christian gonzalez
@cxgonzalez • 10,646 subscribers
podcast (9k): https://t.co/agLgHafJKT short form (24k): https://t.co/OABPWqhxDv writing (1k): https://t.co/NKNVbcebWt
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The Gulf Oasis Hypothesis The backbone of my We Found Eden article was archeologist Dr. Jeffrey Rose's Gulf Oasis Hypothesis: the thesis that the now underwater Persian Gulf served as a lush marshland refuge within a larger arid region for the hunter gathers first making their way out of Africa. So I flew out to Portugal to talk with Dr. Rose about it. This is that conversation. 0:50 — Intro 1:57 — The Gulf Oasis Hypothesis 7:49 — The four rivers 11:10 — Dilmun 12:08 — Agriculture = The Fall? 17:42 — Archeological evidence for the Gulf Oasis 23:56 — Geological evidence for the Gulf Oasis 32:45 — Is oral tradition reliable? 35:00 — Was Eden in Turkey? 38:56 — What parts of oral tradition are reliable? 42:51 — A lost city in the Arabian Desert? 46:33 — The oldest preserved oral memories 53:38 — Why is mythology controversial in academic archeology? 59:19 — Where should we dig for Eden? 1:02:52 — How is AI changing archeological research? 1:04:48 — Current research
christian gonzalez36,856 views • 16 days ago
“but what about alcohol” you fools! alcohol is the only sustainable pro-social drug we have
christian238,499 views • 11 months ago
Michael Johnson: "AI SHOULD be conscious" In this episode of Seeing Clearly I talk with Michael Edward Johnson about mathematical theories of consciousness (dual-aspect monism), the symmetry theory of valence, panpsychism and super organism consciousness, vasocomputation, Buddhism, Enlightenment, moral realism through valence realism, AI consciousness and AI alignment. 0:00 — Highlights 0:51 — Intro 2:30 — Are the big labs incentivized to play down consciousness? 7:09 — What is consciousness? 10:03 — Dual-aspect monism 18:14 — Symmetry theory of valence 24:00 — Wait so panpsychism? 30:18 — The binding problem 34:08 — Is a corporation conscious? 42:51 — Vasocomputation, embodied bayesian priors, and trauma 49:50 — The self 50:57 — Why do latches stay closed? 54:29 — Cancer 55:27 — “The hand of the mind is the vascular system” 56:52 — Vasocomp. and predictive processing 59:04 — Tanha 1:02:50 — The multiple paths to Vasocomp. 1:04:46 — What is Enlightenment? 1:10:54 — How to open latches 1:18:00 — Empirical validation? 1:18:57 — Moral realism grounding in valence 1:32:38 — Objections to valence utilitarianism 1:40:32 — Is AI conscious? 1:49:58 — Is AI consciousness good for alignment? 1:57:38 — Michael’s longterm vision References: Qualia Research Institute: Michael’s book Principia Qualia: Integrated Information Theory: Symmetry Theory of Valence: Noether’s Theorem: Romeo Stevens: RomeoStevens Nick Cammarata: Nick Michael (plus3happiness): Michael systematizes 9/10 Life Satisfaction The Feeling of Value: Moral Realism Grounded in Phenomenal Consciousness: Reasons and Persons: Michael's links: Michael Johnson’s X: Michael’s Blog: A beautiful overview of Michael’s core ideas: My Socials: Substack: Instagram: TikTok: Spotify: Apple Podcasts: If you found this podcast valuable, consider becoming a patron. My patrons help keep this show sustainable and ensure I can keep bringing you the most interesting thinkers in the highest quality possible:
christian36,059 views • 1 month ago
This is a complete argument for objective morality. In this episode of Seeing Clearly, professor Michael Huemer and I run through his argument for moral realism: the thesis that there are objective moral facts knowable via intuition. We cover every other metaethical theory and show why each of them fails and how moral realism responds to the most popular objections against the view. I did my best to pressure Professor Huemer by steel manning anti-realism every step of the way. 1:01 — What is metaethics? 2:52 — The 5 metaethical theories 10:58 — Why are philosophers, and not linguists, talking about semantics? 13:36 — Why non-cognitivism (emotivism, prescriptivism) is wrong 19:11 — Why quasi-realism is wrong 24:09 — Why naturalism is wrong 27:49 — The Open Question argument and can we just deny it? 29:34 — Is the is/ought gap even real? 33:11 — If normative facts depend entirely on descriptive facts, are they really different? 37:16 — Why subjectivism is wrong 54:04 — The Principle of Phenomenal Conservatism 56:41 — Why nihilism is wrong 58:11 — Isn’t it more intuitive to be a nihilist given a modern scientific worldview? 1:10:09 — What if someone just doesn’t have realist intuitions? 1:18:44 — Does evolution debunk morality? 1:25:42 — How could we possibly know “non-natural” moral facts? Can meditation help? 1:36:25 — If you’re wrong about morality, does anything bad actually happen? 1:39:16 — What are moral statements true *about*? 1:46:19 — Does the Form of the Good = a value attractor state? 1:48:48 — Do souls exist?
