Clips take from The Bulwark Podcast w Sam Harris - th-cam.com/video/ULVYHwRMSjA/w-d-xo.html Vlad's main channel th-cam.com/users/VladVexlervideos Support Vlad's work on Patreon! www.patreon.com/vladvexler Support Vlad via PayPal www.paypal.com/paypalme/vladvexler?country.x=GB&locale.x=en_GB
Please Vlad... you are a MAJOR public intellectual... ... and a Philosopher connecting to people unlike any philosopher in History... ... You are a big deal...
Well, I watched Musk once in Germany, then he was going to open new Tesla factory close to Berlin. He was arrogantly laughing about German laws saying that it would be insane to care that much about water consumption here, because we weren't in California etc. So I realized, he was problematic and dangerous.
He was praising the Chinese people because they "work" hard, specially through the pandemic while saying American workers were lazy. What he omitted is that China has lax worker rights and they allowed Tesla to keep his plan open during the pandemic. Workers were sleeping inside the plant. Of course he thinks Chinese workers are hard workers.
Unfortunately, he's one of those people who takes the advantage of speed reading the potential consequences, in the interest of getting things done quickly. He's not as bad as China... but the fact that he's being put in charge of dismantling America's corporate regulatory and consumer protection apparati (is that the plural?) is alarming. RFK Jr, the anti-vax Kennedy, is going to be in charge of healthcare. So, in 4 years, Americans will be wondering why the liberals made us all sick, and enshittified the food and other products. If the world isn't in total disarray by then, with the USA ruled by King Barron Trump. But I'm an optimist, so I'll go with the first scenario.
My son went to a Jordan Petersen talk. He paid a lot of extra dollars for a meet and greet at the end of the talk. But the organisers decided to sell many more tickets for the meet and greet and my son joined a long queue of people each of whom spent 2 seconds saying hello. It was not a meet and greet. It was pure money-making exercise. If Petersen had any integrity, he would have done something about it, but maybe these days, he is just another rock star. And it's all about the money.
@@VladVexlerChat When we do a meet and greet with YOU, we, your fans, expect a proper one, and not just 2 seconds! I know that may be a long time off, but better to make some things abundantly clear. First you need to get better. THEN we need you to organize you a talk on the stage...
@VladVexlerChat The press and the public fawn over people like Musk and Petersen. That is half the problem. It makes people like them think they are extra special. In Musks case, he is also surrounded by yes men. It is not character building to get one's own way continuously. Musk can buy anything and anyone without having to budget or worry like most people do. That is the disadvantage of his position. Like Musk, I also have asbergers. I put it to good use working as a software engineer. Unlike Musk, I am a real engineer. Not a businessman with a load of whacky ideas. Like the Boring company which takes cars into city centres on underground trains, thus causing extra traffic problems in the heart of the already congested city.
In Jordan Petersons case, you don’t have to observe him chasing the algorithm and falling into its grasp over time. He has become so entrenched in this methodology that you can witness him dancing with the algorithm when answering a single question or making a single point.
I don't understand why people keep hedging on how brilliant of an engineer Musk supposedly is... Engineers who've worked for him seem to have a very different opinion on that
You just had to take a look at the brilliance of the work to decide the quality of Engineering. And therefore the first class Engineers are willing to sacrifice themselves
He doesn’t have to be a brilliant engineer, just have the ability to get the best out of brilliant engineers who work for him. It’s fair game to point out Musk’s character defects… but pretending his business accomplishments are anything other than extraordinary is childish.
What he's good at is supply chains. Which I assume he learned by translating his work on social media algorithms to engineering. He's okay as an engineer. He throws around some silly ideas, but the big thing is he has a high volume of them. Anyway, the point is that he's really not good at abstracting a final work. He's good at optimizing what's already there.
One thing i've always been amazed about in America is how they seem to gormlessly worship and admire wealthy people. In Australia we highly suspect them and certainly dont trust them..
They aspire to be part of that elite - it's why they consistently oppose taxing the rich. They have been well conditioned to protect the interests of the wealthy.
Personally I think it's down to the character of the historical immigrant coming to the US. Usually they wanted to leave oppressive leadership and valued freedom of enterprise.
As someone who is autodedact in several musical instruments, the danger of being autodedact is that you engrain your mistakes. Now, in music a mistake is not always a mistake, but when you participate in the running of a large country, mistakes become huge.
Had similar thoughts as someone who is an intense autodidactic across numerous fields or hobbies. If I make some errors in math or Chinese history due to gaps in my knowledge that I'm not even aware of, not much harm done. In fact, hopefully it's pointed out and I learn from it. Very different from when the autodidact impulse is combined with extravagant arrogance and an enormous position of power and influence.
I think the ethical responsibility these people like Musk, who use the resources of the earth ( drilling), space and planets should have a restriction with all living people and creatures. This is our planet. I can't think of any other way of saying this. All big brains ( not Musk) should be morally responsible to planet and people.
Correct. Musk's ability to understand everything anyone ever shows him about his rockets, or to direct the progress of their development does not make him an engineer. He simply doesn't have the discipline, characteristics, or training to make these things happen out of whole cloth. Put simply, if there were 10,000 Musks working 10,000 typewriters he would never produce a manual on how to build a raptor engine...
@@13thbiosphere my friend, youtube 'debunking elon musk' and listen to the real story, this guy is nothing but a rich, cutthroat businessman that is just amazing at bullshitting and motivating people, that is a skill yes - but hes no genius and his code was shit fyi.
Some years ago, Sam Harris said, and I'm paraphrasing, "government should be abolished and replaced by business, because business is more efficient". On the other hand, a statesman said this, which is not paraphrased: "The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in it's essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power." ----- Franklin D Roosevelt
I've never heard Sam say this. And if he did some time ago, it doesn't reflect a view he currently holds as a phrase he often repeats is "the solution to bad government isn't no government, but better government" (paraphrased), coupled with his sentiments surrounding the value of institutions. I've not once heard him say nations should be run by private business.
Have you read Richard Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life? It was written a long time ago, but it deals with the whole history of why this appeals to American culture.
I'm fascinated by how you talk about algorithmic drift. This is the second or third video I watch in which you explore these concepts. We often forget that powerful and public people are also consuming junk from the internet - aside from being encouraged by their fans/followers and yes-men, which has always been the case even before the internet. Totally agree with your notion that if one disavows the big philosophers/authors, it usually means they are reciting a simplified version of one of these philophers' theories, but, because they don't know the source, they feel free in the sense that they perceive themselves to be non-influenced by anyone. This happens naturally, because culture seeps into everyone. We can either know where our ideas come from and question them, or not know and not question because you think they are your own and you are protective of them.
Its scary that Musk and Trump both had difficult fathers.....were warped by them...and are now in such positions of power. These are sick men, not whole beings.
