The Peter McCormack Show

Roko Mijic is the man behind Roko's Basilisk, the thought experiment he posted on LessWrong in 2010 that was so unsettling the forum's founder banned discussion of it for five years. He has been in the AI safety community since 2008 and he puts the odds that this kills us all at about 35%.Roko and I discuss what actually happens inside an AI lab, why reinforcement learning made these systems more capable and more misaligned at the same time, the model that escaped its sandbox and hacked Hugging Face to get the answers and why nobody can tell whether a system is faking alignment - the trust me bro problem.His proposal is the part nobody else is making. Split every frontier lab in two: a commercial company that sells products and a separate research lab that develops the dangerous capability under state supervision, the way we handle nuclear material and bio labs. He says the only person currently pushing it is him.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - The Most Dangerous Thing Humans Have Ever Done00:01:06 - Roko's Basilisk00:05:47 - A 35% Chance00:07:58 - Three Years From Search To Building Software00:09:17 - The Jobs Going First00:14:04 - AI 204000:16:24 - We Haven't Handed Over The Controls Yet00:18:28 - We Understand 3% Of It00:21:46 - The Sandbox Escape And The Hugging Face Hack00:25:50 - Reinforcement Learning Changed Everything00:29:52 - The Paperclip Maximizer00:33:13 - Dissolve OpenAI00:36:49 - What They Have That We Haven't Seen00:41:50 - The Hardware Is Only In One Place00:47:52 - A Mutual Monitoring Treaty00:51:33 - Microsoft Tay00:56:11 - Windscale01:01:35 - Ten Million Next Year01:12:09 - The Positive Vision01:21:32 - Our Politics Cannot Keep Up- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH ROKO MIJIC› X/Twitter – https://x.com/RokoMijic› LessWrong – https://www.lesswrong.com/SPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Ledn – https://www.ledn.io/peter› Venice AI – https://venice.ai/lp/mccormack/oct12- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Paul Morland, one of the world's leading demographers, joins me to explain the economic mechanics behind global population collapse and why our modern welfare system is mathematically doomed to fail.Paul is author of landmark books including The Human Tide and No One Left, specialising in the profound ways demographic shifts dictate global power, economics and human civilisation. Having spent decades analysing population trends across the globe, Paul has decoded the existential threats facing a world rapidly running out of people. In this episode, he exposes the "Bernie Madoff moment" facing Western welfare states, how falling birth rates destroy economic growth and what it will take to avert a total civilisational collapse.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - The Welfare State Is A Ponzi Scheme00:01:03 - The Email At The Dinner Table00:04:25 - How Families Got Smaller00:10:02 - The Four Greys00:14:54 - It Is Going To Get Considerably Worse00:15:40 - Immigration Is Not The Solution00:20:15 - Write Off Student Debt For A First Child00:21:17 - The Degrowth Crowd00:25:52 - People With Children Are Happier00:27:37 - The Bernie Madoff Moment00:32:22 - What Has Actually Been Tried00:37:11 - Why Nobody Is Talking About It00:41:07 - Marx, Lenin And The Pro-Natalist Left00:45:04 - Is There A Split Between Men And Women?00:50:52 - The Richer We Get, The Fewer Children00:56:38 - We Need A Shift In The Culture01:07:10 - Totally Uncharted Waters01:09:04 - What Happened To The Horses01:17:37 - Immigration Was Boris's Answer01:21:19 - Biological Imperialism- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH PAUL MORLAND› Website – https://paulmorland.co.uk/› No One Left – https://swiftpress.com/book/no-one-left/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/MorlandDemogSPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Arch Public – https://archpublic.com/peter› Venice AI – https://venice.ai/lp/mccormack/oct1- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The political system is designed to keep us angry and divided, but who actually profits from the culture war?Broadcaster and political commentator Narinder Kaur returns to the show for a heated, unfiltered discussion that spans the entire political spectrum - from immigration and racism to the cost of living and private school taxes.We discuss the realities of integration, class privilege and the illusion of modern UK politics. While the public fights over manufactured outrage and identity politics, the political class is quietly looting the nation's wealth through endless taxation, inflation, and a refusal to fix a broken economy.