christian41,522 views • 3 months ago
Has the mathematics of consciousness already been solved? Dr. Ogi Ogas is a mathematical neuroscientist and, in his own words, a prophet. This is our conversation on God and consciousness — Seeing Clearly Episode 5 1:44 — Who or what is God? 17:06 — Mind vs. matter, purpose vs. physics 27:05 — What does God want? 29:15 — Darwinism applied to super organisms 31:06 — Fractal reality, hyper minds 36:40 — Moral intuition and psychological/spiritual development 48:56 — The ladder of purpose, utility function coupling through love 1:05:27 — The emergence of the first cities and the “I” 1:07:30 — What is consciousness? 1:16:49: — The hard problem of consciousness isn’t hard 1:36:46 — Purpose
christian42,020 views • 7 months ago
![[Podcast] Moral realism, Kantian ethics and veganism In this episode I talk with florence 🦐🏳️🌈 about God, secular morality, moral realism, reasons, intuitions, Kantian ethics, and more. Florence Bachus is a PhD student at Harvard studying Kantian ethics. 1:49 — God and religion 5:39 — What is truth? 8:15 — Morality without God 10:39 — Obligation 11:50 — Reasons 20:05 — Morality grounded in consciousness (Valence realism) 27:33 — Morality without God cont. 30:00 — Kantian ethics 36:44 — Why universalize? 42:18 — Kantian Contractualism 43:10 — 4 categories of moral theories 46:36 — Logic as bedrock 47:25 — Is everything intuition? 50:44 — What is philosophy? 52:53 — Are there objective moral facts? 56:29 — The Kantian argument for veganism 1:02:53 — Applying to grad school](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2032519484679008677/amplify_video_thumb/2032261975800233984/img/nabP02X1ANrPxyoA.jpg)
[Podcast] Moral realism, Kantian ethics and veganism In this episode I talk with florence 🦐🏳️🌈 about God, secular morality, moral realism, reasons, intuitions, Kantian ethics, and more. Florence Bachus is a PhD student at Harvard studying Kantian ethics. 1:49 — God and religion 5:39 — What is truth? 8:15 — Morality without God 10:39 — Obligation 11:50 — Reasons 20:05 — Morality grounded in consciousness (Valence realism) 27:33 — Morality without God cont. 30:00 — Kantian ethics 36:44 — Why universalize? 42:18 — Kantian Contractualism 43:10 — 4 categories of moral theories 46:36 — Logic as bedrock 47:25 — Is everything intuition? 50:44 — What is philosophy? 52:53 — Are there objective moral facts? 56:29 — The Kantian argument for veganism 1:02:53 — Applying to grad school
christian (lf sf housing)43,802 views • 7 months ago
Jake Orthwein on Psychedelics, Consciousness, Buddhism, Jung I had an amazing time talking with filmmaker Jake Orthwein about his new Waking Up produced film UNRAVELING THE DREAM. Jake is both brilliant and talented. We talk about: 1:08 — Origin of the film 4:00 — Bayesian brain, predictive processing, free energy principle 13:53 — Direct experience vs. symbolic thinking 25:46 — Buddhism and identity 30:38 — Emptiness vs metaphysics 39:17 — Is suffering all that matters? Meaning and Buddhist utilitarianism 1:01:38 — Valence realism vs. emptiness. What could make moral facts true? 1:11:57 — Jung and predictive processing 1:20:54 — Moving from rationalism to post-rationalism 1:32:07 — The grammar of wisdom traditions 1:40:17 — Fractal hierarchies
christian30,147 views • 6 months ago
Does Moral Realism Imply AI Alignment? In this episode of Seeing Clearly, MIRI President and co-author of If Everyone Builds It, Everyone Dies Nate Soares (Nate Soares ⏹️) and I discuss existential risk from artificial super intelligence. We first run through the case for AI doom before I push back on some of his assumptions. 0:00 — Highlights 0:40 — Is super intelligence inevitable? 2:07 — The default outcome 3:09 — AI Scepticism vs. Takeoff 11:01 — What might ASI want? 17:37 — Why would ASI kill us all? 18:20 — Would ASI change its own goals? 23:21 — Would ideal humans values converge? 24:53 — The fundamental assumption in Rationalism 35:47 — Does moral realism imply alignment? 56:42 — p(moral convergence) 1:00:35 — Will ASI be an optimizer? 1:04:13 — Emotionally dealing with potential apocalypse
christian13,572 views • 2 months ago
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