Brave New World -- hosted by Vasant Dhar
Data Governance Network
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Brave New World is a look into the transformation of humanity by machines in the post-COVID era. It examines a wide range of topics around how technology and “virtualization” of our lives is impacting work, health, faith, emotional well being, government, democracy, and freedom. It is hosted by AI-pioneer Vasant Dhar.
Available episodes
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5 days ago
Ep 68: Gary Smith is an AI Skeptic
Will big data and scary AI take over the world? Not a chance, says Gary Smith, as he joins Vasant Dhar in episode 68 of Brave New World. The human brain is special.
Useful resources:
1. Gary Smith on Twitter, Amazon, Pomona College, Google Scholar and his own website.
2. The AI Delusion -- Gary Smith.
3. Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science -- Gary Smith.
4. Standard Deviations: Flawed Assumptions, Tortured Data, and Other Ways to Lie with Statistics -- Gary Smith.
5. Security Analysis -- Benjamin Graham and David Dodd.
6. Sam Bowman on ChatGPT & Controlling AI — Episode 58 of Brave New World.
7. Raphaël Millière Looks Under the Hood of AI -- Episode 60 of Brave New World.
8. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet — Episode 15 of Brave New World.
9. Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment -- Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein.
10. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement — Episode 21 of Brave New World.
11. The Nature of Intelligence — Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann le Cunn).
12. Ellie Pavlick on the Cutting Edge of AI -- Episode 67 of Brave New World.
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Sep 7, 2023
Ep 67: Ellie Pavlick on the Cutting Edge of AI
Does ChatGPT really understand anything? Or is it faking it? Hell, do we understand how it works? Ellie Pavlick joins Vasant Dhar in episode 67 of Brave New World to share her thoughts on where AI has reached -- and where it's going.
Useful resources:
1. Ellie Pavlick at Brown and Google Scholar.
2. Symbols and grounding in large language models -- Ellie Pavlick.
3. Sam Bowman on ChatGPT & Controlling AI -- Episode 58 of Brave New World.
4. The Nature of Intelligence — Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann le Cunn).
5. Music, Mind, and Meaning -- Marvin Minsky.
6. Emergent Abilities of Large Language Models -- Jason Wei et al.
7. Hugging Face.
8. EleutherAI.
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Jul 13, 2023
Ep 66: Jameel Jaffer on Free Speech in the Social Media Age
Law and social conventions around free speech have evolved with the times, but technology presents new challenges to both. In this new world of social media, how should we think about it? Jameel Jaffer joins Vasant Dhar in episode 66 of Brave New World to share his thoughts on how we can navigate this territory.
Useful resources:
1. Jameel Jaffer on Wikipedia, Twitter, ACLU, Columbia Law School and Knight First Amendment Institute.
2. Social Media Companies Want to Co-opt the First Amendment. Courts Shouldn’t Let Them -- Jameel Jaffer and Scott Wilkens.
3. There’s a Problem With Banning TikTok. It’s Called the First Amendment. -- Jameel Jaffer.
4. Optimizing for What? Algorithmic Amplification and Society -- A symposium by the Knight Institute.
5. How Rights Went Wrong -- Jamal Greene.
6. Free Speech Futures -- An essay series edited by Jamal Greene.
7. Marketplace of Ideas.
8. Brandenburg v. Ohio.
9. Pentagon Papers.
10. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.
11. The Federalist Papers.
12. Whitney v. California.
13. The Technology Wars -- Episode 1 of Brave New World (w Arun Sundararajan).
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Jun 29, 2023
Ep 65: Rick Smolan on a Life in Photography
In a rich career as a photographer, he's brought his own distinct gaze to every place he's been to. Rick Smolan joins Vasant Dhar in episode 65 of Brave New World to talk about his rich experiences -- and what he's learned from them.
Useful resources:
1. Rick Smolan on Wikipedia, Instagram, Amazon, Ted Talks and Against All Odds.
2. The Good Fight: America's Ongoing Struggle for Justice -- Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt.
3. The Human Face of Big Data -- Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt.
4. Alone Across the Outback -- Rick Smolan's talk for National Geographic.
5. Natasha Pruss & Rick Smolan -- Their Profound Story.
6. Tracks -- John Curran.
7. The Coddling of the American Mind — Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.
8. How Social Media Threatens Society — Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt).
9. A Day in the Life of Australia -- Rick Smolan.
10. The Player -- Robert Altman.
11. The Birth of a Word -- Deb Roy.
12. George & Jerry Invent A Show About Nothing -- Seinfeld.
13. Generative AI at Work -- Erik Brynjolfsson, Danielle Li and Lindsey Raymond.
14. Erik Brynjolfsson on the Second Machine Age — Episode 18 of Brave New World.
15. Andrew Yang on the New Politics America Needs -- Episode 27 of Brave New World.
16. Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy — Andrew Yang.
17. Bias, Lies, and Democracy — Episode 14 of Brave New World (w Ali Velshi).
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Jun 16, 2023
Ep 64: Amit Varma on the Creator Economy
There has never been a better time to be a creator. Amit Varma joins Vasant Dhar in episode 64 of Brave New World to discuss his learnings as a podcaster and blogger -- and to explain why AI is not a threat.
Useful resources:
1. Amit Varma on Twitter, India Uncut and Substack.
2. The Seen and the Unseen -- Amit Varma's podcast.
3. Brave New World — Episode 203 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vasant Dhar).
4. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy, Abhijit Bhaduri and Gaurav Chintamani.
5. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma.
6. Why Are My Episodes so Long? -- Amit Varma.
7. If You Are a Creator, This Is Your Time -- Amit Varma.
8. The Naked Sun -- Isaac Asimov.
9. Range Rover — The archives of Amit Varma’s column on poker for the Economic Times.
10. Fog of War and Atomic Chess.
11. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan).
12. A Scientist in the Kitchen — Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok).
13. Law and Education in Our Modern World — Episode 5 of Brave New World (w John Sexton).
14. My Friend Dropped His Pants -- Amit Varma.
15. Eric Weinstein Won’t Toe the Line -- Episode 330 of The Seen and the Unseen.
16. $800,000 to Zero – The FASCINATING History of DaVinci Resolve — Alex Jordan of Learn Color Grading.
17. Miss Excel on Instagram and TikTok.
18. How an Excel Tiktoker Manifested Her Way to Making Six Figures a Day — Nilay Patel.
19. This Australian Man Can Speak Fluent Hindi And Bhojpuri -- ABP News.
20. Advertising is Dead -- Varun Duggirala's podcast.
21. How I Gained 1 MILLION Subscribers — Ali Abdaal.
22. My Top 10 Tips for Aspiring YouTubers — Ali Abdaal.
23. Uplift the Unremarkables — Episode 2 of Brave New World (w Scott Galloway).
24. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen.
25. The Blue Book: A Writer’s Journal — Amitava Kumar.
26. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly.
27. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin.
28. Bill Bishop's newsletter on China.
29. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen.
30. Murder in Mahim — Jerry Pinto.
31. Mallikarjun Mansur and Bhimsen Joshi on Spotify.
32. The New World Upon Us — Amit Varma on Alpha Zero.
33. Google’s AlphaZero Destroys Stockfish In 100-Game Match — Mike Klein.
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Jun 1, 2023
Ep 63: Piyush Gupta on How AI Will Transform Business
He has skin in the game as a top banker -- and saw the power of AI long before others did. Piyush Gupta joins Vasant Dhar in episode 63 of Brave New World to share his excitement for the present -- and his vision for the future.