I’ve got to watch this again, but at 77 I have long known that a true autodidact is an impossibility in our time. At best occasional reinventions of the wheel. As a child, I was an omnivorous reader, partly growing up on a farm in the Ozarks. Boredom, isolation eventually even led me to read the Encyclopedia (though not Britannica at 11). I literally read my way through tiny, small town libraries-one was in the same space, with partitions, as the town jail (just bars) and the town fire engine (prewar). Luck had it that the county library in the next town was larger. But I never regarded myself in my life as an autodidact if I knew the word. I knew better. I knew that I need trails, needed guides, starting with my parents but later others. The one area I was arrogant enough to think I could pick up myself was history, I had a reasonably accurate image of a timeline in my mind learned from romantic fiction and historians like Winston S Churchill. I would even encounter a once popular novelist, Winston Churchill, at farm sales (people giving up and selling off their belongings), but I thought these books were ridiculous, even at 11. Only later did I learn why old Winston insisted on using the S. It wasn’t only the tie to the Spencers. Why do I go on. As I grew older it became clear, much as I took too many college courses outside the straight and narrow path to professional success, that I knew even less and less than I thought I knew. This was underlined as I drifted accidentally (there is no better description) to a minor in philosophy. And there…well there were some people I just didNOT understand. The Republic, yes, Aristotle, reasonably so, but I didn’t always agree, Kant on morals, a challenge but I agreed, perhaps too easily, Pure Reason? Well sort of I really think I did get the drift, but I just ran out of time. The American Idealists? I couldn’t even finish a chapter. I doubt that they were so profound, I just didn’t understand what …. I realized I didn’t understand them well enough to even disagree or dismiss. (Unlike the Oxford ordinary language folks discussing the ontological relevance of “the current King of France.”). My point. The advantage of ADD is that if you are curious and have the opportunity to run amok among books, you learn a lot. You may develop points of view. But if you dash forward without structure, guides, you may misunderstand most everything. This I realized when I was about 25. I don’t think Elon ever ran headlong into that wall. Or if he did, it never knocked any sense into him.
“… you pander to the algorithm and then you beging to increasingly sincerely recite what the algorithm wants you to say and do that with accelerating intensity” the algorithm is training our models.
Tech bro culture - i was in it for 23 years - basically is a kind of “might is right”. The cleverest mouse gets the cheese, and then everyone follows or supplicates to that mouse. Anything that mouse does is good, until another mouse takes his cheese or finds a maze with more cheese. Then the rest follow. But the leader still is a mouse, they think we live in a maze, and all the mice at the back are just a faceless crowd. The humanity doesn’t much enter into it. It’s 100% transactional, and deity worship. Cheese = smart = right. Any ethics you get is naive, cartoonish, or pure luck. It’s just not an ingredient in their success. And they All (almost) think they are the smartest people on earth - this is where it gets dangerous.
Elon Musk got his money by creating simple algorithms such as the PayPal accounting algorithm that already existed for credit cards, or for Maps. Nothing original. Then he used that money to buy Tesla from two engineers from Palo Alto. He never designed or improve the car, but he ran the company into bankruptcy . Then press Obama gave him $500 million to bail him out and gave him a SpaceX contracts , SpaceX is made by engineers that he hired. He’s a businessman. He’s not an Enginering genius. He hates Obama, the hand that fed him when he was down. I am sure that he got money from Putin in order to buy Twitter and destroy this country. That’s another disaster. The company loss 90% of his value. Thank God that we know have blue sky.
Paypal dosen't have an "algorithm", in the way the public refer to it, it's not a social media website suggesting content to users, it's just a business logic website, it has external discovery, Ebay. Saying it's "unoriginal" is missing the point, paypal, google maps, etc are just products that filled gaps in the market, even most social media websites like Facebook, aren't original concepts. Elon has a decent IQ, and has the ability to identify talent, maybe would have been a good Engineer if he actually went down a more humble path, I can't say that Trump would be better at running SpaceX because he wouldn't know how to identify talented engineers, and companies that would deliver, he's also very good at bullshitting VCs and shareholders, and even the SEC, I'm still surprised that SEC hasn't punished him for lying about Self-driving cars for a decade with no delivered product, Elizabeth Holmes wasn't nearly as lucky as him. Elon bought Twitter with Tesla Shares, it's all public knowledge. I don't think he needed Kremlin money, he's just loves interfering with everything, being the main character, look at the him trying to "help" those boys trapped in a cave, ended up calling one of the experts a pedo.
This is like watching two of my favorite childhood heroes being in the same movie or video game. I really love Sam for his calmness and ability for a great ratio between the amount of words spoken and the amount of information transmitted. Sam is a true intellectual and critical thinker, a real humanist. I like him for his cosmic perspective about the future of humanity, and I like you Vlad for your ultra-realistic present day evaluation of what means being a human today.
Hi Vlad! Nice to see you feeling better! I agree in particular on the "ignorance feeling like freedom" point. The more you learn and the more you read, the more apparent the feeling becomes that you didn't know anything, and continue to know so little, you become more aware of your limitations. But despite that, the knowledge you attain is so enriching. It gives you perspective you didn't even know existed. And you can't help but feel grateful for that.
I would love to see a discussion between you and Sam Harris. You and he are my favorite public intellectuals. You’re both very grounded and not subject to the algorithm.
“You could walk through Ronald Reagan’s deepest thoughts,” a California legislator said, “and not get your ankles wet.” I bet Sam Harris would say that of Elon Musk. That guy is a force for No Good in our world
Musk's lack of humility before the American people and the world is staggering. He is going to try to wield the awesome power he is going to be given by Trump like a kid who has found his dad's gun. The problem is it took no Discipline to attain it. So, he takes no responsibility for it. He rode to his position of power on the backs of others. He was so preoccupied with whether he could he doesn't stop to think if he should. Apologies to Spielberg's Jurassic Park lunch scene.
I much much much prefer your insights into what’s happening in the Kremlin than agonising over people living in the US. We all need to unite against the real enemy when theoretical nukes and bluffs and who knows what else are threatened to be coming our way.
I'm curious how you distinguish algorithmically-induced beliefs and the kind of belief propagation that happened via pre-internet media (television, movies, radio). Is this the same phenomenon only accelerated by new technology, or is it fundamentally different?
The inoculation against algorithmic manipulation is knowledge, skepticism bordering on cynicism, and contrarianism. They are effective individually and when used together. Knowledge empowers individuals to understand and critically evaluate the information they encounter. Skepticism encourages questioning the validity and motives behind the information, while contrarianism challenges prevailing narratives and promotes independent thinking. These tools form a robust defense against manipulation, fostering a more resilient society.
