Jordan Bates Doesn't Know

Episode 4: Jordan Bates and Jonathan Toniolo Discuss Trauma, Existential Risk, and Mass Flourishing by Jordan Bates

In this spontaneous and semi-drunken rant, I discuss some of the things that are on my mind: how much I fucking love life, why the world is so crazy and awesome, why it sucks that there are still a lot of impoverished people, why we should try to eliminate poverty, and more. I mention Vinay Gupta, the hexayurt, Riane Eisler, Effective Altruism, GiveWell.org (I mistakenly said "GiveWell.com"), and the Gates Foundation at different points during this impassioned monologue. Enjoy. Also, FYI, for a limited time, I'm selling some cool Nietzsche t-shirts. I'd really appreciate if you'd support freethinking and my projects by purchasing one. Check those out here: https://www.threadmeup.com/movements/refinethemind#/ Thanks, everyone. Peace.

I mention in the intro that this is a Reggie-Watts-esque freestyle. I might have mentioned that it was *not* particularly inspired by Reggie Watts, unless that inspiration was unconscious. I was literally just sitting in my cabin in Canada one night and had the urge to spill some kind of a cappella freestyle thing, and so I started recording and this is what came out. luv, jb Find me elsewhere: http://www.refinethemind.com/blog http://highexistence.com/people/bashfulkoala/posts/posts/ http://www.twitter.com/_jordan_bates http://www.facebook.com/jordanbates4 Track art by Tao Lin: http://www.taolin.info/mandalas

This first episode of the 'JORDAN BATES DOESN'T KNOW SHIT' podcast shares a dialogue between myself and Chris Johnson, one of the most brilliant humans I've met and one of my best friends. We talk about immortality, big data, why we're all fucked, mental models, Facebook, how modern language and media are insufficient, and more. I should add that at the beginning of this podcast, I say that this conversation was recorded 6-8 months ago. In fact, it was earlier than that: probably 11-12 months ago. Also, I express a couple of views in this conversation that I have since changed my mind about. For one, I don't think the world is necessarily going to shit. I think there are many serious risks which humanity faces in the coming century, but I'm generally optimistic about our ability to persist as a species. And although I think many things about our current human enterprise are awful, atrocious, and deeply frightening ("bad"), I think those things are balanced by all of the things which are marvelous and magni