Very Bad Wizards
a philosopher and a psychologist ponder human morality
We found 1 episode of Very Bad Wizards with the tag “scott alexander”.
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Episode 221: Granite Cocks vs Robot Overlords
September 21st, 2021 | 1 hr 50 mins
moloch, norm macdonald, scott alexander, slatestarcodex, transhumanism
David and Tamler wind their way through the long-requested “Meditations on Moloch” by Scott Alexander, a comprehensive account of the coordination problems (personified by Allan Ginsberg’s demon-entity Moloch) that lead to human misery and values tossed out the window. Does Alexander’s rationalist conception of human nature ignore the work of VBW favorites like Joe Henrich and Robert Frank? Is he a little too friendly to the neo-social Darwinism view of some guy named Nick Land? And oh no, why does he have to go transhumanist at the end?! Plus, we talk about the unique comic vision of Norm Macdonald and why we loved him.