Today’s discussion is on Cellular Automata by looking at Conway’s Game of Life, William Poundstone’s “The Recursive Universe” and Stephen Wolframs “A New Kind of Science”. We run into concepts like artificial life, Von Neumann probes, and more!

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Max reflects back on his podcast and radio show as he turns forty, and discusses the non-stop news events of this month of a seemingly epoch-defining nature, from the earthquake to the eclipse, to the Bitcoin halving.

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Fresh off of his trip to the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation for the Yale Alumni Service Corps, Max talks to Aaron about his trip. They then get into some of the ideas of Cal Newport and Digital Minimalism, as well as a recent warning from Jonathan’s Haidt’s research on children and mobile technology.

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Max talks about the intensifying AI trends in 2024, including video creation and context windows, as well as Google's misstep with their image generation in Gemini. Will we be replaced by AI?

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Michael Callahan, host of "Where We Go Next" (wherewegonext.com) comes onto the Local Maximum to share what he's learned about hosting open conversations about Identity and Ideas.

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Max appears on the podcast Where We Go Next with Michael Callahan to talk about technology’s effects on the health of society.https://wherewegonext.com/episodes/max-sklar

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Max and Aaron welcome 2024 by talking about the most interesting episodes of 2023, and possible areas for exploration in the New Year. Their conversation runs the gamut from copyright to crypto to digital habits and to international politics.

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Max and Aaron finished their discussion on "The Fourth Turning is Here" and talk about what may be in store for the rest of the Fourth Turning Crisis and what the next several decades might look like as a result.

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Max just finished reading the 450-page book "The Fourth Turning is Here" by Neil Howe, so he has a new discussion with Aaron about Generational Theory and its relationship to cultural trends.

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