Brendan McCord is the founder of Cosmos Institute — a non-profit dedicated to exploring the intersection of AI and philosophy.
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
- Cosmos Institute Substack
- Brendan’s Twitter
Show Notes:
- The Genesis of the Cosmos Institute
- Philosophy as a Quixotic Pursuit
- The Man of the System Dilemma
- Existential Risk & Scenario Agnosticism
- The AI Schools of Thought
- The Religious Nature of the E/Acc Movement
- What Tocqueville Can Teach Us About AI
- The Philosophy-to-Code Pipeline
- “Cars ignited the Sexual Revolution” and Other Unexpected Occurrences
- The Best Systems are Adaptive
- Heterogeneity & Resilient Systems
- Open Source and the US-China Situation
- Automation, Augmentation & Open-Ended Generation
- The Underrated Nuance of Russian Realism
- Cinematic Visions of the Future
- Great Talent & the Risk of the Tasmanian Devil
- Brendan as Emperor of the World
- MORE!
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”