YouSaid · the spoken record

Bret Weinstein

lines on the record: 202
first: 2021-06-25
most recent: 2021-06-25
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“You know, Alex, I feel the same way towards you, and I really appreciate it. This has been a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to our next one. Thanks for listening to this conversation with Brett Weinstein, and thank you to Jordan Harbor's Show, Express CPN, Magic Spoon, and Four Sigmatic. Check them out in the description to support this podcast. And now let me leave you with some words from Charles Darwin. Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. It is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science. Thank you for listening. I hope to see you next time.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I can't believe it took us this long to talk. As I mentioned to you before that we haven't actually spoken, I think at all. And I've always felt that we're already friends. I don't know how that works because I've listened to your podcast a lot. I've also sort of loved your brother. And so it was like we've known each other for the longest time. And I hope we can be friends and we talk often again. I hope that you get a chance to meet some of my robot friends as well and fall in love. And I'm so glad that you love robots as well. So we get to share in that love. So I can't wait for us to interact together. So we went from talking about some of the worst failures of humanity to some of the most beautiful aspects of humanity. What else can you ask for from a conversation? Thank you so much for talking today.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Life is awesome, and we want to spread the awesome as much as possible. Yeah, you sum it up that way. Spread the awesome. Spread the awesome. So that's the fourth frontier. And if that fails, if the fourth frontier fails, the fifth frontier will be defined by robots, and hopefully they'll learn the lessons of the mistakes that the humans made and build a better world. We're very happy here and that they do a better job with the place than we did.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Could list as unalloyed goods? Those are the things that people should be most liberated to do in a system that really functions. And anyway, my point is, I don't know how precise that calculation is, but I'm pretty sure it's not wrong. It's accurate enough. And if it is accurate enough, then the point is, okay, well, there's no ultimate meaning, but the proximate meaning is that one. How many people can we get to have this wonderful experience that we've gotten to have, right? And there's no way that's so wrong that if I invest my life in it, that I'm making some big error. Sure of that.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And how do you do that? Well, I think I know what job one is. Job one is we have to get sustainable. The way to get the maximum number of humans to have that opportunity to be both here and free is to make sure that there isn't a limit on how long we can keep doing this. That effectively requires us to reach sustainability. And then at sustainability, you could have a horror show of sustainability, right? You could have a totalitarian sustainability. That's not the objective. The objective is to liberate people. And so the question, the whole fourth frontier question, frankly, is how do you get to a sustainable and indefinitely sustainable state in which people feel liberated, in which they are liberated to pursue the things that actually matter, to pursue beauty, truth, compassion, connection, all of those things that we”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Being a human and having opportunity is absolutely fucking awesome, right? A lot of people don't make use of the opportunity and a lot of people don't have opportunity, right? They get to be human, but they're too constrained by keeping a roof over their heads to really be free. But being a free human is fantastic. And being a free human on this beautiful planet, crippled as it may be, is Parallel. I mean, what could be better? How lucky are we that we get that, right? So if that's true, that it is awesome to be human and to be free, then surely it is our obligation to deliver that opportunity to as many people as we can.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That said, once you stare into that abyss and then it stares back and laughs or whatever happens, right? Then the question is, okay, given that, can I relax a little bit, right? And figure out, well, what would make sense if that were true, right? And I think there's something very clear to me. I think if you do all of the, you know, if I just take the values that I'm sure we share and extrapolate from them, I think the following thing is actually a moral imperative.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because we actually know the answer to the question. It's completely meaningless. There is nothing that we can do that escapes the heat death of the universe or whatever it is that happens at the end. And we're not going to make it there anyway. But even if you were optimistic about our ability to escape every existential hazard indefinitely, ultimately it's all for naught and we know it, right?”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You didn't mention that you didn't have the prereqs, nobody stopped you from taking the course. And what he told me, which I didn't know, was that often the advanced courses are easier in some way. The materials complex, but it's not like intro bio where you're learning a thousand things at once, right? It's like focused on something. So if you dedicate yourself, you can pull it off. Yeah, stay with an idea for many weeks at a time. And it's ultimately rewarding and not as difficult as it looks. Can't ask you a ridiculous question, please. What do you think is the meaning of life? Well I feel terrible having to give you the answer. I realize you asked the question, but if I tell you, you're going to again feel that. I don't want to do that. But look, it can be a disappointment. No, it's going to be a horror.