Brave New World -- hosted by Vasant Dhar

Why should only human beings be worthy of moral consideration? Would we still eat animals if we had a sense of their mass-produced suffering? Peter Singer joins Vasant Dhar in episode 74 of Brave New World to discuss his influential work as a philosopher. Useful resources: 1. Peter Singer at Britannica, Wikipedia, Princeton, Twitter, Instagram, Amazon and his own website. 2. Animal Liberation Now -- Peter Singer. 3. Animal Machines -- Ruth Harrison. 4. My Octopus Teacher -- Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed. 5. Seven Up! -- Paul Almond. 6. Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development. 7. A Theory of Justice -- John Rawls. 8. Everything is Illuminated -- Liev Schreiber. 9. Nudge -- Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. 10. The Life You Can Save. 11. Maneka Gandhi on Animal Rights -- Episode 44 of Brave New World. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Guest Paul Sheard joins to discuss the concept of money and its various forms throughout history. The chapter explores money creation and the role of banks, as well as the implications of government deficits and debt. It also delves into the concept of inflation targeting, the role of the Federal Reserve, and the potential problems with cryptocurrencies.

Digital Public Infrastructure sounds like a huge step forward for the world -- till you think about how it empowers the state to oppress the people. Ajay Shah joins Vasant Dhar in episode 72 of Brave New World to warn that we are not being wary enough of state coercion when we think of this incredible technology.  Useful resources: 1. Ajay Shah on Twitter and Substack. 2. In Service of the Republic: The Art and Science of Economic Policy -- Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah. 3. Everything is Everything -- Ajay Shah's YouTube show, co-hosted by Amit Varma. 4. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 5. Imagining India -- Nandan Nilekani. 6. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet -- Episode 15 of Brave New World. 7. Albert Wenger on the World After Capital -- Episode 29 of Brave New World. 8. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State — Episode 19 of Brave New World. 9. The Narrow Corridor —  Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. 10. Is the Singularity Near? -- Episode 2 of Everything is Everything. 11. 1984 -- George Orwell. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

David Sontag joins Vasant Dhar on episode 70 of Brave New World to highlight where and how AI is creating a major transformation in healthcare. We could create a brave new world of individualized and holistic healthcare, where the machine really cares about us and tells us what to do based on knowledge and data. Useful resources 1. David Sontag on Twitter, LinkedIn, MIT and Google Scholar. 2. Heuristic Methods for Imposing Structure on Ill-Structured Problems -- Harry E Pople Jr. 3. Harry E Pople on ResearchGate. 4. Human and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare — Episode 4 of Brave New World (w Eric Topol). 5. Waiting for Doctor AI -- Episode 9 of Brave New World (w Regina Barzilay). 6. UpToDate. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

He was an early dotcom millionaire -- and he repeated his success. He wants to reinvent email, and has radical insights on politics. Rajesh Jain joins Vasant Dhar in episode 70 of Brave New World to share his insights on what he has learnt from success -- and failure. Useful resources 1. Rajesh Jain on LinkedIn, Twitter and his own website. 2. Startup to Proficorn -- Rajesh Jain. 3. Rajesh Jain and Dhan Vapasi — Episode 94 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State -- Episode 19 of Brave New World. 5. Andrew Yang on the New Politics America Needs -- Episode 27 of Brave New World. 6. Competing for the Future -- Gary Hamel and CK Prahalad. 7. Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution -- Uri Levine. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Chandrika Tandon, a business leader and Grammy-nominated musician, discusses her life, learning, and passion for music. Topics include her latest album, transferring love through music, breaking boundaries and rebellion, her journey at McKinsey, creating economic value and restructuring institutions, lessons from a senior partner, connecting big ideas with small ideas, supporting the creation of an engineering school, and exploring artificial wisdom.

