This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Robert Wright, Andrew Day, and Connor Echols discuss items from this week’s Earthling. Read it here: https://nonzero.substack.com/p/how-to-fight-trump-mindfully Recorded November 08, 2024. https://twitter.com/NonzeroNews https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Election 2024: The view from Canada 5:44 Paul praises Bob’s pre-election sermonette 10:37 Why did Trump win? And who’s to blame? 18:47 Did DEI doom Kamala? 25:32 A Kamala campaign post-mortem 33:33 What policies will President Trump 2.0 prioritize? 37:12 The art of the Trump 45:05 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom...
0:28 Is Mickey all-in on Trump? 4:26 The “garbage” wars and their aftermath 7:54 Kamala’s path(s) to victory 10:29 Mickey explains the logic of voting for Trump 19:44 Why Trump sucks, why Kamala sucks 26:05 Bob doles out (p)recriminations 35:37 Will Israel-Iran escalate? 45:00 How Kamala could win Mickey’s vote 49:23 Why did Kamala go negative? 55:27 Mickey plays pundit defender 1:10:02 Which swing state looks worst for Kamala?1:15:55 How Biden made war in Taiwan more likely 1:21:24 Four Dem sex...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Peter’s new book, Other Rivers: A Chinese Education 3:24 Have Chinese people become less hostile to America? 13:12 What Americans get wrong about China 17:38 Why Peter thinks Covid didn’t come from a lab 20:59 China’s transformative recent decades 31:10 Respect for authority in Chinese culture 40:26 Change in China between Peter’s two teaching stints there 54:41 Why the Chinese political system may change dramatic...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Andrew Day, Connor Echols, and a SPECIAL MYSTERY GUEST discuss items from this week’s Earthling. Read it here: https://nonzero.substack.com/p/are-we-inching-toward-world-war-iii
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Bob: The oligarchy has arrived 8:24 What do the odd 2024 betting markets mean for the race? 17:51 Trump on Palmer’s manhood: a closer look 25:24 The Elon empathy enigma 34:51 Coates’s controversial cognitive-empathizing 43:06 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net, University of Toronto, The Sweet Spot, Against Emp...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Robert Wright, Andrew Day, and Connor Echols discuss items from this week’s Earthling. Read it here: https://nonzero.substack.com/p/why-israel-wont-take-the-win Recorded October 18, 2024.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 What is the chip war intended to accomplish? 11:44 How China sees the chip war 19:02 Is Huawei a threat to US national security? 30:21 Paul: The chip restrictions on China are unprecedented 39:39 How Biden boosted China’s chip industry 52:40 Clear costs and unclear benefits of the chip war Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Triolo (Albright Stonebridge Group). Recorded Oct...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Andrew Day and Connor Echols discuss items from this week’s Earthling. Read it here: https://nonzero.substack.com/p/israel-assassination-backfires-and Recorded October 11, 2024.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:00 The time Ron helped un-cancel Jimmy Carter 3:36 How has 10/7 affected American Jews? 15:38 Israel’s place in US politics post-10/7 21:59 What a second Trump term could mean for Israel-Palestine 28:31 Could the current trauma in the Middle East eventually revive the two-state solution? 39:05 Making sense of Israel’s military strategy 45:39 Criticism of Israel, left vs right 50:58 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Elon takes the stage with Trump 5:025 The logic behind Elon’s Trump gamble 11:21 Who won the Vance-Walz vibe war? 14:56 A few kind words about Elon from Paul 27:50 Bob and Paul debate the CBS Coates controversy 48:06 Paul gets philosophical about Mission: Impossible 51:54 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net, Uni...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Robert Wright, Andrew Day, and Connor Echols discuss items from this week’s Earthling. Read it here: https://nonzero.substack.com/p/bibis-plan-for-peace-through-wider Recorded October 04, 2024.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Arvind’s book and newsletter: AI Snake Oil 3:02 A taxonomy of AI observers 7:41 The impact of generative AI 20:21 Why predictive AI sometimes fails 25:03 Uses and misuses of AI in law and healthcare 41:22 Can social media be saved? 52:25 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Arvind Narayanan (Princeton University, AI Snake Oil). Recorded September 11, 2024. Twi...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Robert Wright and Connor Echols discuss items from this week’s Earthling. Read it here: https://nonzero.substack.com/p/biden-and-blinken-israels-lawyers Recorded September 27, 2024. https://twitter.com/NonzeroNews https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods...
