Infinite Loops

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways

• We are entering an exponential trajectory of technological progress and our antiquated minds cannot possibly keep up unless we change the stories, programming, and hardware
• Technological progress is like a snowball rolling down a hill, picking up more matter and evolving as it goes 
• Today, we are operating on the programming that worked really well in caves and savannas but does not work quite as well in the massive groups that we find ourselves in now   
• Stories can help us overcome the deeply-rooted social wiring that does not always serve us
• Negative storytelling appeals to our base emotion of fear, especially novel fear regarding things that new
• The heretics working on the leading edge of technology must reframe their innovation’s impact with better stories  
• We may fall victim to a self-fulfilling prophecy of a tech dystopia if we do not get the stories right  
• Humans evolved during times of zero-sum conflict, so all of the stories we told around the campfire were zero-sum conflict-based stories
• Upgrading the human operating system will not solve all the world’s problems, but it will create new and better problems that can also be solved 
• Humans control what pumps the gas or slams on the break for the AI, which are control measures that we barely have for ourselves 
• Our current system is optimized for growing GDP, not human flourishing 
• Reduce the flow of negative information into your mind and increase the volume of positive information in the world
• Try to be optimistic about the future, and see yourself as a human on earth instead of being a member of a specific tribe 

Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org

Author, CEO of VUDU Marketing and digital nomad Sam McRoberts returns for his second appearance on Infinite Loops. This week, Sam and Jim discuss Sam’s latest book ‘The Grand Redesign’.
Part science-fiction, part operating manual for upgrading human OS, ‘The Grand Redesign’ touches on a number of recurring Infinite Loops themes, and is available for free online (see ‘Important Links’ section below).

Important Links:

• The Grand Redesign
  
• Sam’s Twitter
  
• Sam’s Substack
  
• The Thinker and The Prover
  
• Tinkered Thinking’s winning entry to our ‘White Mirror’ competition
  

Show Notes:

• Why Sam wrote the book
  
• Is the Watcher a reliable narrator?
  
• Interfering with complex systems
  
• An overview of Social OS
  
• Why we need White Mirror
  
• The kindness pledge
  
• Incentives and the Cobra Effect
  
• How do we break the Shannon limit?
  
• Jim’s movie idea
  
• Improving the political and legal system
  
• The opportunities of AI
  
• Optimising our system for flourishing
  
• Finding the hidden geniuses
  
• Sam’s solutions; reaching the tipping point
  
• Sam’s hopes for the book
  
• MUCH more!
  

Books Mentioned:

• The Grand Redesign; by Sam McRoberts
  
• The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr
  
• Prometheus Rising; by Robert Anton Wilson
  
• House of Cards: Psychology and Psychotherapy Built on Myth; by Robyn Dawes
  
• The Lessons of History: by Will Durant and Ariel Durant
  
• Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine; by Derren Brown
  
• The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future; by Kevin Kelly