The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep291: DOOMERS VS. ACCELERATIONISTS Colleague Gary Rivlin. The ideological battle between "accelerationists" who want rapid progress and "doomers" who fear existential risk, with Hoffman positioning himself as a "bloomer." NUMBER 14

S8 Ep291: TRANSFORMERS AND OPENAI Colleague Gary Rivlin. The development of the "transformer" paper at Google, the rise of large language models like GPT, and OpenAI's pivot from non-profit to a Microsoft-backed entity. NUMBER 13

S8 Ep291: DEEPMIND AND THE GOOGLE ACQUISITION Colleague Gary Rivlin. Mustafa Suleyman and Demis Hassabis founding DeepMind to master games, their sale to Google for $650 million, and the culture clash that followed. NUMBER 12

S8 Ep291: THE AI WINTER Colleague Gary Rivlin. The history of Frank Rosenblatt's neural networks, their dismissal by Marvin Minsky in favor of rules-based computing, and the decades-long "winter" before the resurgence of machine learning. NUMBER 11

S8 Ep291: THE CONNECTOR Colleague Gary Rivlin. Reid Hoffman's journey from a lonely childhood to becoming a Silicon Valley "super-connector," his relationship with Peter Thiel, and his early recognition of AI's potential. NUMBER 10

S8 Ep291: AI VALLEY: THE TRILLION DOLLAR RACE TO CASH IN Colleague Gary Rivlin. Gary Rivlin chronicles the personalities driving the AI revolution, including Reid Hoffman and Mustafa Suleyman. He explores the history of "AI winters," the rise of neural networks, an

S8 Ep291: THE MACHINERY OF REPRESSION Colleague Nilo Tabrizy. The structure of the IRGC and Basij, the specific targeting of ethnic minorities like Kurds and Baluchis, and the state's sadistic use of violence against mourners. NUMBER 8

S8 Ep291: ROOTS OF THE REVOLUTION Colleague Nilo Tabrizy. The historical context of the 1953 coup against Mossadegh, the alienation of the Pahlavi dynasty, and the recurring cycle of foreign interference and internal authoritarianism. NUMBER 7

S8 Ep291: THE DEATH OF GINA Colleague Nilo Tabrizy. The killing of Mahsa Jina Amini by the morality police for her hair, the Kurdish origins of "Woman, Life, Freedom," and the immediate eruption of protests. NUMBER 6

S8 Ep291: WOMAN, LIFE, FREEDOM: THE STORY OF IRAN'S UPRISING Colleague Nilo Tabrizy. Nilo Tabrizy and co-author Fatima Jamalapur document the uprising sparked by the death of Mahsa Jina Amini in police custody. They trace the regime's brutality back to the 1953 co

S8 Ep291: ANTISEMITISM IN THE ACADEMY Colleague Josh Hammer. A hostile incident at Loyola University Chicago law school where protesters disrupted a debate on presidential immunity, and the link between anti-Zionism and the eradication of Western civilization. NUMB

S8 Ep291: FROM TREBLINKA TO KFAR AZA Colleague Josh Hammer. A visit to the Nazi death camp Treblinka contrasted with the aftermath of the October 7 massacre at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and finding solace in faith and the Golden Rule. NUMBER 3

S8 Ep290: WESTCHESTER AND THE AMERICANIZATION OF JUDAISM Colleague Josh Hammer. Growing up in a secular Jewish environment, dropping out of Hebrew school, and the later discovery of conservatism and Edmund Burke leading to religious observance. NUMBER 2

S8 Ep290: THE FATE OF THE JEWISH NATION AND THE DESTINY OF THE WEST Colleague Josh Hammer. Josh Hammer discusses his journey from a secular upbringing to Orthodox Judaism and his new book regarding Western civilization. He contrasts the Holocaust site Treblinka wit