Will big data and scary AI take over the world? Not a chance, says Gary Smith, as he joins Vasant Dhar in episode 68 of Brave New World. The human brain is special. Useful resources: 1. Gary Smith on Twitter, Amazon, Pomona College, Google Scholar and his own website. 2. The AI Delusion -- Gary Smith. 3. Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science -- Gary Smith. 4. Standard Deviations: Flawed Assumptions, Tortured Data, and Other Ways to Lie with Statistics -- Gary Smith. 5. Security Analysis -- Benjamin Graham and David Dodd. 6. Sam Bowman on ChatGPT & Controlling AI — Episode 58 of Brave New World. 7. Raphaël Millière Looks Under the Hood of AI -- Episode 60 of Brave New World. 8. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet — Episode 15 of Brave New World. 9. Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment --  Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein. 10. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement — Episode 21 of Brave New World. 11. The Nature of Intelligence — Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann le Cunn). 12. Ellie Pavlick on the Cutting Edge of AI -- Episode 67 of Brave New World. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Does ChatGPT really understand anything? Or is it faking it? Hell, do we understand how it works? Ellie Pavlick joins Vasant Dhar in episode 67 of Brave New World to share her thoughts on where AI has reached -- and where it's going.  Useful resources: 1. Ellie Pavlick at Brown and Google Scholar. 2. Symbols and grounding in large language models -- Ellie Pavlick. 3. Sam Bowman on ChatGPT & Controlling AI -- Episode 58 of Brave New World. 4. The Nature of Intelligence — Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann le Cunn). 5. Music, Mind, and Meaning -- Marvin Minsky. 6. Emergent Abilities of Large Language Models -- Jason Wei et al. 7. Hugging Face. 8. EleutherAI. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free! 

Law and social conventions around free speech have evolved with the times, but technology presents new challenges to both. In this new world of social media, how should we think about it? Jameel Jaffer joins Vasant Dhar in episode 66 of Brave New World to share his thoughts on how we can navigate this territory. Useful resources: 1. Jameel Jaffer on Wikipedia, Twitter, ACLU, Columbia Law School and Knight First Amendment Institute. 2. Social Media Companies Want to Co-opt the First Amendment. Courts Shouldn’t Let Them -- Jameel Jaffer and Scott Wilkens. 3. There’s a Problem With Banning TikTok. It’s Called the First Amendment. -- Jameel Jaffer. 4. Optimizing for What? Algorithmic Amplification and Society -- A symposium by the Knight Institute. 5. How Rights Went Wrong -- Jamal Greene. 6. Free Speech Futures -- An essay series edited by Jamal Greene. 7. Marketplace of Ideas. 8. Brandenburg v. Ohio. 9. Pentagon Papers. 10. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. 11. The Federalist Papers. 12. Whitney v. California. 13.  The Technology Wars -- Episode 1 of Brave New World (w Arun Sundararajan). Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

In a rich career as a photographer, he's brought his own distinct gaze to every place he's been to. Rick Smolan joins Vasant Dhar in episode 65 of Brave New World to talk about his rich experiences -- and what he's learned from them. Useful resources: 1. Rick Smolan on Wikipedia, Instagram, Amazon, Ted Talks and Against All Odds. 2. The Good Fight: America's Ongoing Struggle for Justice -- Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt. 3. The Human Face of Big Data -- Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt. 4. Alone Across the Outback -- Rick Smolan's talk for National Geographic. 5. Natasha Pruss & Rick Smolan -- Their Profound Story. 6. Tracks -- John Curran. 7. The Coddling of the American Mind — Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. 8. How Social Media Threatens Society — Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 9. A Day in the Life of Australia -- Rick Smolan. 10. The Player -- Robert Altman. 11. The Birth of a Word -- Deb Roy. 12. George & Jerry Invent A Show About Nothing -- Seinfeld. 13. Generative AI at Work -- Erik Brynjolfsson, Danielle Li and Lindsey Raymond. 14. Erik Brynjolfsson on the Second Machine Age — Episode 18 of Brave New World. 15. Andrew Yang on the New Politics America Needs -- Episode 27 of Brave New World. 16. Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy — Andrew Yang. 17. Bias, Lies, and Democracy — Episode 14 of Brave New World (w Ali Velshi). Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!