Podcast
Theo Jaffee Podcast
Hosted by Theo Jaffee · EN
Deep conversations with brilliant people.
11episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Luke Drago - AGI, The Intelligence Curse, and Hip-Hop
May 12, 202501:47:18Tap to summarizeLuke 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
Transcribe →Alok Singh - AI, Math, Philosophy, and Erewhon
Apr 30, 202502:50:53Tap to summarizeAlok 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
Transcribe →#19: Samo Burja - Superintelligence and History, Ideology, and 21st Century Philosophy
Sep 22, 202401:06:51Tap to summarizeSamo 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
Transcribe →#18: Alec Stapp - The Institute for Progress, American Dynamism, and Fixing Governance
Jul 11, 202401:03:06Tap to summarizeAlec 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
Transcribe →#17: Casey Handmer - Terraform, solar, space, Hyperloop, and how to think
Jun 25, 202401:00:15Tap to summarizeCasey 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
Transcribe →#16: Stephen Grugett and Austin Chen - Manifold, Manifund, Manifest, prediction markets, and EA
Jun 13, 202401:23:12Tap to summarizeStephen Grugett and Austin Chen are co-founders of Manifold Markets, an online play-money prediction market and competitive forecasting platform. Stephen currently serves on the company’s management, while Austin recently stepped down to start Manifund, a unique, open-source grant program. This video is not sponsored in any way by Manifold, Manifund, or Manifest - I just think they’re cool. Chapters 0:00 - Intro Part 1: Stephen Grugett 1:20 - Are prediction markets actually bad? 4:11 - Would Manifold use real money if allowed? 5:24 - How Manifold would use real money if allowed 6:08 - Would Manifold use crypto if allowed? 7:17 - Can you ever get long-term returns from prediction markets? 10:01 - Would subsidies ruin markets? 11:23 - Why Manifold beat real money on predicting the 2022 elections 16:00 - Would Stephen implement futarchy? 19:54 - Manifold Love 23:22 - Bet on Love 26:21 - Why Manifold is miscalibrated 29:06 - Insider trading and market manipulation 31:42 - Is it easier to make money on prediction markets or normal markets? 32:37 - Good prediction market UI 34:35 - Why should people trust market creators? 35:34 - Derivatives on prediction markets 37:20 - Stephen’s ginseng adventures 40:55 - Audience Q: why don’t Americans consume American ginseng? 41:35 - Audience Q: cancel culture and Richard Hanania 45:50 - Audience Q: why aren’t there more institutional investors in prediction markets? 47:33 - Audience Q: can journalists help resolve markets? 49:45 - Audience Q: is there any role for sweepstakes other than regulatory arbitrage? Part 2: Austin Chen 51:14 - Are prediction markets insufficiently powerful? 54:22 - What prediction markets can do if not futarchy 55:36 - How Manifund was designed 59:35 - How Manifund chooses regrantors 1:00:49 - Why donate to Manifund? 1:03:09 - Does Dustin Moskovitz have too much power over EA? 1:04:29 - What Manifund would do differently with more money 1:05:52 - How Manifest gets so many interesting people 1:09:10 - How much did SBF’s fall damage EA? 1:10:04 - OpenAI 1:11:54 - Is this decade more important than other decades? 1:13:01 - Why aren’t more philanthropic organizations open? 1:15:35 - Manifund’s best projects 1:17:25 - How short AGI timelines would affect Manifund 1:19:21 - Audience Q: how Manifold ships fast 1:22:11 - Outro Links Manifold: https://manifold.markets Manifund: https://manifund.com Manifest: https://www.manifest.is Manifold’s Twitter: https://x.com/manifoldmarkets Manifund’s Twitter: https://x.com/manifund Austin’s Twitter: https://x.com/akrolsmir Transcript: https://www.theojaffee.com/p/16-stephen-grugett-and-austin-chen 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
Transcribe →#15: Perry Metzger - Extropians, Nanotech, AI Optimism, and the Alliance for the Future
May 14, 202401:44:53Tap to summarizePerry Metzger is an entrepreneur, technology manager, consultant, computer scientist, early proponent of extropianism and futurism, and co-founder and chairman of the Alliance for the Future. 0:00 - Intro 0:47 - How Perry got into extropianism 7:04 - Is extropianism the same as e/acc? 9:38 - Why extropianism died out 12:59 - Eliezer Yudkowsky 17:19 - Perry and Eliezer’s Twitter beef 19:46 - TESCREAL, Baptists and bootleggers 22:34 - Why Eliezer became a doomer 28:39 - Is singularitarianism eschatology? 37:51 - Will nanotech kill us? 45:51 - What if the offense-defense balance favors offense? 53:03 - Instrumental convergence and agency 1:05:35 - How Alliance for the Future was founded 1:12:08 - Decels 1:15:52 - China 1:25:52 - Why a nonprofit lobbying firm? 1:28:36 - How to convince legislators 1:32:20 - Can the government do anything good on AI? 1:39:09 - The future of Alliance for the Future 1:44:22 - Outro Perry’s Twitter: https://x.com/perrymetzger AFTF’s Twitter: https://x.com/aftfuture AFTF’s Manifesto: https://www.affuture.org/manifesto/ An Archaeological Dig Through The Extropian Archives: https://mtabarrok.com/extropia-archaeology Alliance for the Future: https://www.affuture.org/ Donate to AFTF: affuture.org/donate Sci-Fi Short Film “Slaughterbots”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU Transcript: https://www.theojaffee.com/p/15-perry-metzger 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
Transcribe →#14: Robin Hanson - Cultural Drift, Ems, Elephants, Institutions, and The Future