Yeah, that's why I don't believe in climate change. All the algorithms are pushing me into believing it happens and it's human-caused, but I'm skeptical to the point of cynicism and a contrarian and I say NO! NO to conformism, NO to "common knowledge", NO to herd mentality! Do your own research! Knowledge is king! There is no climate change! Also, I'm a conspiracy theorist in a BIG way, because, obviously, skepticism, questioning the motives behind the information, and challenging prevailing narratives. And, obviously, my very independent thinking. Don't forget the independent thinking.
What drew me to Peterson was that he had profound, often polemical things to say which seemed to run contrary to the cultural narrative, I never got anything like that from Harris who was more content being a critic. It's much easier being a critic and revealing the flaws of others instead of taking intellectual risks but I don't know Harris well, that's more my impression of him. Completely agree though that JP has fallen victim to impulse and fame, all of the qualities that made people admire him have been tarnished, he's let himself become a puppet of disruptive and potentially dark political forces, along with Musk.
Harris also took intellectual risks when he tried to offer alternatives to Religion, for example, when Morality was concerned, which he operationalized by the term "human flourishing". He was attacked by philosophers and theologians both for it. His stark rejection of the "intellectual dark web" he was once part of, was also a risk, albeit more commercially, not intellectually, since it threatened the more right-wing part of his audience, which probably cost him quite much money. But he retained his intellectual honesty and quality by doing that. I believe JP has fallen since his sickness/bout with drugs a few years ago. That - i think - drove him off the cliff, somehow. Also, his age may also play a role in that. And yes, his financial dependence on right wing fans, who make up much of his audience.
I just love and completely agree with your analysis of everything you talk about, Vlad! I have never heard anyone else's podcast who hit on all the things I feel and believe! Thank you for sharing with us! ❤
@michaeldautel7568 They have republican backgrounds for sure but there are different types of never Trumpers. Some, like Tim Miller, the main host, has drifted away from the economic right and now is sympathetic to a more leftist attitude on soaking the rich. It's interesting to hear them question some of their previous beliefs as Trump realigns our politics. Though others just yearn to go back to a Romney style republican, and they're stuck now knowing that doesn't look like it's happening anytime soon if ever.
Thank you, V, for being responsible. And for the respect I feel from you when showing that responsibility. I hope you know I, too, respect you, your time here, and the words you choose to share with us. ❤
Some of the dumbest people I know have PhD's. In my view a holder of a PhD possesses a brilliant, ground breaking understanding of things in their often very narrow chosen field, but it is like a very long walk on a very skinny pier out into the vast ocean of man's knowledge. The depth of their ignorance either side being betrayed every time they misstep.
STEM PhD holder here. In my experience it is as much a test of character as raw intelligence. Yes, you need minimum academic standards to be accepted for an advanced degree which are not trivial and suggests intelligence, but whenever you engage in novel work you find yourself going down some dead ends and you have to have a personality that can absorb the frustration and disappointment and persist nevertheless. I'm not sure this is very compatible with or bears relation to "ignorance." Quite a few give up. Having a decent amount of general intelligence definitely doesn't hurt either lol
The ability to command an audience is intoxicating. It's easy to mesmerize oneself. Many years ago I was speaking in front of a small group. Everyone listened with rapt attention but then, it dawned on me that I didn't know what I was talking about. I stopped with my 'spiel' and apologized, telling the listeners I had no idea if what I'd been saying was true. Oddly, this confession didn't seem to bother them! I still tend to 'hold forth' but haven't forgotten that the capacity to command an audience doesn't mean I have a bead on truth; and, I must be careful not to indoctrinate others with falsehoods.
Thank you, Vlad, for being a man of such great moral, intellectual and spiritual integrity. So happy to see you sitting. Pray-god, it may be proof you’re feeling better. Love and Peace to you, as always….💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙
This was a very helpful one for me, I hadn't quite grasped what you've said about the problems of Jordan Peterson previously but it clicked for me here and is very recognisably true now I see what you're saying. Speaking as someone who's very self taught in general, I really recognise the countless times I have found myself "operating with cheap fragments" of things too, a quote I like on this is - “Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back” ~ John Maynard Keynes. One thing I don't quite understand though and would love to hear explained some time is the way you use the word aesthetic. To me it's essentially "how it looks" literally or figuratively but it seems there is a meaning I'm missing.
Elon Musk, I believe, is safe if you put him alone in a room with children's wooden blocks. Indeed you may find when you enter the room an interesting structure he has build with the wooden blocks. However, Elon Musk alone in a room full of Ken and Barbie dolls -- MY GOD! Oh, you cannot unsee the horrors of that room. Oh, Elon will not be allowed out of the rubber suit nor to leave the rubber room until he stops that awefull chattering of his teeth. Oh God, that room, that room ... My point is that Musk is useful with intimate objects but dangerous with the fate of human beings and has no business being in public life.
Edison once said: "If I want to do mathematics, I will hire a mathematician". It is no surprise that Musk stated that his hero is Edison, and NOT Nikola Tesla. Edison - the businessman vs Tesla - the inventor. The fact that he named his products after Tesla (who was effectively swindled and paupered by Edison), just demonstrates his moral ambiguity.
Sam Harris is my favorite public intellectual, and I remember when he first spoke out at length about Trump, it mirrored my own feelings but was so eloquent and pointed, I was relieved to not feel alone. Elon has some unique intellectual gifts, and I read the Isaacson bio of him to better understand his whole life, but he has always been awkward in how he relates to other people, lacking in empathy, something which Vlad and Sam have in abundance.
Wow. This was such a fantastic breakdown of what's happening in the world. Horrifying, but fantastic in the unethical relationship of so many in power.
Hi Vlad Happy to se you locking imbued with more energy and health. Had a thought about Machiavelli the prince and how it relate to the social media. with princes kings and Queens. it would be interesting to have your reflection on this. could you please do a section on this.
Long time listener, first time (I think) commenter. I agree that Sam's stability has resulted in him not being algorithmically captured, but you also implied that his ethics were not a part of this stability. I disagree. While I (or you) may not agree with all of his principles, I do think it's clear that his own commitment to these principles has been a stabilizing force for him. Furthermore, his stability is at least partly due to the fact that he has built his own platform, complete with monitization and content distribution. He's not as dependent on the algorithm as many other public figures, and he's not at all dependent on outside organizations or political movements for financial support. This isn't an accident. One of the reasons he built his own platform is precisely because freedom from outside coersion aligns with his principles. In summary, I think we should give his principles more credit for the stability of his views.
Excellent video, I always think about something like the can't truly avoid Kant point. I've followed SH since early days and I think he was always a sort of intellectualized version of rightwing culture warrior nonsense. He didn't see what's epistemically wrong with the IDW gang even though any of the feminists he criticized could have told him had he listened. But credit where credit is due, he didn't follow them along to MAGA and now sees them for who they are, even though he should have known all along.
