(13:34) The Techno-Capital Machine
(25:10) Not Utopia, but Close Enough
(26:04) Becoming Technological Supermen
(28:46) Technological Values
(32:43) The Meaning of Life
(40:40) Patron Saints of Techno-Optimism
everything good is downstream of growth.
not growing is stagnation.
technology is a lever on the world.
this is the story of the material development of our civilization.
this is why our descendents will live in the stars.
that there is no material problem that cannot be solved with more technology.
free markets are the most effective way to organize a technological economy.
the market economy is a discovery machine, a form of intelligence.
Hayek’s Knowledge Problem overwhelms any centralized economic system.
markets lift people out of poverty.
markets are an inherently individualistic way to achieve superior collective outcomes.
markets do not require people to be perfect, or even well intentioned.
the ultimate moral defense of markets is that they divert people who otherwise would raise armies and start religions into peacefully productive pursuits.
markets, to quote Nicholas Stern, are how we take care of people we don’t know.
markets are the way to generate societal wealth for everything else we want to pay for.
there is no conflict between capitalist profits and a social welfare system that protects the vulnerable.
central economic planning elevates the worst of us and drags everyone down; markets exploit the best of us to benefit all of us.
central planning is a doom loop; markets are an upward spiral.
in David Ricardo’s concept of comparative advantage – as distinct from competitive advantage.
a market sets wages as a function of the marginal productivity of the worker.
in Milton Friedman’s observation that human wants and needs are infinite.
markets also increase societal well being by generating work in which people can productively engage.
technological change, far from reducing the need for human work, increases it.
that since human wants and needs are infinite, economic demand is infinite, and job growth can continue forever.
markets are generative, not exploitative; positive sum, not zero sum.
the techno-capital machine of markets and innovation never ends, but instead spirals continuously upward.
in accelerationism – the conscious and deliberate propulsion of technological development.
the techno-capital machine is not anti-human.
the cornerstone resources of the techno-capital upward spiral are intelligence and energy.
intelligence is the ultimate engine of progress.
intelligence is in an upward spiral.
we are poised for an intelligence takeoff that will expand our capabilities to unimagined heights.
Artificial Intelligence is our alchemy, our Philosopher’s Stone.
Artificial Intelligence is best thought of as a universal problem solver.
Artificial Intelligence can save lives.
any deceleration of AI will cost lives.
in Augmented Intelligence just as much as we believe in Artificial Intelligence.
Augmented Intelligence drives marginal productivity which drives wage growth which drives demand which drives the creation of new supply.
energy should be in an upward spiral.
energy need not expand to the detriment of the natural environment.
a second energy silver bullet is coming – nuclear fusion.
there is no inherent conflict between the techno-capital machine and the natural environment.
technology is the solution to environmental degradation and crisis.
a technologically stagnant society has limited energy at the cost of environmental ruin.
we should place intelligence and energy in a positive feedback loop, and drive them both to infinity.
we should use the feedback loop of intelligence and energy to make everything we want and need abundant.
