Must we accelerate AI innovation?

You've probably heard of "effective altruism," but how about "effective accelerationism," or e/acc? "You claim to be building an artificial god in the human image. We're building the conduit for the thermodynamic god that created us. We are not the same." 

Those are the words of Based Beff Jezos, a pseudonymous X account devoted to spreading the e/acc message far and wide, once described by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen as a "patron saint of techno-optimism" and by its detractors as "unhinged" and "absolutely toxic for the AI discourse." 

The man behind Based Beff Jezos was unmasked in Forbes magazine last December as Guillaume Verdon, a Google quantum computing engineer-turned-co-founder of the AI startup Extropic, which has received about $14 million in seed funding to develop a new kind of chip for running AI models. 

He joins us today to talk about effective accelerationism, the politics of AI, and what his company is doing to make sure that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) arrives quickly and remains beyond the control of a single corporation or government. 

• "Who Is @BasedBeffJezos, The Leader Of The Tech Elite's 'E/Acc' Movement?" by Emily Baker-White in Forbes
• what the f* is e/acc, the e/acc newsletter
• "SITUATIONAL AWARENESS: The Decade Ahead," by Leopold Aschenbrenner
• Gavin Newsom's veto of California's AI bill
• "What is Moore's Law?" by Our World in Data
• "Microsoft, Google and Amazon turn to nuclear energy to fuel the AI boom," by Mehek Mazhar in CBC Radio
• Extropic: Ushering in the Thermodynamic Future
• Just Asking Questions with Bryan Johnson

• 00:00 Coming up…
• 00:28 Introductions
• 02:13 What is effective accelerationism?
• 04:33 Building a conduit for the thermodynamic god that created us?
• 09:54 Is AGI inevitable?
• 17:01 Why open source AI doesn't need regulation
• 29:18 A Second Amendment for AI?
• 31:58 Philosophical foundations of e/acc
• 37:16 An AI arms race between the U.S. and China?
• 55:27 Criticism of OpenAI
• 01:01:08 AI under the second Trump administration
• 01:07:22 Designing a biologically inspired chip
• 01:15:46 How the American chip industry will be impacted by China and Taiwan
• 01:18:44 Will AI make humans irrelevant?
• 01:23:53 How do we reimagine governance?

• Producer: John Osterhoudt

The post Guillaume Verdon: Should We Have a 'Second Amendment for AI'? appeared first on Reason.com.

About 0.5 percent of U.S. adults identify as transgender, according to a 2022 UCLA study. Among 13- to 17-year-olds, the figure has grown to about 1.4 percent. That uptick in the youth might help explain why trans issues are playing a growing role in American politics. 

Registered voters told Gallup pollsters that transgender issues ranked among the least important political issues they considered when weighing their presidential vote—just below climate change. 

Yet, the Trump campaign spent $65 million running ads in swing states attacking Vice President Kamala Harris' transgender policy stances in the final stretch of the campaign, according to The New York Times. The top Harris super PAC found that one such ad shifted voters who viewed it almost three points towards Trump, resonating particularly well with demographics that swung significantly in his favor.  

In a relatively close election, is it possible that this actually was a deciding factor? And how should trans advocates and Democrats adjust their approach to this issue? 

Joining us today to talk about it are Brianna Wu and TafTaj. They are two of the co-hosts of the new show Dollcast, a show about transgender issues and politics, aiming to correct what they see as the excesses or errors in both the trans and gender-critical movements. TafTaj is a streamer and commentator. Wu is a programmer, political activist, and commentator, best known for her involvement in Gamergate. She now runs the progressive Rebellion PAC.