0:28 Bob crestfallen over Mickey’s hat switcheroo 2:41 Mickey blames DEI for Kamala tic he finds annoying 8:20 Who’s less impressive, Kamala or Trump? 15:27 Why Bob prefers Kamala’s foreign policy team to Biden’s 29:46 The Vance dossier, revealed at last 34:08 More arguments about Kamala 48:08 Preliminary election analysis 59:05 Trump, Vance, and Springfield’s cats and dogs 1:09:52 Mickey’s Eric Adams conspiracy theory 1:12:02 Biden diplomacy? What Biden diplomacy? 1:23:16 Is cancel culture impo...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Deep insights about coffee and sleep from Paul 5:11 Mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy 7:58 Oligarchy + paranoid billionaires = disaster 14:38 Ackman and Thiel join Elon in billionaire la la land 22:02 Is Trump anti-Semitic or just really pro-Israel? 36:37 If you don’t feel alienated you should seek counseling 41:26 Heading to overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) a...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Would a different US president have made a difference for Gaza? 14:32 Saudi-Israel normalization takes a step back 19:36 Is all hope lost for a two-state solution? 26:51 Making sense of Israel’s pager attacks in Lebanon 35:28 Heading to Overtime—and an AP PSA Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Derek Davison (Foreign Exchanges, American Prestige, Discontents), and Daniel Bessner (A...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Why didn’t OpenAI call its new o1 AI GPT? 12:27 Tim’s first impressions of o1 16:30 What’s the secret to o1’s better reasoning? 27:21 Inspecting AI introspection 30:31 Does o1’s capability for deception bring us closer to doom? 35:59 AI doomers’ Hollywood problem 41:03 Elon’s self-driving speed bumps 47:03 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Timothy B. Lee (F...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Robert Wright and Andrew Day discuss items from this week’s Earthling.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Tragedy strikes the Wright household 4:20 Breaking down the big Trump-Kamala debate 22:44 Are debates actually valuable? 26:16 Kamala’s worst debate moment (according to Bob) 33:39 Elon vs Taylor Swift, Brazil, and himself 37:19 Bob and Paul argue about free speech 45:18 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net, Univ...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:00 Is Ukraine’s Kursk invasion failing? 6:05 Why Russia may outlast the West in Ukraine 14:20 Zelensky’s cabinet shakeup 16:50 Prospects for a peace deal 26:25 Russian elites’ views on the war 36:44 How the Global South can help end the conflict 42:40 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Anatol Lieven (The Quincy Institute). Recorded September 05, 2024. Twitter: ...
(Description from Tripp Fuller’s Homebrewed Christianity podcast .) In this episode, I am joined by one of my favorite scholars in the public square, Robert Wright, the editor of the Nonzero Newsletter . This is a captivating discussion about artificial intelligence, consciousness, and the future of humanity. We explore Wright's extensive work, including 'Nonzero,' 'The Evolution of God,' and 'Why Buddhism is True,' while delving into the intersections of science, religion, and philosophy. Disco...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Steve’s books, The Hell of Good Intentions and The Israel Lobby 1:15 How Israel helped spawn Hezbollah 13:19 Why US leaders abet Israel’s self-destructive behavior 29:14 Netanyahu’s longstanding opposition to a Palestinian state 42:14 The Israeli policy that doomed Israel-Palestine relations 51:39 Steve’s writings on US foreign policy and the election Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is T...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Bob and Paul’s time-warping podcast experiment 3:34 Does thinking in bets better your thinking? 9:38 Past prediction 1: Will the presidential race tighten up? 17:10 J.D. Vance memes of yester-month 22:41 Past prediction 2: Who will Kamala pick for VP? 28:52 When reality gets weird 39:26 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.pau...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Emma’s forthcoming book on US grand strategy 4:40 Gaza, Ukraine, and Mearsheimer’s realism 13:38 The DC establishment’s dark view of world affairs 24:43 How the Gaza war hurts American interests—and America itself 30:10 Is the time ripe for realism and restraint? 36:25 National problems that require international cooperation 49:59 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is Tr...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org This episode includes an Overtime segment that’s available to paid subscribers. If you’re not a paid subscriber, we of course encourage you to become one. If you are a paid subscriber, you can access the complete conversation either via the audio and video on this post or by setting up the paid-subscriber podcast feed, which includes all exclusive audio content. To set that up, simply grab the RSS feed from this page (...
028 Nathan's podcast, The Cognitive Revolution 3:50 The enduring enigmas of AI 7:39 Conceptualizing how LLMs conceptualize 16:22 Do AIs actually understand things? 33:08 Why AI doesn’t need to be superhuman to be revolutionary 43:40 Human vs AI representations of the world 57:09 Thinking through high-dimensional AI brain space 1:05:22 Nathan on AI risk: Doomer? Accelerationist? Both? 1:21:59 The open source question and Cold War II 1:41:34 Do LLMs “naturally” learn human values? 1:45:20 Mamba: a...
0:28 Peter’s background and (Root)claim to fame 4:14 How Peter caught the Covid origins bug 9:49 The Wuhan wet market: source or amplifier? 14:47 Holes in the lab leak theory 24:57 The patient zero problem 28:25 A statistical deep dive into the wet market 43:13 What the genetic evidence can (and can’t) tell us 1:01:46 Can we “trust the science” on Covid? 1:07:39 Has tribalism made resolving the debate impossible? 1:13:32 Why lab leak matters—even if it didn’t happen Robert Wright (Nonzero, The E...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 2:11 Who was Haniyeh—and why’d Israel kill him? 6:12 Why Netanyahu may want a US-Iran war 14:15 Are pro-Israel groups at peak power? 22:33 Israel’s escalating conflict with Hezbollah 31:15 The logic of Iranian retaliation 41:07 Israel’s lack of a viable endgame in Gaza 46:31 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Joshua Landis (University of Oklahoma, SyriaComment.co...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Nick’s influential book Superintelligence and his new book Deep Utopia 3:13 Has Nick flipped on AI doom? 10:57 Life in the “solved world” of an AI utopia 20:44 Can technology address the deepest problems of human nature? 30:07 Meaning, artificial purpose, and the value of golf 46:22 The promise and perils of virtual reality 51:23 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is Tru...