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Immunity is so marvelous, right? That it was like almost a privilege to even be saying it to a room full of people who were listening, you know. But anyway, yeah, I took that course. And, you know, lo and behold, COVID. Well, yeah, suddenly it's front and center. And wow, my glad I took it. Anyway, yeah, useless courses are great. And actually, Eric gave me one of the greater pieces of advice, at least for college than anyone's ever given, which was, don't worry about the prereqs. Take it anyway, right? But now I don't even know if kids can do this now because the prereqs are now enforced by a computer. But back in the day,”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I took immunobiology in the medical school when I was at Penn as, I guess I would have been a freshman or a sophomore. I wasn't supposed to be in this class. It blew my goddamn mind and it still does, right? I mean, we had this, I don't even know who it was, but we had this great professor who was like highly placed in the world of immunobiology, you know, the course is called immunobiology, not immunology. Immunobiology, it had the right focus. And as I recall it, the professor stood sideways to the chalkboard staring off into space, literally stroking his beard with this bemused look on his face through the entire lecture. And you had all these medical students who were so furiously writing notes that I don't even think they were noticing the person delivering this thing. But, you know, I got what this guy was smiling about. It was like so what he was describing, you know, adapt.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And useless doesn't mean useless, right? Useless means not directly applicable. Good useless course can be the best one you ever”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know if it's carpentry and computer programming. If you take combinations of things that are, even if they're both common, but they're not commonly found together, then those combinations create a rarefied space where you inhabit it. And even if the things don't even really touch, but nonetheless they create a mind in which the two things are live and you can move back and forth between them and step out of your own perspective by moving from one to the other, that will increase what you can see and the quality of your tools. And so anyway, that isn't useful advice. It doesn't tell you whether you should go to graduate school or not, but it does tell you the one thing we can say for certain about the future is that it's uncertain and so prepare for it.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You're going to be up against all sorts of people who have studied the things that you studied. If you think, hey, computer programming is really, really cool. And you pick up computer programming, guess what? You just entered a large group of people who have that skill, and many of them will be better than you, almost certainly. On the other hand, if you combine that with something else that's very rarely combined with it, if you have”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Should invest in tools rather than knowledge, right? To the extent that you can do things, you can repurpose that no matter what the future brings, to the extent that, you know, if you, as a robot guy, right, you've got the skills of a robot guy. Now, if civilization failed and the stuff of robot building disappeared with it, Still have the mind of a robot guy and the mind of a robot guy can retool around all kinds of things, whether you're forced to work with fibers that are made into ropes. You're mechanical mind would be useful in all kinds of places. So invest in tools like that that can be easily repurposed and invest in combinations of tools. If civilization keeps limping along,”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, but it's not, they're not going to like it because it's not easy to operationalize. And this was a problem when I was a college professor too. People would ask me what they should do. Should they go to graduate school? I had almost nothing useful to say because the job market and the market of, you know, pre-job training and all of that, these things are all so... Distorted and corrupt that I didn't want to point anybody to anything, right? Because it's all broken. And I would tell them that. But I would say that results in a kind of meta level advice that I do think is useful. Don't know what's coming. You don't know where the opportunities will be”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. All right. I just want to be honest. It's not like, oh, it's nonstop joy. No, it's freaking complex. But worth it? No question in my mind.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If I was advising somebody, I would say do not bypass the possibility that what you are supposed to do is find somebody worthy, somebody who can handle it, somebody who you are compatible with, and that you don't have to be perfectly compatible. It's not about dating until you find the one. It's about finding somebody whose underlying values and viewpoint are complementary to yours, sufficient that you fall in love. You find that person Out together. Get out of this damn system that's telling you what sophisticated to think about love and romance and sex, ignore it together, right? That's the key. And I believe you'll end up laughing in the end if you do it. You'll discover, wow, that's a hellscape that I opted out of. And this thing I opted into, complicated, difficult, worth it.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think they're missing something so important and so hard to phrase that and they don't even know that they're missing it. They might know that they're unhappy, but they don't understand what it is they're even looking for because nobody's really been honest with them about what their choices are. And I have to say, if I was a young person or if I was advising a young person, which I used to do, again, a million years ago when I was a college professor four years ago, but I used to talk to students. I knew my students really well and they would ask questions about this and they were always curious because Heather and I seemed to have a good relationship and many of them knew both of us. So they would talk to us about this.