• Williams Institute: How Many Adults and Youth Identify as Transgender in the United States?
• Economy Most Important Issue to 2024 Presidential Vote
• The New York Times: Trump and Republicans Bet Big on Anti-Trans Ads Across the Country
• The New York Times: How Trump Won, and How Harris Lost
• The Washington Post: GamerGaters Inundated Her With Death Threats. Now Some Are Apologizing — and She Forgives Them.
• Brianna Wu: I Fear That Progressivism Has Become the Very Thing We Fought Against
• Brianna Wu: X Post "from the center"
• The Cass Review
• Should kids medically transition? | Jesse Singal | Just Asking Questions, Episode 21
• IFLScience: The Woman Who Gave Birth Despite Most Of Her Cells Having XY Chromosomes
• PubMed Central: Rare successful pregnancy in a patient with Swyer Syndrome

• 00:00 Coming up…
• 00:29 Introduction
• 03:24 Brianna Wu's political evolution
• 06:03 "The progressive purity spiral"
• 07:25 Taf's political evolution
• 09:58 "The centrist case for trans rights"
• 15:42 The "President Trump is for you" ad
• 23:10 "Non-binary" identity and science
• 29:17 Wu and Taf's personal stories
• 40:53 Youth gender dysphoria science and the Cass Review
• 48:46 Should insurance companies not be involved?
• 54:26 A libertarian approach?
• 01:05:05 Technological changes
• 01:07:48 Questions more people should be asking

The post Brianna Wu and TafTaj: How Have Trans Issues Scrambled Our Politics? appeared first on Reason.com.

Was bitcoin the winner of the 2024 election? Just asking questions. 

Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to protect bitcoin and the entire crypto economy. 

Major endorsements from the industry followed, including from the Winklevoss twins, who each made a $1 million bitcoin donation to a pro-Trump PAC. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong called Trump's win the "dawn of a new crypto era." Bitcoin has hit new all-time highs, since the election.

Today's guest has been writing and speaking on these topics for a long time, and was also celebrating after the election, going so far as to call Trump's win a victory in a "spiritual war."

Nic Carter is a writer and general partner at Castle Island Ventures, which invests in crypto-financial infrastructure.

Let's start with crypto and bitcoin before we zoom all the way out to spiritual warfare. Nick begins by telling us why he's optimistic about Trump's second term in regard to making America a better place for people to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin and other crypto assets.

This conversation was recorded on Nov. 20, 2024. Between now and then, some important and relevant news has come to light, especially regarding debanking. There is a new intro to this episode detailing why this matters.

• From the new intro:
  • Marc Andreeson on The Joe Rogan Experience
  • Lee Fang: Debanking Realignment: CFPB to Protect Christian Free Speech
  • Just Asking Questions with Lee Fang
  • Nic Carter: Marc Andreessen is right about Debanking
• Winklevoss Twins Say They Each Gave $1 Million to Trump Presidential Campaign
• Why Coinbase CEO Sees Trump's Win as the 'Dawn of a New Crypto Era'
• Bitcoin price chart
• Nic Carter on X: The 2024 Election as a Spiritual War
• Why You Should (Still) Care About Silvergate
• Rep. French Hill (R–Ark.) Says He'd Investigate Operation Choke Point 2.0 as Financial Services Chair
• "Mr. Carter goes to Washington"
• How Stablecoins Are Extending the U.S. Dollar Dominance
• Annual Volume of Stablecoins vs. Other Financial Services
• Polymarket Founder Alleges Political Retribution
• Archive of Polymarket from November 5
• Carter's "Wish List" for Trump's Second Term

• 00:00:00 Coming up…
• 00:00:35 New context regarding Operation Chokepoint 2.0
• 00:06:10 Did bitcoin win the 2024 election?
• 00:08:07 Nic is optimistic about Trump 2.0
• 00:10:26 Why has the GOP embraced crypto?
• 00:14:19 OCP 2.0 and Silvergate
• 00:18:44 How do you make normal people care about this?
• 00:21:45 The role of the FDIC
• 00:23:36 What will Trump do about all of this?
• 00:28:10 Central bank digital currencies, and why they matter
• 00:30:15 What can Nic tell us about his trip to congress?
• 00:31:08 What are stablecoins and why are they important?
• 00:37:29 The persecution of Polymarket
• 00:44:32 The election and spiritual warfare
• 00:57:30 Nic's wish list for Trump 2.0
• 01:07:58 Nic's No. 1 question: Where did COVID come from?

