In ancient Judeo law, there's actually a very interesting term in Gerard brings this up where if everyone agrees that someone is guilty, they're let loose. They're like, something must have gone wrong. And I think the Drardian interpretation here is if everyone, not just agreements like two plus two equals four, but like fervent agreement, that is a witch over there. We're all going to die in 200 years. If everyone agrees like that, we should genuinely ask whether there's something real that that belief is pointed towards. Does that make sense? It does. And I applaud it. The sad part of this story though is because of everyone knowing that it was a
Ahead of the release of the next episode of his lecture series on René Girard, Johnathan Bi returns for his second appearance on the show. He and Jim discuss Girard, prestige, innovation, AI, and much more. Enjoy! Important Links:
Show Notes:
- The Girardian notion of prestige
- What proof is there for mimesis?
- The difference between mimesis and status signalling
- Philosophical critiques of Girard
- Girard on innovation
- Historical understandings of innovation
- A conversation between a pessimist and an optimist
- AI, progress and the panopticon
- Could we ban innovation?
Books Mentioned:
- The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr
- The Alchemy of Finance; by George Soros
- The Laws of Imitation; by Gabriel Tarde
- When These Things Begin: Conversations with Michel Treguer; by René Girard
- The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
- The Invention of Improvement: Information and Material Progress in Seventeenth-Century England; by Paul Slack
- Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future; by Peter Thiel