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Totally agree with us. And there's no question that by choice, when there are other choices, imbues it with meaning that it might not otherwise have. I would also say, you know, I'm I'm really struck by, and I have a hard time not feeling. Terrible sadness over what Younger people are coming to think about this topic.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is and you know, this is weird to even talk about, but this is partially me just talking from personal experience. I think there actually is a monogamy program in us, and it's not automatic. But if you take it seriously, you can find it. And frankly, marriage, and it doesn't have to be marriage, but whatever it is that results in a lifelong bond with a partner has gotten a very bad rap. You know, it's the butt of too many jokes. But the truth is, it's hugely rewarding. It's not easy. But if you know that you're looking for something, right? If you know that the objective actually exists and it's not some utopian fantasy that can't be found, if you know that there's some real world warts and all version of it, then you might actually think, hey, that is something I want. And you might pursue it. And my guess is you'd be very happy when you find it.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. Well, you know, I don't want to straw man the polygony position. Obviously, polygyny is complex, and there's nothing that stops a man presumably from loving multiple partners and from them loving him back. But in terms, you know, if love is your thing, there's a question about, okay, what is the quality of love if it is divided over multiple partners? And what is the net consequence for love in a society when multiple people will be frozen out for every individual male, in this case who has it? And what I would argue”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of sex and lots of variety, right? So look Every red blooded American slash Russian male. Understand why that's appealing, right On the other hand, it is up against an alternative which is having a partner with whom one is bonded. Especially closely, right? And so”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, we can do it very simply. Selection might favor your engaging in war against a defenseless enemy or genocide. It's not hard to figure out how that might put your genes at advantage Know about Fulex, I'm not getting involved in no genocide. It's not going to happen. I won't do it. I will do anything to avoid it. So some part of me has decided that my conscious self and the values that I hold trump my evolutionary self. And once you figure out that in some extreme case that's true, and then you realize that that means it must be possible in many other cases and you start going through all of the things that selection would favor and you realize that a fair fraction of the time, actually you're not up for this. You don't want to be some robot on a mission that involves genocide when necessary. You want to be your own person and accomplish things that you think are valuable. And so among those are not advocating, you know, let's suppose you were in a position to be one of those males at the top of a polygonist system. We both know why that would be rewarding, right?”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Depends what you mean. I have a feeling that you and I wouldn't have to go very far to figure out that What might be evolutionarily optimal doesn't match my values as a person, and I'm sure it doesn't match yours either.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Populations that face the possibility of expansion endorse monogamy, and at the point that they have reached carrying capacity you should expect to see polygyny break back out, and what we are seeing is a kind of false sophistication around polyamory, which will end up breaking down into polygyny, which will not be in the interest of most people, really the only people whose interests it could be argued to be in would be the very small number of males at the top who have many partners and everybody else suffers.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What that means is that for a population that is expanding? Monogamous mating system makes sense. It makes sense because it means that the number of offspring that can be raised is elevated, it's elevated because all potential parents are involved in parenting. Whereas if you sideline a bunch of males by having a polygynous system in which one male has many females, which is typically the way that works, what you do is you sideline all those males, which means the total amount of parental effort is lower, and the population can't grow. So what I'm arguing is that you should expect to see”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And in fact, most of human history was largely polygynous. But it is also the case that most of the people on Earth today belong to civilizations that are at least nominally monogamous and have practiced monogamy. And that's not anti-evolutionary. What that is, is part of what I mentioned before, where human beings can swap out their software program. And different mating patterns are favored in different periods of history. So I would argue that the benefit of monogamy, the primary one that drives the evolution of monogamous patterns in humans is that it brings all adults into child rearing. The reason that that matters is because human babies are very labor intensive in order to raise them properly having two parents is a huge asset and having more than two parents having an extended family also is very important.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I can say that I fully believe that we are actually enlightened and that although monogamy is waning, that it is not waning because there is a superior system, it is waning for predictable other reasons. So Let us just say it is there is a lot of pre trans fallacy here where People go through a phase where they recognize that actually we know a lot about the evolution of monogamy, and we can tell from the fact that humans are somewhat sexually dimorphic, that there has been a lot of polygyny in human history.