#292 – Robin Hanson: Alien Civilizations, UFOs, and the Future of Humanity

Robin Hanson is a professor at George Mason University and researcher at Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

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EPISODE LINKS:

Robin's Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinhanson

Robin's Website: https://mason.gmu.edu/~rhanson

Grabby Aliens (paper): https://grabbyaliens.com/paper

The Elephant in the Brain (book): https://amazon.com/dp/0197551955/ref=nosim?tag=turingmachi08-20

The Age of Em (book): https://amazon.com/dp/0198817827/ref=nosim?tag=turingmachi08-20

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OUTLINE:

Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

(00:00) - Introduction

(06:49) - Grabby aliens

(44:33) - War and competition

(50:07) - Global government

(1:02:58) - Humanity's future

(1:13:00) - Hello aliens

(1:40:03) - UFO sightings

(2:04:40) - Conspiracy theories

(2:12:58) - Elephant in the brain

(2:26:29) - Medicine

(2:38:58) - Institutions

(3:05:52) - Physics

(3:10:43) - Artificial intelligence

(3:28:32) - Economics

(3:31:53) - Political science

(3:37:42) - Advice for young people

(3:46:33) - Darkest moments

(3:49:34) - Love and loss

(3:58:57) - Immortality

(4:02:53) - Simulation hypothesis

(4:13:10) - Meaning of life