Astral Codex Ten Podcast

Book Review: Inadequate Equilibria


Listen Later

Eliezer Yudkowsky's catchily-titled Inadequate Equilibria is many things. It's a look into whether there is any role for individual reason in a world where you can always just trust expert consensus. It's an analysis of the efficient market hypothesis and how it relates to the idea of low-hanging fruit. It's a self-conscious defense of the author's own arrogance.

But most of all, it's a book of theodicy. If the world was created by the Invisible Hand, who is good, how did it come to contain so much that is evil?

The market economy is very good at what it does, which is something like "exploit money-making opportunities" or "pick low-hanging fruit in the domain of money-making". If you see a $20 bill lying on the sidewalk, today is your lucky day. If you see a $20 bill lying on the sidewalk in Grand Central Station, and you remember having seen the same bill a week ago, something is wrong. Thousands of people cross Grand Central every week – there's no way a thousand people would all pass up a free $20. Maybe it's some kind of weird trick. Maybe you're dreaming. But there's no way that such a low-hanging piece of money-making fruit would go unpicked for that long.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Astral Codex Ten PodcastBy Jeremiah

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

129 ratings


More shows like Astral Codex Ten Podcast

View all
Freakonomics Radio by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Freakonomics Radio

32,246 Listeners

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast by Mark Linsenmayer, Wes Alwan, Seth Paskin, Dylan Casey

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

2,118 Listeners

Very Bad Wizards by Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

Very Bad Wizards

2,680 Listeners

Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris

Making Sense with Sam Harris

26,380 Listeners

EconTalk by Russ Roberts

EconTalk

4,270 Listeners

Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Conversations with Tyler

2,461 Listeners

The Glenn Show by Glenn Loury

The Glenn Show

2,267 Listeners

The Good Fight by Yascha Mounk

The Good Fight

907 Listeners

ChinaTalk by Jordan Schneider

ChinaTalk

291 Listeners

Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas by Sean Carroll

Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

4,167 Listeners

Your Undivided Attention by The Center for Humane Technology, Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin

Your Undivided Attention

1,635 Listeners

Last Week in AI by Skynet Today

Last Week in AI

313 Listeners

Blocked and Reported by Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal

Blocked and Reported

3,833 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

551 Listeners

The AI Daily Brief: Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis by Nathaniel Whittemore

The AI Daily Brief: Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

688 Listeners