Useful resources:
1. Piyush Gupta at DBS Bank, LinkedIn, Wikipedia and Twitter.
2. Tom Davenport on Artificial Intelligence in Business -- Episode 56 of Brave New World.
3. David Yermack on The Crypto Revolution -- Episode 30 of Brave New World.
4. SVB was a hedge fund in disguise–and the banking crisis is an overreaction -- Vasant Dhar.
5. The Three Laws of Robotics -- Isaac Asimov.
6. The Passions and the Interests -- Albert O Hirschman. 7. All-in On AI -- Thomas H Davenport and Nitin Mittal.
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May 18, 2023
Ep 62: Dmitry Rinberg on the Mysteries of Smell
We live in a world of smell -- and we barely understand it! Dmitry Rinberg joins Vasant Dhar in episode 62 of Brave New World to discuss what he has learnt about the neurobiology of smell over the last two decades.
Useful resources:
1. Dmitry Rinberg at NYU, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, Twitter and Rinberg Lab..
2. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer -- Patrick Suskind.
3. A Novel Multigene Family May Encode Odorant Receptors: A Molecular Basis for Odor Recognition -- Linda Buck and Richard Axel.
4. Linda Buck and Richard Axel win the Nobel Prize.
5. Learning to Smell: Using Deep Learning to Predict the Olfactory Properties of Molecules -- Alexander B Wiltschko.
6. Digitizing Smell: Using Molecular Maps to Understand Odor -- Richard C Gerkin and Alexander B Wiltschko.
7. This Cat Sensed Death. What if Computers Could, Too? -- Siddhartha Mukherjee.
8. SMILES to Smell: Decoding the Structure–Odor Relationship of Chemical Compounds Using the Deep Neural Network Approach -- Anju Sharma, Rajnish Kumar, Shabnam Ranjta, and Pritish Kumar Varadwaj.
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May 4, 2023
Ep 61: Marty Fridson on How Tech Changed Wall Street
One of the great disruptions that shaped the modern world was the way in which technology transformed Wall Street. Marty Fridson joins Vasant Dhar in episode 61 of Brave New World to talk about those good old days -- and these mad new times!
Useful resources:
1. Martin Fridson at Lehman Livian Fridson Advisors, Amazon, Twitter and his own website.
2. When the Tech Revolution Came to Wall Street -- Marty Fridson.
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Apr 20, 2023
Ep 60: Raphaël Millière Looks Under the Hood of AI
ChatGPT is great -- but does it 'understand' what it is telling us? Raphaël Millière joins Vasant Dhar in episode 60 of Brave New World to understand on what's going on inside ChatGPT -- and the larger questions that arise from this.
Useful resources:
1. Raphaël Millière on Google Scholar, Twitter, LinkedIn, Columbia University and his own website.
2. How to Talk to (And About) Artificial Intelligence -- Raphaël Millière.
3. Moving Beyond Mimicry in Artificial Intelligence -- Raphaël Millière.
4. AI Art Is Challenging the Boundaries of Curation -- Raphaël Millière.
5. The Vector Grounding Problem -- Dimitri Coelho Mollo and Raphaël Millière.
6. Sam Bowman on ChatGPT & Controlling AI -- Episode 58 of Brave New World.
7. Paulo Kaiser on Assimilating ChatGPT -- Episode 59 of Brave New World.
8. The Nature of Intelligence -- Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann LeCun).
9. The False Promise of ChatGPT -- Noam Chomsky, Ian Roberts and Jeffrey Watumull.
10. The Bitter Lesson -- Rich Sutton.
11. On Bullshit -- Harry Frankfurt.
12. Bing’s A.I. Chat: ‘I Want to Be Alive -- Kevin Roose.
13. Language Models as Agent Models -- Jacob Andreas.
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Apr 6, 2023
Ep 59: Paulo Kaiser on Assimilating ChatGPT
Will it take all our jobs? In what way will it make us better? What do we need to do? Paulo Kaiser joins Vasant Dhar in episode 59 of Brave New World to discuss the technology that is changing the world in ways we can't imagine. Bonus material: Wisdom for young professionals just starting out.
Useful resources:
1. Paulo Kaiser on LinkedIn.
2. Plative.
3. Sam Bowman on ChatGPT & Controlling AI -- Episode 58 of Brave New World.
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Mar 23, 2023
Ep 58: Sam Bowman on ChatGPT & Controlling AI
Artificial intelligence is awesome -- but should we fear it? How can we stay in charge? Sam Bowman joins Vasant Dhar in episode 58 of Brave New World to discuss the Control Problem -- and more.
Also check out:
1. Sam Bowman at NYU Courant, LinkedIn,Twitter and Google Scholar.
2. Measuring Progress on Scalable Oversight for Large Language Models -- Samuel R Bowman et al.
3. Herbert Simon, Harry Pople and Norbert Wiener.
4. Language Models as Agent Models -- Jacob Andreas.
5. The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values — Brian Christian.
6. Human Compatible — Stuart Russell.
7. Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman.
8. ImageNet Classification with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks --Alex Krizhevsky et al.
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Mar 9, 2023
Ep 57: Rich Bonneau on the Exciting Frontiers of Computational Biology
When computer science and biology come together, can you reprogram nature? Richard Bonneau joins Vasant Dhar in episode 57 of Brave New World to share his insights on this incredible new field -- and how machine learning can play an important role.
Useful resources:
1. Richard Bonneau at Genentech, Wikipedia,Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Scholar.
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Feb 23, 2023
Ep 56: Tom Davenport on Artificial Intelligence in Business
It is about time companies went all in on artificial intelligence. Tom Davenport joins Vasant Dhar in episode 56 of Brave New World to discuss how his work with AI in the corporate world makes him such an optimist.
Useful resources:
1. Tom Davenport on Amazon, Twitter, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, Babson College and his own website.
2. All-in On AI -- Thomas H Davenport and Nitin Mittal..
3. Competing on Analytics -- Thomas H Davenport and Jeanne G Harris.
4. Working with AI -- Thomas H Davenport and Steven M Miller.
5. The AI Advantage -- Thomas H Davenport.
6. Google fires software engineer who claims AI chatbot is sentient -- The Guardian.
7. Can AI have a soul? -- Fireside Chat with Blake Lemoine.
8. Portrait of an AI Leader: Piyush Gupta of DBS Bank -- Tom Davenport and Randy Bean.
9. The Future Of Work Now: Morgan Stanley’s Financial Advisors And The Next Best Action System -- Thomas H Davenport.
10. Stop Tinkering with AI -- Thomas H Davenport and Nitin Mittal.
11. T…
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Feb 9, 2023
Ep 55: Paul Barrett on Regulating Social Media
Social media has brought new challenges to our times, such as what they should or shouldn't publish or amplify. Do we need new laws to deal with these challenges, or are current laws sufficient? Paul M Barrett joins Vasant Dhar in episode 55 of Brave New World to share his insights.
Useful resources
1. Paul M Barrett on Twitter, Amazon and NYU Stern.
2. Glock: The Rise of America's Gun -- Paul M Barrett.
3. A Platform ‘Weaponized’: How YouTube Spreads Harmful Content—And What Can Be Done About It -- Paul M Barrett and Justin Hendrix.
