Luke Drago - AGI, The Intelligence Curse, and Hip-Hop
Luke Drago is the co-author of The Intelligence Curse and previously researched AI governance and economics at BlueDot Impact, served on the leadership team at Encode, and studied history and politics at Oxford.0:00 - Intro0:54 - Overview of the intelligence curse2:10 - Why are the doomers wrong?4:37 - Why are the optimists wrong?7:00 - Do people really have power now?13:33 - Why would powerful people’s values change?18:31 - Why do we take care of dependents?21:43 - Why should we want democracy in an AI future?24:23 - Why fear rentier states?32:45 - What powerful people should do right now39:33 - Diffusion time and bottlenecks44:20 - Why should we care if China achieves AGI first?46:25 - The jagged frontier49:16 - Why AGI society could be static51:10 - Restricting AI rights56:34 - What should we be excited for?59:28 - Music1:30:41 - Building God1:32:46 - More musicThe Intelligence Curse: https://intelligence-curse.ai/Luke’s Twitter: https://x.com/luke_drago_Luke’s Substack: https://lukedrago.substack.com/Luke’s top 10 albums:- A Fever You Can't Sweat Out by Panic! at the Disco (2005)- Channel Orange by Frank Ocean (2012)- Random Access Memories by Daft Punk (2013)- Yeezus by Kanye West (2013)- DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar (2017)- DAYTONA by Pusha T (2018)- IGOR by Tyler, the Creator (2019)- I Didn't Mean to Haunt You by Quadeca (2022)- College Park by Logic (2023)- Atavista by Childish Gambino (2024)More EpisodesYouTube: https://tinyurl.com/57jr42wkSpotify: https://tinyurl.com/mrxkkhb4Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/yck8pnmfMy Twitter: https://x.com/theojaffeeMy Substack: https://www.theojaffee.com
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Alok Singh - AI, Math, Philosophy, and Erewhon
Alok Singh researches provable AI safety via formal verification using Lean at Max Tegmark’s Beneficial AI Foundation, and writes about mathematics at alok.github.io.0:00 - Intro1:12 - Typing8:45 - Elon’s demo day22:42 - Animation, discrete vs continuous29:04 - Number systems35:26 - Nonstandard analysis43:04 - Reasoning models and o350:45 - Fiction55:48 - o1 and Linguistics58:50 - Hyperfinite sets1:11:58 - AI for math1:16:01 - The field with one element1:23:17 - Lean1:31:53 - Lean for formally verifying superintelligence1:36:03 - Ayn Rand1:47:46 - Erewhon1:57:56 - Proto-Indo-European2:03:18 - More Erewhon2:14:41 - Butler and Kaczynski2:50:19 - OutroAlok’s Website: https://alok.github.io/Alok’s Twitter: https://x.com/TheRevAlokSinghBeneficial AI Foundation: http://beneficialaifoundation.org/Lean: https://lean-lang.org/Transcript: https://www.theojaffee.com/p/podcast-alok-singhMore EpisodesYouTube: https://tinyurl.com/57jr42wkSpotify: https://tinyurl.com/mrxkkhb4Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/yck8pnmfMy Twitter: https://x.com/theojaffeeMy Substack: https://www.theojaffee.com
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#19: Samo Burja - Superintelligence and History, Ideology, and 21st Century Philosophy
Samo Burja is a writer, historian, and political scientist, the founder of civilizational consulting firm Bismarck Analysis, and the editor-in-chief of governance futurism magazine Palladium.
Chapters
0:00 - Intro
1:06 - Implications of OpenAI o1
10:21 - Implications of superintelligence on history
35:06 - Palladium, Chinese technocracy, ideology, and media
1:00:44 - Best ideas, philosophers, and works of the past 20-30 years
Links
Samo’s Website: https://samoburja.com/
Bismarck Analysis: https://www.bismarckanalysis.com/
Palladium: https://www.palladiummag.com/
Bismarck’s Twitter: https://x.com/bismarckanlys
Palladium’s Twitter: https://x.com/palladiummag
Samo’s Twitter: https://x.com/samoburja
Transcript: https://www.theojaffee.com/p/19-samo-burja
More Episodes
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/57jr42wk
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/mrxkkhb4
Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/yck8pnmf
My Twitter: https://x.com/theojaffee
My Substack: https://www.theojaffee.com
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#18: Alec Stapp - The Institute for Progress, American Dynamism, and Fixing Governance
Alec Stapp is the co-founder and co-CEO of the Institute for Progress, a non-profit think tank dedicated to accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial progress.
Chapters
0:00 - Intro
1:13 - Why can’t smart people fix the Bay Area?
