Episode · Dwarkesh Podcast · 2022-08-23
Dwarkesh Patel & Steve Hsu: books mentioned on Dwarkesh Podcast
Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity
Steve Hsu is a Professor of Theoretical Physics at Michigan State University and cofounder of the company Genomic Prediction. We go deep into the weeds on how embryo selection can make babies healthier and smarter.
Dwarkesh Patel discussed The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, The Case against Education by Bryan Caplan, and When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Selfish Gene
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins is a prominent popular science book exploring evolution through a gene-centric view of natural selection.
Discussed“then it's very trivial but uh it ain't trivial for theoretical biologists as far as I can tell but the result is so interesting because I remember reading in the selfish gene that like he hypothesizes um the reason we have aging”
Where to get it
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The Case against Education
The Case against Education by Bryan Caplan is an economic critique arguing that the modern education system is largely a waste of time and money because higher education functions primarily as a social signal for employers.
Discussed“And that concerns me because educational attainment also probably correlates with other things that somebody might want or they might not want which are conscientiousness and conformity which is you know if you're Brian Kaplan in the case against education”
Where to get it
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When Genius Failed
When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein is a gripping work of narrative non-fiction chronicling the dramatic rise and catastrophic collapse of the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management.
Discussed“I was watching um I I I read that book about the fall of long-term capital management and uh obviously I guess this is a cautionary tale, but still it's kind of cool to actually there are two books. There's there's one called when genius failed”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“And the then the question is back to well why didn't evolution give us lifespans of a thousand years like back in the Bible people in the Bible used to live for a thousand years why don't we I mean that probably didn't really happen”