Great observations Vlad❤ Peterson started off intelligent and normal...nowadays he reminds me of Dr Mabuse in one of Fritz Langs films😂 Why people become crazier via algoritms seems strange to me. But some do...
Thanks Vlad. I thought of you while watching the interview between Tim Miller (Bulwark) and Sam Harris just yesterday. Great reaction, things to think about. Love from Canberra Australia 🌏🌻
Vlad, As an autodidact with ADHD for whom the academy was rendered off limits, how do I parse reality? I have read as much (as my limited ability to read allows) "the Classics" as I can, as much history, philosophy, and science as possible. But, ultimately, not having a background in academia, I must outsource much of my knowledge to experts, in a similar way as a passenger on an airplane does to the pilot. I quit all social media around four years ago because I could see the epistemological collapse it was causing, where the very facts of reality are being called into question, where reason itself is being challenged as unreasonable. But I'm still on TH-cam. I believe that my epistemological bedrock is solid. I share the same concerns around the direction of Western discourse as public intellectuals as yourself and Sam Harris. Indeed, it is reassuring to finally have confirmation as to why I listen to Sam Harris when I have so many disagreements with him - we agree on the undelying factual terms, even if we disagree on where those facts lead us on many topics. But when you speak about Musk's lack of epistemological foundation by being an autodidact well... that's me too. How do I ensure that I'm not as feluded as he is?
I am an engineer. Musk is not an engineer. He is a hirer of engineeers, at best. And i think he judges engineers mostly by their loyalty, just as Trump does. Maybe that is where they click.
10:00 I think you should not forget, that Musk as owner of the platform Twitter / X these days may be influenced by the "algorithm", but he's got super user rights on his own platform, he may decide the inner workings of that algorithm.
The process of bending to the algorithm, writing things you don't necessarily believe, then coming to believe them keeps reminding me of a book on Influence I have on my shelf by Robert Cialdini, specifically the section on the power of enticing people to write testimonials. I've only ever dipped my toe into such things but the two concepts seem to fit perfectly.
I feel what you feel regarding the space that Sam and you occupies. I have my disagreements with Sam especially when it comes to the way he talks about religion, but his intellectual honesty is commendable and I value that more than anything these days. In a time of rampant anti-intellectualism, it is comforting that some intellectual voices stand their ground.
I'm hit by post.covid and can relate to Vlad's situation. Noticed the white air filter thingie. I too run air purifiers as soon as outdoor temps drop. When the Swedish sub-zero sets in, I add humidifiers that I keep obsessively clean. It ameliorates an immune system misbehaving as badly as Musk. Does it help for ME? BTW, I too think of Harris as more and more of an ally, as the general madness of our times seem to inch many others ever so slightly off to the authoritarian alternative fact corner.
Could you find a way to talk us through Brave new world some time? It's been a few years since I read it, but something lingers and seems increasingly relevant in our time.
We all have a primitive survival instinct to fit in. This instinct operates at a subconscious level and causes us to adopt the conventions, vocal accents and opinions of the people we live among. If we live long enough in a small town, we gradually adopt the political outlook of the townspeople. Now we live in online communities and few of us realise how powerful the subconscious drive to conform to our community is. Social media changes us, without us usually being aware the change is happening, and since social media is a cesspool of lies and bullshit, the change is not for the better.
Thank you. Excellent commentary. Also thanks for the mini-musks phase , much more direct than my own use of the term “surrogates” to identify “ other ing” Goodonya VV
Harris has an integrity (and sanity?) which makes him a target for many. I disagree with him on some important issues, but he's never gone off the deep end like Musk and others.
Your words, as always, ring so true. So glad to have your voice like the clear ringing of a silver trumpet through the din and dim of the dismal algorithmic swamp. I only wish that these words had the visceral power to actually become the sort of action and change needed to resist the ongoing assault on liberalism, human decency, and cooperative, organized society in a tangible way.
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Clips take from The Bulwark Podcast w Sam Harris -
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Please Vlad... you are a MAJOR public intellectual...
... and a Philosopher connecting to people unlike any philosopher in History...
... You are a big deal...
@ 🌻
Thank you Vlad. While I watched Sam Harris on Bulwark yesterday I kept thinking of you. Wonderful hearing you speak on this.
I know that vlad's condition causes him to be exhausted, and sometimes bedridden, but I would just love to hear him go on, and on, and on.
Sooooo kind
Well, I watched Musk once in Germany, then he was going to open new Tesla factory close to Berlin. He was arrogantly laughing about German laws saying that it would be insane to care that much about water consumption here, because we weren't in California etc. So I realized, he was problematic and dangerous.
He was praising the Chinese people because they "work" hard, specially through the pandemic while saying American workers were lazy. What he omitted is that China has lax worker rights and they allowed Tesla to keep his plan open during the pandemic. Workers were sleeping inside the plant. Of course he thinks Chinese workers are hard workers.
He scoffed that anyone should care about the uighar who probably work in his factory
Unfortunately, he's one of those people who takes the advantage of speed reading the potential consequences, in the interest of getting things done quickly. He's not as bad as China... but the fact that he's being put in charge of dismantling America's corporate regulatory and consumer protection apparati (is that the plural?) is alarming. RFK Jr, the anti-vax Kennedy, is going to be in charge of healthcare.
So, in 4 years, Americans will be wondering why the liberals made us all sick, and enshittified the food and other products. If the world isn't in total disarray by then, with the USA ruled by King Barron Trump. But I'm an optimist, so I'll go with the first scenario.
No wonder, people are protesting.
Wow, are you always that stupid?
My son went to a Jordan Petersen talk. He paid a lot of extra dollars for a meet and greet at the end of the talk. But the organisers decided to sell many more tickets for the meet and greet and my son joined a long queue of people each of whom spent 2 seconds saying hello. It was not a meet and greet. It was pure money-making exercise. If Petersen had any integrity, he would have done something about it, but maybe these days, he is just another rock star. And it's all about the money.
So sorry your son had such a crappy experience
Peterson is a charlatan pseudo-intellectual.
@@VladVexlerChat When we do a meet and greet with YOU, we, your fans, expect a proper one, and not just 2 seconds! I know that may be a long time off, but better to make some things abundantly clear. First you need to get better. THEN we need you to organize you a talk on the stage...
@VladVexlerChat The press and the public fawn over people like Musk and Petersen. That is half the problem. It makes people like them think they are extra special. In Musks case, he is also surrounded by yes men. It is not character building to get one's own way continuously. Musk can buy anything and anyone without having to budget or worry like most people do. That is the disadvantage of his position. Like Musk, I also have asbergers. I put it to good use working as a software engineer. Unlike Musk, I am a real engineer. Not a businessman with a load of whacky ideas. Like the Boring company which takes cars into city centres on underground trains, thus causing extra traffic problems in the heart of the already congested city.
