Daniel Schmachtenberger: “Artificial Intelligence and The Superorganism“ | The Great Simplification

On this episode, Daniel Schmachtenberger returns to discuss a surprisingly overlooked risk to our global systems and planetary stability: artificial intelligence. Through a systems perspective, Daniel and Nate piece together the biophysical history that has led humans to this point, heading towards (and beyond) numerous planetary boundaries and facing geopolitical risks all with existential consequences. How does artificial intelligence, not only add to these risks, but accelerate the entire dynamic of the metacrisis? What is the role of intelligence vs wisdom on our current global pathway, and can we change course? Does artificial intelligence have a role to play in creating a more stable system or will it be the tipping point that drives our current one out of control? About Daniel Schmachtenberger: Daniel Schmachtenberger is a founding member of The Consilience Project, aimed at improving public sensemaking and dialogue. The throughline of his interests has to do with ways of improving the health and development of individuals and society, with a virtuous relationship between the two as a goal. Towards these ends, he’s had particular interest in the topics of catastrophic and existential risk, civilization and institutional decay and collapse as well as progress, collective action problems, social organization theories, and the relevant domains in philosophy and science. For Show Notes and to Learn More: Daniel’s recommended content for further AI learning: Eliezer Yudkowsky on Bankless - David Bohm & Krishnamurti Conversations - Iain McGilchrist: The Master and His Emissary - Robert Miles Videos on AI - @RobertMilesAI 00:00 - Conversations and origin of friendship 02:47 - Recap on superorganism and metacrisis 07:21 - Why is AI relevant to the metacrisis 09:30 - History of Intelligence 12:25 - Techno-optimism vs Techno-pessimism 17:55 - Narrow Boundary Focus vs Wide Boundary Focus & Competition 33:39 - Progress realists? 39:02 - Jevons Paradox 40:52 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Nth Order Effects 46:01 - Human Intelligence and AI 52:16 - Intelligence and Modeling 1:04:02 - The Difference Between Wisdom and Intelligence 1:12:41 - Chesterton’s fence 1:13:03 - Progressive and Traditionalist as Dialectics 1:18:07 - Genetics and Intelligence vs Wisdom 1:28:55 - Can we have wisdom with 8 billion humans? 1:30:59 - Plasticity of Humans and Innovation 1:38:29 - Capitalism an early form of compute 1:42:45 - Did Anyone Invent Capitalism? 1:48:38 - General vs Narrow Artificial Intelligence 1:58:58 - Who owns/controls the AIs 2:03:11 - Is a Multi-Polar Trap Obligate 2:06:55 - AI and Bad Actors 2:22:25 - All technology is dual use 2:29:34 - Affordances and Combinations 2:33:05 - AI Accelerates the Superorganism 2:37:35 - Can We Stop It? 2:43:34 - AI Arms Race 2:46:25 - Intelligence Unbound by Wisdom 2:55:58 - What Do We Need to Change? 2:59:44 - Wisdom is The Master, Intelligence is the Emissary 3:05:55 - Wise People 3:09:27 - Daniel’s Recommendations on Further Learning