• Producer: John Osterhoudt

The post Nic Carter: Did Bitcoin Win the Election? appeared first on Reason.com.

What does Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. get right and wrong about science, vaccines, and health? Just asking questions. 

President-elect Donald Trump announced Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. would be his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Food and Drug Adminstration, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, and several other health-related federal agencies. Trump wrote on X that "for too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health," and  that "Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic." 

So will Kennedy—who has proposed removing fluoride from municipal tap water, and rolling back restrictions on everything from psychedelics to raw milk and ivermectin while banishing food additives and holding vaccine and other pharmaceutical manufacturers to stricter standards—Make America Healthy Again?

This week's guest will help us work through the good, bad, and unknown of RFK Jr.'s agenda. Vinay Prasad is a hematologist oncologist and Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. He's the author of several books about drug and medical policy and writes at the Substack Vinay Prasad's Observations and Thoughts.

This conversation took place LIVE on November 26.

• Donald Trump announce RFK Jr. as his pick for HHS Secretary
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr on X: "FDA's war on public health is about to end…"
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr on X discussing flouride in water
• United States District Curt Northern District of Court decision on flouride
• The New York Times' seed oil "fact check"
• Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccination and Autism: A Nationwide Cohort Study - PubMed
• European Hep. B Vaccine Schedule
• Archival coverage of vaccine manufacturers' liability shield
• Galileo's Revenge by Peter Huber
• Health Affairs: The Revolving Door In Health Care Regulation (2004-2020)
• Politico: By the numbers: European drugmakers stuck between a dominant US and a rising China
• COVID‐19 vaccine induced myocarditis in young males: A systematic review - Knudsen - European Journal of Clinical Investigation
• United States: COVID-19 weekly death rate by vaccination status - Our World in Data
• Measles eradication: Measles | New England Journal of Medicine

• Producer: John Osterhoudt

The post Vinay Prasad: What Does RFK Jr. Get Right and Wrong? appeared first on Reason.com.

Is Trumpism America's new governing ideology? Just asking questions.

Trump won decisively by modern standards, meaning for the first time in several cycles nobody is seriously disputing the results, but did he really win bigly? Does he have a governing mandate?

Today's guest says, not really. Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and the editor of National Affairs. He co-authored a paper published just before the election called "Politics Without Winners" about the inability of either Democrats or the GOP to build a lasting governing coalition in the 21st century.

He recently published some of his thoughts on the election in The Dispatch under the headline, What Trump's Win Doesn't Mean, writing "The 2024 election was very much of a piece with our 21st-century politics: It was a relatively narrow win owed almost entirely to negative polarization." We dig into that negative polarization, whether Trump was given a "mandate" by voters, and how Edmund Burke vs. Thomas Paine is still a relevant divide in contemporary politics.

• 2024 Presidential General Election Results
• Politics Without Winners: Can Either Party Build a Majority Coalition?
• Yuval Levin in The Dispatch: What Trump's Win Doesn't Mean
• 2024 House General Election Results
• 2024 Senate General Election Results
• AP VoteCast: How America voted in 2024
  • Is Trump honest and trustworthy?
  • Harris and Trump's moral character as seen by voters.
  • College vs. no college
• Cleveland-Stevenson Tariff Reform Portrait Handkerchief, 1892
• Levin's book: The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left

• 00:00 Coming up
• 00:20 Is Trumpism America's governing ideology?
• 00:33 Subscribe to the channel!!!
• 00:54 Introducing Yuval Levin
• 02:22 What is the significance of Trump winning a fairly slim majority?
• 04:04 Given the sweep of all swing states, and the wins in the House and Senate, are you SURE this isn't a mandate?
• 07:25 Do the parties retain any internal coherence?
• 09:01 Which faction in the GOP is ascendant?
• 13:14 Why did people who called Trump untrustworthy still vote for him? What does that mean?
• 16:38 Comparing Trump and Grover Cleveland
• 24:40 Are we now are we coming out of this electoral results legitimacy crisis?
• 26:09 The history of populism in the Democratic party
• 29:53 The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left
• 42:51 Is the left going to be insanely statist forever?
• 48:04 Why does America consistently produce two major parties?
• 52:16 Is Yuval bullish on Elon and Vivek's D.O.G.E.?
• 55:39 Would it take for the Democrats to build a lasting coalition?
• 58:40 The Final Question: What does our political system lack?

• Producer: John Osterhoudt

The post Yuval Levin: What is Trump's "Mandate"? appeared first on Reason.com.

Subscribe to the new Just Asking Questions Youtube channel here!

Donald Trump won the presidential election decisively, taking every single battleground state, and as we discussed last week with Patrick Ruffini, winning over new voters across all sorts of racial, age, and gender demographics. He's, once again, remade the electoral map, with Republicans capturing the Senate and the House.

What should Democrats learn from this loss? Lee Fang is an independent journalist and political commentator who runs a Substack at leefang.com. One of his most recent posts comments on the complete lack of self-reflection coming from many of the highly paid Democratic consultants who seem to have whiffed so badly with the Harris campaign messaging.

• 2024 Presidential General Election Results
• 2024 Senate General Election Results
• 2024 House General Election Results
• Lee Fang: Democratic Consultants Lash Out at Voters as Racist and Sexist
• OpenSecrets: 2024 Presidential Race Funding
• Financial Times: The Left Is Losing its Grip on Ethnic Minority Voters
• The New York Times: Early Results Show a Red Shift Across the U.S.
• Bernie Sanders' Open Letter to Democrats
• The New York Times: California Election Results 2024
• California State Ballot Measure Results
• San Francisco Election Results

• 00:00 Coming up…
• 00:27 Intro Theme
• 00:53 Subscribe to the new channel
• 02:41 What should Democrats learn from this loss?
• 03:18 Democratic consultants lash out at voters as racist and sexist
• 06:34 White progressives vs. pretty much everyone else?
• 10:06 Party insiders are burying their heads in the sand
• 12:28 Will a reckoning come?
• 19:36 What issues on the left are most ripe for rethinking?
• 21:16 Border security
• 25:40 Bernie Sanders' postelection criticism of the Democrats
• 30:00 Jared Polis Democrats?
• 33:28 Elon Musk's Republicanism
• 36:04 The MeToo Culture and rightwing young men
• 50:07 Even California is shifting red
• 01:06:41 Is there any Democrat out there who you're bullish on?
• 01:09:33 This could all backfire on the GOP
• 01:13:43 Is censorship behind us?
• 01:17:19 What's one question that you think more people should be asking?

• Producer: John Osterhoudt

The post Lee Fang: Will Democrats Ever Recover From 2024? appeared first on Reason.com.

Why did Donald Trump win?

Trump is back. Back again. He's secured the Electoral College majority needed to become America's 47th president and looks on track for a popular vote majority—the first Republican to pull that off in more than 20 years. 

A New York Times breakdown shows that across just about every type of county—urban, suburban, older population, younger, white, black, Latino—Trump improved his numbers. 

Surprising to many was Trump's large improvement among Latinos of all kinds, despite—or maybe in some cases because of—his hardline immigration stances and insult comic Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage" at his Madison Square Garden rally shortly before the election. Yet seven percent more Puerto Rican Americans appear to have voted for Trump this year than in 2020.

One person who is less surprised than many is today's guest, Patrick Ruffini, who wrote a book predicting much of this called Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP. He's a Republican Party strategist, a pollster for Echelon Insights, and writes at The Intersection.

• 2024 Presidential General Election Results
• The New York Times: Early Results Show a Red Shift Across the U.S.
• The Wall Street Journal: How Different Groups Voted in the 2024 Election
• The married/unmarried gap
• Associated Press: How America voted in 2024 (demographic breakdowns)
• National Center for Education Statistics: College Enrollment Rates
• Florida election results 2024 vs. 2012
• VoteCommon Kamala Harris Ad

• Producer: John Osterhoudt

The post Patrick Ruffini: Why Did Trump Win? appeared first on Reason.com.

Is this the most important election ever? And who should win? Just asking questions.