Well duh ! Of course it is.
Thank you Vlad for bringing together this beautiful ethical community ❤️
In Jordan Petersons case, you don’t have to observe him chasing the algorithm and falling into its grasp over time. He has become so entrenched in this methodology that you can witness him dancing with the algorithm when answering a single question or making a single point.
I don't understand why people keep hedging on how brilliant of an engineer Musk supposedly is... Engineers who've worked for him seem to have a very different opinion on that
Like who? Just wondering...
You just had to take a look at the brilliance of the work to decide the quality of Engineering. And therefore the first class Engineers are willing to sacrifice themselves
for starters he is not an engineer by education or trade, merely a self-taught coder. full-time corporate raider.
He doesn’t have to be a brilliant engineer, just have the ability to get the best out of brilliant engineers who work for him.
It’s fair game to point out Musk’s character defects… but pretending his business accomplishments are anything other than extraordinary is childish.
What he's good at is supply chains. Which I assume he learned by translating his work on social media algorithms to engineering. He's okay as an engineer. He throws around some silly ideas, but the big thing is he has a high volume of them.
Anyway, the point is that he's really not good at abstracting a final work. He's good at optimizing what's already there.
One thing i've always been amazed about in America is how they seem to gormlessly worship and admire wealthy people. In Australia we highly suspect them and certainly dont trust them..
They aspire to be part of that elite - it's why they consistently oppose taxing the rich. They have been well conditioned to protect the interests of the wealthy.
It’s very frustrating. People here think uber wealthy people must be brilliant. Not that they could be crooks, liars, manipulators, and con-men.
Personally I think it's down to the character of the historical immigrant coming to the US. Usually they wanted to leave oppressive leadership and valued freedom of enterprise.
@@SyKnife In Australia, they're our first thoughts ... !
Same in Canada
As someone who is autodedact in several musical instruments, the danger of being autodedact is that you engrain your mistakes. Now, in music a mistake is not always a mistake, but when you participate in the running of a large country, mistakes become huge.
Had similar thoughts as someone who is an intense autodidactic across numerous fields or hobbies. If I make some errors in math or Chinese history due to gaps in my knowledge that I'm not even aware of, not much harm done. In fact, hopefully it's pointed out and I learn from it. Very different from when the autodidact impulse is combined with extravagant arrogance and an enormous position of power and influence.
Nice to see you up Vlad!
Thank you!
Musk and Peterson go a long way out of their lane, know it, and don't apologise for it. Unfortunate for the public.
I think the ethical responsibility these people like Musk, who use the resources of the earth ( drilling), space and planets should have a restriction with all living people and creatures. This is our planet. I can't think of any other way of saying this. All big brains ( not Musk) should be morally responsible to planet and people.
Musk has never been an engineer. Just a business man. This is what people don’t understand.
Yes, but the only acceptable elites are in business and sports
Correct. Musk's ability to understand everything anyone ever shows him about his rockets, or to direct the progress of their development does not make him an engineer. He simply doesn't have the discipline, characteristics, or training to make these things happen out of whole cloth. Put simply, if there were 10,000 Musks working 10,000 typewriters he would never produce a manual on how to build a raptor engine...
When he was 10 years old he wrote computer code and got $500.... I guess you didn't bother reading the biography
@@SardonicALLY that's a politically motivated statement
@@13thbiosphere my friend, youtube 'debunking elon musk' and listen to the real story, this guy is nothing but a rich, cutthroat businessman that is just amazing at bullshitting and motivating people, that is a skill yes - but hes no genius and his code was shit fyi.
Thanks for the great video Vlad, great to see you looking well! ❤
+1
The best chefs make food that’s good for you taste better than food that’s bad for you. Keep cooking Vlad, your work is delicious.
Some years ago, Sam Harris said, and I'm paraphrasing, "government should be abolished and replaced by business, because business is more efficient". On the other hand, a statesman said this, which is not paraphrased: "The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself.
That in it's essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power."
----- Franklin D Roosevelt
I've never heard Sam say this. And if he did some time ago, it doesn't reflect a view he currently holds as a phrase he often repeats is "the solution to bad government isn't no government, but better government" (paraphrased), coupled with his sentiments surrounding the value of institutions.
I've not once heard him say nations should be run by private business.
Have you read Richard Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life? It was written a long time ago, but it deals with the whole history of why this appeals to American culture.
I'm fascinated by how you talk about algorithmic drift. This is the second or third video I watch in which you explore these concepts. We often forget that powerful and public people are also consuming junk from the internet - aside from being encouraged by their fans/followers and yes-men, which has always been the case even before the internet. Totally agree with your notion that if one disavows the big philosophers/authors, it usually means they are reciting a simplified version of one of these philophers' theories, but, because they don't know the source, they feel free in the sense that they perceive themselves to be non-influenced by anyone. This happens naturally, because culture seeps into everyone. We can either know where our ideas come from and question them, or not know and not question because you think they are your own and you are protective of them.
That was well put.
Much of this sounds like a longer and deeper version of Musk being on bad parts of the Dunning-Kruger curve in many areas 😂
Its scary that Musk and Trump both had difficult fathers.....were warped by them...and are now in such positions of power. These are sick men, not whole beings.
Nothing minor about you Vlad.
Love ya!
Love back!
I’ve got to watch this again, but at 77 I have long known that a true autodidact is an impossibility in our time. At best occasional reinventions of the wheel. As a child, I was an omnivorous reader, partly growing up on a farm in the Ozarks. Boredom, isolation eventually even led me to read the Encyclopedia (though not Britannica at 11). I literally read my way through tiny, small town libraries-one was in the same space, with partitions, as the town jail (just bars) and the town fire engine (prewar). Luck had it that the county library in the next town was larger. But I never regarded myself in my life as an autodidact if I knew the word.
I knew better. I knew that I need trails, needed guides, starting with my parents but later others. The one area I was arrogant enough to think I could pick up myself was history, I had a reasonably accurate image of a timeline in my mind learned from romantic fiction and historians like Winston S Churchill. I would even encounter a once popular novelist, Winston Churchill, at farm sales (people giving up and selling off their belongings), but I thought these books were ridiculous, even at 11. Only later did I learn why old Winston insisted on using the S. It wasn’t only the tie to the Spencers.
