54 – Nothing Can Prepare You For Robin Hanson

Robin Hanson returns to talk about his new book: The Elephant In The Brain

Robin’s classic “X is not about Y” post. 2008! Man, time flies.

Eneasz mentioned The North Pond Hermit. Relevant quote: “Solitude did increase my perception. But here’s the tricky thing—when I applied my increased perception to myself, I lost my identity. With no audience, no one to perform for, I was just there. There was no need to define myself; I became irrelevant. The moon was the minute hand, the seasons the hour hand. I didn’t even have a name. I never felt lonely. To put it romantically: I was completely free.”

Yudkowsky’s short “Lord of the Rationality”

The Zvi’s review of Elephant In The Brain

Conflict Theory vs Mistake Theory

Charles Stross’s “Martian Invaders” formulation of corporate optimizers & Ted Chiang on corporate optimizers, with unfortunate AI-placidity thrown in.

Our previous interview with Robin, about his book Age of Em