Shows
The Experience MachineTomasik’s Twist: How Simulated Realities Affect Altruistic PrioritiesThe effective altruism (EA) movement has long grappled with a fundamental question: should we prioritize interventions that help people in the near term, or focus on shaping the long-term future of humanity? A compelling argument known as "longtermism" or "future fanaticism" has gained significant traction within EA circles. This view posits that the vast majority of our expected impact comes from how we influence the very long-term future - potentially billions of years from now. According to longtermists, while helping humans and animals in the near-term certainly matters, it primarily only matters via its effects on far-future outcomes. However...2025-06-0706 min
London FuturistsAnticipating an Einstein moment in the understanding of consciousness, with Henry ShevlinOur guest in this episode is Henry Shevlin. Henry is the Associate Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, where he also co-directs the Kinds of Intelligence program and oversees educational initiatives. He researches the potential for machines to possess consciousness, the ethical ramifications of such developments, and the broader implications for our understanding of intelligence. In his 2024 paper, “Consciousness, Machines, and Moral Status,” Henry examines the recent rapid advancements in machine learning and the questions they raise about machine consciousness and moral status. He suggests that public...2025-05-2842 min
Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST)#112 AVOIDING AGI APOCALYPSE - CONNOR LEAHYSupport us! https://www.patreon.com/mlst
MLST Discord: https://discord.gg/aNPkGUQtc5
In this podcast with the legendary Connor Leahy (CEO Conjecture) recorded in Dec 2022, we discuss various topics related to artificial intelligence (AI), including AI alignment, the success of ChatGPT, the potential threats of artificial general intelligence (AGI), and the challenges of balancing research and product development at his company, Conjecture. He emphasizes the importance of empathy, dehumanizing our thinking to avoid anthropomorphic biases, and the value of real-world experiences in learning and personal growth. The conversation also covers the Orthogonality Thesis, AI preferences, the mystery of...2023-04-022h 40
Analytischer KaffeeplauschEpisode 59 – Ist es moralisch falsch, Videospielcharaktere zu töten?Triggerwarnung: Im Zeitraum 1:23:30–1:24:37 sprechen wir kurz Vergewaltigungen in der Serie "Westworld" an. Wenn du Hilfe brauchst, bitte wende dich an die Telefonseelsorge: 0800 1110111, auch online möglich: https://online.telefonseelsorge.de/
Es ist Pauls Geburtstag (gewesen) und zur Feier des Tages fragen sich Rebecca und Paul, ob Videospielcharaktere einen moralischen Wert haben. Während sie sich alle Mühe geben, die Argumentation erst zu nehmen, scheitert es für Rebecca an der Definition von "Leiden" und für Paul an der Videospielexpertise des Autors.
Intro/Outro: Thomas Höhl
...2022-06-191h 31
Sentientism62: "Animal farming will end by the end of this century" - Jacy Reese Anthis - Sentientist ConversationJacy (https://twitter.com/jacyanthis & https://jacyanthis.com/) is a social scientist & co-founder of the Sentience Institute (https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/). His acclaimed book, The End of Animal Farming (https://jacyanthis.com/book), analyzes the development & popularisation of food technologies such as plant-based & cultivated meat.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”
Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
We discuss:
0:00 Welcome
1:26 Jacy's Intro
Utilitarian...2021-06-221h 17
Astral Codex Ten PodcastPartial Retraction of Post on Animal Value and Neural Number Commenter Tibbar used Mechanical Turk to replicate my survey on how people thought about the moral weights of animals. After getting 263 responses (to my 50), he reports different results: Chicken: 25 Chimpanzee: 2 Cow: 3 Elephant: 1 Lobster: 60 Pig: 5 Human: 1 On the one hand, Mechanical Turkers sometimes aren’t a great sample, and some of them seem to have just put the same number for every animal so they could finish quickly and get their money. They also probably haven’t thought about this that much and don’t have much of a moral...2019-03-3103 min
Future of Life Institute PodcastThe Metaethics of Joy, Suffering, and Artificial Intelligence with Brian Tomasik and David PearceWhat role does metaethics play in AI alignment and safety? How might paths to AI alignment change given different metaethical views? How do issues in moral epistemology, motivation, and justification affect value alignment? What might be the metaphysical status of suffering and pleasure? What's the difference between moral realism and anti-realism and how is each view grounded? And just what does any of this really have to do with AI?
The Metaethics of Joy, Suffering, and AI Alignment is the fourth podcast in the new AI Alignment series, hosted by Lucas Perry. For those of you that are new, this se...2018-08-171h 45
Future of Life Institute PodcastThe Metaethics of Joy, Suffering, and Artificial Intelligence with Brian Tomasik and David PearceWhat role does metaethics play in AI alignment and safety? How might paths to AI alignment change given different metaethical views? How do issues in moral epistemology, motivation, and justification affect value alignment? What might be the metaphysical status of suffering and pleasure? What's the difference between moral realism and anti-realism and how is each view grounded? And just what does any of this really have to do with AI?
The Metaethics of Joy, Suffering, and AI Alignment is the fourth podcast in the new AI Alignment series, hosted by Lucas Perry. For those of you that are new, this se...2018-08-171h 45
Lightbulb MomentBrian TomasikBrian Tomasik writes about ethics, animal welfare, and far-future scenarios from a suffering-focused perspective, all of which you can find on reducing-suffering.com.