4. It’s Past Time to Take Social Media Content Moderation In-House -- Paul M Barrett.
5. Spreading The Big Lie: How Social Media Sites Have Amplified False Claims of U.S. Election Fraud -- Paul M Barrett.
6. The ‘Twitter Files’ Show It’s Time to Reimagine Free Speech Online -- David French.
7. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World.
8. Dissecting “Noise” -- Vasant Dhar.
9. Philip Tetlock…
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Jan 26, 2023
Ep 54: Dana Carroll on the Science and Ethics of Gene Editing
We have become the first species that can edit its own programming. Dana Carroll joins Vasant Dhar in episode 54 of Brave New World to share his insights on the science of gene editing -- and the ethical questions it raises.
Useful resources:
1. Dana Carroll at University of Utah and Google Scholar.
2. The Promise and Challenge of Therapeutic Genome Editing -- Jennifer Doudna.
3. Jennifer's Doudna conversation on CRISPR with Chris Anderson.
4. Jennifer Doudna at Google Scholar and Amazon.
5. CRISPR babies: when will the world be ready? -- Heidi Ledford.
6. Beyond CRISPR: What's current and upcoming in genome editing -- Chris Tachibana.
7. Human Genome Editing: Science, Ethics, and Governance -- Various authors.
8. Heritable Human Genome Editing -- Various authors.
9. Human genome editing: a framework for governance -- WHO.
10. Human genome editing: position paper -- WHO.
11. Human genome editing: recommendations -- WHO.
12. Animal Liberation — Peter Singer.
Check out…
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Jan 12, 2023
Ep 53: Paul Shapiro on Growing Meat Without Animals
In principle, you can take a single cell from an animal and feed an entire village. It's a matter of time. In the meantime, there are alternatives, like fermentation, to produce all kinds of new substitutes that could be better than meat in terms of nutrition and taste. Paul Shapiro joins Vasant Dhar in episode 53 of Brave New World to discuss how meat alternatives are the future -- and liberating for animals and the environment.
Useful resources:
1. Paul Shapiro on LinkedIn, Twitter, Wikipedia and his own website.
2. Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World -- Paul Shapiro.
3. The Clean Meat website.
4. The Better Meat Co.
5. Is Old Music Killing New Music? — Ted Gioia.
6. Maneka Gandhi on Animal Rights -- Episode 44 of Brave New World.
7. Animal Liberation — Peter Singer.
8. Animal Farming and Protein — Vasant Dhar.
9. My Octopus Teacher -- Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed.
10. The Innovator’s Dilemma — Clayton M Christens…
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Dec 29, 2022
Ep 52: Neeti Bhalla Johnson on Risk in Our Modern World
Has the world become more or less safe over the years? How do we measure risk in these times of crazy change? Neeti Bhalla Johnson joins Vasant Dhar in episode 52 of Brave New World to share her thoughts on how professionals do it!
Useful resources:
1. Neeti Bhalla Johnson on LinkedIn and Liberty Mutual.
2. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World.
3. Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgement — Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein.
4. Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman.
5. Dissecting “Noise” — Vasant Dhar.
6. Factfulness -- Hans Rosling.
7. Global Deaths in Conflicts Since the Year 1400 -- Chart by Max Roser.
8. War and Peace -- Max Roser, Joe Hasell, Bastian Herre and Bobbie Macdonald.
8. Destined for War.-- Graham Allison.
9. The Technology Wars — Episode 1 of Brave New World (w Arun Sundararajan).
10. The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy -- Michael Lewis.
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Dec 15, 2022
Ep 51: Emeran Mayer on the Brain in Our Gut
The brain and the gut are connected -- and our well-being depends on it. Emeran Mayer joins Vasant Dhar to speak about the importance of the gut in our physical lives -- and our emotional ones!
Useful resources:
1. Emeran Mayer on Google Scholar, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and his own website.
2. The Mind-Gut Connection -- Emeran Mayer.
3. The Gut-Immune Connection -- Emeran Mayer.
4. Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions -- Jaak Panksepp.
5. Human and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare -- Episode 4 of Brave New World (w Eric Topol).
6. Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman.
7. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World.
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Dec 1, 2022
Ep 50: Pramod Varma on India's Digital Empowerment
India has achieved a technological miracle by empowering hundreds of millions of people with the power of identity. Pramod Varma joins Vasant Dhar in episode 50 of Brave New World to discuss his pioneering role in setting up large scale digital public infrastructure.
Useful resources:
1. Pramod Varma on LinkedIn and Twitter.
2. India Stack, Aadhaar, E-Sign, DigiLocker and United Payments Interface.
3. The Beckn Protocol.
4. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet -- Episode 15 of Brave New World.
5. Data Democracy: People and Power in the Digital Age -- Nandan Nilekani's talk.
6. Why the US needs public-private partnerships for digital infrastructure -- Vasant Dhar.
7. 3 ways to increase social media platforms’ transparency -- Vasant Dhar.
8. On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog — New Yorker cartoon.
9. Who controls your data? India may pass a law ensuring that you do -- Vasant Dhar.
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Nov 17, 2022
Ep 49: Anshu Gupta on Using Waste For Good
We need to change the way we do philanthropy: it should be about sharing, not giving. Anshu Gupta joins Vasant Dhar in episode 49 of Brave New World to discuss his journey in building Goonj -- and why we need to rethink our frames.
Useful resources:
1. Anshu Gupta on Goonj, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and his own website.
2. Goonj.
3. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State -- Episode 19 of Brave New World.
4. The Narrow Corridor: How Nations Struggle for Liberty — Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson.
5. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty — Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson.
6. Joseph Aoun on Becoming Robot-Proof -- Episode 45 of Brave New World.
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Nov 3, 2022
Ep 48: Hanna Halaburda and Yannis Bakos on Bitcoin, Blockchain and DeFi
Is Bitcoin just a bubble, or the first face of the future? What about blockchain and DeFi? Hanna Halaburda and Yannis Bakos join Vasant Dhar in episode 48 of Brave New World to dig deeper into these questions.
Useful resources:
1. Hanna Halaburda at NYU Stern, Twitter and Google Scholar.
2. Yannis Bakos at NYU Stern and Google Scholar.
3. On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog -- New Yorker cartoon.
4. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System -- Satoshi Nakamoto.
5. Michael Saylor: Bitcoin, Inflation, and the Future of Money -- Lex Fridman Podcast #276.
6. Artifact of the Month: Ross William Ulbricht's Laptop.
7. How FBI caught Ross Ulbricht, alleged creator of criminal marketplace Silk Road -- Tim Hume.
8. Smart Contracts: Building Blocks for Digital Markets -- Nick Szabo.
9. Obelix and the Sleeping Cups -- Vasant Dhar.
10. Antoinette Schoar on Decentralized Finance & Crypto -- Episode 42 of Brave New World.
11. David Yermack on The Crypto Revolution -- Episode 3…
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Oct 20, 2022
Ep 47: Shelley Stewart on Black Economic Mobility
How did Covid-19 affect black Americans? What are the obstacles to their mobility and what can you do about it? Shelley Stewart joins Vasant Dhar in episode 47 of Brave New World to discuss his work at McKinsey trying to make an impact on black America.
Useful resources:
1. Shelley Stewart at McKinsey & Company.
2. COVID-19: Investing in Black lives and livelihoods.
3. Soumitra Datta on Measuring Innovation -- Episode 46 of Brave New World.
4. Jeff Teper on the Post-Covid Workplace -- Episode 36 of Brave New World.
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Oct 6, 2022
Ep 46: Soumitra Datta on Measuring Innovation
How can we tell if one country is more innovative than another? What drives that difference? And hey, what is innovation to begin with? Soumitra Datta joins Vasant Dhar in episode 46 of Brave New World to share his insights on innovation, and the lessons they hold for us.
Useful resources:
1. Soumitra Datta on Twitter, Wikipedia and Saïd Business School.
2. Does IT Matter? -- Nicholas Carr.
3. Global Innovation Index 2020 -- Edited by Soumitra Datta, Bruno Lanvin and Sacha Wunsch-Vincent.
4. India Innovation Index 2021: NITI Aayog.
5. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet -- Episode 15 of Brave New World.
6. The Swedish Hitmaker Behind Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and the Weeknd -- Neil Shah in the Wall Street Journal.
7. 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer.
8. Why Nations Fail -- Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson.
9. The Narrow Corridor -- Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson.
10. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State -- Episode 19 of Brave New World.
11. That Fancy…
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Sep 22, 2022
Ep 45: Joseph Aoun on Becoming Robot-Proof
If robots and AI are replacing us, we need to reinvent ourselves. Joseph Aoun joins Vasant Dhar in episode 45 of Brave New World to discuss the role of education in making humanity robot-proof.
Useful resources:
1. Joseph Aoun on Twitter, Google Scholar and Northeastern University.
2. Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence -- Joseph Aoun.
3. The Innovator's Dilemma -- Clayton Christensen.
4. Caitlin Zaloom on the Explosion of Student Debt -- Episode 37 of Brave New World.
5. Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost -- Caitlin Zaloom.
6. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World.
7. The Future of Liberal Education -- Episode 11 of Brave New World (w Michael S Roth).
8. How Humans Judge Machines -- César Hidalgo.
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Aug 4, 2022
Ep 44: Maneka Gandhi on Animal Rights
Perhaps the greatest human sin is how we treat animals. Maneka Gandhi joins Vasant Dhar in episode 44 of Brave New World to share her learnings from decades as an animal activist.
Useful resources:
1. Maneka Gandhi on Instagram, Twitter and Wikipedia.
2. Animal Liberation -- Peter Singer.
3. Animal Farming and Protein -- Vasant Dhar.
4. Slaughterhouses and Increased Crime Rates -- Amy J Fitzgerald, Linda Kalof and Thomas Dietz.
5. The Jungle -- Upton Sinclair.
6. The Draize Test.
7. Animals in Cosmetics Testing.
8. Animals Should Be Off The Menu -- Philip Wollen.
9. How Oprah Got Sued for Dissing a Burger -- Brian Duignan.
10. Is Milk the Best Source of Calcium? -- Alisa Fleming.
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Jul 21, 2022
Ep 43: Bernard Haykel on Islam and the West
How is the relationship between Islam and the West evolving? Is there is a clash of civilizations or a clash within Islam? Bernard Haykel joins Vasant Dhar in episode 43 of Brave New World to share his insights.
Useful resources:
1. Bernard Haykel at Princeton, Project Syndicate, Amazon and Google Scholar.
2. The Quran.
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley.
4. 'Tell me about your dream mosque' -- Sacha Baron Cohen in Kingman, Arizona.
5. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State -- Episode 19 of Brave New World.
6. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order -- Samuel Huntington.
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Jul 7, 2022
Ep 42: Antoinette Schoar on Decentralized Finance & Crypto
Will cryptocurrencies save the world or create a new can of worms? Antoinette Schoar joins Vasant Dhar in episode 42 of Brave New World to take us on a dispassionate tour through the world of Bitcoin, blockchains and DeFi.
Useful resources:
1. Antoinette Schoar At MIT Sloan School of Management and Google Scholar.
2. Cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi) -- Igor Makarov and Antoinette Schoar
3. David Yermack on The Crypto Revolution -- Episode 30 of Brave New World.
4. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System -- Satoshi Nakamoto.
5. Are Cryptocurrencies Currencies? Bitcoin as Legal Tender in El Salvador -- Fernando Alvarez, David Argente and Diana Van Patten.
6. Incomplete Contracts and Control -- Oliver Hart's Nobel Prize Lecture.
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Jun 23, 2022
Ep 41: David Chalmers on the Nature of Reality
What are the philosophical implications of virtual reality? Do we exist "physically" or "virtually" and does it matter? Is virtual reality real? How is reality different from consciousness? David Chalmers joins Vasant Dhar in episode 41 of Brave New World to talk about the big questions at the intersection of philosophy and AI that are are being driven by advances in neuroscience and virtual reality.
Useful resources
1. David Chalmers at NYU, Google Scholar, Amazon and his own website.
2. Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy -- David Chalmers.
3. The Conscious Mind -- David Chalmers.
4. Douglas Hofstadter on Amazon.
5. Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain -- Patricia Churchland.
6. Anthony Zador on How our Brains Work -- Episode 35 of Brave New World.
7. White Christmas -- Episode 4 of Season 2 of Black Mirror.
8. It From Bit -- John Archibald Wheeler.
9. John Conway's Game of Life.
10. Nick Bostrom on Amazon.
11. The Simulation Hy…
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Jun 9, 2022
Ep 40: Ben Hunt on the Power of Narrative
'We need narrative theory,' says Ben Hunt, to understand the alien beings called Narratives that inhabit our Metaverse. Hunt joins Vasant Dhar in episode 40 of Brave New World to describe how Big Tech is changing the way we think -- and how we need to fight it.
Useful resources:
1. Ben Hunt on Twitter, LinkedIn and Epsilon Theory,
2. Epsilon Theory,
3. Narrative and Metaverse, Pt. 1: The Living Word -- Ben Hunt.
4. Narrative and Metaverse, Pt. 2: Gain of Function -- Ben Hunt.
5. Narrative and Metaverse, Pt. 3: The Luther Protocol -- Ben Hunt.
6. Chris Bail on How to Fight Polarization -- Episode 34 of Brave New World.
7. Amusing Ourselves to Death -- Neil Postman.
8. The Selfish Gene -- Richard Dawkins.
9. Lapham's Quarterly.
10. We Refugees -- Hannah Arendt.
11. The Power of Myth -- Joseph Campbell.
Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!
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May 26, 2022
Ep 39: Marie Bergstrom on Online Dating and Intimacy
Hooking up ain't like it used to be. Marie Bergstrom joins Vasant Dhar in episode 39 of Brave New World to discuss her research on how the internet has changed the world of love -- and lust.
Useful resources:
1. Marie Bergstrom on Google Scholar.
2. The New Laws of Love -- Marie Bergstrom.
3. Ruth Westheimer on Wikipedia.
4. A modern manifesto against sex positivity -- Michelle Goldberg.
5. Rethinking Sex: A Provocation -- Christine Emba.
Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!
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May 12, 2022
Ep 38: Joel Peterson on the Art and Science of Winemaking
These are exciting times for wine lovers. Joel Peterson, the Godfather of Zinfandel, joins Vasant Dhar in episode 38 of Brave New World to raise a toast to the innovators who continue to transform the world of wine.
Useful resources:
1. Once and Future Wine and Ravenswood.
2. Zinfandel on Wikipedia.
3. The parentage of a classic wine grape, Cabernet Sauvignon -- JE Bowers and CP Meredith.
4. Historical Genetics: The Parentage of Chardonnay, Gamay, and Other Wine Grapes of Northeastern France -- J Bowers, JM Boursiquot, P This, H Johansson and C Meredith.
