Undertone

Vitalik and I talk about libertarianism, Ethereum, and AI.

Transcript

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Timestamps

(0:00:00) Intro

(0:00:21) Governance mechanisms

(0:02:32) Talent in crypto

(0:10:02) Talent clusters

(0:15:23) Crypto conferences

(0:19:07) Vitalik’s vision for ETH

(0:28:51) Libertarian canon

(0:47:25) ETH cultural or technological innovation?

(0:53:19) Learning languages in the age of AI

(0:57:05) AI and d/acc

(1:06:43) P(doom)

(1:12:17) Humanity’s descendants

(1:17:13) If ETH succeeds, why?

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Links

- Vitalik’s blog

- Follow Vitalik on X

- Vitalik’s techno optimism

- Follow Dan on X

- Follow Dan on Substack

Adam and I talk about humor, peer review, and the future of science.

Timestamps

(0:00:00) Intro

(0:00:45) Is bias overrated?

(0:01:46) Researcher ambition

(0:05:52) Illusion of moral decline

(0:08:10) Morality over time

(0:11:33) Humor and teaching

(0:13:48) Misconceptions about humor

(0:16:48) Lost in translation

(0:21:07) Good research ideas

(0:27:37) Peer review

(0:29:51) Science House

(0:35:29) Identifying talent

(0:40:11) Adam's acting career

(0:49:59) Art blemishes

(0:52:10) What makes a good piece of writing?

(0:54:21) Adam's information diet

(0:55:10) Poorly defined problems

(0:58:40) Measures of intelligence

(1:01:35) The Milgram Study

(1:04:17) The replication crisis

(1:06:15) How many studies matter?

(1:10:19) The future of science

Links

- Adam's Substack

- Adam's Twitter

- Subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or Substack.

- Follow Dan on X.

- Share anonymous feedback on the podcast here: https://forms.gle/w7LXMCXhdJ5Q2eB9A

Scott and I talk about film, literature, asset bubbles, and monetary policy.

Transcript

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Timestamps

(0:00:00) Intro

(0:00:33) Fiction for economists

(0:03:44) Knausgaard or Proust?

(0:07:04) TV or film?

(0:11:58) Joseph Conrad and Werner Herzog

(0:14:29) Underrated writers

(0:16:47) Do pessimists make better art?

(0:18:34) Cultural pessimism

(0:25:03) Meaning in jobs

(0:28:54) Behavioral vs classical economics

(0:34:16) Are bubbles real?

(0:39:53) Nominal GDP

(0:56:29) Relative importance of monetary policy

(0:59:03) Equilibrium interest rates

(1:04:58) Technology and productivity

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Links

- Scott at TheMoneyIllusion

- Scott at EconLog

- Scott's "What do we mean by meaning?"

- Scott's "Wallowing in nostalgia (an autobiography)"

- Scott on Robert Louis Stevenson

- Scott on Joseph Conrad

- Scott's intro course on money

- Subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or Substack.

- Follow Dan on X.

- Share anonymous feedback on the podcast here: https://forms.gle/w7LXMCXhdJ5Q2eB9A

Sam and I talk about Hegel, LLM consciousness, and intellectual breadth.

Transcript

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Timestamps

(0:00:00) Intro

(0:00:38) Joseph Heath

(0:02:52) Iain Banks and defunctionalized culture

(0:05:46) Memetic cultures

(0:06:39) Misinterpreting Hegel

(0:08:05) Sam's Hegelian influence

(0:09:41) Libertarian dialectic

(0:13:39) Should EA become explicitly religious?

(0:20:53) Hegel and AI

(0:25:07) Wittgenstein and AI

(0:32:48) Can transformers generalize beyond their training set?

(0:35:16) Can we understand consciousness?

(0:40:20) Trading on AI innovation

(0:44:26) AI and leviathan

(0:51:30) Attracting talent to the public sector

(0:55:10) AI and the great founder theory

(0:58:58) AI lock-in effects

(1:00:54) Technological unemployment

(1:02:47) Intellectual breadth

(1:08:55) Sam Hammond production function

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Links

- Sam's Twitter

- Sam's Substack

- ⁠Joseph Heath, The Rebel Sell

- Joseph Heath on Iain Banks

- Sam on Hegel

- Sam on Ronald Coase

- Sam's thesis

- Sam on AI and leviathan

Zvi and I talk about AI and strategy games.

