I had the pleasure of talking to Jim O’Shaughnessy for the Infinite Loops podcast. We discussed whether humans deserve progress, how to make progress cool, the two types of optimism, and more.

Contents:

• 00:00:00 Intro
• 00:01:21 Main podcast
• 00:02:07 Why do we need progress studies?
• 00:06:44 Are humans conditioned to resist progress?
• 00:18:45 Increasing the burden of safety
• 00:26:49 What the Roots of Progress is seeking to achieve
• 00:35:19 How can we make progress cool?
• 00:40:46 Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will
• 00:52:44 Do we deserve progress?
• 00:54:38 Progress & politics
• 01:08:02 Steelmanning the case against progress
• 01:15:02 How can we defend against bad actors?
• 01:21:43 Calibrating our approach to risk

Also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other links on the show page.

See all my interviews and talks here.