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Hell yeah. Hell yeah. And, you know, I'd love him if he was just my brother, but he's also awesome. Love him and I love him for who he is”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think he takes it almost as an offense because it grants cover to people who are harming others. And I think it offends him morally. And if I had to say, I would say it alters his judgment on the matter. But anyway, certainly useful just to leave open the two possibilities and say it's a ratio, but we don't know which one.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Anytime you have the appearance of some captured, gigantic entity that is censoring you on YouTube and, you know, handing down dictates from the who and all of that, it is sure that there will be a certain amount of collusion, right? There's going to be some embarrassing emails in some places that are going to reveal some shocking connections. And then there's going to be an awful lot of emergence that didn't involve collusion, right? In which people were doing their little part of a job and something was emergent. And you never know what the admixture is. How much are we looking at actual collusion and how much are we looking at an emergent process? But you should always walk in with a sense that it's going to be a ratio. And the question is, what is the ratio in this case? I think this drives Eric nuts because he is very focused on the people. I think he's focused on the people who have a choice and make the wrong one. And anyway, he makes...”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would not say that. It's quite possible he could say the same thing about me. And in fact, I know that it's true. There are places where he's absolutely convinced me. Any case, I do believe it's at least, you know, it may not be a totally even fight, but it's more even than some will imagine. But yeah, we have, you know, there are things I say that drive him nuts, right? Like when something, you know, like you heard me talk about the, what was it? It was the autopilot that seems to be putting a great many humans in needless medical jeopardy over the COVID-19 pandemic. And my feeling is we can say this almost for sure.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have butted heads with Eric over the course of decades, and I have seen him move in my direction substantially over time.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, all right. I'm just going to use your podcast to make a bit of cryptic war and just say there are many places in which I believe”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Know that is a very long list. Eric and I have tensions over certain things that recur all the time. And I'm trying to think what would be the ideal.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, and actually, I've seen this happen before because some of the people who trained Heather and me were phylogenetic systematists, Arnold Klugy in particular. And the problem with systematics is that to do it right when your technology is primitive, you have to be deeply embedded in the philosophical and the logical, right? Your method has to be based in the highest level of rigor. Once you can sequence genes, genes can spit so much data at you that you can overwhelm high quality work with just lots and lots and lots of automated work. And so in some sense, there's like a generation of phylogenetic systematists who are the last of the greats because what's replacing them is sequencers. So anyway, maybe you're right about the AI, and I guess I'm... I like figuring stuff out.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you're making me a little bit sad because my addiction to the aha moment thing is incompatible with, you know, outsourcing that job. I don't want to outsource that thing to the AH.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I can't say that one is more important. I think there's probably a different timescale. I think understanding the emergent layer is more often useful, but the bang for the buck at the far fundamental layer may be much greater. So for example, the fourth frontier. Pretty sure it's going to have to be fusion powered. I don't think anything else will do it, but once you had fusion power, assuming we didn't just dump fusion power on the market the way we would be likely to if it was invented usefully tomorrow. But if we had fusion power and we had a little bit more wisdom than we have, you could do an awful lot. And that's not going to come from people like me who look at dynamics”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, opposite ends of the continuum. And as Eric would be quick to point out if he was sitting here, I treat the emergent layer. I seek the fundamentals in it, which is sort of an echo of Eric's style of thinking but applied to the very far complexity.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He's been completely dominant in the realm of fundamental thinking, right? Like what he's fascinated by is the fundamental of fundamentals. And he's excellent at it, which meant that I was born into a world where somebody was becoming excellent in that. And for me to be anywhere near the fundamental of fundamentals was going to be pointless, right? I was going to be playing second fiddle forever. And I think that that actually drove me to the other end of the continuum between fundamental and emergent. And so I became fascinated with biology and have been since I was three years old, right? I think Eric drove that and I have to thank him for it because, you know, I mean,”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was also terrifically useful because he was a very awesome older brother who, you know, made interesting mistakes, learned from them, and conveyed the wisdom of what he had discovered. And that was, you know, I don't know who else ends up so lucky as to have that kind of person blazing the trail. It also probably, you know, my hypothesis for what birth order effects are is that they're actually adaptive, right? That the reason that a secondborn is different than a firstborn is that they're not born into a world with the same niches in it, right? And so the thing about Eric.