We're Not Just Self Interest Maximizers

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

i think that a lot of these problems are big enough that whatever, like emotions and cultural norms and values that we've put up, it ends up gobbling those up too. So you might say, well, if we're that bad, you know, t like working together, then why is it that we are? You know, in some ways, we have accomplished things that no selfish individuals could accomplish on their own. We've done so much. And he's cynical though, about why we've been able to last this long. He gives four reasons why he thinks we've made it so far. One which i found kind of like an interesting section on slavery, where he talks

David and Tamler wind their way through the long-requested “Meditations on Moloch” by Scott Alexander, a comprehensive account of the coordination problems (personified by Allan Ginsberg’s demon-entity Moloch) that lead to human misery and values tossed out the window. Does Alexander’s rationalist conception of human nature ignore the work of VBW favorites like Joe Henrich and Robert Frank? Is he a little too friendly to the neo-social Darwinism view of some guy named Nick Land? And oh no, why does he have to go transhumanist at the end?! Plus, we talk about the unique comic vision of Norm Macdonald and why we loved him.