01:00:53,640 --> 01:00:57,240 Speaker 2: just for their words. Right. The most basic criticism of 1231 01:00:57,280 --> 01:01:01,600 Speaker 2: the wealthy in media like this is to shift just 1232 01:01:01,640 --> 01:01:06,520 Speaker 2: a little bit. Eric Schmidt right said about about a 1233 01:01:06,560 --> 01:01:09,560 Speaker 2: year ago, shortly before the election, he said, we're never 1234 01:01:09,600 --> 01:01:12,560 Speaker 2: going to meet our climate goals anyway, so we might 1235 01:01:12,640 --> 01:01:14,920 Speaker 2: as well just burn as much carbon and use as 1236 01:01:14,920 --> 01:01:18,080 Speaker 2: many resources as possible to get to AGI, and then 1237 01:01:18,080 --> 01:01:20,560 Speaker 2: that will solve climate change for us, which is ridiculous 1238 01:01:20,560 --> 01:01:21,960 Speaker 2: because we don't so cool. 1239 01:01:22,080 --> 01:01:25,080 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Like we have no responsibility for our actions 1240 01:01:25,200 --> 01:01:26,880 Speaker 1: until we hand them off to someone else. 1241 01:01:27,160 --> 01:01:30,360 Speaker 2: Right, So he said this, which is ridiculous for lots 1242 01:01:30,360 --> 01:01:33,040 Speaker 2: of reasons, and echo stuff that Sam Altman has said, right, 1243 01:01:33,120 --> 01:01:36,400 Speaker 2: It's it's ridiculous among other reasons, because like AGI is 1244 01:01:36,440 --> 01:01:40,000 Speaker 2: not a thing, and also because we don't need like 1245 01:01:40,440 --> 01:01:43,600 Speaker 2: we know what we need to do to solve global warming, right, 1246 01:01:43,640 --> 01:01:44,800 Speaker 2: we know what we need to do to solve the 1247 01:01:44,840 --> 01:01:47,080 Speaker 2: climate crisis is just a matter of actually getting everybody. 1248 01:01:47,200 --> 01:01:49,920 Speaker 1: I don't need to do it, but may sam Oltman 1249 01:01:50,080 --> 01:01:51,800 Speaker 1: said that they know what they need to do to 1250 01:01:51,800 --> 01:01:54,439 Speaker 1: get to AGI, and then said a few months later 1251 01:01:54,480 --> 01:01:55,919 Speaker 1: that agi wasn't a useful term. 1252 01:01:56,400 --> 01:01:58,640 Speaker 2: Q D, Well, no, this is this is exactly what 1253 01:01:58,680 --> 01:02:01,440 Speaker 2: I was about to say about right. He repeats this 1254 01:02:01,560 --> 01:02:04,000 Speaker 2: claim about like just pushing as hard as we can 1255 01:02:04,640 --> 01:02:07,840 Speaker 2: about a month after the last time he said it, 1256 01:02:07,920 --> 01:02:12,880 Speaker 2: maybe two months. Only a few weeks ago he comes 1257 01:02:12,920 --> 01:02:14,960 Speaker 2: out in the New York Times with this op ed saying, oh, 1258 01:02:15,040 --> 01:02:18,360 Speaker 2: AGI is not really a thing and we shouldn't care 1259 01:02:18,360 --> 01:02:21,680 Speaker 2: about it. It's like, buddy, you were saying just a 1260 01:02:21,720 --> 01:02:24,920 Speaker 2: few weeks ago that this was gonna save the world 1261 01:02:24,920 --> 01:02:27,560 Speaker 2: from the biggest emergency of our time, and now you're 1262 01:02:27,600 --> 01:02:30,400 Speaker 2: saying it's not a thing. Do you think we're all stupid? 1263 01:02:30,720 --> 01:02:33,480 Speaker 2: Are you that stupid? What the fuck is going on? 1264 01:02:33,520 --> 01:02:35,440 Speaker 1: I can actually tell you. I think he thinks the 1265 01:02:35,480 --> 01:02:38,760 Speaker 1: meteor is that stupid and will write and we'll publish anything. 1266 01:02:38,800 --> 01:02:40,920 Speaker 2: He says. I mean to see that the New York 1267 01:02:40,920 --> 01:02:41,680 Speaker 2: Times published it. 1268 01:02:41,760 --> 01:02:44,360 Speaker 1: I wasn't Yeah, I would be honest. That's the least 1269 01:02:45,280 --> 01:02:47,880 Speaker 1: we've got fucking Ezra Klein being like, hey, geis the 1270 01:02:48,200 --> 01:02:53,959 Speaker 1: fucking Ezra Ezra? What a peculiar fella, What a peculiar fella, 1271 01:02:54,080 --> 01:02:57,240 Speaker 1: Ezbra Klein is? What's going on there? You ever run 1272 01:02:57,280 --> 01:02:58,000 Speaker 1: into mister Klein. 