Brendan McCord — AI and the Philosophy of Technology

Brendan McCord is the founder of Cosmos Institute — a non-profit dedicated to exploring the intersection of AI and philosophy.

Brendan joins the show to discuss Cosmos’ origins, the pursuit of philosophy as a technologist, the different schools of thought in AI, complex adaptive systems and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Brendan McCord’s Reading List
• Cosmos Institute Substack
• Brendan’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• The Genesis of the Cosmos Institute
• Philosophy as a Quixotic Pursuit
• The Man of the System Dilemma
• Existential Risk & Scenario Agnosticism
• The AI Schools of Thought
• The Religious Nature of the E/Acc Movement
• What Tocqueville Can Teach Us About AI
• The Philosophy-to-Code Pipeline
• “Cars ignited the Sexual Revolution” and Other Unexpected Occurrences
• The Best Systems are Adaptive
• Heterogeneity & Resilient Systems
• Open Source and the US-China Situation
• Automation, Augmentation & Open-Ended Generation
• The Underrated Nuance of Russian Realism
• Cinematic Visions of the Future
• Great Talent & the Risk of the Tasmanian Devil
• Brendan as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Murray Rothbard, “For A New Liberty”
• David R. Hawkins, “Power vs. Force”
• Jung Chang, “Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China”
• Jung Chang, “Mao: The Unknown Story”
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “The Gulag Archipelago”
• Arthur Koestler, “Darkness At Noon”
• Adam Smith, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”
• Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
• Lewis Carroll, “What the Tortoise Said To Achilles”
• Eliezer Yudkowsky, “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality”
• Marc Andreessen, “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto”
• Alexis De Tocqueville, “Democracy in America”
• 'Pericles's Funeral Oration' quoted in Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War”.
• Plato, “Theaetetus”
• Plato, “The Republic”
• Nietzsche, “The Gay Science”
• C.P Snow, “The Two Cultures”
• Elinor Ostrom, “Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action”
• James M. Buchanan, "Freedom in Constitutional Contract: Perspectives of a Political Economist”
• Iain M. Banks, “Consider Phlebas” (Culture Series #1)
• Chen Qiufan and Kai-Fu Lee, “AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future”
• Christopher Buckley, “Thank You for Smoking”
• John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty”