Hear This Idea

Jason Crawford is the founder of The Roots of Progress, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. He writes and speaks about the history and philosophy of progress, especially in technology and industry. In our conversation we discuss — What progress is, and why it matters (maybe more than you think) How to think about resource constraints — why they are sometimes both real and surmountable The 'low-hanging fruit' explanation for stagnation, and prospects for speeding up innovation Tradeoffs between progress and (existential) safety Differences between the Progress Studies and Effective Altruism communities You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/crawford If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to get in touch through our website. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. If you want to support the show more directly, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Cristina Bicchieri is the S. J. Patterson Harvie Professor of Social Thought and Comparative Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. In our conversation we discuss — How to define social norms and distinguish them from similar concepts How social norms evolve and why they often persist, even in situations where they are harmful Real world policy applications of social norms, including covid and high-level decision making You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/bicchieri If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to get in touch through our website. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. If you want to support the show more directly, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Lord Bird is the co-founder of The Big Issue, a magazine supporting street vendors who are homeless, a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, and co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Future Generations. In our conversation, we discuss — The Future Generations Bill, currently being discussed in the UK Parliament Causes of political short-sightedness Broader social issues facing the UK You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/bird If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to get in touch through our website. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. If you want to support the show more directly, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Sam Hilton is the Research Director at Charity Entrepreneurship, the Parliamentary Coordinator at the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for Future Generations, and a Research Affiliate at the Center for the Study of Existential Risk. In our conversation, we discuss — Charity Entrepreneurship's plans for the 2022 Incubation Program Exploratory Altruism and finding new cause areas Lessons for longtermist policy and thoughts on the Future Generations Bill You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/hilton If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to get in touch through our website. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. If you want to support the show more directly, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Glen Weyl is Microsoft’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer Political Economist and Social Technologist (OCTOPEST), where he advises Microsoft’s senior leaders on macroeconomics, geopolitics and the future of technology. Glen also co-authored Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society; a book about "Revolutionary ideas on how to use markets to bring about fairness and prosperity for all". In our conversation, we discuss — Quadratic voting and funding The new political divides of the 21st century What the history of personal computing teaches us about the possibility of shaping technological progress Glen's impression of rationalism, effective altruism and longtermism Why and how longtermism should be more generative of new ideas Underrated thinkers relevant for today

Habiba Islam is a member of the 80,000 Hours career advising team. First, the two most important links: Apply to receive free career coaching: 80000hours.org/hti Apply to join the 80k career advising team here In this conversation, we talk about — How to begin planning a high-impact career What one-on-one calls with 80k are like (and why you might consider applying) Different motivations and framings for longtermism The case for being ambitious if you want to do good in your career Concrete next steps for beginning the process of career planning You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/habiba. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to get in touch through our website. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. If you want to support the show more directly, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Michael Bhaskar is a writer, researcher and publisher. He is a former consultant Writer in Residence at DeepMind, and most recently he wrote a book called Human Frontiers, which tries to answer the question: “why has the flow of big, world-changing ideas slowed down?” In our conversation, we discuss — The 'Adams curve' How so much of the modern world was invented in exceptional 20th century research institutes such as Bell Labs and Xerox PARC Evidence for slowdown in new ideas from analysing the patent record Whether scientific progress is limitless, or whether there are things we'll never be able to know Whether 'big ideas' are also slowing in the arts Reasons for optimism about progress in big ideas, especially from advanced AI You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/michael/. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to get in touch through our website. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. If you want to support the show more directly, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Mike Hinge is a Senior Economist at ALLFED (Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters). In our interview, we discuss: Why nuclear fallout blocking sunlight could be one of the most extreme threats to the global food supply, and how this compares to the risk from climate change; How scientists and ALLFED model the fallout of nuclear winter, how it affects crop yields, and how it changes food prices for the global poor; Potential technologies for feeding everyone in case of a disaster, such as repurposed paper mills and seaweed could help us recover; Modeling the economic and political challenges of feeding everyone in the aftermath of a disaster You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/mike/. You can email mike at: mike [at] allfed [dot] info. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to get in touch through our website. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. If you want to support the show more directly, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Keith Frankish is a philosopher of mind. He is an Honorary Reader at the University of Sheffield, UK, Visiting Research Fellow with The Open University, and adjunct Professor with the Brain and Mind Programme at the University of Crete. In our interview, we discuss: What is the hard problem of consciousness? What is the illusionist theory of consciousness? What does illusionism have to do with ethics? When should we care for robot dogs? How should academics use twitter? You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/keith. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to get in touch through our website. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. If you want to support the show more directly, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Christoph Winter is an Assistant Professor of Law at ITAM in Mexico, a Visiting Scholar in Psychology at Harvard, and the founder of the Legal Priorities Project In our interview, we discuss: A global survey of legal academics about protecting future generations; How constitutional law might best help in this effort; Endangerment law and the "risk of creating a risk"; And lots more! You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/christoph/. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to get in touch through our website. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. If you want to support the show more directly, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!