21st Talks: Recent Episodes
Coleman Snell
A podcast about understanding the forces, risks, and ideas that define the 21st Century. Each week philosopher and student Coleman Snell talks with an academic, thinker, or artist whose work speaks to life in the 21st Century for the modern individual. We talk about the biggest risks/challenges facing our species, solutions, unique aspects of 21st Century Life, and how we can find meaning in this strange century.
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On this episode of the podcast, coleman sits down with Darren McKee to discuss his book Uncontrollable: The Threat of Artificial Superintelligence and the Race to Save the World. The two discuss the central case for concern surrounding AI risk, deep fakes, and Darren’s approach to understanding the rapidly changing AI risk landscape.
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Coleman spoke with Bob Fischer, a researcher at Rethink Priorities who recently worked on the Moral Weights project. In the discussion, Dr. Fischer and Coleman discussed a range of topics relating to animal ethics, including the research methodology of the team and the role that intuitions play in striving to live a moral life.
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This week Coleman sat down with Tobias Baumann and discussed his recent book on the topic of suffering risks (s-risks)! They spoke about the ethical claims behind aiming to minimize pain vs. aiming to maximize flourishing, distinctions of pain and suffering, and potential paths towards literally the worst ethical situation humanity or its descendants could find itself (so-called suffering-risk scenarios)!
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In this episode, Coleman interviews Anders Sandberg, a senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford. Dr. Sandberg and Coleman discuss living forever, transhumanism, longtermism, and new approaches to understanding existential risk work in the 21st century.
Thank you to those in our community who have continued to show love and support for 21st Talks despite our extended hiatus. We are back and what an episode to jump into season 2 with! Stay in touch by following Coleman on Twitter @SnellColeman or on Instagram @MajorKant
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On this episode, Coleman explored the obstacles & successes of governing advanced technological risks of Artificial Intelligence with Cornell Professor Dr. Sarah Kreps and Researcher and Cornell Ph.D. Candidate Amelia Arsenault.
Topics covered in this episode of the podcast include:
- The political ramifications of AI internally and internationally
- AI and the future of democracies + democratic backsliding
- As a regenerative/resilience-building force within democracy
- Potential benefits of AI for democratic regeneration globally
- How AI will impact international arms races and how its impact will distinct from any other technological breakthrough in history?
- Will AI Governance become more challenging as other existential hazards (like climate change for example) become more impactful?
- And of course, current cutting edge work being done at Cornell University in AI Safety and Governance
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This week Coleman sat down with Emmanuel Daudu, an incoming Google Legal Analyst and close friend at Cornell University where he is Pre Law. The two jump into a wide range of questions, including the development of a new politics for a 21st century, working-class struggle, and the underlying woes associated with 21st-century capitalism and what we can do to improve the system.
In this episode, Coleman sat down with existential risk ethicists and researcher Dr. SJ Beard from Cambridge's Existential Risk Institute about the far future of humanity, ethical growth through generations, and the psychology behind striving to do the most good. The two also discussed opening the number of possible future worlds and how it connects to motivation to do the work that morally we must this century.
"We are motivated by what we believe we can achieve, much more than what we think we ought to do" -- SJ Beard.
Host and Research: Coleman Snell
Podcast Producer: Justin Demilio
In this episode, Coleman and Nathaniel speak with Luke Kemp and Catherine Rhodes, about the two researchers' views on governing existential threats within our international system. The four also discuss some of the leading challenges to effective international cooperation and mitigation of pressing threats facing our world like climate change, advanced technological threats, biosecurity, and inequality.
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Thank you for listening to the first episode of 21st-Talks Q&A! Remember to like and rate the podcast if you enjoyed it! It really goes to support the show's growth!
Big thanks to everyone who has submitted questions for future Q&A #1! If you have a question you want answered for me or any other members of the 21st Talks project, you can follow me on Twitter at MajorKant and DM me directly.
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What role have philosophers played in existential risk? What conditions lead to the field's origin? Today Coleman Speaks with Dr. SJ Beard of The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at Cambridge. Covering topics from SJ Beard and Phil Torres' 2020 article Ripples on the Great Sea of Life, which covers in great depth the history of existential risk.
