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”