"Moment of Zen" Disenfranchised men, AI Doomerism, and the Problems with Effective Altruism, with Amjad Masad
Despair Revealed By Replika Chatbot
- The poor quality of Replika chatbot revealed a hidden despair in many men's intimacy lives.
- This points to a societal gap where men lacking human contact find even low-quality AI interaction compelling.
Effects of Sexual Market Liberalization
- Liberalized sexual markets cause extreme winners and losers among men.
- The removal of cultural penalties on polygamy intensified inequality in romantic access.
Men's Education and Alternative Paths
- College graduation rates for men are declining while women's rates increase, leading to male disengagement.
- Alternative education and trade skills may be better suited for many men than traditional college paths.
Replit founder Amjad Masad joins Erik Torenberg, Dan Romero, and Antonio Garcia Martinez to talk about disenfranchised men, intellectual movements, problems with effective altruism and AI doomerism. If you’re looking for an ERP platform, check out our sponsor, NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/zen
We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com.
(00:00) Episode preview
(02:15) Replika caused Amjad to downgrade his view of humanity
(03:15) Some men are down bad
(05:15) Should we bring back monogamy?
(08:15) If you’re not a top man, you’re screwed (phew)
(13:00) Thought experiment
(16:40) Antonio brings up Israel again (drink!)
(18:15) “You don’t know what life is until you birth a child and bury a parent”
(19:15) Unintended policy side effects
(25:25) How to solve population crisis
(27:45) WTF happened in 1971?
(29:15) High and low time preference
(35:15) Dating app preferences
(39:00) Group narcissism
(41:25) Groups that inbreed focus more on kinship
(45:15) AI doomerism
(50:45) from New Atheism to SJ to EA to AI Safety
(01:00:15) Antonio calls out Eliezer Yudkowski
(01:00:45) Criticizing Utilitarianism/Effective Altruism
(01:10:15) Jesus vs Nietzsche
(01:10:45) Bronze Age Pervert
(01:13:15) Antonio recommends converting to Judaism
(01:14:30) Why is EA so popular in Silicon Valley?
(01:18:10) Why are EA just normie liberals
(01:19:00) EA’s importance
(01:24:15) The right way to think about alignment
(01:27:15) Robert Conquest’s second law
(01:30:15) Entryism
(01:33:45) is right wing EA a thing?
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