Episode 9 - Seth Baum on Existential Risk

The 20th century was a period of violent upheaval characterized by two world wars and the Great Depresssion. These tragedies were the result of bad political and economic ideas. Many countries abandoned democratic and free market principles in favor of totalitarian control and militaristic expansion. Sadly, we see a regression to this type of thinking. In today's conversation, Peter Boettke will  speak on why the ghosts of the past have returned. We will discuss current events and their connection to ideas, including Hayek and Austrian economics, the Soviet Union, the war in Ukraine, Hungary, China, and the role of capitalism and free trade. https://substack.com/@jayfriedenberghttps://www.peter-boettke.com/https://economics.gmu.edu/people/pboettke

What are the new Four Horseman of the Apocalypse? Climate change? Pandemics? War? Cyberattack? Seth Baum and I discuss whether we should worry about any of these particular risk factors in isolation or combination. We discuss the notion of a polycrisis and how that makes thinking about risk management difficult. We find that some of the dangers we face now are exactly those that may have brought about the Bronze Age collapse over 3,000 years ago. Are we any better prepared to deal with them?https://gcri.org/https://sethbaum.com/

Is it permissible to teach the ten commandments in public school? For religious exemptions to vaccination? Chris Line is Legal Counsel at the Freedom From Religion Foundation. In this episode, we discuss the issues surrounding separation of church and state. This constitutional protection is being violated more frequently now in the U.S. In a stimulating discussion we touch on the dangers of theocratic governments, the difference between reason and faith, and historical trends in secularism.https://ffrf.org/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdeRmzk7lAA&t=23shttps://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX0lPASW58Y4jRrdBJJrUR9Ja2KmfCZ55&si=G-izvafvKFmrgnHO

In this episode I interview Ivan Eland, defense analyst and writer, who is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute. We talk about the current and future state of U.S. military foreign policy in the post Cold War era. We address a number of questions in this wide-ranging discusion. What threats do China and Russia pose to world peace? How can we bring the bloated defense budget under control? Will the U.S. fall victim to the Thucydides Trap? What type of foreign policy strategy should we implement to deal with ongoing threats and with regions like the Middle East, Latin America and Africa? https://www.independent.org/person/ivan-eland/https://www.independent.org/research/centers/copal/https://www.amazon.com/Balance-Titans-Peace-Liberty-Multipolar-ebook

If you want an AI to "play nice", you need to give it values to ensure it is acting beneficially toward humans. To solve this alignment problem we need to know what values we are talking about. Today I describe a five-level classification system which helps us to understand all values and how they relate to one another. These include survival, cognition, those related to individuality and sociality, and a concern for the wider environment. We then look at how to apply these to AI systems and examine several critiques of the theory. Ethics and Universal ValuesSave Our CivilizationMoral Psychology

There is a lot of talk about AI alignment, which is getting machines to act in our best interests. But how do we go about doing this? The philosophical secret to this conundrum is values. But how do we determine what human values are? This problem needs to be solved before we program computers to do this or that on our behalf. In this two-part series, I discuss what values are and look at evidence on human values coming from evolutionary theory, literature reviews and survey research. The talk rounds out with the contentious debate on whether human values are relative or universal.Ethics and Universal ValuesSave Our CivilizationMoral Psychology

Can a machine become conscious? Could it feel pain and pleasure, be happy or sad? In this episode we address the question of whether the AI systems we are building now are or could achieve such consciousness. If they can the ramifications are enormous. Join me in this wide-ranging interview with Calum Chace to discuss this issue. Calum is a best-selling author, speaker, and founder of the AI safety company Conscium. We cover whether being alive, having a body, or growing up is essential to consciousness, what the relationship between intelligence and sentience might be and how a self-aware AI might act differently.https://www.calum-chace.com/https://conscium.com/https://www.amazon.com/Perspectives-Machine-Consciousness-Calum-Chace

In this episode we examine ways to stop incivility. We show that attempts to control bad behavior have always been around and can be categorized in terms of social and individual forms. The social classification looks at organizations like the family and church and how they have regulated behavior. The individual approach looks at how a single person can exert self-control, in some cases in conjunction with outside assistance. Cultivating an attitude of empathy allows us to act kindly to others without having to memorize rules or norms.Related Links:The Psychology of Polarizationhttps://youtu.be/yQdR3npYtx4?si=jZUBng4w9KmH5OyUMoral Psychologyhttps://youtu.be/4PS7boEeT2M?si=mUSx2d-PKdc1-aVLThe Psychology of Evilhttps://youtu.be/wRWynfPea7Q?si=bxX7lDXF0Ob_eThg

In this episode we define civility, provide several contemporary examples and describe why it has important social implications. We look at whether people are more rude now than in the past and whether this is being driven by polarization and politics. We examine several psychological explanations of rudeness, including the frustration-agression hypothesis and failures in perspective-taking.Related Links:The Psychology of Polarizationhttps://youtu.be/yQdR3npYtx4?si=jZUBng4w9KmH5OyUMoral Psychologyhttps://youtu.be/4PS7boEeT2M?si=mUSx2d-PKdc1-aVLThe Psychology of Evilhttps://youtu.be/wRWynfPea7Q?si=bxX7lDXF0Ob_eThg

In this episode, we introduce the podcast and preview some of the topics covered in succeeding episodes. I introduce myself and define what we mean by existential risks, these being significant threats to the continued existence of humanity. I then discuss what a civilized society is like and how we might be able to achieve that. I conclude by showing that large-scale positive change is possible. The future is what we make if we understand the threats before us and take appropriate action. Links to videos relevant to this episode can be found here:What is Civilization? https://youtu.be/I7PEIpHr9vU?si=8alKLcC4kPQN9PNaAn Introduction to existential risks.  https://youtu.be/XAcFd9Fp6CE?si=gtTV74KP3numpfsl