5. Zinfandel, Dobrièiæ, and Plavac mali: The Genetic Relationship among Three Cultivars of the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia -- E Maletiæ, I Pejiæ, J Karoglan Kontiæ, J Piljac, GS Dangl, A Vokurka, T Lacombe, N Miroševiæ and CP Meredith.
6. Whole genome amplification and microsatellite genotyping of herbarium DNA revealed the identity of an ancient grapevine cultivar -- Nenad Malenica, Silvio Simon, Višnja Besendorfer, Edi…
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Apr 28, 2022
Ep 37: Caitlin Zaloom on the Explosion of Student Debt
Education empowers people, but education debt can cripple them and they families financially. Caitlin Zaloom joins Vasant Dhar in episode 37 of Brave New World to describe the depth of the problem, and what can be done about it.
Useful resources:
1. Caitlin Zaloom at NYU, Google Scholar and Twitter.
2. Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost -- Caitlin Zaloom.
3. Law and Education in Our Modern World -- Episode 5 of Brave New World (w John Sexton).
4. The Future of Liberal Education -- Episode 11 of Brave New World (w Michael S Roth).
5. Uplift the Unremarkables -- Episode 2 of Brave New World (w Scott Galloway).
7. The Value of Soft Skills in the Labor Market -- David J Deming.
8. Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? -- David H Autor.
9. The Price You Pay for College -- Ron Lieber.
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Apr 14, 2022
Ep 36: Jeff Teper on the Post-Covid Workplace
Big tech is in the spotlight these days, but Microsoft keeps a low profile. It has escaped the flak while shaping the post-Covid world. Company veteran Jeff Teper joins Vasant Dhar in episode 36 of Brave New World to explain their vision for the future, and to share his views on Web 3.0. And oh, by the way -- Teams is the nascent Metaverse.
Useful resources:
1. Jeff Teper at Stern and Twitter.
2. Aswath Damodaran on Investing -- Episode 33 of Brave New World.
3. The Product Book -- Josh Anon with Carlos González de Villaumbrosia.
4. Jaime Teevan at Microsoft.
5. The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age -- Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh.
6. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success -- Carol S Dweck.
7. Accidental Empires -- Robert X Cringely.
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Mar 31, 2022
Ep 35: Anthony Zador on How our Brains Work
The brain is a complex machine, but some of us study its circuits and figure out its secrets. Anthony Zador joins Vasant Dhar in episode 35 of Brave New World to reveal what the cutting edge of neuroscience looks like.
Useful resources:
1. Anthony Zador at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Google Scholar and Twitter.
2. Christof Koch on Amazon.
3. A critique of pure learning and what artificial neural networks can learn from animal brains -- Anthony Zador.
4. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence -- Hans Moravec.
5. The Nature of Intelligence -- Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann LeCun).
6. How the Mind Works -- Steven Pinker.
7. Ebbinghaus Illusion.
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Mar 17, 2022
Ep 34: Chris Bail on How to Fight Polarization
Social media is tearing us apart by feeding into our need for status. Can we mitigate its effects? Chris Bail joins Vasant Dhar in episode 34 of Brave New World to share his research on how social media affects us -- and how we can fight back.
Useful resources
1. Chris Bail at Duke, Sanford School of Public Policy, Google Scholar, Amazon, Twitter and his own website.
2. Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing -- Chris Bail.
3. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (with Sinan Aral).
4. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (with Jonathan Haidt).
5. Helena Rosenblatt on Liberalism’s Long Journey -- Episode 32 of Brave New World.
6. We Have Never Been Here Before -- Thomas L Friedman.
7. Adam Alter on Beating Our Addictions -- Episode 28 of Brave New World.
8. The Hype Machine -- Sinan Aral.
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Mar 3, 2022
Ep 33: Aswath Damodaran on Investing
The value of a company has a lot to do with the stories it tells about itself. Aswath Damodaran joins Vasant Dhar in episode 33 of Brave New World to discuss how narratives and numbers are related.
Useful Resources:
1. Aswath Damodaran on YouTube, Blogspot, Twitter, Amazon and NYU Stern.
2. Narrative and Numbers: The Value of Stories in Business -- Aswath Damodaran.
3. The Innovator's Dilemma -- Clayton M Christensen.
4. A Disruptive Cab Ride to Riches: The Uber Payoff -- Aswath Damodaran.
5. How to Miss By a Mile: An Alternative Look at Uber’s Potential Market Size -- Bill Gurley.
6. Possible, Plausible and Probable: Big markets and Networking effects -- Aswath Damodaran.
7. Up, up and away! A crowd-valuation of Uber! -- Aswath Damodaran.
8. The Success Equation -- Michael J Mauboussin.
9. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction — Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner.
10. Philip Tetlock on the Art of Forecasting -- Episode 31 of Brave New World.
11. The Zomato I…
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Feb 17, 2022
Ep 32: Helena Rosenblatt on Liberalism's Long Journey
What is liberal democracy and has it lost its way? Helena Rosenblatt joins Vasant Dhar in episode 32 of Brave New World to add a historical perspective to this modern problem in our illiberal and polarized world.
Useful resources:
1. The Lost History of Liberalism -- Helena Rosenblatt.
2. Thinking with Rousseau: From Machiavelli to Schmitt -- Helena Rosenblatt.
3. Helena Rosenblatt on Amazon.
4. Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Amazon.
5. The Technology Wars -- Episode 1 of Brave New World (w Arun Sundararajan.)
6. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet -- Episode 15 of Brave New World.
7. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (w Sinan Aral).
8. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt).
9. Justice Antonin Scalia on American exceptionalism.
10. The Future of Liberal Education -- Episode 11 of Brave New World (w Michael S Roth).
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Feb 3, 2022
Ep 31: Philip Tetlock on the Art of Forecasting
Yogi Berra once said, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." Philip Tetlock joins Vasant Dhar in episode 31 of Brave New World to discuss what superforecasters do consistently well -- and how we can improve our judgement and decision-making.
Useful resources:
1. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction -- Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner.
2. Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? -- Philip Tetlock.
3. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World.
4. Everything Is Obvious: *Once You Know the Answer -- Duncan Watts.
5. The Hedgehog and the Fox -- Isiah Berlin.
6. What do forecasting rationales reveal about thinking patterns of top geopolitical forecasters? -- Christopher W Karvetski, Carolyn Meinel, Daniel T Maxwell, Yunzi Lu, Barbara A.Mellers and Philip E.Tetlock.
7. Terry Odean on How to Think about Investing -- Episode 23 of Brave New World.
8. Reciprocal Scoring: A Method for Forecasti…
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Jan 20, 2022
Ep 30: David Yermack on The Crypto Revolution
Goodbye big banks. Hello crypto. The world of finance is in the process of changing forever, and David Yermack is your guide. Yermack joins Vasant Dhar in episode 30 of Brave New World to share his road map of, well, this brave new world!
Useful resources:
1. David Yermack at NYU Stern and Google Scholar.
2. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet -- Episode 15 of Brave New World.
3. Linus's Law (from The Cathedral and the Bazaar).
4. The DAO hack mentioned in the episode.
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Jan 6, 2022
Ep 29: Albert Wenger on the World After Capital
Capital is no longer a scarce resource. Attention is. Albert Wenger joins Vasant Dhar in episode 29 of Brave New World to discuss how the Industrial Age is past its expiry date, and what we need to do to prepare for the Knowledge Age.
Useful resources:
1. Albert Wenger at Union Square Ventures and Continuations. And on Twitter.
2. The World After Capital -- Albert Wenger.
3. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy -- Joseph Schumpeter's book in which he wrote about creative destruction.
4. Homo Deus -- Yuval Noah Harari.
5. Free Lunch Society.
6. Andrew Yang on the New Politics America Needs -- Episode 27 of Brave New World.
7. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet -- Episode 15 of Brave New World.
8. Notes on Elinor Ostrom
on Wikipedia, Britannica, Econlib and the Nobel Prize website.
9. Adam Alter on Beating Our Addictions -- Episode 28 of Brave New World.
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Dec 23, 2021
Ep 28: Adam Alter on Beating Our Addictions
More and more, the digital world is being designed to turn us into addicts. Adam Alter joins Vasant Dhar in episode 28 of Brave New World to describe the sinister ways in which this happens -- and what we can do about it.
Useful resources:
1. Irresistible -- Adam Alter.
2. Drunk Tank Pink -- Adam Alter.
3. Dopamine Nation -- Anna Lembke.
4. Anna Lembke on Beating Dopamine -- Episode 26 of Brave New World.
5. Addiction by Design -- Natasha Dow Schüll.
6. Andrew Yang on the New Politics America Needs -- Episode 27 of Brave New World.
7. Bias, Lies, and Democracy -- Episode 14 of Brave New World (w Ali Velshi).
8. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World.
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Dec 9, 2021
Ep 27: Andrew Yang on the New Politics America Needs
Andrew Yang supports some game-changing ideas, such as UBI and taxing robots, and they're rooted in a radical vision of what America's politics should be. Yang joins Vasant Dhar in episode 27 of Brave New World to explain why the system is broken -- and how it can be changed.
Useful resources:
1. Andrew Yang on his website, Twitter, YouTube and Amazon.
2. Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy -- Andrew Yang.
3. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt).
4. Erik Brynjolfsson on the Second Machine Age -- Episode 18 of Brave New World.
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Nov 25, 2021
Ep 26: Anna Lembke on Beating Dopamine
Are you addicted? You may be a slave to dopamine without realising it, whether in the substances you put into your body or the behaviors you adopt. Anna Lembke, author of Dopamine Nation, joins Vasant Dhar in episode 26 of Brave New World to discuss how we can beat this.
Useful resources:
1. Anna Lembke's website.
2. Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence -- Anna Lembke.
3. Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It's So Hard to Stop -- Anna Lembke.
4. Digital Addictions Are Drowning Us in Dopamine -- Anna Lembke.
5. Is Social Media Hijacking our Minds? -- Anna Lembke and Nir Eyal.
6. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt).
7. True self and false self (Wikipedia).
8. Ego Distortion in Terms of True and False Self (1960) -- Donald Winnicott.
9. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World.
10. How I Became Extremely Open-Minded -- Ross Douthat.
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Nov 10, 2021
Ep 25: John McWhorter on the Religion of Wokeism
There is a new religion in town. It has the best intentions, but it may harm those it claims to help. John McWhorter joins Vasant Dhar in episode 25 of Brave New World to talk about his book Woke Racism -- and on the dangers of this new social movement that could tear us apart.
Useful resources:
1. Woke Racism -- John McWhorter.
2. The Coddling of the American Mind -- Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.
3. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt).
4. The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks -- Randall Robinson.
5. The Case for Reparations -- Ta-Nehisi Coates.
6. What does anti-racism in mathematics look like? -- John McWhorter in conversation with Glenn Loury.
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Oct 28, 2021
Ep 24: Solon Barocas on Removing Bias From Machines
Machine Learning can improve decision making in a big way -- but it can also reproduce human biases and discrimination. Solon Barocas joins Vasant Dhar in episode 24 of Brave New World to discuss the challenges of solving this problem.
Useful resources:
1. Solon Barocas at his website, Cornell, Google Scholar and Twitter.
2. Fairness and Machine Learning -- Solon Barocas, Moritz Hardt and Arvind Narayanan.
3. Danger Ahead: Risk Assessment and the Future of Bail Reform: John Logan Koepke and David G. Robinson.
4. Fairness and Utilization in Allocating Resources with Uncertain Demand -- Kate Donahue and Jon Kleinberg.
5. Profiles, Probabilities, and Stereotypes -- Frederick Schauer.
6. Thinking Like a Lawyer: A New Introduction to Legal Reasoning -- Frederick Schauer.
7. Measuring the predictability of life outcomes with a scientific mass collaboration -- Mathew Salganik and others.
8. Inherent Trade-Offs in the Fair Determination of Risk Scores -- Jon Kleinberg, Sendhil Mullai…
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Oct 14, 2021
Ep 23: Terry Odean on How to Think about Investing
How do we pick the stocks we buy? What drives us to sell? How does new technology impact our attention and behavior? Terrance Odean joins Vasant Dhar in episode 23 of Brave New World to share his learnings over a lifetime of studying behavioral finance.
Useful resources: 1. Terrance Odean's videos on Investing.
2.Terrance Odean's video series on individual investor behavior.
3. All That Glitters: The Effect of Attention and News on the Buying Behavior of Individual and Institutional Investors -- Brad M Barber & Terrance Odean.
4. Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors -- Brad M Barber & Terrance Odean.
5. The Behavior of Individual Investors -- Brad M Barber & Terrance Odean.
6. Zero-Commission Individual Investors, High Frequency Traders, and Stock Market Quality -- Gregory W Eaton, T Clifton Green, Brian Roseman & Yanbin Wu.
7. Thinking Fast and Slow -- Daniel Kahneman.
8. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judg…
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Sep 30, 2021
Ep 22: Dina Srinivasan on the Dangers of Big Tech
Google and Facebook have an outrageous amount of market power, and that's dangerous for society. Dina Srinivasan joins Vasant Dhar in episode 22 of Brave New World to discuss the dangers, and how we can tackle them.
Useful resources:
1. Dina Srinivasan's homepage and Twitter.
2. The Antitrust Case Against Facebook -- Dina Srinivasan.
3. Why Google Dominates Advertising Markets -- Dina Srinivasan.
4. Aldous Huxley interviewed by Mike Wallace.
5. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State -- Episode 19 of Brave New World.
6. Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt -- Michael Lewis.
7. Bias, Lies, and Democracy -- Episode 14 of Brave New World (w Ali Velshi).
8. Uplift the Unremarkables -- Episode 2 of Brave New World (w Scott Galloway).
9. Can a Machine Have Human Values? -- Episode 13 of Brave New World (w Brian Christian).
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Sep 16, 2021
Ep 21: Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement
We overestimate our skill at decision making. We're pretty bad, and bias isn't the only reason. Daniel Kahneman joins Vasant Dhar in episode 21 of Brave New World to shed light on the problem of Noise, and what we can do about it.
Useful resources:
1. Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgement -- Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein.
2. Thinking, Fast and Slow -- Daniel Kahneman.
3. Dissecting “Noise” -- Vasant Dhar.
4. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction -- Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner.
5. Herbert A Simon on Amazon.
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Sep 2, 2021
Ep 20: Stuart Russell on The Existential Risk of AI
It is a matter of time before machines outstrip humans in most capabilities. How can we possibly stop a more intelligent entity from taking control? Stuart Russell joins Vasant Dhar in episode 20 of Brave New World to explain why, despite the dangers, he remains optimistic about artificial intelligence and how to control it.
Useful resources:
1. Human Compatible -- Stuart Russell.
2. Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach -- Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig.
