In this week’s episode, we discuss AI, specifically how Grok responded to the prompt “image of Cartesian crisis,” whether AI is conscious, and whether it makes art. What is art, and are humans required to make it, or do search and memory suffice? Not art: the rendering of the national anthem at the Democratic National Convention. Speaking of which: what demographic is most strongly democratic? Answer: Childless, never married women ages 20 – 45. We discuss how this affects policy and society. And: the quasi-announcement that Kennedy may leave the presidential race. Finally—Zack is going off on new adventures.
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Mentioned in this episode:
The national anthem by the women’s caucus at DNC: https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1825937644951650319
Maternal Love and the Mama Bear: https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/maternal-love-and-the-mama-bear
Brides of the State, by David Samuels in UnHerd: https://unherd.com/2024/08/the-march-of-kamalas-brides/
Rescue the Republic – September 29 on the National Mall: https://jointheresistance.org
We have "cartesian blinders being put on us so that we are trying to make sense out of scraps of information and hints." - @bretweinstein
WEINSTEIN: I mean, even if you have your villains who are engaged in the behavior that motivated this war in Iran, even if that's the story, presumably most of the people in the path of these ferocious bombings that he is describing are not deserving of going back to the Stone Age.
In fact, I distinctly remember him telling us that part of what we were up to was liberating the people of Iran from their tyrannical regime.
So if it's the tyrannical regime that justifies the ferocious bombing, then it's a tragedy that other people are going to be sent back to the Stone Ages with them. Right?
HEYING: It's it's not a narrative. It's an incoherent set of talking points.
WEINSTEIN: Yeah, it's a kind of cheerleading that is completely inappropriate from the perspective of the president.
Bret Weinstein discusses the Trump administrations "back to the stone age" recent remarks in the latest episode of The Evolutionary Lens, Episode 320 "Are we back in the stone age?" on DarkHorse.
Bret Weinstein explains, "If you stop businesses from starting here, and if you drive people so that they move elsewhere—even though it's difficult to do—then the point is the tax base dries up, which then forces you to become even more predatory for the people who stayed.
And that's really the thing, right? They're setting themselves up so that they have to go after more and more people, because the people who are starting new businesses are not going to do it here."
Bret and Heather discuss the time-traveling money printer in its newest instantiation: Trump’s monetization of Truth Social, wherein you pay to get a microsecond advantage in the market. Like so many before him, he’s becoming wealthy without generating wealth. But a president should be working to generate wealth for his country, and its citizens.
Then: discussion of risk, exploration and frontiers in the context of Pa Ingalls and the Little House on the Prairie series, the fearful response to such things by many women, and the motorcycle accident that their son Toby was just in. (He will be okay.)
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-QfBBmFTtM
Rumble: https://rumble.com/v7d3ska-the-335th-evolutionary-lens-with-bret-weinstein-and-heather-heying.html
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2cr3jZuq5YWe1RDllh4dzU?si=guij2e4oRR6CTIGZxYijkw
Apple: ...
Hunter Biden and Nick Fuentes
The push to mainstream Hunter into the podcast world
There was a time when I was fascinated with Nick Fuentes but, as I wrote about before, I do think he is a federal agent or at least someone who takes orders from the feds. I've already explained why I think that, so I'm not going to rehash it here.
Here is a link to my post from last year discussing why I think Nick is an asset
https://substack.com/home/post/p-178028530
I still find him fascinating as a cultural phenomenon.
I hope this is obvious to anyone reading this, Nick had to come down a few rungs to have this conversation with Hunter. Anyone immersed in Podcastistan over the last several years knows exactly what I mean.
Nick is like a grand chess master playing someone who’s decent at chess but has never entered a tournament. Hunter understands the rules of the game, but he’s never had to compete at that level.
That’s what made this interview so interesting. This is by far the most restrained version of Nick I’ve ever seen. Rather than ...
The Institutional Scramble
How unsound money keeps recreating the same institutions
Many of the problems we see today—wars, politics, the media, and even our daily lives—I believe can be explained through the lens of centralized power and unsound money. Institutions built on top of an unsound monetary system don't remain neutral forever. Over time, they adapt to incentives that are no longer driven primarily by the market, but by government through inflation, taxation, bailouts, subsidies, government contracts, and political favors. Eventually, the institution transforms into something altogether different from what it was originally created to be because it no longer has to meet the demands of the market, but instead derives its resources through government.
The Pattern I Started Noticing
As a state employee working at the university doing my usual software development job, I've watched a number of changes over the years. Around 2014, I started seeing DEI initiatives become increasingly important, shifting the focus away from merit-based ...
