We Are Not Saved

If you were to look at the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica, as John Derbyshire did in 2006 you would find 152 countries listed. How many of them survived intact to the present day, meaning no change in government, no civil wars or revolutions, no significant loss of territory and no foreign occupation. We examine that question, and the answer might surprise you.

In this podcast I introduce the concept of supernormal stimuli. Originally uncovered when scientists discovered that some birds prefer artificial eggs as large as they are to their own eggs. From there I examine whether pornography might be supernormal stimuli, and whether that's harmful, and especially whether it will get worse.

One of the major things coming down the pike is job automation. Robots and AI are getting better and better at doing jobs that used to be only available for humans. In this podcast I examine that phenomenon and the effect it has on people, specifically their need to feel valuable.

One of my fundamental positions is that we are in a race between societal collapse on one hand and a technological singularity on the other. But there are some who think it will be neither and others who paradoxically expect both. This podcast examines the impossibility of those two options.

What is civilization? And how do we preserve it? In this episode I connect the idea of time preference to civilization and point out how we are becoming more and more short term in our desires and actions. All civilizations collapse eventually the question is how close are we to collapse and is there anything which can be done to delay it.

I examine whether we should still be worried about overpopulation. I also look at the phenomenon of falling birth rates and what it says about the societies that experience falling fertility. Also what the movie Tommy Boy has to say about the whole thing.

A review and discussion of the book Tribe by Sebastian Junger. In particular an examination of how stress and struggle can improve mental health, and how by removing both struggle and community modern society creates a situation where psychological problems, particularly in the military, become more acute.

In my continuing obsession with the Mormon Transhumanist Association I report back from their annual conference. Specifically I look at their vision of the future vs. mine, the limits of growth and whether the MTA is schismatic. Fun for the whole family!

Having recently gone to the MTA Conference I ended up with more commentary than could fit in the normal episode. So this is a bonus episode. Additionally as part of the patreon rewards I committed to do a bonus podcast every month, so this is the first of those as well.

Pascal's wager is one of those things that you find either ridiculous or intriguing. There appears to be no middle ground. But most people yearn for some form of immortality and the wager is one of the few things which have a chance of providing it, and perhaps it shouldn't be dismissed so easily. Also Pascal's wager is frequently applied as a thought experiment with no practical application. Viewing the wager from the standpoint of a believer is far more productive.