He helped to found Foundational Research Institute, a think tank that explores crucial considerations for reducing suffering in the long-run future. (Full-disclosure, Holly is currently a contractor for FRI.)
Previously, Brian earned to give as a programmer at FlyHomes, and before that at Microsoft.
Brian is something of a cult figure in EA. You’ll see in the interview that he has an extremely thoroughly thought out viewpoint that still strikes a lot of EAs as very un...2018-05-231h 22Lightbulb MomentBrian TomasikBrian Tomasik writes about ethics, animal welfare, and far-future scenarios from a suffering-focused perspective, all of which you can find on reducing-suffering.com.He helped to found Foundational Research Institute, a think tank that explores crucial considerations for reducing suffering in the long-run future. (Full-disclosure, Holly is currently a contractor for FRI.)Previously, Brian earned to give as a programmer at FlyHomes, and before that at Microsoft.Brian is something of a cult figure in EA. You’ll see in the interview that he has an extremely thoroughly thought out viewpoint that still strikes a lot of EAs as very un...2018-05-231h 22
The Reality CheckMashup: Brian Tomasik on Wild Animal SufferingBrian Tomasik from Reducing-Suffering.org discusses ethics, animal welfare and far-future scenarios from a suffering-focused perspective. Here is his interview from 2015 presented in its entirety for the first time. This was one of the more controversial interviews on TRC and generated quite a bit of conversation. As always, we’re interested to hear what you think. The crew will be back next week with a freshly minted show. Enjoy!2018-03-1746 min
The Turing TestThe Turing Test #5: Brian TomasikBrian Tomasik writes about ethics, animal welfare, and far-future scenarios from a suffering-focused perspective, all of which you can find on reducing-suffering.com. He helped to found Foundational Research Institute, a think tank that explores crucial considerations for reducing suffering in the long-run future. (Full-disclosure, Holly is currently a contractor for FRI.) Previously, Brian earned to give … Continue reading "The Turing Test #5: Brian Tomasik"2017-09-1700 min
The Turing TestThe Turing Test #5: Brian TomasikBrian Tomasik writes about ethics, animal welfare, and far-future scenarios from a suffering-focused perspective, all of which you can find on reducing-suffering.com. He helped to found Foundational Research Institute, a think tank that explores crucial considerations for reducing suffering in the long-run future. (Full-disclosure, Holly is currently a contractor for FRI.) Previously, Brian earned to give … Continue reading "The Turing Test #5: Brian Tomasik"2017-09-1728 min
Pizzel PodcastPizzel Ep. 3 - Una décima de vida humanaPedro y Javier hablan de cómo les fue con el Soylent, cómo salvar una vida humana (o una fracción), los inicios de Wikipedia, vándalos enciclopédicos y cuánto tiempo hace falta para escuchar la obra completa de J.S. Bach y otros compositores.Este episodio cuenta con el apoyo de Greca.Notas del episodioPizzel en Facebook, Twitter y YouTubeVersiones de Soylent (Wikipedia)Brian Tomasik (altruista eficaz)Wikimedia Foundation Transparency ReportWikimedia Foundation en Charity NavigatorSão Paulo, c...2016-04-0600 min
EA TalksWould differing moral values converge on reflection? (Brian Tomasik, David Pearce, Micha Eichmann & David Althaus)Source: Foundational Research Institute (original video)Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube. 2015-09-2122 min
EA TalksWill Space Colonization Increase Suffering? (Brian Tomasik, David Pearce, Micha Eichmann & David Althaus)Source: Foundational Research Institute (original video)Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube. 2015-09-2016 min
EA TalksConvergence Between Utilitarianism and Deontology (Brian Tomasik, David Pearce, Micha Eichmann & David Althaus)Source: Foundational Research Institute (original video) Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube. 2015-09-1415 min
EA TalksCause Robustness for Reducing Suffering (Brian Tomasik)Source: Foundational Research Institute (original video)Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube. 2015-08-3151 min
EA TalksBrian Tomasik: Risks of Astronomical Future SufferingOriginal source.Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube. 2015-03-2323 min
EA TalksBrian Tomasik: Do Video-Game Characters Matter Morally?Original source.Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube. 2015-03-231h 10
EA TalksBrian Tomasik: The Importance of Wild-Animal SufferingOriginal source.Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube. 2015-03-2344 min
EA TalksBrian Tomasik: Differential Intellectual Progress as a Positive-Sum ProjectOriginal source.Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube. 2015-03-2321 min
EA TalksBrian Tomasik: Thoughts on Robots, AI, and the Intelligence ExplosionOriginal source.Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube. 2015-03-2357 minThe Reality CheckWomen In Science + Brian Tomasik on Wild Animal Suffering Part 2 + Blue BloodWith Adam at the helm this week, we kick off with a segment from Cristina highlighting the challenges women face forging a path in Science-related fields, we feature part 2 of our interview with guest Brian Tomasik about Wild Animal Suffering and finally, Adam sheds some light on why our veins look blue.2015-02-2050 minThe Reality CheckAmerican Sniper + Brian Tomasik on Wild Animal Suffering + Rent-To-Own
With Cristina filling in as host, Adam slings a segment about the real story behind American Sniper, while guest Brian Tomasik opens our eyes to Wild Animal Suffering in part 1 of 2 interview segments. Finally (last yet again…) Pat crunches the real math of Rent-To-Own business models, shocking Adam and Cristina in the process.2015-02-1454 min