1273 01:02:58,440 --> 01:03:00,880 Speaker 2: I've never met him directly, I know people who know him, 1274 01:03:01,000 --> 01:03:04,000 Speaker 2: but now I think I think he just hung out 1275 01:03:04,040 --> 01:03:06,400 Speaker 2: with too many tech billionaire as while he was living 1276 01:03:06,400 --> 01:03:08,680 Speaker 2: in the Bay Area. He's this fucking mind poison. These 1277 01:03:08,680 --> 01:03:11,680 Speaker 2: people are boring. Yeah, these people are bored. 1278 01:03:11,720 --> 01:03:12,280 Speaker 1: You sit down. 1279 01:03:12,440 --> 01:03:15,919 Speaker 2: They have amounts of money. And like, if you're if 1280 01:03:15,920 --> 01:03:19,840 Speaker 2: you're someone who's never been cool and they have been cool, 1281 01:03:19,840 --> 01:03:22,280 Speaker 2: and I've also never been cool, love it, don't I know? 1282 01:03:22,440 --> 01:03:24,600 Speaker 2: But like, if you've never been cool, one of two 1283 01:03:24,680 --> 01:03:26,960 Speaker 2: things happens to you as you grow up. Either you 1284 01:03:27,240 --> 01:03:30,520 Speaker 2: desperately want to be cool and that can, you know, 1285 01:03:30,560 --> 01:03:34,840 Speaker 2: go wrong in many different ways, like Musk and possibly 1286 01:03:34,920 --> 01:03:37,760 Speaker 2: like Klein. I don't know, maybe like I'm willing to 1287 01:03:37,800 --> 01:03:39,680 Speaker 2: believe that something else is going on with him. I 1288 01:03:39,760 --> 01:03:43,120 Speaker 2: don't know. But or you become like us and you 1289 01:03:43,160 --> 01:03:46,240 Speaker 2: stop giving a shit yeah, and you accept oh, I'm 1290 01:03:46,280 --> 01:03:49,760 Speaker 2: just permanently uncool. Whatever, I'll make my way through life. 1291 01:03:49,840 --> 01:03:52,880 Speaker 1: And that's the thing. It's these people are just disconnected 1292 01:03:52,920 --> 01:03:55,200 Speaker 1: from humanity. None of these people seem to have friends 1293 01:03:55,320 --> 01:03:58,360 Speaker 1: or loved ones, because there's just if I did any 1294 01:03:58,400 --> 01:04:00,280 Speaker 1: of this whack of through shit, I would get takes 1295 01:04:00,280 --> 01:04:02,680 Speaker 1: from Casey or there or any number of people love 1296 01:04:02,800 --> 01:04:06,400 Speaker 1: me just like, hey, man, are you okay? Sound insane? No, 1297 01:04:06,720 --> 01:04:09,040 Speaker 1: Casey would definitely not be just. But hey, yeah, what 1298 01:04:09,120 --> 01:04:12,240 Speaker 1: the fuck you you okay? That doesn't make any sense. 1299 01:04:12,840 --> 01:04:13,439 Speaker 2: What do you mean? 1300 01:04:13,520 --> 01:04:15,280 Speaker 1: What do you mean a Dyson sphere? Do you know 1301 01:04:15,320 --> 01:04:19,040 Speaker 1: what that is? A dice in sphere. It's just they 1302 01:04:19,080 --> 01:04:21,680 Speaker 1: don't have friends, and I don't know if they want them. 1303 01:04:21,720 --> 01:04:23,800 Speaker 1: I think it could require a certain level of vulnerability. 1304 01:04:24,200 --> 01:04:25,960 Speaker 1: Have you talked twenty Have you met up with any 1305 01:04:26,000 --> 01:04:26,960 Speaker 1: of them? 1306 01:04:27,040 --> 01:04:29,440 Speaker 2: With the billionaires, no, I tried. There's a list at 1307 01:04:29,440 --> 01:04:30,880 Speaker 2: the end of my book of all of the tech 1308 01:04:30,920 --> 01:04:33,000 Speaker 2: billionaires I tried to interview and they all said no. 1309 01:04:33,320 --> 01:04:36,640 Speaker 2: The only one who I successfully interviewed was like a 1310 01:04:36,720 --> 01:04:39,880 Speaker 2: lower tier billionaire guy named jan to Lynn who's in 1311 01:04:40,000 --> 01:04:43,720 Speaker 2: deep with the effective algist was Skype and Speaza. Yeah 1312 01:04:43,800 --> 01:04:47,320 Speaker 2: yeah that's right, christ Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, can't hate 1313 01:04:47,360 --> 01:04:48,880 Speaker 2: him for those are