Category: Technology

Shane Legg – 2028 AGI, New Architectures, Aligning Superhuman Models

Dwarkesh Podcast | 26 October 2023 | 0h 44m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Shane Legg discussing artificial general intelligence: why he expects AGI around 2028; how to align superhuman models; the new architectures needed for AGI; whether Deepmind has sped up capabilities or safety more; why multimodality will be the next big landmark; and more.

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Michael Muthukrishna on Developing a Theory of Everyone

Sean Carroll’s Mindscape | 30 October 2023 | 1h 17m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Michael Muthukrishna about his book A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going. Brings together ideas from cultural evolution, energy engineering, economics, and psychology to outline an integrated theory providing basic organising principles for society based on how people relate to each other and to the physical resources available spelled out as ‘laws’ of energy, innovation, cooperation, and evolution.

Have you bought this book yet? You really must. The highest praise I can give it is that it feels like the next book that Matt Ridley might have written.

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The Techno-Optimist Manifesto with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz

a16z | 25 October 2023 | 1h 07m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz discuss Andreessen’s article The Techno-Optimist Manifesto. Challenges the pessimistic narrative surrounding technology today, celebrating it as a liberating force that can lead to growth, progress and abundance for all. Discusses how technological advancements can improve the quality of human life, uplift marginalized communities, and even encourage us to answer the bigger questions of the universe.

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Facial Recognition: A Secretive Startup’s Quest to End Privacy as We Know It

The Next Big Idea | 19 October 2023 | 0h 52m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Kashmir Hill about her book Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup’s Quest to End Privacy as We Know It. Backgrounds that the Clearview.AI app can identify anyone based on just one photograph and discusses the risks this poses for a dystopian future where privacy is a thing of the past.

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Reclaiming Our Sci-Fi Future | James Pethokoukis

The Human Progress Podcast | 6 October 2023 | 0h 50m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with James Pethokoukis about his book The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised. Diagnoses the causes of stagnation and the slowdown in economic growth and advocates how to deliver a much more prosperous future by becoming again a risk-taking future-oriented society.

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Keith Houston on the History of Pocket Calculators

Patented: History of Inventions | 16 August 2023 | 0h 45m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Keith Houston about his book Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator. Discusses how humans did mathematics before calculators; the development of number systems, slide rules and mechanical calculators; and shares stories about key steps in the development of pocket calculators.

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Elon Musk: Walter Isaacson on the World’s Most Polarizing Person

The Next Big Idea | 14 September 2023 | 1h 07m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Walter Isaacson about his book Elon Musk. Discusses Elon Musk’s formative experiences; the pluses and minuses of his personality; his role with eBay, Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, artificial intelligence, the war in Ukraine, and more.

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mRNA Vaccines in India ft. Soham Sankaran

Bretton Goods | 21 August 2023 | 1h 01m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Soham Sankaran, who runs PopVax, an Indian mRNA vaccine company working to build low-cost broadly protective vaccines to protect against the entire sarbecovirus species. Discusses why there hasn’t been a successful Indian mRNA vaccine yet, why developing countries can’t afford drugs for rare diseases, what they’re doing to fix it, and their biggest constraints.

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