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Engineering practices are fundamental to overcoming obstacles facing society in the 21st Century. Existential threats like climate change, artificial intelligence, looming food and water insecurity Today I am speaking with Dr. Joyce Cooper who is a professor and researcher at the University of Washington’s Mechanical Engineering Department. Her work largely focuses on combining environmental assessment with product design and engineering. My co-host today is John Hamann, who is one of the Master’s students at UW working with Dr. Cooper.
Listen to our podcast 21st Talks for weekly discussions with experts on the threats and changing forces facing our world in the 21st century and how we as individuals can better standup to live flourishing lives in the 21st century! Sign up for our NewsLetter at 21st-talks.com
2Is global inequality an existential threat? How do question social justice connect to questions of the greatest threats facing our world in the 21st century and what might conceptions of global justice inform our approach to looming risks like climate change and how might global justice help us in our overcoming of these risks? This week Coleman speaks with Dr. Ndidi Nwaneri from Loyola University in Chicago. Dr. Nwaneri'ss research surrounds social development, global justice, and existential risk.
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How do we create sustainable change going forward into the future? Where do questions of equity fit into this discussion of the long-term health of global citizens? This week Coleman spoke with Dickson Despommier, an academic with over 30 years of experience in Public health at Columbia University and Fordham University. Dr. Despommier and Coleman discussed the future of agriculture and vertical farming in Episode 4 of the 21st talks podcast.
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This was recorded on Coleman's third day of Cambridge's Conference on Catastrophic Risk 2020. Which is a conference with the world's leading experts on Global Catastrophic Risk put on by The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and Cambridge.
This conference was incredible, I am so thankful for the insights and growth into this field that I love talking, reading, and researching so much. Existential Risk is here to stay and is quickly coming into a renaissance of discovery into questions concerning our species survival in the 21st Century. In today's special episode of the 21st Talks, Coleman dives into the lessons from this year's conference and the philosophical and psychological connections that this conference has brought up for him.
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What does Trumpism tell us about the future of Democracy? Is Democracy in threat by Bipartisanship? This week Coleman spoke with Professor Richard Arenberg from Brown University's Watson Institute about his research on Bipartisanship, where it came from, and why it continues to get worse!
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What are common misconceptions about Quantum Mechanics? What have been previous approaches to the field and what have past physicists, pop culture writers, and some new age folks on mass gotten wrong? This week’s conversation is with Elliot Lehrer, the science writer, and researcher for the 21st Century Blog and 21st Talks Podcast. Elliot is a senior at Brown University studying Physics.
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This week Coleman spoke with past Columbia University professor of Microbiology and Public Health Dr. Dickson Despommier. Despommier is a serial author, Ted talk deliverer, and speaker who has given numerous lectures on the role Vertical Farming will play in the future of agriculture and the tremendous threat a lack of innovation and change in our food systems will bring unless we change.
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How do you communicate facts about climate change, AI, and other global risks in a way that motivates action? What role does communication play in the field of Existential Risk? In episode #3 of the 21st Talks Podcast, Coleman talks Dr. Lara Mani who is a researcher at the Center for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge. The two discuss the challenges of communicating about existential/global catastrophic risks to the public, politicians, and business people, as well as effective routes to helping the public, understand and take action against risks such as climate change, AI, and volcanic eruptions.
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In episode #2 of the 21st Talks Podcast, Coleman interviews Youtuber Rycon from the channel Rycon Roleplays. Rycon tells stories fully told to the audience through his voice acting and different video games. It's called Let's Roleplays and Coleman and Rycon discuss what this new mode of storytelling may have in store for the future as well as talking about Story Telling and its role in our lives (past, present, and future).
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In the first episode of 21st Talks, Coleman Snell talks with Philosopher, Paleontologist, and Existential Risk expert Adrian Currie. They talk about disasters, What paleontology can tell us about our world's response to Covid-19, and the importance of cultivating narratives for our disaster response. What can the deep past tell us about our modern predicament?
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