two pretty good ones. 1314 01:04:48,920 --> 01:04:51,240 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, though I will say Skype definitely one of 1315 01:04:51,240 --> 01:04:55,520 Speaker 1: those inventions that I've never seen something just stop. Yeah, no, 1316 01:04:55,840 --> 01:04:57,920 Speaker 1: Scott just got like no, just no, I mean trapped 1317 01:04:57,960 --> 01:04:59,920 Speaker 1: in Amber. It was the same product for fifty oh yeah. 1318 01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:01,880 Speaker 1: And the Microsoft are just like what Box are an 1319 01:05:01,920 --> 01:05:05,720 Speaker 1: animal farm banged, it's at a glue factory with Skype. 1320 01:05:05,880 --> 01:05:09,240 Speaker 1: We fucked this up well enough, It's just it's also 1321 01:05:09,400 --> 01:05:12,680 Speaker 1: it's also sad. But this has been such a wonderful conversation. 1322 01:05:12,760 --> 01:05:14,160 Speaker 1: Oh where can people find you? 1323 01:05:14,840 --> 01:05:18,200 Speaker 2: Well, I'm on blue Sky because I don't want to 1324 01:05:18,240 --> 01:05:21,240 Speaker 2: be on a platform like Ext's filled with Nazis now, 1325 01:05:22,120 --> 01:05:23,680 Speaker 2: so blue sky is the best place to find me. 1326 01:05:23,720 --> 01:05:27,640 Speaker 2: I'm Adam Becker dot blue sky dot social, orgy dot social. 1327 01:05:27,800 --> 01:05:32,760 Speaker 2: And yeah, I got a book, is the main thing. Yeah, 1328 01:05:32,760 --> 01:05:35,680 Speaker 2: I got a book called More Everything Forever linked to 1329 01:05:35,720 --> 01:05:38,320 Speaker 2: it in the notes. Yeah, it is available wherever fine 1330 01:05:38,320 --> 01:05:42,400 Speaker 2: books are sold. And if you liked what I had 1331 01:05:42,440 --> 01:05:44,720 Speaker 2: to say on this episode, I think you'll like the book. 1332 01:05:45,280 --> 01:05:46,760 Speaker 1: And if you like what I have to say on 1333 01:05:46,800 --> 01:05:48,640 Speaker 1: this show, you're a sick puppy, you know where to 1334 01:05:48,680 --> 01:05:50,640 Speaker 1: find me. Thank you so much for your time as ever, 1335 01:05:50,680 --> 01:05:52,160 Speaker 1: I love you all. Thank you to beahet of course 1336 01:05:52,200 --> 01:05:54,400 Speaker 1: here in New York City, here for producing this episode, 1337 01:05:54,520 --> 01:05:56,840 Speaker 1: and of course the Madisowski, the wonderful producer at home. 1338 01:05:57,080 --> 01:05:58,880 Speaker 1: I will catch you with them monologue in a few days. 1339 01:05:58,880 --> 01:06:09,360 Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Thank you for listening to Better Offline. 1340 01:06:09,480 --> 01:06:11,919 Speaker 1: The editor and composer of the Better Offline theme song 1341 01:06:11,960 --> 01:06:14,640 Speaker 1: is Matasowski. You can check out more of his music 1342 01:06:14,640 --> 01:06:18,280 Speaker 1: and audio projects at Matasowski dot com, M A T 1343 01:06:18,280 --> 01:06:22,760 Speaker 1: T O S O W s ki dot com. You 1344 01:06:22,800 --> 01:06:25,280 Speaker 1: can email me at easy at Better Offline dot com 1345 01:06:25,400 --> 01:06:27,720 Speaker 1: or visit Better Offline dot com to find more podcast 1346 01:06:27,760 --> 01:06:31,120 Speaker 1: links and of course my newsletter. I also really recommend 1347 01:06:31,120 --> 01:06:33,040 Speaker 1: you go to chat dot Where's youreed dot at to 1348 01:06:33,120 --> 01:06:35,920 Speaker 1: visit the discord, and go to our slash Better Offline 1349 01:06:35,960 --> 01:06:39,200 Speaker 1: to check out our reddit. Thank you so much for listening. 1350 01:06:40,000 --> 01:06:42,720 Speaker 1: Better Offline is a production of cool Zone Media. For 1351 01:06:42,840 --> 01:06:46,000 Speaker 1: more from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool Zonemedia 1352 01:06:46,040 --> 01:06:48,919 Speaker 1: dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 1353 01:06:48,960 --> 01:07:12,200 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.