Apr 27, 202402:03:52Tap to summarizeRobin Hanson is a professor of economics at George Mason University, the author of The Age of Em and The Elephant in the Brain, the writer of the blog Overcoming Bias, and one of the most interesting polymaths alive today. 0:00 - Intro 1:24 - Mathematical models and grabby aliens 9:11 - Will we run out of value in the future?12:23 - Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns 14:29 - Posadism 17:53 - Moral progress and Whig history 20:29 - Will there be a trad resurgence? 23:00 - Will Israel’s ultra-Orthodox problem globalize? 25:39 - Why will fertility rate keep dropping? 30:14 - Is declining fertility solvable technologically? 32:20 - What is wokeness? Has it peaked? 35:02 - Will virtualization make society more multicultural? 39:30 - How do institutions coordinate so well? 42:50 - Will ems care about death? 46:16 - Personal identity and death 49:30 - How much of Age of Em is applicable to LLMs? 51:09 - Why we shouldn’t worry about AI risk 55:40 - What if people don’t see AIs as their descendants? 1:00:41 - Other future tech deep dives 1:02:43 - Our very long-run descendants 1:06:08 - Time and risk preferences 1:08:34 - Wouldn’t ems be selected for docility? 1:11:24 - How Robin got involved in rationalism 1:13:22 - Girls getting the “ick” 1:16:56 - Have humans evolved since forager times? 1:18:28 - Cultural evolution 1:20:30 - Culture and prestige 1:22:49 - Why medicine in the US is bad 1:25:54 - Is academia the best truth-seeking institution in society? 1:28:52 - Peer review 1:31:13 - Which institutions are actually good? 1:32:33 - Why universities are all the same 1:37:40 - Bitcoin and speculation 1:46:44 - Demarchy 1:50:03 - Futarchy 1:53:56 - Applying prediction markets to dating apps 1:57:38 - The broadest thinkers and books in the world 2:00:59 - How Robin balances his many interests 2:01:58 - Teaching 2:03:12 - Outro Robin’s Homepage: https://mason.gmu.edu/~rhanson/home.html Overcoming Bias: https://www.overcomingbias.com/ Robin’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinhansonGrabby Aliens: https://grabbyaliens.com/ Age of Em: https://archive.is/LMrr9The Elephant in the Brain: https://www.elephantinthebrain.com/ Beware Cultural Drift: https://quillette.com/2024/04/11/beware-cultural-drift/ More Episodes Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdJRQ6924HY&list=PLVN8-zhbMh9YnOGVRT9m0xzqTNGD_sujj Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1IJRtB8FP4Cnq8lWuuCdvW?si=b4001cf2e8a5453f Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/theo-jaffee-podcast/id1699912677 My Twitter: https://x.com/theojaffee My Substack: https://www.theojaffee.com
Transcribe →#13: Nick Simmons - All About Urbit
Apr 14, 202401:04:03Tap to summarizeNick Simmons is a founding partner at Octu Ventures, a member-driven venture DAO investing in teams building on Urbit. Urbit is a new computing paradigm that provides complete ownership of your digital world. 0:00 - Intro 1:19 - What actually is Urbit? 5:43 - Urbit ID and Schelling points 9:05 - Why Urbit? 10:23 - Roko Mijic on Urbit vs. TikTok and Crypto 17:32 - Urbit vs. Worldcoin 22:26 - Niche or growth model? 28:50 - Why haven’t Urbit star prices recovered since 2021? 33:13 - Intrinsic value of Urbit address space 36:37 - Urbit as digital land 42:51 - Urbit and DeFi 45:42 - Personal AI on Urbit 51:35 - Urbit-native hardware 55:58 - Urbit design and aesthetics 1:02:15 - Outro Urbit: https://urbit.org/ Octu: https://octu.ventures/ Urbit Blog: https://urbit.org/blog “Creating Sigils”: https://urbit.org/blog/creating-sigils “On Christopher Alexander”: https://urbit.org/blog/on-christopher-alexander Nick’s Twitter: https://x.com/Halikaarn1an More Episodes Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdJRQ6924HY&list=PLVN8-zhbMh9YnOGVRT9m0xzqTNGD_sujj Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1IJRtB8FP4Cnq8lWuuCdvW?si=b4001cf2e8a5453f Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/theo-jaffee-podcast/id1699912677 My Twitter: https://x.com/theojaffeeMy Substack: https://www.theojaffee.com/
Transcribe →#12: Paul Buchheit - Creating Gmail, Fixing Google, Narrative Understanding
Mar 22, 202400:59:09Tap to summarizePaul Buchheit is a programmer and entrepreneur who joined Google as its 23rd employee. He created Gmail, developed the first prototype of Google AdSense, and suggested the company’s motto, “don’t be evil”. He later co-founded FriendFeed and served as a managing partner at Y Combinator. 0:00 - Intro 1:15 - Issues with Google 3:47 - AI risk 5:21 - AI centralization and decentralization 8:01 - Open-sourcing frontier AI 9:59 - Paul’s Predictions 14:28 - Centralization, free speech, and censorship 24:16 - Trends in ideology 32:00 - Freeing people of narratives 35:49 - Alignment 39:06 - Startups and YC in 2024 50:30 - Email and communication interfaces Paul’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/paultoo Paul’s Blog: https://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/ More Episodes Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdJRQ6924HY&list=PLVN8-zhbMh9YnOGVRT9m0xzqTNGD_sujj Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1IJRtB8FP4Cnq8lWuuCdvW?si=b4001cf2e8a5453f Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/theo-jaffee-podcast/id1699912677 My Twitter: https://twitter.com/theojaffee My Substack: https://www.theojaffee.com/
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