Bit of a Tangent

In this episode, Jared and Gianluca introduce the fundamentals of Game Theory; before examining the AI alignment problem, civilisational inadequacy, and Moloch—the mythical characterisation of all things suboptimal. This episode makes heavy reference to an article called "Meditations on Moloch", from Scott Alexander’s SlateStarCodex blog. We highly recommend it.

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Shownotes:

SlateStarCodex article on Moloch : https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/

Background on the myth of Moloch : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch

Alan Ginsberg’s poem on Moloch : https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl

Game Theory : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory

Prisoner’s Dilemma : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma

Tragedy of the Commons : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

Bostrom’s Vulnerable World Hypothesis : https://nickbostrom.com/papers/vulnerable.pdf

The AI Alignment Problem : https://intelligence.org/stanford-talk/

Stanislav Petrov, the Russian who prevented a nuclear war : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov