But Marc has none of Ezra’s charm. In fact, he’s the hands down the most repellent guest I’ve ever heard on this podcast. Even Scott Adams with his absurd defense of Trump seems more palatable than this guy.
I think Marc’s secret sauce for achieving this distinction is fourfold:
* His almost Naziesque fixation with smart versus dumb people, particularly his conviction that people like him with engineering PhDs are better suited to make public health decisions than people “whose IQs are 50 points lower.”
* His double standard applied to his thinking versus Sam’s, such as which of them is too “religious“ about their convictions.
* I suppose Marc’s gratingly false attempts at a self-deprecating chuckle don’t help.
* And (though this might be unfair) nothing rubs me the wrong way more than a fatuous billionaire.
The funny thing is, I began the podcast with the expectation that Marc was going to champion my point of view: I also didn’t agree with Sam that any imminent AI is likely to “have the lights come on”, i.e. to become conscious. But after having listened to this, I am less secure than ever in that quasi religious conviction.
