Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds | Lex Fridman Podcast #158

The following is a conversation with Zev Weinstein, a young man with a brilliant, bold, and hopeful mind that I had the great fortune of talking to on a recent afternoon. He happens to be Eric Weinstein's son, but I invited Zev not because of that, but because I got a chance to listen to him speak on a few occasions and was captivated by how deeply he thought about this world at such a young age, and I thought that it might be fun to explore this world of ours together with him for a time through this conversation. Quick mention of our sponsors: ExpressVPN, Grammarly grammar assistant, SimpliSafe home security, and Magic Spoon low-carb cereal. So the choice is privacy, grammar, safety, or health. Choose wisely, my friends, and if you wish, click the sponsor links below to get a discount and to support this podcast. As a side note, let me say that Zev acknowledges the fear associated with participating in public discourse and is brave enough to join in at a young age, to push forward, to change his mind publicly, to learn, to articulate difficult, nuanced ideas, and grow from the conversations that follow. In this, I hope he leads the next generation of minds that is joining and steering the collective intelligence of this big ant colony we think of as our human civilization. If you enjoy this thing, subscribe on YouTube, review it on Apple Podcasts, follow on Spotify, support on Patreon, or connect with me on Twitter @lexfriedman. And now, here's my conversation with Zev Weinstein. You've said that philosophy becomes more dangerous in difficult times. What do you mean by that?

Interestingly, I think I mean two things by that, and I think firstly I should clarify, when I say philosophy, I sort of mean in a- a very traditional sense, just thinking, ideation, and that could be reconsidering our notions of self in a very traditional sense which we consider philosophy, or that could be, like, technological, uh, innovation. I think it's important to recognize all of these as philosophy so that we can not question whether it's important to promote thought. I think the other thing I should clarify is when I say difficult times, I mean times when nothing is growing and so the risk for real conflict is much greater because people are incentivized to fight over the things which already exist. I think when times are not difficult, the people with the greatest power are usually the people who are very creative, generating a lot, and that really requires ideation or philosophy of some sort. I think when times become stagnant, the important successful people become the people who are very good at protecting their own pieces of the pie and taking others. Um, I think that those people have to be very opposed to any sort of thinking that could restructure society or conventions about who s- should succeed. And so firstly, I mean by that, that it becomes much more dangerous- dangerous for a person to think deeply and question during a time when the important people are those concerned with making sure no one rocks the boat. You know, one example of this would be, like, Socrates and his execution, because everyone was happy enough to sit through his questions before, uh, there was war and poverty and distress, and afterwards, it just became too dangerous. The other thing I mean by that is that the consequences of thinking deeply carry much greater potential for real catastrophe when everyone is desperate. So, like, for example, you know, the Communist Manifesto was probably much more dangerous, uh, during early 1900s Russia than it was during the 1848 revolutions because I think people were in much worse shape, uh, and desperate people are very willing to dive into anything new that might bring the future without fully calculating whatever the consequences or risks might be. So it is both more dangerous for a person to have creative ideas, and those ideas are more dangerous when t- when times are tough.