The Turing Test

by Ales_Flidr

Sep 11 20171 min read 7

15

Ideological Turing test

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I'm happy to announce that the first episodes of Harvard Effective Altruism's podcast, the Turing Test, are already online.

The first four episodes feature

Larry Summers on his career, economics and EA
Irene Pepperberg on animal cognition and ethics
Josh Greene on moral cognition and EA
Adam Marblestone on incentives in science, differential technological development etc.

My co-host Holly Elmore and I recorded a couple more, including Lant Pritchett, Bryan Caplan, Scott Weathers, Spencer Greenberg and Brian Tomasik. Among other things, the guest has to pass an "ideological Turing Test" - i.e. state opposing views as clearly and persuasively as their proponents.

You should be able to subscribe on your favorite platform. We're looking forward to hearing your feedback!

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e19brendanOct 10 20176

How about a podcast that sheds light of unanswered critiques of the EA movement? They'd have to be fairly knowledgeable about EA in order to pass the "Ideological Turing Test," and you'd have to make sure that the editing/framing doesn't unfairly give EA ideas an edge, but I think we could learn a lot from thoughtful critique!

Vincent-SoderbergSep 14 20174

Great podcast! A question.

1: is it possible to have an episode on the science of movement building? Not that i know much of it.

Ales_FlidrSep 15 20171

Thanks for the suggestion! Sounds like a fun topic, will definitely think of potential guests when we get back to recording.

zdgroffSep 11 20172

Nice interview subjects! Very impressive. I'd be curious to hear what made you decide to make an ideological Turing test part of every episode. It's clearly very in line with EA ideals, but why that exercise in particular?

Ales_FlidrSep 15 20172

Thanks :) The idea behind the Ideological Turing Test is (a) to put epistemic rationality into the spotlight (b) to see how good a model the guests have of the debate and how well they considered the other side, which should help you think about how seriously you should take their claims (c) we think it's kind of fun :)

Michael_PJSep 17 20171

Is there any way to make it available without using iTunes?

KevinWatkinsonSep 18 20171

I just listened to an interesting one with Brian Tomisik here: https://harvardeapodcast.com/2017/09/17/episode-5-brian-tomasik/