Why do I go on. As I grew older it became clear, much as I took too many college courses outside the straight and narrow path to professional success, that I knew even less and less than I thought I knew. This was underlined as I drifted accidentally (there is no better description) to a minor in philosophy. And there…well there were some people I just didNOT understand. The Republic, yes, Aristotle, reasonably so, but I didn’t always agree, Kant on morals, a challenge but I agreed, perhaps too easily, Pure Reason? Well sort of I really think I did get the drift, but I just ran out of time. The American Idealists? I couldn’t even finish a chapter. I doubt that they were so profound, I just didn’t understand what …. I realized I didn’t understand them well enough to even disagree or dismiss. (Unlike the Oxford ordinary language folks discussing the ontological relevance of “the current King of France.”).
My point. The advantage of ADD is that if you are curious and have the opportunity to run amok among books, you learn a lot. You may develop points of view. But if you dash forward without structure, guides, you may misunderstand most everything. This I realized when I was about 25.
I don’t think Elon ever ran headlong into that wall. Or if he did, it never knocked any sense into him.
Love hearing your thoughts on Sam’s thoughts. Love love love.
This is very insightful, I am learning a lot, thank you.
“… you pander to the algorithm and then you beging to increasingly sincerely recite what the algorithm wants you to say and do that with accelerating intensity” the algorithm is training our models.
07:17 - what an elegant explanation of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Tech bro culture - i was in it for 23 years - basically is a kind of “might is right”. The cleverest mouse gets the cheese, and then everyone follows or supplicates to that mouse. Anything that mouse does is good, until another mouse takes his cheese or finds a maze with more cheese. Then the rest follow. But the leader still is a mouse, they think we live in a maze, and all the mice at the back are just a faceless crowd. The humanity doesn’t much enter into it. It’s 100% transactional, and deity worship. Cheese = smart = right. Any ethics you get is naive, cartoonish, or pure luck. It’s just not an ingredient in their success. And they All (almost) think they are the smartest people on earth - this is where it gets dangerous.
The mantra is disruption technology. It's the mantra of musk. People are run by the algorithm
Sounded awful. You must have a very robust personality lol
@@woofcity6307 phew someone who gets it. I really stepped in it with my other comment here. 10 year veteran myself. Thousand yard stare.
@@item6931 robust doesn't even begin to cover it. I'm retired but still a bit traumatized.
Elon Musk got his money by creating simple algorithms such as the PayPal accounting algorithm that already existed for credit cards, or for Maps. Nothing original. Then he used that money to buy Tesla from two engineers from Palo Alto. He never designed or improve the car, but he ran the company into bankruptcy . Then press Obama gave him $500 million to bail him out and gave him a SpaceX contracts , SpaceX is made by engineers that he hired. He’s a businessman. He’s not an Enginering genius. He hates Obama, the hand that fed him when he was down. I am sure that he got money from Putin in order to buy Twitter and destroy this country. That’s another disaster. The company loss 90% of his value. Thank God that we know have blue sky.
Blue Sky 😂
@ ha ha 🤣 you trolls only use laughing emoji b/c you know I am right about Elon Muskovite being an intellectual fraud.
Paypal dosen't have an "algorithm", in the way the public refer to it, it's not a social media website suggesting content to users, it's just a business logic website, it has external discovery, Ebay. Saying it's "unoriginal" is missing the point, paypal, google maps, etc are just products that filled gaps in the market, even most social media websites like Facebook, aren't original concepts.
Elon has a decent IQ, and has the ability to identify talent, maybe would have been a good Engineer if he actually went down a more humble path, I can't say that Trump would be better at running SpaceX because he wouldn't know how to identify talented engineers, and companies that would deliver, he's also very good at bullshitting VCs and shareholders, and even the SEC, I'm still surprised that SEC hasn't punished him for lying about Self-driving cars for a decade with no delivered product, Elizabeth Holmes wasn't nearly as lucky as him.
Elon bought Twitter with Tesla Shares, it's all public knowledge. I don't think he needed Kremlin money, he's just loves interfering with everything, being the main character, look at the him trying to "help" those boys trapped in a cave, ended up calling one of the experts a pedo.
@ interesting opinion. But I don’t buy it.
You are mean to an autist, ahn, says much about your person
This is like watching two of my favorite childhood heroes being in the same movie or video game.
I really love Sam for his calmness and ability for a great ratio between the amount of words spoken and the amount of information transmitted.
Sam is a true intellectual and critical thinker, a real humanist.
I like him for his cosmic perspective about the future of humanity, and I like you Vlad for your ultra-realistic present day evaluation of what means being a human today.
Beautifully formulated. Both of these men are voices we need
Often people know enough about a subject to think they're right, BUT, do not know enough about that subject to know they're WRONG.
Neil Degrass Tyson
Hi Vlad! Nice to see you feeling better!
I agree in particular on the "ignorance feeling like freedom" point. The more you learn and the more you read, the more apparent the feeling becomes that you didn't know anything, and continue to know so little, you become more aware of your limitations. But despite that, the knowledge you attain is so enriching. It gives you perspective you didn't even know existed. And you can't help but feel grateful for that.
I would love to see a discussion between you and Sam Harris. You and he are my favorite public intellectuals. You’re both very grounded and not subject to the algorithm.
“You could walk through Ronald Reagan’s deepest thoughts,” a California legislator said, “and not get your ankles wet.”
I bet Sam Harris would say that of Elon Musk.
That guy is a force for No Good in our world
Musk's lack of humility before the American people and the world is staggering. He is going to try to wield the awesome power he is going to be given by Trump like a kid who has found his dad's gun. The problem is it took no Discipline to attain it. So, he takes no responsibility for it. He rode to his position of power on the backs of others. He was so preoccupied with whether he could he doesn't stop to think if he should. Apologies to Spielberg's Jurassic Park lunch scene.
I much much much prefer your insights into what’s happening in the Kremlin than agonising over people living in the US. We all need to unite against the real enemy when theoretical nukes and bluffs and who knows what else are threatened to be coming our way.
I'm curious how you distinguish algorithmically-induced beliefs and the kind of belief propagation that happened via pre-internet media (television, movies, radio). Is this the same phenomenon only accelerated by new technology, or is it fundamentally different?
Love your perspective on this. Well reasoned.
The inoculation against algorithmic manipulation is knowledge, skepticism bordering on cynicism, and contrarianism. They are effective individually and when used together. Knowledge empowers individuals to understand and critically evaluate the information they encounter. Skepticism encourages questioning the validity and motives behind the information, while contrarianism challenges prevailing narratives and promotes independent thinking. These tools form a robust defense against manipulation, fostering a more resilient society.
Yeah, that's why I don't believe in climate change. All the algorithms are pushing me into believing it happens and it's human-caused, but I'm skeptical to the point of cynicism and a contrarian and I say NO! NO to conformism, NO to "common knowledge", NO to herd mentality! Do your own research! Knowledge is king! There is no climate change!
Also, I'm a conspiracy theorist in a BIG way, because, obviously, skepticism, questioning the motives behind the information, and challenging prevailing narratives. And, obviously, my very independent thinking. Don't forget the independent thinking.
