Brendan McCord is the founder of Cosmos Institute — a non-profit dedicated to exploring the intersection of AI and philosophy.
(https://cosmosinstitute.substack.com/)
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 - https://www.brendanmccord.com/readinglist
- Cosmos Institute Substack - https://cosmosinstitute.substack.com/
- Brendan’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/mbrendan1
Show Notes:
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:50 Main podcast
00:04:30 The Genesis of the Cosmos Institute
00:06:41 Philosophy as a Quixotic Pursuit
00:13:45 The Man of the System Dilemma
00:22:32 Existential Risk & Scenario Agnosticism
00:28:14 The AI Schools of Thought
00:41:59 The Religious Nature of the E/Acc Movement
00:45:56 What Tocqueville Can Teach Us About AI
00:49:02 The Philosophy-to-Code Pipeline
00:57:17 “Cars ignited the Sexual Revolution” and Other Unexpected Occurrences
00:59:57 The Best Systems are Adaptive
01:04:29 Heterogeneity & Resilient Systems
01:10:59 Open Source and the US-China Situation
01:17:54 Automation, Augmentation & Open-Ended Generation
01:21:56 The Underrated Nuance of Russian Realism
01:30:12 Cinematic Visions of the Future
01:34:53 Great Talent & the Risk of the Tasmanian Devil
01:41:07 Brendan as Emperor of the World
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”