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, hell yeah. I mean, for one thing, you know Eric and I are interestingly similar in some ways and radically different in some other ways. And it's often a matter of fascination to people who know us both because almost always people meet one of us first and they sort of get used to that thing and then they meet the other and it throws the model into chaos. But, you know, I had a great advantage, which is I came second, right? So although it was kind of a pain in the ass to be born into a world that had Eric in it because he's a force of nature.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was a coward that I, you know, prioritized other things. At the end of the day, I think I will be able to say to myself, and in fact, the thing that allows me to sleep is that when I saw clearly what needed to be done, I tried to do it to the extent that it was in my power. And, you know, if we fail, as I expect us to, I can't say, well, geez, that's on me. And, you know, frankly, I regard what I just said to you as something like a personality defect, right? I'm trying to free myself from the sense that this is my fault. On the other hand, my guess is that personality defect is probably good for humanity, right? It's a good one for me to have it, you know, the externalities of it are positive, so I don't feel too bad about it.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a little different for me, and again, I think I recognize you. You're a familiar. Your construction is familiar, even if it isn't mine, right? For me, I actually expect us not to be okay. And I'm not okay with that. But what's really important, if I feel like what I've said is I don't know of any reason that it's too late. As far as I know, we could still save humanity and we could get to the fourth frontier or something akin to it. But I expect us not to. I expect us to fuck it up, right? I don't like that thought, but I've looked into the abyss and I've done my calculations. And the number of ways we could not succeed are many. And the number of ways that we could manage to get out of this very dangerous phase of history is small. But the thing I don't have to worry about is that I didn't do enough, right? That I”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Willingness to face the hazard rather than a desire to face it because of the thrill, right? For me, the thrill is in fighting when I'm in the right. I feel that that is a worthwhile way to take what I see as the... The kind of brutality that is built into men and to channel it to something useful, right? If it is not channeled into something useful, it will be channeled into something else. So it damn well better be channeled into something useful.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have a wonderful wife. I have amazing children. I live in a lovely place. I don't want to exit any quicker than I have to. That said, I also believe in things and a willingness to exit if that's the only way is not exactly inviting martyrdom, but it is an acceptance that fighting is dangerous and going up against powerful forces means who knows what will come of it, right? I don't have the sense that the thing is out there that used to kill inconvenient people. I don't think that's how it's done anymore. It's primarily done through destroying them reputationally, which is not something I relish the possibility of. But there's a difference between a”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there's more to say. No, I really don't think it's the ego thing. I will say I also have kind of a secondary passion for robot stuff. I've never made anything useful, but I do believe I found my calling. But if this wasn't my calling, my calling would have been... Inventing stuff. I really enjoy that too. So I get what you're saying about the analogy quite well. As far as the martyrdom thing, I understand the drug you're talking about, and I've seen it more than I've felt it. I do, if I'm just to be completely candid, and this question is so good, it deserves a candid answer, I do like the fight. I like fighting against people I don't respect, and I like winning. But No interest in martyrdom. One of the reasons I have no interest in martyrdom is that I'm having too good a time, right? I very much enjoy my life.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I also really like my subject, right? There's something about a walk in the forest when you have a toolkit in which you can actually look at creatures and see something deep, right? I like it. That drives me. And I could entertain myself for the rest of my life, right? Was somehow isolated from the rest of the world, but I was in a place that was biologically interesting. Hopefully, I would be with people that I love and pets that I love, believe it or not. But if I were in that situation and I could just go out every day and look at cool stuff and figure out what it means, I could be all right with that. So I'm not heavily driven by the... Ego thing as you put”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Probably one of the best questions I've ever been asked. So let me try to sort it out. First of all, we are all mysteries to ourself at some level, so it's possible there's stuff going on in me that I'm not aware of that's driving. But in general, I would say one of my better strengths is that I'm not especially ego-driven. Have an ego, I clearly think highly of myself, but it is not driving me. I do not crave that kind of validation. I do crave certain things, I do love a good Eureka moment. There is something great about it, and there's something even better about the phone calls you make next when you share it, right? It's pretty fun, right? I really like it.”
2021-06-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #194 – Bret Weinstein: Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source