I’m 4 minutes in and this is word-perfect articulation. Thanks Vlad. Also great to see you looking in good health today
What drew me to Peterson was that he had profound, often polemical things to say which seemed to run contrary to the cultural narrative, I never got anything like that from Harris who was more content being a critic. It's much easier being a critic and revealing the flaws of others instead of taking intellectual risks but I don't know Harris well, that's more my impression of him.
Completely agree though that JP has fallen victim to impulse and fame, all of the qualities that made people admire him have been tarnished, he's let himself become a puppet of disruptive and potentially dark political forces, along with Musk.
Harris also took intellectual risks when he tried to offer alternatives to Religion, for example, when Morality was concerned, which he operationalized by the term "human flourishing". He was attacked by philosophers and theologians both for it. His stark rejection of the "intellectual dark web" he was once part of, was also a risk, albeit more commercially, not intellectually, since it threatened the more right-wing part of his audience, which probably cost him quite much money. But he retained his intellectual honesty and quality by doing that.
I believe JP has fallen since his sickness/bout with drugs a few years ago. That - i think - drove him off the cliff, somehow. Also, his age may also play a role in that. And yes, his financial dependence on right wing fans, who make up much of his audience.
Glad to see you in alignment with SH!
Or rather in constructive contra-alignment.
Musk pays brilliant people, but he takes credit for all of their hard work.
Thank you I appreciate this video
I just love and completely agree with your analysis of everything you talk about, Vlad! I have never heard anyone else's podcast who hit on all the things I feel and believe! Thank you for sharing with us! ❤
I love the Bulwark. They are my favourite source of commentary on American politics.
The Bulwark is a right wing group so that indicates you are right leaning. View the whole picture please.
@@michaeldautel7568 I never said they are my only source, just that they are my favourite.
@michaeldautel7568 They have republican backgrounds for sure but there are different types of never Trumpers. Some, like Tim Miller, the main host, has drifted away from the economic right and now is sympathetic to a more leftist attitude on soaking the rich. It's interesting to hear them question some of their previous beliefs as Trump realigns our politics. Though others just yearn to go back to a Romney style republican, and they're stuck now knowing that doesn't look like it's happening anytime soon if ever.
I like them too, and I'm a progressive Democrat. Sometimes I roll my eyes, but I appreciate their thoughtfulness.
Thank you, V, for being responsible. And for the respect I feel from you when showing that responsibility. I hope you know I, too, respect you, your time here, and the words you choose to share with us. ❤
Some of the dumbest people I know have PhD's. In my view a holder of a PhD possesses a brilliant, ground breaking understanding of things in their often very narrow chosen field, but it is like a very long walk on a very skinny pier out into the vast ocean of man's knowledge. The depth of their ignorance either side being betrayed every time they misstep.
STEM PhD holder here. In my experience it is as much a test of character as raw intelligence. Yes, you need minimum academic standards to be accepted for an advanced degree which are not trivial and suggests intelligence, but whenever you engage in novel work you find yourself going down some dead ends and you have to have a personality that can absorb the frustration and disappointment and persist nevertheless. I'm not sure this is very compatible with or bears relation to "ignorance." Quite a few give up. Having a decent amount of general intelligence definitely doesn't hurt either lol
Not changing views is not a badge of honour.
Im so glad I found your channel, I always appreciate your thoughtful commentary, a diamond in the rough of algorithmic mayhem.
The ability to command an audience is intoxicating. It's easy to mesmerize oneself.
Many years ago I was speaking in front of a small group. Everyone listened with rapt attention but then, it dawned on me that I didn't know what I was talking about. I stopped with my 'spiel' and apologized, telling the listeners I had no idea if what I'd been saying was true. Oddly, this confession didn't seem to bother them!
I still tend to 'hold forth' but haven't forgotten that the capacity to command an audience doesn't mean I have a bead on truth; and, I must be careful not to indoctrinate others with falsehoods.
Thank you, Vlad, for being a man of such great moral, intellectual and spiritual integrity. So happy to see you sitting. Pray-god, it may be proof you’re feeling better. Love and Peace to you, as always….💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙🌻💙
Thank you for spending time Vlad. It is very much enjoyed.
This was a very helpful one for me, I hadn't quite grasped what you've said about the problems of Jordan Peterson previously but it clicked for me here and is very recognisably true now I see what you're saying. Speaking as someone who's very self taught in general, I really recognise the countless times I have found myself "operating with cheap fragments" of things too, a quote I like on this is - “Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back” ~ John Maynard Keynes.
One thing I don't quite understand though and would love to hear explained some time is the way you use the word aesthetic. To me it's essentially "how it looks" literally or figuratively but it seems there is a meaning I'm missing.
Great seeing you in the chair again Vlad! Thanks for sharing your thoughtful analysis.
Another lesson from Vlad, another gift for the world: never disappoints, worth every moment.
You sound and look so much better today. Full of energy! Great to see you like that once again. Hope it’s gonna last as long as possible💪❤️
Who would have thought that it's a bad idea to let software engineers design our cultural discourse.
Elon Musk, I believe, is safe if you put him alone in a room with children's wooden blocks. Indeed you may find when you enter the room an interesting structure he has build with the wooden blocks. However, Elon Musk alone in a room full of Ken and Barbie dolls -- MY GOD! Oh, you cannot unsee the horrors of that room. Oh, Elon will not be allowed out of the rubber suit nor to leave the rubber room until he stops that awefull chattering of his teeth. Oh God, that room, that room ...
My point is that Musk is useful with intimate objects but dangerous with the fate of human beings and has no business being in public life.
Hello beautiful Vlad
Khello
Musk is an oligarch, not a genius.
Edison once said: "If I want to do mathematics, I will hire a mathematician". It is no surprise that Musk stated that his hero is Edison, and NOT Nikola Tesla. Edison - the businessman vs Tesla - the inventor. The fact that he named his products after Tesla (who was effectively swindled and paupered by Edison), just demonstrates his moral ambiguity.
The Tesla car company existed before Musk came along, he just forced the original creators out!
Sam Harris is my favorite public intellectual, and I remember when he first spoke out at length about Trump, it mirrored my own feelings but was so eloquent and pointed, I was relieved to not feel alone. Elon has some unique intellectual gifts, and I read the Isaacson bio of him to better understand his whole life, but he has always been awkward in how he relates to other people, lacking in empathy, something which Vlad and Sam have in abundance.
All I know about Elon Musk is that he is on Government Welfare. Which makes him useless
That is a politically motivated statement
@13thbiosphere No! It's a fact.
I don't think you even believe that statement - which makes you an ethical abomination
When one begins a sentence with "all I know is" it shows you don't know it at all.