Next week, America decides: elect the 78-year-old criminally indicted, twice-impeached ex-president who's pledged to impose a universal tariff of 20 percent and embark on the largest mass deportation in American history; or his opponent, the vice president, swapped in for a malfunctioning Joe Biden, whose first major policy proposal was to cap grocery store prices to fight inflation, and who has trouble explaining how she'd govern any differently than her increasingly unpopular predecessor. It's a close race.

Independents, including libertarians, will likely decide it.

So we've invited three of them on today with three different perspectives to explain their votes. The first is David Stockman. He's the former director of the Office of Budget Management under Ronald Reagan. He served as a U.S. representative, and he says whoever wins we're basically screwed because neither candidate is addressing the most important policy issues facing America today.

Then we'll talk to Dave Smith, a repeat guest on the show, host of the popular Part of the Problem podcast. He says he's reluctantly and probably voting for Trump because of the threat that Kamala Harris—and the political machine that she represents—poses to liberty in America.

And lastly, we'll talk with Jacob Grier, a writer and Reason contributor who says that from a libertarian and small government perspective, the choice is obvious. Donald Trump is an authoritarian threat and Kamala Harris is a far superior choice.

Let's just ask each of them some questions.

• David Stockman at The Soho Forum: Are the Two Parties Any Different?
• Dave Smith: I'm Voting For Trump | Part Of The Problem
• Just Asking Questions with Ford Fischer: What's the Untold Story Behind 'Stop the Steal'?
• Just Asking Questions with Vivek Ramaswamy: Is There a Libertarian-Nationalist Alliance?
• Jacob Grier: To My Fellow Libertarians: It's Time to Embrace the Harris-Walz Ticket
• How Are Reason Staffers Voting in 2024?

• 00:00 Coming up…
• 00:39 Introduction
• 02:50 David Stockman: Harris and Trump are both intolerable
• 35:15 Dave Smith: Voting against Harris
• 01:19:28 Jacob Grier: Voting against Trump

• Producer: John Osterhoudt

The post Dave Smith, David Stockman, and Jacob Grier: Who Is The Lesser Evil? appeared first on Reason.com.

What's the agenda of the World Economic Forum? And what was The Great Reset? Just asking questions. 

Every year, there's a big gathering of global elites in Davos, Switzerland: world leaders, titans of industry, Hollywood celebrities. It all started in 1971, thanks to Klaus Schwab—a German economist and business professor who launched what was then called the European Economic Forum as a place to discuss best business practices and promote a theory he'd developed called "stakeholder capitalism," the tenets of which Schwab laid out in the original "The Davos Manifesto." It insists that a company's CEO must serve not only shareholders but entire "societies" and "assume the role of a trustee of the material universe for future generations." 

While critics have for years lampooned Davos for its brigade of private jets dropping billionaires in an idyllic Swiss mountain town to lecture us about climate change, the WEF and Schwab himself attracted unprecedented attention amid the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic following the July 2020 publication of his ominously titled book The Great Reset. Countless articles, podcasts, and videos theorizing on the real meaning of the Great Reset followed, including one produced by the co-host of this podcast. But you might notice there's another name underneath Schwab's. Thierry Malleret was his co-author on The Great Reset, and again on the follow-up The Great Narrative, and he joins us on the show today. 

Malleret is an economist who's worked as an adviser for major investment banks and governments. He conceived of—and planned—the program at Davos for several years before parting ways with Klaus Schwab. And he's also an author, most recently of a very interesting book we're going to discuss at length called Deaths at Davos, a dark satire of what's going on within the WEF.

