Robin Hanson: An economist at George Mason University known for wide-ranging, contrarian thinking on aliens, the future, and human nature. Co-author of 'The Elephant in the Brain' and author of 'The Age of Em', and originator of the 'grabby aliens' cosmological model and idea futures / prediction markets.
What this episode covers
Robin Hanson explains his 'grabby aliens' model, which uses three fitted parameters and humanity's surprisingly early appearance to predict where advanced expanding civilizations are in space and time. He argues life on Earth passed roughly six improbable hard steps and that our cosmic earliness implies the universe is filling up with fast-expanding civilizations we can't yet see. The conversation broadens into competition as the fundamental force driving the future, the risks of global governance suppressing interstellar expansion, and a panspermia-siblings hypothesis for explaining UFOs. Hanson then turns to human nature, unpacking the self-deception thesis of 'The Elephant in the Brain', broken information institutions, and his prediction-market reforms. It closes on mortality, cryonics, simulation arguments, love, and meaning.
Recommended on this episode
Waterworld
Kevin Reynolds
“but dolphins water world by the way people criticize that movie i love that movie kevin costner can do me no wrong”— guest
The guest's own work
The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life
Robin Hanson and Kevin Simler
“he is the co-author of a book titled the elephant in the brain hidden motives in everyday life”— Lex Fridman
The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life when Robots Rule the Earth
Robin Hanson
“the age of m work love and life when robots rule the earth and a fascinating recent paper”— Lex Fridman
The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life when Robots Rule the Earth
Robin Hanson
“i have this book called the age of m work love and life when robots rule the earth and it's about what happens if brain emulations become possible”— guest
The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life
Robin Hanson and Kevin Simler
“i have this book the elephant in the brain and one of the chapters is there on medicine”— guest
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Star Trek
Gene Roddenberry
“much science fiction celebrates the star trek or the culture novels people like this image that we are moving toward this world”— guest
The Culture novels
Iain M. Banks
“much science fiction celebrates the star trek or the culture novels people like this image that we are moving toward this world”— guest
Segway scooter
Segway
“if we're talking about say a recent new product like segway scooters or something i could say not so many people have seen them or use them”— guest
Big reveals from this episode
- Hanson estimates Earth passed roughly six improbable 'hard steps' (range three to twelve) to reach advanced life.
- Our cosmic earliness is the key evidence: if the universe stayed empty, advanced life should appear roughly a thousand times later.
- Because we see no alien spheres in the sky, grabby aliens must be expanding very fast, over a third the speed of light.
- Hanson argues strong global governance would likely prevent interstellar colonization and the grabby future.
- His prior that some UFOs are aliens is roughly one in a thousand, far higher than a murder trial's prior.
- He proposes 'panspermia siblings' to explain UFOs: thousands of sibling planets seeded in the same stellar nursery.
- Core thesis: your conscious mind is the 'press secretary' of your brain, justifying decisions rather than making them.
- Hanson apologizes for being too emotional and too critical of Anthony Fauci, favoring incentive analysis over blaming individuals.
Worth remembering
- The math of cancer mirrors the math of advanced life: both follow a power law of roughly the sixth power of time.
- Usual cosmology says in about 100 to 150 billion years expansion isolates galaxy clusters, but before then civilizations commune for ~100 billion years.
- Only about 10 percent of species are in the ocean; rivers contain enormous species variety because environments vary so much.
- Humans discount the future by about a factor of two per generation because descendants share half your genes.
- Randomized trials find no relationship between getting more medicine and being healthier.
- Hanson argues physics is 'over-determined'; without Einstein or Heisenberg, others would have found the same results within half a century.
- Shipping containers deserve to rank alongside the steam engine as a few-in-a-lifetime economy-wide innovation.
- Hanson is a cryonics customer counting mainly on a future brain-emulation revival, estimating at least a five percent chance.
- Google Ngram shows interest in a given year declines faster than population grows, weakening the past-replay simulation argument.
- Research patrons mostly buy affiliation with credentialed impressiveness, not actual research progress.