Apocalypse Not Now
Kris and Matthew have some more spicy and it's about the latest AI news cycle: a greater than ten percent chance that AI wipes out humanity inside a decade. Neither of them are worried about it, what does is why everyone else is so worried about it.
Kris brings his usual devil's advocate perspective: a 10% chance of extinction is also a 90% chance of non-extinction. He then widens the field of view to the more full argument, which is that AI is the easiest thing for everyone to point at. Matt takes a different direction and takes the argument at face value and walks it forward, ending with him once again reminding everyone that he is a stanch supporter of the second amendment. In the end, the two settle on the wider issue, that we continually use proxies instead of understanding the actual underlying problems and ultimately that we need to build a world with fewer ceilings and more floors.
We've got supporter content, of course! This week that includes a more nuanced perspective on what mid 20th century America was actually like when it comes to wealth inequality, whether we are actually living through the worst time in history, why no one has a billion dollars in their checking account, why Gen Z needs to stop telling Millennials to retire, the importance of people having high agency, and more. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today!
If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/s3Oz6RwkelQ.
No episode of the aftershow this week. We'll have more aftershow episodes soon! In the meantime, catch up on previous episodes at https://break.show.
Thanks for tuning in and happy listening!
Kris brings his usual devil's advocate perspective: a 10% chance of extinction is also a 90% chance of non-extinction. He then widens the field of view to the more full argument, which is that AI is the easiest thing for everyone to point at. Matt takes a different direction and takes the argument at face value and walks it forward, ending with him once again reminding everyone that he is a stanch supporter of the second amendment. In the end, the two settle on the wider issue, that we continually use proxies instead of understanding the actual underlying problems and ultimately that we need to build a world with fewer ceilings and more floors.
We've got supporter content, of course! This week that includes a more nuanced perspective on what mid 20th century America was actually like when it comes to wealth inequality, whether we are actually living through the worst time in history, why no one has a billion dollars in their checking account, why Gen Z needs to stop telling Millennials to retire, the importance of people having high agency, and more. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today!
If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/s3Oz6RwkelQ.
No episode of the aftershow this week. We'll have more aftershow episodes soon! In the meantime, catch up on previous episodes at https://break.show.
Thanks for tuning in and happy listening!
Table of Contents:
- Prologue (00:00:00)
- Chapter 1: A 10 Percent Chance of Extinction (00:02:12)
- Chapter 2: Fear Mongering at Its Finest (00:05:25)
- Chapter 3: A Lack of Imagination (00:07:25)
- Chapter 4: Doing Real Time Journalism, and Numbers Without Reference Points (00:10:08)
- Chapter 5: Let's Walk the Path to Extinction (00:18:04)
- Chapter 6: Technology Already Ruins People's Lives (00:21:50)
- Chapter 7: AI as the Easy Boogeyman (00:23:44)
- Chapter 8: When I Hear That, I Feel Nothing (00:29:49)
- Chapter 10: Scarier Things Than AI, and the Title Readers (00:33:34)
- Chapter 12: Frontier Labs and the Pressure to Ship (00:40:06)
- Chapter 13: The Age of Mass Proxying (00:43:21)
- Chapter 14: Blame the Whole Chain, Not Just the CEO (00:46:55)
- Chapter 15: A Billionaire Does Not Have One Checking Account [Extended] (00:49:56)
- Chapter 18: Install Floors, Not Ceilings (00:51:24)
- Chapter 22: College Is Not for Jobs, and Coalition Building (00:53:51)
- Chapter 24: Not Zero, but Very Low (00:56:25)
- Epilogue (01:02:14)
Socials:
- (00:00) - Prologue
- (02:12) - Chapter 1: A 10 Percent Chance of Extinction
- (05:25) - Chapter 2: Fear Mongering at Its Finest
- (07:25) - Chapter 3: A Lack of Imagination
- (10:08) - Chapter 4: Doing Real Time Journalism, and Numbers Without Reference Points
- (18:04) - Chapter 5: Let's Walk the Path to Extinction
- (21:50) - Chapter 6: Technology Already Ruins People's Lives
- (23:44) - Chapter 7: AI as the Easy Boogeyman
- (29:49) - Chapter 8: When I Hear That, I Feel Nothing
- (33:34) - Chapter 10: Scarier Things Than AI, and the Title Readers
- (40:06) - Chapter 12: Frontier Labs and the Pressure to Ship
- (43:21) - Chapter 13: The Age of Mass Proxying
- (46:55) - Chapter 14: Blame the Whole Chain, Not Just the CEO
- (49:56) - Chapter 15: A Billionaire Does Not Have One Checking Account [Extended]
- (51:24) - Chapter 18: Install Floors, Not Ceilings
- (53:51) - Chapter 22: College Is Not for Jobs, and Coalition Building
- (56:25) - Chapter 24: Not Zero, but Very Low
- (01:02:14) - Epilogue
Creators and Guests
Host
Matthew Sanabria
Matthew is an engineering leader focused on building reliable, scalable, and observable systems. Matthew is known for using his breadth and depth of experience to add value in minimal context situations and help great people become great engineers through mentoring. Matthew serves the Go community as a member of GoBridge. In his spare time, Matthew spends time with his family, helps grow his wife's chocolate business, works on home improvement projects, and reads technical resources to learn and tinker.