• Zach Weissmueller: Forget the Great Reset. Embrace the Great Escape
• Davos and Beyond: A Timeline of the Highlights (1973 "The Davos Manifesto")
• Deaths at Davos by Thierry Malleret
• COVID-19: The Great Reset by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret
• The Guardian: Mutiny Erupts Among WEF Staff Over Role of "Mr Davos"
• Leadership and Governance | World Economic Forum
• Lowest Number of S&P 500 Companies Citing "ESG" on Earnings Calls Since Q2 2020
• Principles for Responsible Investment signatories, 2006–2023 2022–23 ANNUAL REPORT
• The SEC: Green Regs and Spam: Statement on the Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors
• Davos Manifesto 2020: The Universal Purpose of a Company in the Fourth Industrial Revolution | World Economic Forum
• The New York Times: A Friedman doctrine—The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits
• Reason's Ron Bailey: The Limits of The Limits to Growth
• UN: World Population Prospects (2024 Revision)
• Just Asking Questions w/ Johan Norberg: The Truth about Sweden's COVID policy

• 00:00 "coming up…"
• 00:58 Introduction
• 03:27 The point of Deaths at Davos
• 04:50 What did Klaus Schwab think?
• 05:40 Others are meant to continue the story
• 07:46 What's the future of WEF-like organizations?
• 12:10 Is the WEF vision of the West dying?
• 13:51 Debating "Stakeholder Capitalism"
• 30:16 Malleret's critique of libertarianism
• 45:40 Will stakeholder capitalism lead to corporatism?
• 51:26 A disagreement about Sweden and COVID
• 54:16 Reacting to "Great Reset" conspiracies
• 01:01:26 The final question

• Producer: John Osterhoudt

The post Thierry Malleret: Is the Great Reset Underway? appeared first on Reason.com.

What should the federal government do in a disaster?

Two major hurricanes made landfall within two weeks, devastating the southeast. Hurricane Helene has killed more than 200 people, and more than 90 are still missing in North Carolina, where overflowing rivers and tributaries flooded the western part of the state. More than 9,000 remain without power.

Hurricane Milton grew to Category 5 status in the Gulf before hitting Florida's west coast just south of Tampa Bay as a Category 3. It caused at least 23 deaths, and both storms are likely to cause over $100 billion in economic damage.

Today's guest is part of an organization that's been on the ground in both places helping with disaster relief. Brian Trascher is the vice president of the United Cajun Navy, a volunteer organization that started in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.

Trascher discusses the origins of the Cajun Navy after Hurricane Katrina, conditions on the ground in North Carolina and Florida, the federal government's response, growing distrust of FEMA, and how to better prepare for disaster.

• ABC News: Hurricane Helene updates
• Forbes: Nearly 100 Still Missing In North Carolina After Hurricane Helene
• North Carolina Power Outages Map
• Fox Weather: Florida's resilience tested as Milton death toll stands at 23
• Accuweather: Hurricane Milton by the numbers
• FreeThink documentary about the United Cajun Navy
• Department of Homeland Security: FEMA's Inadequate Oversight Led to Delays in Closing Out Declared Disasters
• FEMA's September 2024 Disaster Relief Fund Report
• Stars and Stripes: "The National Guard's report of "armed militia" out "hunting FEMA" prompts the relocation of North Carolina hurricane recovery officials."
• United Cajun Navy's response to the article above.
• North Carolina National Guard helicopter video
• North Carolina National Guard's response to the helicopter video
• Photo of electric chainsaws provided by the government
• Text of the Stafford Act

• 00:00 Coming up…
• 00:10 Introduction
• 01:28 Documentary clip about the United Cajun Navy
• 02:25 What's the status of North Carolina?
• 05:29 United Cajun Navy's origin story
• 10:36 Comparing Hurricanes Helene and Milton
• 15:12 How are resources allocated properly?
• 18:25 When to evacuate and why some people don't
• 23:08 What's it like to deal with FEMA on the ground?
• 29:23 Did a national guard helicopter purposefully sabotage volunteer efforts?
• 38:23 Do government workers get defensive about volunteer help?
• 43:04 Why do people distrust FEMA?
• 57:38 FEMA's budgeting problems
• 1:02:42 The Stafford Act
• 1:08:26 How should people prepare for disaster?
• 1:10:24 What question should people be asking?

Photo credit: Travis Long/TNS/Newscom

• Producer: John Osterhoudt

The post Brian Trascher: Has FEMA failed North Carolina? appeared first on Reason.com.