By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 6 Mar 25
Jim talks with Adam B. Levine about AI programming aids for non-techies and the future of Bitcoin. They discuss Adam’s background as a “technical non-technical” person, the evolution from manual LLM prompting to using IDEs, Windsurf as an AI-first IDE, Claude 3.7’s thinking mode, productivity improvements with AI coding tools, different platforms like Cursor and Cline, the “pure idea space” vs technical execution, the role of liberal arts people in tech teams, Bitcoin as digital gold, Schelling points in cryptocurrency, the US dollar as hegemonic currency, “pools of fools” theory, sovereign wealth funds moving into Bitcoin, El Salvador’s Bitcoin investment,
Jim talks with Adam B. Levine about AI programming aids for non-techies and the future of Bitcoin. They discuss Adam’s background as a “technical non-technical” person, the evolution from manual LLM prompting to using IDEs, Windsurf as an AI-first IDE, Claude 3.7’s thinking mode, productivity improvements with AI coding tools, different platforms like Cursor and Cline, the “pure idea space”
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 4 Mar 25
Jim talks with BJ Campbell about the ideas in his Substack essay “On Cops, Belief, and Chainsaw Faced Robot Dogs.” They discuss forms of social control, absolute police states vs. belief states, the role of belief vs. actual enforcement in maintaining order, the noble lie concept & Plato’s original formulation, the 2020 crime spike & “defund the police” movement, the history of police forces & alternative methods of maintaining order, the “God-shaped hole” concept, membranes & group coherence, anthropological research on fairness, non-supernatural belief systems, marketing challenges for new social systems, money as a noble lie & coordination signal, Saudi
Jim talks with BJ Campbell about the ideas in his Substack essay “On Cops, Belief, and Chainsaw Faced Robot Dogs.” They discuss forms of social control, absolute police states vs. belief states, the role of belief vs. actual enforcement in maintaining order, the noble lie concept & Plato’s original formulation, the 2020 crime spike & “defund the police” movement, the
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 27 Feb 25
Jim talks with Jonathan Rauch about the ideas in his book The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. They discuss the epistemic crisis, Plato’s Theaetetus, Trump & propaganda techniques, the Constitution of Knowledge as a framework for epistemics, the “marketplace of ideas” metaphor, the reality-based community, the personal-institutional spiral, the social funnel of knowledge, social media’s impact on epistemics, advertising vs subscription models, meme space pollution, the anti-vax movement, the importance of free speech to the gay rights movement, recommendations for defending truth, supporting institutions, speaking out against misinformation, maintaining viewpoint diversity, and much more. Episode Links The Constitution of Knowledge: A
Jim talks with Jonathan Rauch about the ideas in his book The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. They discuss the epistemic crisis, Plato’s Theaetetus, Trump & propaganda techniques, the Constitution of Knowledge as a framework for epistemics, the “marketplace of ideas” metaphor, the reality-based community, the personal-institutional spiral, the social funnel of knowledge, social media’s impact on epistemics, advertising vs subscription
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 24 Feb 25
Jim talks with Bob Levy about presidential powers, their history, and their potential for abuse. They discuss the nature of the presidential pardon, recent controversial pardons by Trump & Biden, proposed reforms, 3 main purposes of the pardon, court blocks on executive actions, the firing of federal employees, the Impoundment Control Act, immigration & deportation under Trump, presidential power over tariffs, courts as guardrails, the timeline for legal challenges, potential constitutional crisis scenarios, Congress’s abdication of power, the growth of the administrative state, options if Trump defies court orders, contempt powers, impeachment as the ultimate check, and much more. Episode
Jim talks with Bob Levy about presidential powers, their history, and their potential for abuse. They discuss the nature of the presidential pardon, recent controversial pardons by Trump & Biden, proposed reforms, 3 main purposes of the pardon, court blocks on executive actions, the firing of federal employees, the Impoundment Control Act, immigration & deportation under Trump, presidential power over
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 18 Feb 25
Jim talks with Josh Bernoff, author of Writing Without Bullshit, about the impact of AI on writing education and professional writing. They discuss Josh’s background and career, Stephen Lane’s recent op-ed arguing that AI should take over writing mechanics, problems with AI-generated writing, the role of writing in thinking, ChatGPT’s “deep research,” Jim’s ScriptHelper project, the decline in math & navigation skills, the importance of memos for corporate decision-making, literacy as a fundamental life skill, Ethan Mollick’s approach to AI in education, writing as art, the PowerPoint problem, the Idiocracy scenario, and much more. Episode Transcript “Could AI Replace the Teaching of Writing?:
Jim talks with Josh Bernoff, author of Writing Without Bullshit, about the impact of AI on writing education and professional writing. They discuss Josh’s background and career, Stephen Lane’s recent op-ed arguing that AI should take over writing mechanics, problems with AI-generated writing, the role of writing in thinking, ChatGPT’s “deep research,” Jim’s ScriptHelper project, the decline in math & navigation skills,