3. Erewhon, or Over The Range -- Samuel Butler.
4. The Theory of Political Economy -- W Stanley Jevons.
5. Decision and Organization -- Edited by CB McGuire and Roy Radner, with a contribution from Kenneth Arrow.
6. Welfare Economics of Variable Tastes -- John C Harsanyi.
7. Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren -- John Maynard Keynes.
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Aug 19, 2021
Ep 19: James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State
Why do some nations fail in their lurch towards liberty while others succeed? James Robinson joins Vasant Dhar in episode 19 of Brave New World to explain why there is no simple answer to that question -- but the balance between the state and society is central to understanding it. Also discussed: the developing challenge of Big Tech.
Useful resources:
1. The Narrow Corridor: How Nations Struggle for Liberty -- Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson.
2. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty -- Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson.
3. Erik Brynjolfsson on the Second Machine Age -- Episode 18 of Brave New World.
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Aug 5, 2021
Ep 18: Erik Brynjolfsson on the Second Machine Age
The first machine age was about mechanical machines. We now live in a time of thinking machines. Erik Brynjolfsson joins Vasant Dhar in episode 18 of Brave New World to talk about the impact of AI on productivity and inequality -- and to explain why he remains optimistic about the prospects for humans in the AI era.
Useful resources:
1. The Second Machine Age -- Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee.
2. Erik Brynjolfsson's website, SSRN page and Google Scholar page.
3. The coming productivity boom -- Erik Brynjolfsson and Georgios Petropoulos
4. Artificial Intelligence and the Modern Productivity Paradox -- Erik Brynjolfsson, Daniel Rock & Chad Syverson.
5. The Productivity J-Curve: How Intangibles Complement General Purpose Technologies -- Erik Brynjolfsson, Daniel Rock and Chad Syverson.
6. How Should We Measure the Digital Economy? -- Erik Brynjolfsson and Avinash Collis.
7. GDP-B: Accounting for the Value of New and Free Goods in the Digital Econo…
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Jul 22, 2021
Ep 17: Peter Railton on Moral Intuitions
How do we come upon our morality? How much of our moral judgement is intuitive and how much is learned? Moral philosopher Peter Railton joins Vasant Dhar in episode 17 of Brave New World to talk about his thinking in this area -- and also how the fields of ethics and AI are colliding.
Useful resources:
1. Facts, Values, and Norms: Essays toward a Morality of Consequence -- Peter Railton.
2. Moral Learning: Conceptual foundations and normative relevance -- Peter Railton.
3. Ethical Learning, Natural and Artificial -- Peter Railton.
4. Ethics of Artificial Intelligence -- S Matthew Liao (Editor)
5. Can a Machine Have Human Values? -- Episode 13 of Brave New World (w Brian Christian).
6. Are We Becoming a New Species? -- Episode 12 of Brave New World (w Molly Crockett).
7. Samuel Moyn on Humane War -- Episode 16 of Brave New World.
8. Human-level performance in 3D multiplayer games with population-based reinforcement learning -- Max Jaderberg et al.
9. A multi…
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Jul 8, 2021
Ep 16: Samuel Moyn on Humane War
Is a humane war a contradiction in terms? Can rules be made and followed that limit the damage that wars do, or will that make conflict perpetual? Is it necessary and moral for the USA to continue to be the policeman of the world? Samuel Moyn joins Vasant Dhar in episode 16 of Brave New World to tackle the thorny ethical and practical questions around warfare and terrorism as technologies become more precise and lethal.
Useful resources:
1. Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War -- Samuel Moyn.
2. Samuel Moyn's books on Amazon.
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Jun 24, 2021
Ep 15: Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet
The internet began with an Age of Innocence, which gave way to the Age of Commerce, driven by the advertising model. Nandan Nilekani joins Vasant Dhar in episode 15 of Brave New World to describe how we have now entered the Age of Geopolitics, in which nation states are jostling for power with big tech companies, while tailoring regulation based on their needs and aspirations. They also discuss Nandan's pioneering role in building India's data empowerment architecture -- which the rest of the world can learn from in designing systems that empower individuals as well as societies.
Useful resources:
1. Nandan Nilekani's books on Amazon.
2. “Rogue Intermediaries”: Designing Equitable Digital Playgrounds -- Arun Mohan Sukumar.
3. Agile Tech Regulation -- Rahul Matthan.
4. Why anti-trust is antiquated for Big Tech -- Charles Assisi.
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Jun 10, 2021
Ep 14: Bias, Lies, and Democracy
Is our democracy in peril? What role has the media played in this? What should we do about it? Ali Velshi joins Vasant Dhar in episode 14 of Brave New World to discuss the subtleties of bias, fake news, information consumption and what to do about social media.
Useful resources:
1. Ali Velshi on Twitter and Instagram.
2. Understanding QE in the New World -- Episode 10 of Brave New World (w Paul Sheard).
3. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt).
4. Can a Machine Have Human Values? -- Episode 13 of Brave New World (w Brian Christian).
5. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (w Sinan Aral).
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May 27, 2021
Ep 13: Can a Machine Have Human Values?
As artificial intelligence gets more and more powerful, the need becomes greater to ensure that machines do the right thing. But what does that even mean? Brian Christian joins Vasant Dhar in episode 13 of Brave New World to discuss, as the title of his new book goes, the alignment problem.
Useful resources:
1. Brian Christian's homepage.
2. The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values -- Brian Christian.
3. Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions -- Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths.
4. The Most Human Human -- Brian Christian.
5. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt).
6. Are We Becoming a New Species? -- Episode 12 of Brave New World (w Molly Crockett).
7. The Nature of Intelligence -- Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann le Cunn)
8. Some Moral and Technical Consequences of Automation -- Norbert Wiener.
9.Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies -- Nick Bostrom.
10. Human Compatible: AI…
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May 13, 2021
Ep 12: Are We Becoming a New Species?
Social media is changing human behavior. How and why are humans being transformed by algorithms? Molly Crockett joins Vasant Dhar in episode 12 of Brave New World to describe her work at the meeting place of technology and morality.
Useful resources:
1. Molly Crockett at Yale, Oxford Neuroscience, Google Scholar and Twitter.
2. Crockett Lab.
3. Moral outrage in the digital age -- MJ Crockett.
4. The MAD Model of Moral Contagion: The Role of Motivation, Attention, and Design in the Spread of Moralized Content Online -- William J Brady, MJ Crockett and Jay J Van Bavel.
5. Inference of trustworthiness from intuitive moral judgments -- Jim AC Everett, David A Pizarro and MJ Crockett.
6. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (w Sinan Aral).
7. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt).
8. A computational reward learning account of social media engagement -- Björn Lindström and others.
9. The Alignment Pro…
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Apr 29, 2021
Ep 11: The Future of Liberal Education
In these polarised times, what should the colleges of tomorrow look like? Michael S Roth, the president of Wesleyan University, joins Vasant Dhar in episode 11 of Brave New World to discuss his vision for liberal education. We should empower individuals, he says, by designing for serendipity.
Useful resources:
1. Safe Enough Spaces -- Michael S Roth.
2. Beyond the University -- Michael S Roth.
3. ‘Minds Wide Shut’ Review: Dogma, Division and Distrust -- Michael S Roth.
4. Forgiveness in an age of cancel culture -- Michael S Roth.
5. Higher Education Must Stand Up for Voting Rights -- Michael S Roth.
6. Reasoning in Rough Times -- Michael S Roth.
7. A Focus on Critical Feeling -- Michael S Roth.
8. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt).