3:38 - How to get normal people on board with IFP
10:23 - How to get smart people into governance
15:55 - How IFP chose its priorities
21:56 - How will IFP avoid mission creep?
24:17 - How important is academia today?
26:03 - Would Alec press a button to fully open borders?
29:45 - How prepared are we for another pandemic?
33:16 - Why don’t easy wins happen?
36:17 - Is Biden’s spending good?
40:51 - How important is the repeal of Chevron deference?
43:23 - Are land value taxes good?
45:01 - “The Project” for AGI and AI Alignment
48:19 - Is globalism dying?
50:32 - Overrated or Underrated?
59:28 - The most overrated issue
1:00:26 - The most underrated issue
Links
Institute for Progress: ifp.org
“Progress Is A Policy Choice” founding essay by Alec Stapp and Caleb Watney: https://ifp.org/progress-is-a-policy-choice/
“How to Reuse the Operation Warp Speed Model” by Arielle D’Souza: https://ifp.org/how-to-reuse-the-operation-warp-speed-model/
“How to Be a Policy Entrepreneur in the American Vetocracy” by Alec Stapp: https://ifp.org/how-to-be-a-policy-entrepreneur-in-the-american-vetocracy/
“To Speed Up Scientific Progress, We Need to Understand Science Policy”: https://ifp.org/to-speed-up-scientific-progress-we-need-to-understand-science-policy/
“But Seriously, How Do We Make an Entrepreneurial State?” by Caleb Watney: https://ifp.org/how-do-we-make-an-entrepreneurial-state/
Construction Physics newsletter by Brian Potter: https://constructionphysics.substack.com/
Macroscience newsletter by Tim Hwang: https://www.macroscience.org/
Statecraft newsletter by Santi Ruiz: https://www.statecraft.pub/
IFP’s Twitter: x.com/IFP
Alec’s Twitter: x.com/AlecStapp
Transcript: https://www.theojaffee.com/p/18-alec-stapp
More Episodes
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/57jr42wk
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/mrxkkhb4
Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/yck8pnmf
My Twitter: https://x.com/theojaffee
My Substack: https://www.theojaffee.com
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#17: Casey Handmer - Terraform, solar, space, Hyperloop, and how to think
Casey Handmer is the founder and CEO of Terraform Industries and a physicist, immigrant, pilot, dad, solar enthusiast, Caltech physics PhD and former Hyperloop One levitation engineer and NASA JPL software system architect.
0:00 - Intro
1:40 - Why don’t other people do what Terraform does?
2:51 - Why is solar better than nuclear fusion?
5:27 - Could carbon emissions actually be good?
8:38 - Why isn’t anyone stopping global warming with sulfur?
13:20 - Can America build something like Terraform?
20:53 - Solar and nuclear
23:10 - Why not terraform Venus instead of Mars?
30:47 - Why did Casey work at NASA instead of SpaceX?
37:18 - Why is Elon the only person with multiple huge companies?
39:59 - Why didn’t the Hyperloop work?
42:26 - Tile the desert with solar
46:03 - How does solar change geopolitics?
48:30 - How does Casey manage his time?
53:24 - How do you develop first principles thinking?
56:28 - Favorite place Casey has traveled to
59:21 - Outro
Casey’s Blog: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/
- You Should Be Working On Hardware: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2023/08/25/you-should-be-working-on-hardware/
- The solar industrial revolution is the biggest investment opportunity in history: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2024/05/22/the-solar-industrial-revolution-is-the-biggest-investment-opportunity-in-history/
- Future of Energy Reading List: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2023/10/19/future-of-energy-reading-list/
- Elon Musk Is Not Understood: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2024/01/02/elon-musk-is-not-understood/
- Why High Speed Rail Hasn’t Caught On: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2022/10/11/why-high-speed-rail-hasnt-caught-on/
Casey’s Website: http://caseyhandmer.com/
Casey’s Twitter: https://x.com/cjhandmer
Terraform Industries: https://terraformindustries.com/
Terraform Blog: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/
- Scaling Carbon Capture: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2022/07/24/scaling-carbon-capture/
- Terraform Industries Whitepaper: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2022/07/24/terraform-industries-whitepaper/
- Terraform Industries Whitepaper 2.0: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2023/01/09/terraform-industries-whitepaper-2-0/
- Permitting Reform or Death: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2023/11/10/permitting-reform-or-death/
Transcript: https://www.theojaffee.com/p/17-casey-handmer
More Episodes
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/57jr42wk
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/mrxkkhb4
Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/yck8pnmf
My Twitter: https://x.com/theojaffee
My Substack: https://www.theojaffee.com
Netherlands