Moment of Zen

E10: Disenfranchised men, AI Doomerism, and the Problems with Effective Altruism, with Amjad Masad

Episode Summary

We speak with Amjad Masad about disenfranchised men, intellectual movements, problems with effective altruism and AI doomerism.(2:15) Replika caused Amjad to downgrade his view of humanity (3:15) Some men are down bad (5:15) Should we bring back monogamy? (8:15) If you’re not a top man, you’re screwed (phew) (13:00) Thought experiment (16:40) Antonio brings up Israel again (drink!) (18:15) “You don’t know what life is until you birth a child and bury a parent” (19:15) Unintended policy side effects (25:25) How to solve population crisis (27:45) WTF happened in 1971? (29:15) High and low time preference (35:15) Dating app preferences (39:00) Group narcissism (41:25) Groups that inbreed focus more on kinship (45:15) AI doomerism (50:45) from New Atheism to SJ to EA to AI Safety (1:00:15) Antonio calls out Eliezer Yudkowski (1:00:45) Criticizing Utilitarianism/Effective Altruism (1:10:15) Jesus vs Nietzsche (1:10:45) Bronze Age Pervert (1:13:15) Antonio recommends converting to Judaism (1:14:30) Why is EA so popular in Silicon Valley? (1:18:10) Why are EA just normie liberals (1:19:00) EA’s importance (1:24:15) The right way to think about alignment (1:27:15) Robert Conquest’s second law (1:30:15) Entryism (1:33:45) is right wing EA a thing?

Episode Notes

(2:15) Replika caused Amjad to downgrade his view of humanity

(3:15) Some men are down bad

(5:15) Should we bring back monogamy?

(8:15) If you’re not a top man, you’re screwed (phew)

(13:00) Thought experiment

(16:40) Antonio brings up Israel again (drink!)

(18:15) “You don’t know what life is until you birth a child and bury a parent”

(19:15) Unintended policy side effects

(25:25) How to solve population crisis

(27:45) WTF happened in 1971?

(29:15) High and low time preference

(35:15) Dating app preferences

(39:00) Group narcissism

(41:25) Groups that inbreed focus more on kinship

(45:15) AI doomerism

(50:45) from New Atheism to SJ to EA to AI Safety

(1:00:15) Antonio calls out Eliezer Yudkowski

(1:00:45) Criticizing Utilitarianism/Effective Altruism

(1:10:15) Jesus vs Nietzsche

(1:10:45) Bronze Age Pervert

(1:13:15) Antonio recommends converting to Judaism

(1:14:30) Why is EA so popular in Silicon Valley?

(1:18:10) Why are EA just normie liberals

(1:19:00) EA’s importance

(1:24:15) The right way to think about alignment

(1:27:15) Robert Conquest’s second law

(1:30:15) Entryism

(1:33:45) is right wing EA a thing?

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