8 hours ago
Brendan McCord — AI and the Philosophy of Technology
Brendan McCord is the founder of Cosmos Institute — a non-profit dedicated to exploring the intersection of AI and philosophy.
Brendan joins the show to discuss Cosmos’ origins, the pursuit of philosophy as a technologist, the different schools of thought in AI, complex adaptive systems and MUCH more!
Important Links:
* Brendan McCord’s Reading List
* Cosmos Institute Substack
* Brendan’s Twitter
Show Notes:
* The Genesis of the Cosmos Institute
* Philosophy as a Quixotic Pursuit
* The Man of the System Dilemma
* Existential Risk & Scenario Agnosticism
* The AI Schools of Thought
* The Religious Nature of the E/Acc Movement
* What Tocqueville Can Teach Us About AI
* The Philosophy-to-Code Pipeline
* “Cars ignited the Sexual Revolution” and Other Unexpected Occurrences
* The Best Systems are Adaptive
* Heterogeneity & Resilient Systems
* Open Source and the US-China Situation
* Automation, Augmentation & Open-Ended Generation
* The Underrated Nuance of Russian Realism
* Cinematic Visions of the Future
* Great Talent & the Risk of the Tasmanian Devil
* Brendan as Emperor of the World
* MORE!
Books Mentioned:
* Murray Rothbard, “For A New Liberty”
* David R. Hawkins, “Power vs. Force”
* Jung Chang, “Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China”
* Jung Chang, “Mao: The Unknown Story”
* Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “The Gulag Archipelago”
* Arthur Koestler, “Darkness At Noon”
* Adam Smith, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”
* Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
* Lewis Carroll, “What the Tortoise Said To Achilles”
* Eliezer Yudkowsky, “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality”
* Marc Andreessen, “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto”
* Alexis De Tocqueville, “Democracy in America”
* 'Pericles's Funeral Oration' quoted in Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War”.
* Plato, “Theaetetus”
* Plato, “The Republic”
* Nietzsche, “The Gay Science”
* C.P Snow, “The Two Cultures”
* Elinor Ostrom, “Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action”
* James M. Buchanan, "Freedom in Constitutional Contract: Perspectives of a Political Economist”
* Iain M. Banks, “Consider Phlebas” (Culture Series #1)
* Chen Qiufan and Kai-Fu Lee, “AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future”
* Christopher Buckley, “Thank You for Smoking”
* John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty”