This monthly IDW link roundup summarizes the best, short-ish content from the Intellectual Dark Web for September 2018.
Cut that Cord!
The internet and social media have fundamentally changed the way we communicate. Mainstream Media’s reacted to declining ratings and ‘Cord Cutting’ by producing more and more sensational news content. The Mainstream Media airing a prime-time interview with the President’s ex-pornstar lover, Stormy Daniels, instead of reporting on ISIS’s defeat makes me feel like they’re a 24/7 Jerry Springer Show wannabe. Recent polls show many Americans don’t trust traditional media.
Poll: 72 percent [of Americans] say traditional outlets ‘report news they know to be fake, false, or purposely misleading’
92% of Republicans say “traditional news outlets knowingly report false or misleading stories at least sometimes.” This sentiment extends to 79% of Independents. And 53% of Democrats agree Mainstream Media isn’t always trustworthy.
New Landscape for Truth and Authenticity
This lack of trust results in a deterioration of our collective sensemaking ability. We need reliable facts and honest, intelligent points of view to understand the world.
A new group of critical thinkers, jokingly referred to as the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW), continue to gain followers. Hosts like Dave Rubin, Ben Shapiro, and Joe Rogan create great content and strive for intellectual honesty. Intellectuals like Jordan Peterson and Sam Harris discuss and debate relevant topics with intellectual rigor and an authentic concern and respect for the truth.
But, the internet’s a big place. Many of these high-quality, long-form discussions go on for hours. Sam and Jordan’s recent debate/discussion in Vancouver went on for around five hours and two nights.
I’d love to hear from you if I’ve missed something. Please leave a comment with your link below. I hope this will become a community effort to share the best IDW content for the month.
Ben Shapiro interviews Christina Sommers
Seems appropriate to start this month’s link roundup with a discussion of women and feminism since we’re all recovering from Supreme Court Appointment hangovers.
Christina Sommers is an author, feminist, and philosopher. Ben interviewed her on one of his Sunday Specials. In this clip, just under thirty minutes, we get Christina’s view on the wage gap, the transgender movement, due process, the #metoo movement, and more.
Claire Lehmann
An article published in Claire’s Quillette Magazine discusses the unintended consequences of charity. Most people want to make the world a better place. We give money, both personally and at the governmental level, to relieve pain and suffering. But, what if our giving hurts more than it helps?
… we all agree that if we’re going to relieve a famine, we should find the cheapest way to feed the famished. But what if feeding the hungry creates more hungry people to feed? What if it indirectly contributes to more civil conflict, enriches warlords, or interferes with agricultural markets in ways that drive domestic farmers out of business? Recent studies suggest that food aid to African countries has done all of these things.
Dave Rubin interviews Peter Theil
In this clip, around twenty minutes, Dave and Peter discuss the deterioration of our collective sense-making ability. Peter explains his optimism that we’re moving to a better place by breaking out of the Clinton-Bush-Obama group-think bubble. I always enjoy listening to Peter’s thinking. As the founder of PayPal and the first investor in Facebook, Peter’s an original thinker with strangely prophetic views.
Eric Weinstein
Eric speculates that our ideas on excellence hold us back from achieving break-through levels of thinking. It’s like we’re running so hard along established paths that we miss the forest for the trees. I think this fits into the idea that we’re so specialized that we often fail to see the big picture.
For most of history, the best thinking has come from Gentlemen of Leisure. Folks like Aristotle, Plato, or Benjamin Franklin had some level of financial security allowing them to devote their time to advancing the frontiers of human knowledge. Today, academics fill that role. But one can make a case that some areas of academia are corrupt and stifle creative thought. In any event, our academics narrowly focus on the details of their specializations. Our society lacks Gentlemen of Leisure who read broadly and advance thought by connecting the dots at a higher level.
Jordan Peterson
This highlight reel from Jordan’s discussion with Simulation summarizes critical points of Jordan’s thinking, in about ten minutes, on ideas like Competence Hierarchies, the Big Five personality traits, Wealth Inequality, and more.
Joe Rogan Interviews Elon Musk
This is one of the most viewed IDW interviews in recent memory. Joe and Elon set tongues wagging when they drank whiskey and smoked a joint, both legal in California, at the end of this podcast.
But, for me, the best part of this interview is Elon’s thinking on artificial intelligence (AI). Many tech leaders have called attention to the growing power of AI and the changes it will bring.
The introduction of something simple like the printing press precipitated the enlightenment, the start of serious scientific inquiry, and the Protestant Religious Reformation. But the printing press is nothing compared to the internet and AI.
In my opinion, technology’s going to change our world in ways we can’t even comprehend. We’re at the beginning of a fundamental information revolution that will change civilization in new and unexpected ways.
In this clip, Elon shares his views on AI in about twenty minutes. Watch it here.
What do you think?
I’d love to hear from you if I’ve missed something. Please leave a comment with your link below. I hope this will become a community effort to share the best IDW content for the month.
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