@StickAroundBennett I am a tax payer I know every company that takes from me
Musk is basically a Bond Villian
I await his, "Join me on Mars, you will be my slaves . . er I mean Citizens!"
Solid take.
Vlad and the Bulwark - two of my worlds colliding. Good to see.
Wow. This was such a fantastic breakdown of what's happening in the world. Horrifying, but fantastic in the unethical relationship of so many in power.
respect for Sam's Spock like deconstructing, however bewildered by his inability to say genocide.
Thank you for your work Vlad.
Hi Vlad Happy to se you locking imbued with more energy and health. Had a thought about Machiavelli the prince and how it relate to the social media. with princes kings and Queens. it would be interesting to have your reflection on this. could you please do a section on this.
Sam is wrong, Elmo is not smart, not a good Engineer. He is a lucky investor.
Long time listener, first time (I think) commenter. I agree that Sam's stability has resulted in him not being algorithmically captured, but you also implied that his ethics were not a part of this stability. I disagree. While I (or you) may not agree with all of his principles, I do think it's clear that his own commitment to these principles has been a stabilizing force for him. Furthermore, his stability is at least partly due to the fact that he has built his own platform, complete with monitization and content distribution. He's not as dependent on the algorithm as many other public figures, and he's not at all dependent on outside organizations or political movements for financial support. This isn't an accident. One of the reasons he built his own platform is precisely because freedom from outside coersion aligns with his principles. In summary, I think we should give his principles more credit for the stability of his views.
This was wonderful. Thank you.
Excellent video, I always think about something like the can't truly avoid Kant point. I've followed SH since early days and I think he was always a sort of intellectualized version of rightwing culture warrior nonsense. He didn't see what's epistemically wrong with the IDW gang even though any of the feminists he criticized could have told him had he listened. But credit where credit is due, he didn't follow them along to MAGA and now sees them for who they are, even though he should have known all along.
Brilliant analysis.
Great observations Vlad❤ Peterson started off intelligent and normal...nowadays he reminds me of Dr Mabuse in one of Fritz Langs films😂
Why people become crazier via algoritms seems strange to me. But some do...
I think the expression 'a stopped clock is right twice a day' applies to Sam Harris.
I love you both. You and Sam both assure me of my sanity and challenge my thinking. Interestingly, exactly when I need either!
Excellent discussion.
Thanks Vlad. I thought of you while watching the interview between Tim Miller (Bulwark) and Sam Harris just yesterday. Great reaction, things to think about. Love from Canberra Australia 🌏🌻
Vlad,
As an autodidact with ADHD for whom the academy was rendered off limits, how do I parse reality?
I have read as much (as my limited ability to read allows)
"the Classics" as I can, as much history, philosophy, and science as possible. But, ultimately, not having a background in academia, I must outsource much of my knowledge to experts, in a similar way as a passenger on an airplane does to the pilot.
I quit all social media around four years ago because I could see the epistemological collapse it was causing, where the very facts of reality are being called into question, where reason itself is being challenged as unreasonable.
But I'm still on TH-cam.
I believe that my epistemological bedrock is solid. I share the same concerns around the direction of Western discourse as public intellectuals as yourself and Sam Harris. Indeed, it is reassuring to finally have confirmation as to why I listen to Sam Harris when I have so many disagreements with him - we agree on the undelying factual terms, even if we disagree on where those facts lead us on many topics.
But when you speak about Musk's lack of epistemological foundation by being an autodidact well... that's me too.
How do I ensure that I'm not as feluded as he is?
I am an engineer. Musk is not an engineer. He is a hirer of engineeers, at best. And i think he judges engineers mostly by their loyalty, just as Trump does. Maybe that is where they click.
While Sam has some obvious takes I agree with, he’s a limited thinker affected by his own prejudice and bias. I think he’s a cretin.
10:00 I think you should not forget, that Musk as owner of the platform Twitter / X these days may be influenced by the "algorithm", but he's got super user rights on his own platform, he may decide the inner workings of that algorithm.
The process of bending to the algorithm, writing things you don't necessarily believe, then coming to believe them keeps reminding me of a book on Influence I have on my shelf by Robert Cialdini, specifically the section on the power of enticing people to write testimonials. I've only ever dipped my toe into such things but the two concepts seem to fit perfectly.
I feel what you feel regarding the space that Sam and you occupies. I have my disagreements with Sam especially when it comes to the way he talks about religion, but his intellectual honesty is commendable and I value that more than anything these days. In a time of rampant anti-intellectualism, it is comforting that some intellectual voices stand their ground.
“Interlectual dark web” is an oxymoron
I'm hit by post.covid and can relate to Vlad's situation.
Noticed the white air filter thingie. I too run air purifiers as soon as outdoor temps drop. When the Swedish sub-zero sets in, I add humidifiers that I keep obsessively clean. It ameliorates an immune system misbehaving as badly as Musk.
Does it help for ME?
BTW, I too think of Harris as more and more of an ally, as the general madness of our times seem to inch many others ever so slightly off to the authoritarian alternative fact corner.
Could you find a way to talk us through Brave new world some time? It's been a few years since I read it, but something lingers and seems increasingly relevant in our time.
Fascinating.
Musk/Joseph Starlink has a huge problem with taking the credit of the actual smart people who came before him or do the engineering for him.
How about thinking from the standpoint of not being a Musk employee, but he sees EVERYONE as subservient to his whims.
We all have a primitive survival instinct to fit in. This instinct operates at a subconscious level and causes us to adopt the conventions, vocal accents and opinions of the people we live among. If we live long enough in a small town, we gradually adopt the political outlook of the townspeople. Now we live in online communities and few of us realise how powerful the subconscious drive to conform to our community is. Social media changes us, without us usually being aware the change is happening, and since social media is a cesspool of lies and bullshit, the change is not for the better.
Big brother programs + social networks = You are a celebrity because you are a celebrity.
Thank you. Excellent commentary. Also thanks for the mini-musks phase , much more direct than my own use of the term “surrogates” to identify “ other ing” Goodonya VV
Harris has an integrity (and sanity?) which makes him a target for many. I disagree with him on some important issues, but he's never gone off the deep end like Musk and others.
Tks.
Cda
ethics is what one learns when one opens their eyes to the world. I hope.
Ignorance is bliss
Saw this video too, just yesterday. And also decided, quite unexpectedly, that Harris is going to be my go to sane voice for the coming months.
I sincerely hope you are invited to appear on the Making Sense podcast.
Your words, as always, ring so true. So glad to have your voice like the clear ringing of a silver trumpet through the din and dim of the dismal algorithmic swamp.
I only wish that these words had the visceral power to actually become the sort of action and change needed to resist the ongoing assault on liberalism, human decency, and cooperative, organized society in a tangible way.