

The Jim Rutt Show
The Jim Rutt Show
Crisp conversations with critical thinkers at the leading edge of science, technology, politics, and social systems.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 12, 2021 • 1h 30min
EP121 Broke in America with Joanne Goldblum & Colleen Shaddox
Joanne Goldblum & Colleen Shaddox talk to Jim about their book, Broke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending U.S. Poverty...
Joanne Goldblum & Colleen Shaddox talk to Jim about their book, Broke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending U.S. Poverty. They cover the "give a man fish" fallacy, poverty quicksand, two vs one-parent households, nurture vs nature, poverty's impact on children, poverty definition & demographics, rural vs urban poverty, water access issues & pricing, malnutrition, low-cost food plan, time poverty, National Diaper Bank Network, affordable housing & zoning laws, building codes & tiny homes, gov. commitment to social welfare / security / health, UBI vs guaranteed income, a national jobs guarantee, minimum wage, poverty advocates & activists, and more.
Episode Transcript

Apr 8, 2021 • 1h 4min
EP120 James Ehrlich on ReGen Villages Part 2
James Ehrlich & Jim continue their conversation on ReGen Villages: smart houses & neighborhoods, regulatory hurdles, status/progress, and much more...
James Ehrlich & Jim continue their conversation on ReGen Villages. They cover smart houses in dumb neighborhoods, defining smart, what COVID exposed about cities, ReGen Village dynamics & their permacultural core, rural jobs, UBI, rural regulatory challenges, village funding & costs, electric self-sufficiency approach, media & making ReGen Villages sexy, protecting villages with kindness, ReGen Villages status & progress, and more.
Episode Transcript
Mentions & Recommendations
JRS: EP103 James Ehrlich on ReGen Villages
ReGen Villages
James Ehrlich is Founder of ReGen Villages a Stanford University spin-off company realizing the future of living in regenerative and resilient communities, with critical life support of organic food, clean water, renewable energy and circular nutritional flows at the neighborhood scale. James is also an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Stanford University School of Medicine Flourishing Project, Faculty at Singularity University, Senior Fellow at NASA Ames Research Center and (Obama) White House Appointee for Regenerative Infrastructure. Ehrlich founded ReGen Villages as a Dutch (EU) impact-profit company in 2016, with its patented VillageOS™ operating system software to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to define, design and autonomously manage regenerative neighborhoods that promote healthy long-term outcomes for residents and wider communities. ReGen Villages are planned for global replication and scale in collaboration with established industrial partners, universities, governments and sovereign wealth and pension funds, enabling an optimistic post-COVID green transition.

Apr 5, 2021 • 1h 15min
EP119 Max Borders on Post-Collapse
Max Borders & Jim continue their last conversation on his book, After Collapse: The End of America and the Rebirth of Her Ideals...
Max Borders & Jim continue their last conversation on his book, After Collapse: The End of America and the Rebirth of Her Ideals. They cover fully automated luxury communism, utilizing traditional economics & markets, Elinor Ostrom's commons, institutional experimentation, post-scarcity economics, Joseph Pine's experience economy, bottom-up collaboration, masculine & feminine, eros & thanatos, the law of flow, Holacracy, limitations of electoral democracy, state secession, cellular democracy, global collective action, common vs civil law, Polyarchy, guild credentialism, and more.
Episode Transcript
Mentions & Recommendations
After Collapse: The End of America and the Rebirth of Her Ideals
JRS: EP115 Max Borders on America’s Collapse
JRS: EP76 Max Borders on the Social Singularity
Signals and Boundaries by John Holland
Antifragile by Nassim Taleb
JRS: EP111 Anatol Lieven on Climate & Nationalism
Max Borders is a futurist, a theorist, a published author and an entrepreneur. He is the author of The Social Singularity and the founder and Executive Director of Social Evolution—a non-profit organization dedicated to liberating humanity through innovation. Max is also co-founder of the Voice & Exit event and former editor at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE).

