◄ Primary Topics Covered:
The potential economic system of a long-term sustainable civilization and the importance of mechanisms and institutional systems to make decisions for the civilization.
Futarchy as a system of governance and the specific dials in policy.
The potential destruction scenarios that could prevent the long-term survival of humans or human descendants, and the choice between expanding aggressively or putting limits on growth and change.
Using relevant standards today to evaluate the past.
Inequality throughout history and how insurance can be used to reduce it.
◄ Episode Description
Robin Hanson is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University and a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. He has a doctorate in social science from the California Institute of Technology and master's degrees in physics and philosophy from the University of Chicago.
Hanson is widely known for his work on prediction markets and idea futures. Hanson has also contributed to various other fields, including evolutionary psychology, spatial project competition, wiretaps, and voter information incentives. His ideas on the future of artificial intelligence, specifically the potential impact of emulations of human brains, have generated considerable interest and discussion in the scientific community.
In the podcast, we discussed the potential economic system of a long-term sustainable civilization and the trade-offs involved in achieving it. The conversation centered around the importance of mechanisms and institutional systems to make decisions as a civilization and prioritize scientific discoveries.
We focused on a theoretical governmental system called a “futarchy,” where individuals state desired outcomes and betting markets determine which policies will achieve those outcomes. This includes a discussion of the specific dials in policy, including inequality, preservation of the biosphere and genetics, and openness of science. We also discussed the choice between expanding aggressively or putting limits on growth and change due to concerns like biosphere preservation or personal preferences and the potential consequences of limiting growth too much.
◄ Episode Timestamps
(00:00) Introduction
(4:00) - Understanding the Type One Planet model
(5:34) - Measuring and prioritizing genetic diversity
(8:15) - Humanity is only using a tiny fraction of the Earth’s resources
(13:00) - Our chances of surviving for the next 10,000 years
(15:22) - Inequality in Capitalism
(17:28) - Using insurance as a mechanism to reduce poverty
(21:40) - A Futarchy - Using decision markets in government
(32:07) - The world needs to get better at systemic experimentation
(36:15) - Improving our scientific industry to focus on better ideas
(42:03) - A better mechanism for deciding where scientific funding should be focused
◄ Episode Topic Score
Culture (9)
Design (10)
Education (8)
Environment (5)
Science (7)
Technology (6)
◄ Topical Keywords
Futarchy
Betting Marketing
Civilizational Design
◄ Additional Episode Resources
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hanson
Professional Profile: https://economics.gmu.edu/people/rhanson
Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinhanson
Substack: https://www.overcomingbias.com/
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