Elon Musk and Other Odd People | Robert Wright & Paul Bloom

[@kevina3343]

Bob -- brilliant choice with Paul Bloom. Before your weekly sessions with Kaus, my favorite conversations you had were with Bloom. In fact, your conversations with Bloom were the only ones that actually exceeded yours with Kaus. Amazing.

[@Nic______]

Could not have said it better. My only complaint is that our other post Mickey offering is Daniel Bessner

[@maxheadrom3088]

Why did he change his last name from Gore to Bloom? Because I'm almost sure he's Al Gore's brother!

[@vincentcheap]

Excellent pair, you guys are a great host and guest.

[@smillman437]

“We’re taping this Wednesday by the way… it’ll appear Friday” Terrific but brief analysis on the war between Israel and Hamas. Thanks for the episode Bob and Paul.

[@meanquestion]

Paul is a pleasure to listen to. He's like all the best things about bloggingheads in its prime wrapped into one, and brings out the best in Bob. Like, Bob is great with abstract thought experiments and novel ideas -- Bloom tends to guide the convo there. In foreign policy discussion, a lot hindges on unknowable information (e.g. exactly what Israel is doing now, deaths/remaining soldiers in ukraine) so trying to come to conclusions is kind of pointless.

[@HighTech636]

You just had to have Paul Bloom your first week without Mickey. Wise move, Bob. Wise move indeed

[@BitcoinMeister]

Great combo! Stick with it.

[@NineInchTyrone]

All of the atrocities should be shown

[@olewetdog6254]

Agree. Both sides. Bernie is absolutely right about this one.

[@yp77738yp77739]

@@olewetdog6254Also show the footage of the 5000+ children killed and maimed with US munitions in the Yemen. Or the actions of the terrorists supported by the US in Syria. Let’s get everything out on the table.

[@maxheadrom3088]

Small potatoes ... we can cook them without peeling them then put on a jar, add olive oil, some vinegar, salt and oreganon then let it rest on the refrigerator for a a few days. After that, open some beers, get some toothpicks and eat them!

[@maxheadrom3088]

A biased suggestion: bring Prof. Joseph Henrich as a guest, Prof. Wright! I would be very happy if you did it. ☺

[@gingerhipster]

Looking forward to the book. That's a great pitch for it coming from Bob. I bet I could write a book that's far more cosmic and far more crazy, but it would be of substantially lower quality than Bobs due to my having far less skill and also because of an imbalance of crazy or whatever. Paul is a great first guest for this era.

[@maxheadrom3088]

10:45 She was the daughter of the Kwait ambassador. The PR company was hired by the Bush (senior) administration. The German guy was probably a member of the Red Army Faction at the time. There's a great interview with him (probably) on the 1st part of the BBC series "The Power of Nightmares". But what really shocked me was the video I'll post at the end. We need empathy - but not selective empathy. Remember Rwanda? Some NYT journalist said it was an expression of primitive barbarism - or something like that. Journalists should not be that incompetent - the 1994 genocide was the second after the 1960 one that was triggered by the Belgians who, repented after all they did suggested to the larger group they should fight for power. The Belgians used the fact that Hutus and Tutsis differences in appearance to divide them into "races" and then used that division to manipulate the local population. 1994 wasn't the expression of primitive barbarism - it was the result of European imperialism, arrogance, bad science and misguided rationalism.

[@mikealexander1935]

Does that surgeon story still work today. I first heard it 40 years ago when all the doctors I had known up to that time had been men. Today I have had a woman primary physician for thirty years, and my stepdaughter is an MD. Being a doctor is no longer a male-associated occupation do I would expect the associating between surgeon (a doctor) and maleness to be much weaker today.

[@Michelle_Wellbeck]

RIP Mickey

[@skoto8219]

This was great.

[@maxheadrom3088]

Prof. Wright: follow my simple logic: 1) "The Wine is the proof God exists, loves us and wants us happy." -- Benjamin Franklin. 2) "A woman is better than wine" -- line from Mozart's The Magic Flute. Who are we to say that Mozart or Franklin were wrong. But the two statements begs a synthesis, doesn't it? "Women are the proof God exists, loves us and wants us happy" - obvious consequence from 1 and 2.

[@maxheadrom3088]

My Mickey. My Mickey, my Mickey. ... my mickey ... My Mickey, I just said goodbye to my Mickey!

[@mnhsty]

So where do you member see the rest of this?

[@bofbob1]

I think it's on Substack.

[@maxheadrom3088]

What is implicit bias? Do you mean to say we all have have some hidden bad place in our psyche ... a sort of a dark region ... as if part of our personality was under a shadow, let's say?

[@maxheadrom3088]

With all due respect, that kind of explanation - I want to go to Mars because bullies would beat me up as a child because I was weird - is really ... well, lame. Worst of all - it's a dangerous oversimplification. It's dangerous because it spreads the idea that the human mind - or psyche or soul - is simple ... and we know almost everything about it because, well, it's simple. We know very very little. Remember that the Doctor who created the lobotomy got a Nobel Prize in Medicine - in 1949. You know what helps people to be successful in the American business environment? A good dose of psychopathy. It helps people to become very effective manipulators.

[@BenjaminSoller]

Not enough immigration and child tax credits.

[@midwesttaxi]

you're not mickey. i hate change. wah

[@mikealexander1935]

If Musk is so knowledgeable about technology and engineering, how do you explain incredibly stupid stuff like the hyperloop? It could be a con, I suppose.

[@andrewdevine3920]

Yeah, the Hyperloop, Neurolink, cities on Mars. All science fiction bollocks. Musk is not a genius. He's just a rich narcissist who's good at exploiting smart people.

[@cwcarson]

Why is Kaus on the show anymore?

[@bird334178]

Mickey who???

[@matthewkilbride1669]

You should have Paul Van der Klay on once a month to discuss issues from a religious/spiritual perspective. He’s a Protestant minister from Sacramento, friends with John Vervaeke. He’d be a good guest to have on (overlap and disagreement balance) and would fit your audience well.

[@AvenEngineer]

Paul seems like a smart guy, and he believes Elon is often the smartest guy in a room. I'm just a regular guy and I'm certain Elon is a lying, thieving, criminal. Elon's whole act is poorly plagiarized from The Simpsons. The writers on The Simpsons at least managed to give Lyle Lanley charisma. Elon's got more on the go than me to be sure, but he'll soon be in the good company of the Elizabeth Holmes, and the Sam Bankman-Fried's of the world. These 'smartest person in the room' types really do have the skill of filling rooms full of rich morons and leaving with sacs of their money. Monorail, Monorail, Monorail, Mono-Doh!