
‎The Portal: Peter Thiel (Eric Weinstein Podcast) - maurycy
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-thiel/id1469999563?i=1000444670908
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stcredzero
Re: The stagnation of Science and Technology. We've seen such stagnations
before in history. Our culture has been losing the idea of science as a
process of increasing understanding through inquiry. As expressed by the mass
of people, the culture has been going towards a cargo cult worship of science.
Western culture once enshrined the erroneous conclusions of Aristotle, instead
of engaging in his act of inquiry.

Re: The particular exception of computers. If there were something like a
PAIperclip Optimizer, it wouldn't be trying to produce paperclips. Rather, it
would be producing something which is highly sought by virtually every person,
most of industry, and every sector of society. If there were something like
the PAIperclip Optimizer, we would see outsized progress in one particular
area, focused around the production of the optimized thing. A super-optimizing
AI wouldn't try to kill us off by firing off our missiles. It would instead
warp our culture, so that it's producing the optimized thing.

Given that self preservation is such a strong, foundational behavioral
pattern, the optimized thing would obviously be more and more faster and
faster computers.

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machinelearning
The real problem isn't the stagnation of science and technology (in most cases
- notable exceptions are maybe healthcare and the climate). The more imminent
problem is the economic implication of the embedded growth obligations. And
the even higher level problem is that of generations making future obligations
they can't meet and don't know about it. A kind of indeterminate optimism.

~~~
machinelearning
I noticed you downvoted my comment for no specific reason, do you disagree
with something I wrote? Or do you misunderstand some part of it? If so I'd be
happy to debate/explain it. Thiel himself alludes to this being the mechanism
of how stagnation becomes a problem in the podcast, so the source of your
discontent is quite unexpected.

~~~
stcredzero
I did not downvote your comment.

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rishsriv
I tried to summarise the ideas discussed in the podcast (Full summary at
[https://medium.com/@rishdotblog/peter-theil-and-eric-
weinste...](https://medium.com/@rishdotblog/peter-theil-and-eric-weinstein-on-
the-portal-episode-1-a-summary-298ccd0251a9)):

1\. Innovation has continued and accelerated in the world of bits, but has
plateaued in the world of stuff

2\. If you go to a room and get rid of all the screens, how do you know you’re
not in 1979?

3\. Since the Great Depression, we’ve been managing economic metrics. But the
technological and economic tailwinds haven’t been there at all.

4\. In a healthy system, you can have wild dissent and it’s not threatening.
Because everyone knows that the system is heathy. In an unhealthy system, the
dissent becomes much more dangerous. There are very few people who openly
criticise the unhealthy systems that they are part of

5\. In late modernity (which we are living in), there’s simply too much
knowledge for an individual to understand all of it. In 1800s, Goethe could
understand all of everything. In 1900s, Hilbert could understand all of
mathematics. But now, the kind of specialisation we have is much harder to get
a handle on.

6\. If you believe that productivity and growth is over, and you don’t want to
emphasise merit. Instead, you focus on simply making sure that each group has
its share of slots on the table. It’s not about wealth creation, it’s about
receiving the wealth that’s already there.

~~~
ttflee
> 2\. If you go to a room and get rid of all the screens, how do you know
> you’re not in 1979?

Interesting point.

Perhaps infrastructure has stagnated for 40 years in the U.S.

In many other parts of the world there are quite definite differences
comparing with what it used to be in 1979, especially in emerging market.

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blobbers
Thanks for sharing! I'll give it a listen on my long commute.

Generally speaking, I find the 'intellectual dark web' to be a bit repetitive
- they seem to have their talking points and they just keep hitting on the
same things. It'll be interesting to see how this podcast develops.

~~~
krferriter
Yeah personally I think Eric Weinstein has bought into the idea a bit too much
and it is boring to listen to the same thing over and over, but when he talks
about other things it is pretty interesting. Hopefully he is able to branch
out with guests.

I'm not sure I'll like Thiel much, I've found recently that the more I hear
him talk the less I like him, and I think his political views are pretty bad,
but I'm sure he's a smart person generally speaking. Hopefully they don't
spend too much on politics or religion.

~~~
oska
I've listened to all but the last 20 minutes of the podcast now. Thiel I find
interesting and his ideas provocative even when I don't agree with him on some
points. Weinstein I didn't find very interesting at all. He appears (at least
in this interview) to just be trading on his association with Thiel. I have
also previously found his labeling of 'the intellectual dark web' pretentious
and the composition of the group suspect, including charlatans (to use Taleb's
word) such as Pinker, Harris, Shermer, Peterson and Molyneux. I won't be
listening to future episodes; Thiel was the attraction here.

~~~
krferriter
I disagree that Pinker, Harris, and Peterson are just pretentious charlatans.
I do agree that Weinstein wasn't particularly interesting in this podcast. I
agreed with Thiel's evaluation of our current technology and culture situation
and found him to be quite interesting to listen to. Weinstein didn't really
dig deep at all on Thiel's specific politics, which are more where I diverge
from Thiel, despite this being a pretty long podcast episode. Hopefully get
ups his interviewing game and doesn't just turn into a Dave Rubin 2.0 where he
asks softball questions and lets the guest dodge controversial topics or steer
the conversation however they want, and just focuses on the same tired topic
every time.

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srgseg
MP3 link (248MB):
[http://traffic.megaphone.fm/KM1843288847.mp3](http://traffic.megaphone.fm/KM1843288847.mp3)

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jen729w
His recent chat with Joe Rogan was interesting.

No idea how much I agree with, but it was undeniably interesting.

[http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/eric-
weinstein-3](http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/eric-weinstein-3)

~~~
simonebrunozzi
Any TL;DR, or at least why you found it particularly interesting?

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lukaa
I'm wondering if main reason for tech stagnation is globalization.If you can
increase your profits from cutting cost by transferring work to China why
should you concentrate on increasing productivity?

~~~
petermcneeley
I haven't listen to the link but Peter Thiel comes to exactly the same
conclusion in other talks.
[https://youtu.be/zgF6FAYsWdI](https://youtu.be/zgF6FAYsWdI)

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Kneighbor
About 10 mins left on this one. Really enjoyed this first episode. Peter is a
more concise speaker than Eric is but they are both intelligent and
interesting guys nonetheless. Subscribed and looking forward to future
episodes.

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rapdev
Thiel is pretty consistent with his thoughts and beliefs. If you've read Zero
to One and then go on to watch him present or hear/read him via some medium
you notice he just expresses the same things within the context of current
events and questions asked.

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redder2
Its not on YouTube? I am a bug Joe Rogan Podcast fan and I love to actually
watch the entire podcasts. Just listening is not the full experience for me.

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hirundo
Is there a way to download Apple podcasts?

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sexy_seedbox
[https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.f...](https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KM1843288847.mp3)

~~~
hirundo
Perfect, thank you.

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gmas
"Trump’s inaccuracies are exagerations of the truth"

and

"called Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the matter a 'wild
goose chase'"

[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-01/peter-
thi...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-01/peter-thiel-
praises-trump-pledges-to-support-his-2020-campaign)

This Peter Thiel ? I'll pass..

~~~
thanatos_dem
Ah, yes. Blindly dismissing ideas you disagree with. That’s how we improve
political discord.

~~~
gmas
Ah yes, we should all improve political discord with these fine individuals:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ce59uh/prosecutio...](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ce59uh/prosecution_of_childsex_traffickers_plummeted/etywcdk/)

~~~
krferriter
What does that have to do with Thiel?

