The Invention of Improvement

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:

• Johnathan’s website
• Johnathan’s Twitter
• Johnathan’s lecture series with David Perell
• Our research note on Johnathan
• Johnathan’s first appearance on the show

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