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 13 Feb 25
Jim talks with Jordan Hall about the relationship between humanity and advanced AI. They discuss the false dichotomy of state vs market control of AI, the commons & the church as organizing principles, community vs society, why alignment with humanity is by definition impossible, the role of symbols & organizing principles in communities, how Moloch & Mammon shape AI development, hyper-concentration of power, neo-feudalism, the possibility of an AI singleton, entropy in communities, an alternative path centered on intimate AI, individual values, integrity, restoration of the commons, the potential for rapid dissemination, the choice between good & expediency, mutual self-correction,
Jim talks with Jordan Hall about the relationship between humanity and advanced AI. They discuss the false dichotomy of state vs market control of AI, the commons & the church as organizing principles, community vs society, why alignment with humanity is by definition impossible, the role of symbols & organizing principles in communities, how Moloch & Mammon shape AI development,
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 11 Feb 25
Jim talks with Brian Chau about what the new administration could mean for AI development. They discuss recent actions by the Tump administration including repealing Biden’s executive order & the Stargate infrastructure project, Biden’s impact on AI, the formation of the Alliance for the Future, regulatory bureaucracy, state patchwork laws, censorship, the Gemini controversy & DEI in AI, safety restrictions in chat models, the meaning of DeepSeek, economic implications of model distillation, historical analogies for AI development, national security & sovereignty implications, 3 main lanes for AI development, democratized access vs gatekeeping, trust issues, “AI” vs “LLMs,” and much more. Episode
Jim talks with Brian Chau about what the new administration could mean for AI development. They discuss recent actions by the Tump administration including repealing Biden’s executive order & the Stargate infrastructure project, Biden’s impact on AI, the formation of the Alliance for the Future, regulatory bureaucracy, state patchwork laws, censorship, the Gemini controversy & DEI in AI, safety restrictions
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 6 Feb 25
Jim talks with Tyson Yunkaporta about the ideas in his new book Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking. They discuss a symbolic emu visitor on Jim’s farm, Aboriginal collective pronouns, Sand Talk’s impact, wrong canoes, lore vs law, how Aboriginal law adapted to invasion, ritualized violence & rule-governed fighting, Aboriginal knowledge systems & peer review, signals & spirit in natural systems, the sacred as a way to deal with complex systems, Plato’s noble lie, restricted knowledge, Aboriginal law & the Jewish Torah, plague impacts, art as store of capital vs communal knowledge, the metaphor & mythology of water dowsing, Tyson’s
Jim talks with Tyson Yunkaporta about the ideas in his new book Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking. They discuss a symbolic emu visitor on Jim’s farm, Aboriginal collective pronouns, Sand Talk’s impact, wrong canoes, lore vs law, how Aboriginal law adapted to invasion, ritualized violence & rule-governed fighting, Aboriginal knowledge systems & peer review, signals & spirit in natural
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 4 Feb 25
Jim talks with Jeff Hawkins and Viviane Clay about the Thousand Brains Project and Jeff’s book A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence. They discuss Mountcastle’s theory of the neocortex’s universal algorithm, cortical columns & their structure, learning modules in AI sensory systems, reprogramming of the neocortex, the 6 layers of cortex, mini-columns & macro-columns, the visual cascade, reference frames as essential for knowledge representation, “voting” for perceptual consensus, how the project differs from deep learning & LLM approaches, James Gibson’s concept of affordances, the “Jennifer Aniston neuron” idea, current state of the Monte project, solving fundamental problems vs making
Jim talks with Jeff Hawkins and Viviane Clay about the Thousand Brains Project and Jeff’s book A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence. They discuss Mountcastle’s theory of the neocortex’s universal algorithm, cortical columns & their structure, learning modules in AI sensory systems, reprogramming of the neocortex, the 6 layers of cortex, mini-columns & macro-columns, the visual cascade, reference frames
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 30 Jan 25
Jim talks with Rob Henderson about his book Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class and the concept of luxury beliefs. They discuss Rob’s journey from foster care to Yale and Cambridge, Jim’s background, the decline in two-parent families from 1960 to 2005, changing forms of elite hypocrisy, intra-elite competition, corporate adoption of woke beliefs, enforcement of ideological conformity, the spread of academic ideas into mainstream culture, attributions of success, drugs and gambling as luxury beliefs, the self-control aristocracy, Western environmentalism’s impact on Sub-Saharan Africa, elite opinion vs public opinion, and much more. Episode Transcript Troubled: A Memoir
Jim talks with Rob Henderson about his book Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class and the concept of luxury beliefs. They discuss Rob’s journey from foster care to Yale and Cambridge, Jim’s background, the decline in two-parent families from 1960 to 2005, changing forms of elite hypocrisy, intra-elite competition, corporate adoption of woke beliefs, enforcement of ideological