#103 - AI, Evolution, and The God Test (w/ Robert Wright)

Did you ever see the video of two regular people trying to fight Eddie Hall, the strongest man on earth? Ben and Vaden bring that same energy to this conversation, where they gang up on Robert Wright on the subject of his forthcoming book The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning. Bob is a sport about it (well, there was no choice really: we have an advanced copy of his book that we're holding hostage) and there are only one or two black eyes by the end.

Subscribe to Robert Wright's podcasting empire NonZero on youtube and substack. And go buy one of his many books.

We discuss

Whether Bob was the OG podcaster

Is there a directionality to evolution?

Where Bob is on the AI fear and awe spectrum

Whether LLMs have decoded the meaning in language

Is AI best viewed as a tool or as superintelligence?

AI-as-slingshot analogy

References

The God Test by Robert Wright

Nonzero by Robert Wright