Introduction

Damon Binder is a research analyst at Open Philanthropy. His research focuses on potential risks from pandemics and from biotechnology. He previously worked as a research scholar at the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, where he studied existential risks. Prior to that he completed his PhD in theoretical physics at Princeton University.

We discuss:

• How did early states manage large populations?
• What explains the hockeystick shape of world economic growth?
• Did urbanisation enable more productive farming, or vice-versa?
• What does transformative AI mean for growth?
• Would 'degrowth' benefit the world?
• What do theoretical physicists actually do, and what are they still trying to understand?
• Why not just run bigger physics experiments to solve the latest problems?
• What could the history of physics tell us about its future?
• In what sense are the universe's constants fine-tuned?
• Will the universe ever just... end?
• Why might we expect digital minds to be a big deal?

Links

• Damon's list of book recommendations
• A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry (history blog)
• Cold Takes by Holden Karnofsky (blog on futurism and AI).
• Highlight from Cold Takes: The Most Important Century series of posts
• Crusader Kings
• Europa Universalis
• The Age of Em by Robin Hanson
• The Five Ages of the Universe by Fred Adams

You can find more episodes and links at our website, hearthisidea.com.

(This episode is a bonus episode because it's less focused on topics in effective altruism than normal)