Mar 30, 2021 • 1h 4min
EP118 Matt Ridley on How Innovation Works
Matt Ridley talks to Jim about his latest book, How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom...
Matt Ridley talks to Jim about his latest book, How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom. They cover innovation vs invention, improbable order, the value of technological innovation, the importance of the steam engine, innovation as a team sport, the history of vaccination, fossil fuel's role in the industrial revolution, negative impacts of patents, the light bulb & simultaneous invention, water chlorination, the Haber–Bosch process, the green revolution, GMO's, innovation opposition, nuclear power, the western innovation famine, Matt's bet against Elon Musk's hyperloop technology, and much more.
Episode Transcript
Mentions & Recommendations
How Innovation Works
The Red Queen
Genome
Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Dan Dennett
Matt Ridley's books have sold over a million copies, been translated into 31 languages and won several awards. He joined the House of Lords in February 2013 and has served on the science and technology select committee and the artificial intelligence select committee. He was founding chairman of the International Centre for Life in Newcastle. He created the Mind and Matter column in the Wall Street Journal in 2010, and was a columnist for the Times 2013-2018. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Mar 23, 2021 • 1h 54min
EP117 Samo Burja on Societal Decline
Samo Burja talks to Jim about his book, Great Founder Theory: theories & limits of history, institutions, design vs evolution, declining empires, and much more...
Samo Burja talks to Jim about his freely available book, Great Founder Theory. They cover long-lasting societies, theories & limits of history, cultures that prioritize documentation, long-term priorities, institutional organization, social technologies, design vs evolution, what makes a great founder, times of slow change, market reform dynamics, censorship, social coordination costs, social media reformation, centralized vs decentralized declining empires, closed vs open academic journals, pre-registered research, post-modernism, noble lies, technology & society connections, institutional decline, the overproduction of elites, prioritizing functionality & maintaining institutions, psychology's impact on advertising & culture, live vs dead players, borrowed vs owned power, the succession problem & possible solutions, the dangers of risk aversion, political transitions, and much more.
Episode Transcript
Mentions & Recommendations
Samo's Website
JRS: EP80 Daniel Schmachtenberger on Better Sensemaking
The Nature of Technology by Brian Arthur
Jim's article, "In Search of the 5th Attractor"
GameB
Samo's article, "The Centralized Internet Is Inevitable"
JRS: EP12 Brian Nosek – Open Science and Reproducibility
JRS: EP94 Shahin Farshchi on Self-Driving Tech
The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
Samo Burja is the founder and President of Bismarck Analysis, a consulting firm that specializes in institutional analysis for clients in North America and Europe. Bismarck uses the foundational sociological research that Samo and his team have conducted over the past decade to deliver unique insights to clients about institutional design and strategy. Samo’s studies focus on the social and material technologies that provide the foundation for healthy human societies, with an eye to engineering and restoring the structures that produce functional institutions. He has authored articles and papers on his findings. His manuscript, Great Founder Theory, is available online. He is also a Research Fellow at the Long Now Foundation and Senior Research Fellow in Political Science at the Foresight Institute. Samo has spoken about his findings at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Y Combinator’s YC 120 conference, the Reboot American Innovation conference in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. He spends most of his time in California and his native Slovenia.

Mar 15, 2021 • 1h 24min
EP116 Doug Erwin on the Cambrian Explosion
Doug Erwin talks to Jim about his book, The Cambrian Explosion: The Construction of Animal Biodiversity...
Doug Erwin talks to Jim about his book, The Cambrian Explosion: The Construction of Animal Biodiversity. They cover the unprecedentedly rapid evolution of life seen during the Cambrian explosion (approx 540 million BCE), archeological dating techniques & accuracy, micro-evolution vs macro-evolution, environmental potential, ecological opportunity and challenges, genetic/developmental contexts, continental landmass locations, pre-Cambrian multicellularity, ocean oxygen levels, snowball earth epoch, predation as an evolutionary driver, changes in species physical sizes, development of circulatory systems and neurons, brain evolution, niche construction & ecosystem engineering, evolutionary investment strategies, Cambrian taxonomic diversity, the Fermi paradox, and much more.
Episode Transcript
Doug Erwin is currently Senior Scientist and Curator of Paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D. C, and has been since 1990 and has been a Senior Scientist since 2004. His primary research interests are in evolutionary novelty and innovation across biological, cultural and technological domains; the evolution of animal regulatory genomes; the origin and early evolution of animals; and the end-Permian mass extinction. Various field projects have taken Doug repeatedly to China, South Africa and Namibia, and he has done geological field work in various other regions as well. Erwin received an A.B. from Colgate University in 1980 and a Ph. D from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1985. He is the author or editor of a number of books. At SFI, he has been a Resident faculty member (part-time), Chair of the Science Steering Committee, Chair of Faculty, and is now a member of the External faculty.

Mar 12, 2021 • 53min
Currents 029: Vance Crowe on the “Well-Actually” Graph
Jim talks to Vance Crowe about what led him to work at Monsanto, how he discovered & uses the "Well_Actually" Graph, GameB, VR & much more...
In this currents episode, Jim talks to Vance Crowe about what led him to work at Monsanto & the dynamics of its public narrative, how he discovered the "Well_Actually" Graph, limitations of PR firms & communications training, the value of skeptics & deep understanding, navigating the "Well-Actually" Graph, disagreeable nerds, GameB & alignment beyond agreement, VR as a strong-link medium, and more.
Episode Transcript
The Vance Crowe Podcast
The Red Queen by Matt Ridley
Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Dan Dennett
JRS: EP72 Joscha Bach on Minds, Machines & Magic
JRS: EP87 Joscha Bach on Theories of Consciousness
Joscha's talk on Computational Meta-Psychology
Oculus Quest 2
Wander Oculus App
Vance Crowe is a communications consultant that has worked for corporations and international organizations around the world. Vance helps organizations realize why the general public doesn’t agree with their perspective and offers new ways to communicate effectively, resolve disagreements, and build rapport with critics and stakeholders. He is the former Director of Millennial Engagement for Monsanto, previously worked as a Communications Strategist for the World Bank Group, as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer stationed in Kenya, as a Communications Coordinator at a National Public Radio affiliate in Northern California, and as a deckhand on an eco-tourism ship that traveled the Western Hemisphere. He holds a degree in communications from Marquette University and a master’s degree in cross-cultural negotiations from the Seton Hall School of Diplomacy.

