Steven Pinker: Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things
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Steven Pinker is a world-renowned cognitive psychologist, and is widely regarded as one of the most important public intellectuals of our time. His work delves into the complexities of cognition, language, and social behavior, and his research offers a window into the fundamental workings of the human mind.
Pinker, who is the author of nine books including Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress and Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters, approaches his work with a kind of data-driven optimism about the world that has set him apart from the chorus of doomer voices we hear so much from in our public discourse.
Today, we talk to Pinker about why smart people believe stupid things, the psychology of conspiracy theories, free speech and academic freedom, why democracy and enlightenment values are contrary to human nature, the moral panic around AI, and much more.
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Michael Monahan: You're disbelief in The potential dangers of AI taking over the worldl is that best naive, and it worst like the Germans and early '30s thought that Germany could never become Nazi. basic logical results given a set of parameters where human input is initially creating the AI intelligence, then itself creates other computers which create other computers etc and you have no idea the exponential power potential of that. another analogy is that you remind me of Chamberlain