Liv Boeree (world poker champion; astrophysicist; game theorist) is on a mission to explain why we are all trapped in a zero-sum, race to the bottom…with climate, AI, social media and politics. Why do we keep digging up resources, consuming carbon, getting stuck in nasty online spats and building robots that could kill us? Why don’t we just STOP?? Why CAN’T we just STOP?!
It’s because of "moloch" – a game theory "force" that sees us do something we know is bad for us - because everyone else is doing it and if stop we’ll be disadvantaged - until we wind up ruining everything for everyone. I’ve been exploring this concept for a while and invited Liv to talk about her antidote to “competition gone wrong”, which I think will intuitively gel for many of you. In this chat we talk about the death spiral of beauty filters, why AI is repeating the nuclear arms race and the joy we share for steadfastly searching for a win-win solution that will see us in a race to the TOP.
SHOW NOTES
Subscribe to Liv’s Substack
Follow Liv on Instagram and via her YouTube Channel
Read my original Substack post about Moloch
Listen to the Wild episode with Meg Wheatley on civilisation collapse
Watch the beauty fillers video Liv produced The Moloch Trap of AI Beauty Filters and Is the Media Moloch Driving Us Mad?
Read Scott Alexander’s Moloch essay we talk about
If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page
For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!
Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life
Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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TIM WINTON: On wild colonial boys + Big Daddy Gas
INGRID NEWKIRK: The PETA founder challenges my meat eating
GENEVIEVE BELL: Will AI wipe out humanity?
ROY BAUMEISTER: How the female orgasm shapes the world
THOMAS MAYO: The beautifully wild Voice to Parliament, explained
ANGELA SAINI: How men came to rule the world
ETHAN KROSS: How to tame your head chatter
BO SEO: How to fix polarization? By disagreeing…more!
MARCUS BUCKINGHAM: What do the “happiest women in the world” get right? They tilt!
STEPHEN JENKINSON: How to die well
DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF: Navigating the sad “Mindset” of the billionaire tech bros
DR MICHAEL E MANN: There is a new climate war and you need to get armed
MARGARET ATWOOD: The Doyenne of Dystopia turns to creating climate utopias
HELEN LEWIS: On slaying Jordan Peterson + declining Andrew Tate
REBECCA GIBLIN: Chokepoint capitalism is screwing creatives…and you!
NICK RIGGLE: A philosophical case for being awesome
DR SIMON LONGSTAFF: The world needs ethical heroes (here’s how to be one)
YAEL STONE: On loving the messiness of wokism and being wrong
BEST OF: TIM BROWN. This chat with my meditation teacher is one of the most
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