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Apr 15, 2021
Ep 10: Understanding QE in the New World
Covid was a shock to the global economy. Policy makers have responded with Quantitative Easing. Paul Sheard joins Vasant Dhar in episode 10 of Brave New World to discuss the nuances of QE and its possible impacts. Also discussed: the role of monetary policy in this changing tech landscape, helicopter money and the big question of the 21st century. (Listen to find out!)
Useful resources:
1. Quantitative Easing - Explaining It and Dispelling the Myths -- Paul Sheard.
2. MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) – What Is It and Can It Help? -- Paul Sheard.
3. Don’t Lose Sleep Over Mounting Government Debt -- Paul Sheard.
4. A More Robust Macroeconomic Policy Framework Is Needed -- Paul Sheard.
5. The Economic Impact of AI -- Paul Sheard.
6. Bank of International Settlements: Central bank digital currencies: foundational principals and core features.
7. Group of Thirty: Digital Currencies and Stablecoins: Risks, Opportunities, and Challenges Ahead.
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Apr 1, 2021
Ep 9: Waiting for Doctor AI
Artificial intelligence can transform healthcare -- and the medical profession may be behind the curve. Regina Barzilay joins Vasant Dhar in episode 9 of Brave New World to talk about how doctors, programmers and lawyers need to find a meeting point to make the revolution happen.
Useful resources:
1. Regina Barzilay at MIT CSAIL and MIT J-Clinic.
2. A Deep Learning Approach to Antibiotic Discovery -- Regina Barzilay and others.
3. Toward robust mammography-based models for breast cancer risk -- Regina Barzilay and others.
4. Multi-Objective Molecule Generation using Interpretable Substructures -- Regina Barzilay and others.
5. Human and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare -- Episode 4 of Brave New World (w Eric Topol).
6. Artificial Intelligence — The Revolution Hasn’t Happened Yet -- Michael Jordan.
7. Intelligible Models for HealthCare: Predicting Pneumonia Risk and Hospital 30-day Readmission -- Rich Caruana and others.
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Mar 18, 2021
Ep 8: How Social Media Threatens Society
The internet has changed our lives, mostly for the better. But there is a flip side. Jonathan Haidt joins Vasant Dhar in episode 8 of Brave New World to describe how social media is a threat to democracy and public discourse -- and to the mental health of a generation.
Useful resources:
1. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion -- Jonathan Haidt.
2. The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure -- Jonathan Haidt.
3. The website for The Coddling, especially its suggestions on How To Improve Social Media.
4. The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom -- Jonathan Haidt.
5. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (w Sinan Aral).
6. The Dark Psychology of Social Networks -- Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell.
7. The Federalist Papers -- Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay.
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Mar 4, 2021
Ep 7: The Nature of Intelligence
Trying to build artificial intelligence can teach us so much about intelligence itself. AI pioneer Yann LeCun, a winner of the Turing Award, joins Vasant Dhar in episode 7 of Brave New World to discuss how the field of AI has evolved and where it is heading. Points of discussion: How machines that perceive the world have turbocharged AI. How one of the biggest challenges in deep learning is common sense. The interface between industry and the academy. And how consciousness may not be a superpower but a reflection of our limitations.
Useful resources:
1. Yann LeCun's homepage.
2. Yann LeCun's papers.
3. Language and Learning: The Debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky -- Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini (editor).
4. Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational Geometry -- Marvin Minsky & Seymour Papert.
5. Her -- Spike Jonze.
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Feb 18, 2021
Ep 6: The China Question
How should the Biden administration treat China? The same way the Trump administration did, Peter Berkowitz tells Vasant Dhar in episode 6 of Brave New World. The USA, argues Berkowitz, must not lose sight of its core values as a great democracy.
Useful resources:
1. The Elements of the China Challenge -- The Policy Planning Staff, Office of the Secretary of State.
2. Report of the Commission on Unalienable Rights.
3. The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower -- Michael Pillsbury.
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Feb 4, 2021
Ep 5: Law and Education in Our Modern World
We live in a different world than we did 30 years ago. How can law and education adapt to the disruptions of technology and politics? John Sexton joins Vasant Dhar in episode 5 of Brave New World to share his insights as an educator who tried to forge a way ahead.
Useful resources:
1. Standing for Reason: The University in a Dogmatic Age -- John Sexton.
2. Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game -- John Sexton.
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Jan 21, 2021
Ep 4: Human and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
Despite amazing scientific advances, why is our healthcare system failing us today? It is rife with mistakes and lacks care. Can artificial intelligence aid the human touch in healthcare? Eric Topol joins Vasant Dhar in episode 4 of Brave New World to discuss how doctors and machines can come together to improve our lives and move us towards a world of individualized medicine.
Useful resources: Deep Medicine by Eric Topol, as well as his other books.
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Jan 7, 2021
Ep 3: The Social Media Industrial Complex
Can social media platforms change our society? Sinan Aral joins Vasant Dhar in episode 3 of Brave New World to share his concerns.
Useful resources: The Hype Machine by Sinan Aral, as well as Sinan's website, videos and research.
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Dec 24, 2020
Ep 2: Uplift the Unremarkables
In this no-holds-barred conversation with Vasant Dhar, Scott Galloway shreds the myth of American mobility. He urges our institutions, especially universities, to shed their obsession with the elites, and instead uplift the 'unremarkables.'
Useful resources:
1. Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity -- Scott Galloway.
2. No Mercy / No Malice -- Scott Galloway's newsletter.
3. The Prof G Show with Scott Galloway.
4. Pivot, hosted by Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway.
5. The Third Pillar -- Raghuram Rajan.
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Dec 10, 2020
Ep 1: The Technology Wars
In the Internet era, war is about tech. Technology platforms are the new power players of our times, alongside the state. Arun Sundararajan joins Vasant Dhar to discuss how the Internet is shaping the power dynamic between individuals, platforms and the state, the choices that confront us and their consequences. They discuss the US-China war, who is winning, and what it all means for us.
Useful resources:
1. The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism -- Arun Sundararajan.
2. 3 Ways to Increase Social Media Platforms' Transparency -- Vasant Dhar.
3. Who Controls Your Data? -- Vasant Dhar.
4. Platforms and Ecosystems: Enabling the Digital Economy -- Michael G. Jacobides, Arun Sundararajan & Marshall Van Alstyne.
For more, do visit the Brave New World website.
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Dec 3, 2020
Ep 0: Welcome to Brave New World
The role of tech in our lives has accelerated in the post-COVID era, creating a ‘virtual’ existence with low physical human contact. It has transformed how we work, govern, stay healthy, worship, invest, entertain, and much more. In this preview episode, Vasant Dhar -- a longtime AI researcher and data scientist -- tells us about the forthcoming mind-opening conversations with leading experts will discuss the world that our future selves will inhabit.
Upcoming guests include:
Scott Galloway: Author, entrepreneur and visionary, Professor NYU.
Sinan Aral: Professor MIT, author of The Hype Machine.
Yann Lecun: Turing award winner 2019, Chief Scientist, Facebook, Professor NYU.
Richard Thaler: Nobel Laureate in Economics 2017, Professor University of Chicago.
John Sexton: 15th President of NYU (2002-2015), Professor of law, NYU.
Eric Topol: Professor of Molecular Medicine, Scripps Research.
Nandan Nilekani: needs no introduction.
Welcome to Brave New World!
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