Stephen 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

#15: Perry Metzger - Extropians, Nanotech, AI Optimism, and the Alliance for the Future

May 14th, 2024 1h 44m

Perry 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 - Intro0:47 - How Perry got into extropianism

#14: Robin Hanson - Cultural Drift, Ems, Elephants, Institutions, and The Future

Apr 27th, 2024 2h 3m

Robin 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 - Intro1:24 -

#13: Nick Simmons - All About Urbit

Apr 14th, 2024 1h 4m

Nick 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 - Intro1:19 - What actually i

#12: Paul Buchheit - Creating Gmail, Fixing Google, Narrative Understanding

Mar 22nd, 2024 59m 9s

Paul 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 ser

#11: Bryan Caplan - You Will Not Stampede Me: Essays on Non-Conformism

Feb 26th, 2024 1h 3m

Bryan Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University, research fellow at the Mercatus Center, adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, writer at EconLib and Bet On It, and best-selling author of eight books, including You Will Not

#10: Liron Shapira - AI doom, FOOM, rationalism, and crypto

Dec 26th, 2023 1h 25m

Liron Shapira is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and CEO of counseling startup Relationship Hero. He’s also a rationalist, advisor for the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and Center for Applied Rationality, and a consistently candid AI

#9: Dwarkesh Patel - Podcasting, AI, Talent, and Fixing Government

Dec 3rd, 2023 1h 48m

Dwarkesh Patel is the host of the Dwarkesh Podcast, where he interviews intellectuals, scientists, historians, economists, and founders about their big ideas. He does deep research and asks great questions. Past podcast guests include billionai

#8: Scott Aaronson - Quantum computing, AI watermarking, Superalignment, complexity, and rationalism

Nov 13th, 2023 1h 29m

Scott Aaronson is the Schlumberger Chair of Computer Science and Director of the Quantum Information Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Previously, he got his bachelor’s in CS from Cornell, his PhD in complexity theory at UC Berkeley,

#7: Nora Belrose - EleutherAI, Interpretability, Linguistics, and ELK

Nov 8th, 2023 2h 24m

Nora Belrose is the Head of Interpretability at EleutherAI, and a noted AI optimist.Nora’s Twitter: https://x.com/norabelroseEleutherAI Website: https://www.eleuther.ai/EleutherAI Discord: https://discord.gg/zBGx3azzUnPODCAST LINKS

#6: Razib Khan - Genetics, ancient history, rationalism, IQ

Oct 15th, 2023 1h 16m

Razib Khan is a geneticist, the CXO and CSO of a biotech startup, and a writer and podcaster with interests in genetics, genomics, evolution, history, and politics.Razib’s Twitter: https://x.com/razibkhanRazib’s Website: https://www.razib

#5: Quintin Pope - AI alignment, machine learning, failure modes, and reasons for optimism

Oct 1st, 2023 2h 36m

Quintin Pope is a machine learning researcher focusing on natural language modeling and AI alignment. Among alignment researchers, Quintin stands out for his optimism. He believes that AI alignment is far more tractable than it seems, and that

#4: Rohit Krishnan - Developing Genius, Investing, AI Optimism, and the Future

Sep 8th, 2023 1h 5m

Rohit Krishnan is a venture capitalist, economist, engineer, former hedge fund manager, and essayist. On Twitter @krishnanrohit, and on his Substack, Strange Loop Canon, at strangeloopcanon.com, he writes about AI, business, investing, complex

#3: Zvi Mowshowitz - Rationality, Writing, Public Policy, and AI

Aug 18th, 2023 2h 21m

Zvi Mowshowitz is a former professional Magic: The Gathering player who is a Pro Tour and Grand Prix winner, and member of the MTG Hall of Fame. He’s also been a professional trader and market maker, and a startup founder. He’s been involved in

#2: Carlos de la Guardia - AGI, Deutsch, Popper, knowledge, and progress

Aug 12th, 2023 1h 38m

Carlos de la Guardia is an independent AGI researcher inspired by the work of Karl Popper, David Deutsch, and Richard Dawkins. In his research, he seeks answers to some of humanity’s biggest questions: how humans create knowledge, how AIs can o

#1: Greg Fodor - AI, knowledge acceleration, aliens, & VR

Jul 29th, 2023 2h 26m

Greg Fodor is a software engineer who’s been involved in augmented and virtual reality for over a decade. He co-founded Altspace VR, a virtual events company acquired by Microsoft, worked on Mozilla Hubs, a browser-based VR community platform;

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