Joe Edelman

Joe Edelman, a researcher focused on AI alignment, shares his insights on designing social systems that promote human flourishing. He discusses the importance of pluralism, critiquing conventional voting and market models for their superficiality. Edelman emphasizes the concept of 'thick models of value,' arguing that true values encompass deeper reasons and norms. He also addresses the risks of AI assistants potentially manipulating users and proposes innovative solutions like value-aware markets to navigate societal challenges. A thought-provoking conversation on the future of AI and governance!

Joe Edelman, a philosopher and sociologist, co-founder of the Meaning Alignment Institute, talks about the complexities of values. He discusses how intrinsic values can bridge political divides and encourage cooperation. Edelman examines the role of AI as a potential mediator in reducing polarization. He critiques how markets often overlook addressing deep human needs, and emphasizes the importance of uniting around shared values to create societal progress. The conversation underscores the need for transparency in harnessing technology for collective well-being.

Jim talks with Joe Edelman and Ellie Hain about their new movement, Rebuilding Meaning, and two recent talks introducing ideas towards a better world. They discuss tools for building toward more meaningful lives, the meaning of meaning, looking behind the void, the litany of shit, exercises in eliciting meaning, coherent pluralism, containers vs meanings, how religions lost their grounding, values articulacy, the importance of aesthetics, using language learning models to extract meaning profiles, values vs virtues, sobering up from internet optimism, the decay of spaces, when focus shifts from meaning to incentives, funnels, tubes, & spaces, piling up strangers vs creating spaces, metrics of meaning, meaning cards, space trains, the example of science, Carl Rogers's concept of congruence, designing good ideal selves, spreading the message, and much more. Episode Transcript Rebuilding Meaning (website) JRS EP34 - Joe Edelman on the Power of Values "Exit the Void: A Movement for Meaning," by Ellie Hain "Rebuilding Society on Meaning," by Joe Edelman A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life, by Heather E. Heying and Bret Weinstein JRS EP 173 - Hanzi Freinacht on Metamodern Self-Help Joe Edelman developed the meaning-based organizational metrics at Couchsurfing.com, then co-founded the Center for Humane Technology with Tristan Harris, and coined the term “Time Well Spent” for a family of metrics adopted by teams at Facebook, Google, and Apple. Since then, he's worked on the philosophical underpinnings for new business metrics, design methods, and political movements. The central idea is to make people's sources of meaning explicit, so that how meaningful or meaningless things are can be rigorously accounted for. His previous career was in HCI and programming language design. Ellie Hain is an artist, researcher, and cultural strategist working on new imaginaries and ideologies for the post-industrial age.

Joe Edelman, a philosopher and designer, dives deep into the connection between personal values and meaningful living. He discusses the implications of social norms and the essence of pluralism in a diverse society. Edelman introduces the 'time well spent' concept, challenging traditional tech metrics. The conversation shifts to ethical advertising, the evolution of political discourse through social media, and innovative organizational ideas like turtleocracy. This engaging dialogue emphasizes the need for aligning values with community interactions for a more authentic life.

Joe Edelman, founder of the Meaning Alignment Institute, discusses AI alignment and human flourishing. He critiques existing methods like RLHF, advocating for deeper 'thick models' of value to guide AI and institutions. Joe shares lessons from social media's failure and proposes four ambitious moonshots: super negotiators, public resource regulators, market intermediaries, and value stewardship agents. He emphasizes the need for collaboration across disciplines to ensure that technological advances align with genuine human values and societal well-being.