Mar 8, 2021 • 1h 22min
EP115 Max Borders on America’s Collapse
Max Borders with Jim on his new book, After Collapse: The End of America and the Rebirth of Her Ideals: GameB, complexity, climate, wokism...
Max Borders talks to Jim about his new book, After Collapse: The End of America and the Rebirth of Her Ideals. They cover the definition of collapse, the potential role of debt in triggering a collapse, what a post-collapse scene might be like, cryptocurrencies, GameA vs GameB, complex vs complicated systems, the risks of scientism, climate change and its priority, the commons, mitigating negative externalities, the role of emergence, the negatives of funding moonshots, the cult of Elon Musk, Evonomics & the invisible hand, crony capitalism, negative impacts of wokism, and much more.
Episode Transcript
Mentions & Recommendations
JRS: EP76 Max Borders on the Social Singularity
After Collapse: The End of America and the Rebirth of Her Ideals
Cardano
JRS: EP56 Art Brock on Holo Tech
Eric Weinstein
JRS: EP73 James Lindsay on Cynical Theories
Max Borders is a futurist, a theorist, a published author and an entrepreneur. He is the author of The Social Singularity and the founder and Executive Director of Social Evolution—a non-profit organization dedicated to liberating humanity through innovation. Max is also co-founder of the Voice & Exit event and former editor at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE).

Mar 1, 2021 • 1h 23min
EP114 John Bunzl on his Simpol Solution
John Bunzl talks to Jim about the multi-faceted approach to global cooperation he created, Simpol - The Simultaneous Policy...
John Bunzl talks to Jim about his Simpol approach to global cooperation. They cover simultaneous implementation, connections to GameB, feasible viable support, the first-mover disadvantage, regulatory chill, the veto issue, destructive global competition, utilizing competition & cooperation, global problems, the myth of sovereign nations, wokism vs trumpism, the dead-ends of corporate social responsibility & the global justice movement, the failure of political targets, three core tactics of the Simpol solution, policy creation process & trade-offs, nation vs word-centric consciousness, biological & evolutionary connections, and more.
Episode Transcript
Mentions & Recommendations
Simpol.org
The Simpol Solution Book
National Popular Vote
The Logic of Collective Action by Mancur Olson
Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter
Competitive Advantage by Michael Porter
Bret Weinstein
JRS: EP111 Anatol Lieven on Climate & Nationalism
John Bunzl is a global political activist and businessman. In 2000, he founded Simpol, a way for citizens to use their votes to drive politicians towards global cooperation. It has supporters in over 100 countries and enjoys the support of a growing number of Members of Parliament around the world. He has authored or co-authored a number of books including Monetary Reform – Making it Happen!, People-centred Global Governance – Making it Happen!, and Global Domestic Politics. He has published numerous articles on global governance in the Journal of Integral Theory & Practice. He has lectured widely, including to The Schumacher Society, The World Trade Organisation, The Lucis Trust, and various universities.

Feb 25, 2021 • 43min
Currents 028: Simon DeDeo on Explaining Explanation
Jim & Simon DeDeo on his recent paper, "From Probability to Consilience: How Explanatory Values Implement Bayesian Reasoning"...
In this currents episode, Jim talks to Simon DeDeo about his recently co-authored (with Zachary Wojtowicz) paper, "From Probability to Consilience: How Explanatory Values Implement Bayesian Reasoning". They cover its connection to AI & human development, description vs power in explanation, the value & challenge of using multiple conceptual lenses, the difference between powerful & unifying explanations, co-explanation, the Aristotelian aspect of this work, conspiracies, the value & complexity of simplicity, choosing explanation approaches, understanding their vices, and more.
Episode Transcript
Simon & Zach's paper, "From Probability to Consilience..."
JRS: EP1 Simon DeDeo – The Evolution of Consciousness
JRS Currents 001: Simon DeDeo on University Censorship
JRS: Extra: On Post-COVID-19 Impact with Simon DeDeo
Simon DeDeo is an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences, and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He is also affiliated with the Cognitive Science program at Indiana University, where he runs the Laboratory for Social Minds. For three years, from 2010 to 2013, he was an Omidyar Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. He and his collaborators study how people use words and signals, and the ideas they represent, to create a world. They have studied a diverse set of systems that includes the French Revolution, the courtrooms of Victorian London, the research strategies of Charles Darwin, the insurgency of modern-day Afghanistan, the emergent bureaucracy of Wikipedia, the creation of power hierarchies among the social animals, and the collusions and conspiracies of petrol stations in the American Midwest. They combine data from the contemporary world, archives from the deep past, statistical tools from cosmology, and models of human cognition from Bayesian reasoning and information theory to understand how cultures grow, flourish, innovate, and evolve.