Transcript

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Timestamps

(0:00:00) Intro

(0:00:43) What makes a good strategy game?

(0:05:29) Culture of Magic: The Gathering

(0:10:14) Raising the status of games

(0:13:31) First mover advantage in LLMs

(0:18:23) Consumer vs. enterprise AI

(0:21:28) Non-technical founders

(0:25:24) Where Zvi gets the most utility from AI

(0:28:56) Straussian views on AI risk

(0:36:18) Is AI communist or libertarian?

(0:44:50) Dangers of open source models

(0:47:18) How much GDP growth can realize from today's models?

(0:49:40) AGI and interest rates

(0:58:22) RLHF impact on model reasoning

(1:00:42) Bayesian vs. founder reasoning

(1:04:15) Zvi Mowshowitz production function

(1:10:16) Is AI alignment a value problem?

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Links

- Zvi's Twitter

- Zvi's Blog

- AGI and interest rates

- The Dial of Progress

- Share anonymous feedback on the podcast here: ⁠https://forms.gle/w7LXMCXhdJ5Q2eB9A

Rohit and I talk about efficient organizations, influencing curiosity, the future of VC.

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Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(00:17) BS jobs

(04:36) SBF on employee efficiency

(11:02) AI on employee efficiency

(14:56) Efficient organizations as a thesis

(19:53) Are people or more less curious today?

(25:10) Firms influencing curiosity

(34:06) Return to office

(39:00) Future of VC

(47:23) Trading on margin

(55:13) Role of VC in building companies

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Links

- Rohit’s blog - Strange Loop Canon

- Rohit’s Twitter

- David Graeber, B******t Jobs

- David Graeber, Debt

- Share anonymous feedback on the podcast here: ⁠https://forms.gle/w7LXMCXhdJ5Q2eB9A

Steve and I talk about gene editing, polygenic scores, and human flourishing.

Transcript

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Timestamps

(0:00:00) Intro

(0:00:33) Genomic Prediction

(0:05:54) IVF

(0:12:34) Phenotypic data

(0:15:42) Predicting height

(0:28:27) Pleiotropy

(0:39:14) Optimism

(0:45:03) Gene editing

(0:48:27) Super intelligent humans

(1:01:27) Regulation

(1:06:36) Human values

(1:17:38) Should you do IVF?

(1:26:06) 23andMe

(1:29:03) Jeff Bezos

(1:34:29) Richard Feynman

(1:43:43) Where are the superstar physicists?

(1:45:37) Is physics a good field to get into?

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Links

- Steve’s Twitter

- Steve’s Blog

- Steve on Google Scholar

- Share anonymous feedback on the podcast here: ⁠⁠https://forms.gle/w7LXMCXhdJ5Q2eB9A⁠

Bryan and I talk about his new book, Voters as Mad Scientists.

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Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(05:15) Social desirability bias

(15:15) Left v right

(22:07) The respect motive

(28:40) Material v rhetorical dominance

(33:00) Extremism

(39:28) Venerating great names

(44:04) Bryan's bets

(48:07) Bryan's alternative to democracy

(58:53) Where to find Bryan's work

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Links

- Voters as Mad Scientists

- Bryan’s Substack

- Social desirability bias

- “The Respect Motive”

- “Against Veneration”

- The Myth of Left and Right

- Share anonymous feedback on the podcast here: ⁠⁠https://forms.gle/w7LXMCXhdJ5Q2eB9A⁠

Robin and I talk about the sacred, humanity's descendants, and social rot.

Episode transcript: ⁠⁠https://www.danschulz.co/p/1-robin-hanson⁠⁠

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Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(00:31) Changing careers late in life

(01:29) Philosophy

(04:33) AI

(15:20) The sacred

(29:56) Humans exploring the universe

(38:02) Social rot

(46:52) The Elephant in the Brain

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Links

- The Age of Em

- The Elephant in the Brain

- Robin’s YouTube debates

- "What Makes Stuff Rot?”

- "Will World Government Rot?"

- Grabby aliens

- Construal level theory

- Émile Durkheim

- Share anonymous feedback on the podcast here: ⁠⁠https://forms.gle/w7LXMCXhdJ5Q2eB9A⁠