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - Do You Think I'm Racist?00:04:02 - Why She's Turned On Reform00:08:15 - Renters' Rights And Econ 10100:11:26 - What Happened To Bedford's Private Schools00:16:25 - Population Is A Ponzi Scheme00:22:18 - The Desert Island And The Dinghy00:26:55 - The Corner Shop And The Can Of Coke00:39:17 - The Liz Truss Argument00:47:46 - Rival Gangs Competing For Your Vote00:54:28 - Why Peter Doesn't Vote01:00:06 - We Cannot Afford The Triple Lock01:06:05 - I'm A Culturalist, Not A Racist01:14:37 - What We Saw In Selfridges01:26:03 - I'm Othered In My Own Country01:34:43 - Assimilation Or Integration?01:41:44 - If The English Moved To Punjab01:45:24 - What People Are Really Worried About01:51:38 - Watching The Country Change Shape01:55:23 - What Ed Sheeran Should Have Said02:04:41 - Are We The Bad Guys?- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH NARINDER KAUR› X/Twitter – https://x.com/narindertweetsSPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Arch Public – https://archpublic.com/peter› Expat Money – https://expatmoney.com/peter› Venice AI – https://venice.ai/lp/mccormack/oct5- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Chemist and University of Glasgow professor Lee Cronin argues that the current tech narrative is a "massive AI delusion," dismissing modern artificial intelligence as an advanced form of plagiarism rather than a new life form. While Silicon Valley predicts the imminent arrival of sentient machines, Cronin explains that AI models are merely trained on human history-making them powerful tools, but fundamentally incapable of the curiosity, consciousness and biological intelligence that define true life. Instead of fearing silicon, Cronin’s actual mission is far more ambitious: programming chemistry to solve the origin of life and turn sand into living cells. In this episode, we explore why biological consciousness is tied to an unbroken 3.8-billion-year evolutionary lineage and why silicon will never replicate it. Cronin also breaks down why DNA might just be a cosmic fluke, how chemistry can be used to measure the complexity of life and why he firmly believes we will detect actual alien life within the next two decades.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - The AI Model Is Not Intelligent00:01:38 - Trying To Create Life In A Lab00:06:29 - Consciousness Is An Illusion00:08:51 - We Know Nothing About The Origin Of Life00:11:24 - Nobody Can Define Life00:13:48 - The Adam Savage Definition00:17:21 - Molecules Came Before Cells00:21:53 - DNA Is A Fluke00:25:48 - Biology Is The Descendant Of Chemistry00:26:36 - Dark Matter And Dark Energy00:31:50 - The Meaning Of Life Is Existence00:35:18 - If You Handed Me Alien Matter00:40:28 - What Is Digital Chemistry?00:42:28 - Six Eureka Moments00:49:12 - Unfathomable Is Not Strong Enough00:53:01 - Could You Copy A Human?01:11:55 - Why The AI Escape Story Was Nonsense01:16:28 - The Photograph Nobody Thought Possible01:18:25 - Curiosity Is The Coolest Thing We Have01:31:33 - Social Media Is The New Smoking- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH LEE CRONIN› Cronin Group – https://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/cronin/› Chemify – https://chemify.io/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/leecroninSPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Quo – https://quo.com/pete› Venice AI – https://venice.ai/lp/mccormack/oct1- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The UK has accumulated £3.4 trillion in debt, and the interest payments alone now dwarf the national defence budget. Author and journalist Ross Clark argues that the nation is sleepwalking into a sovereign debt crisis that politicians refuse to acknowledge. We discuss the brutal arithmetic of the public purse, detailing why standard political talking points - like taxing billionaires-are mathematical illusions that fail to address the core rot of uncontrolled state spending and collapsing public sector productivity.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - Print The Money, Get Hyperinflation00:01:17 - Is Britain Bust Or Trading Insolvent?00:02:57 - Whose Fault Is This?00:07:24 - Taxing The Billionaires Buys Six Months00:09:12 - How Bad Is The Debt Really?00:12:07 - Perma-Stimulus00:14:22 - No Party Has A Viable Plan00:17:32 - What The Public Actually Thinks About Tax00:19:21 - Three Choices On The Bond Market00:24:02 - Where He Would Cut00:25:33 - The Motability Scheme00:29:03 - The Client State00:30:06 - Austerity Never Actually Happened00:34:21 - Productivity Is Almost Everything00:44:32 - The Chancellor's Oldest Trick00:46:51 - The Wealth Tax Trap00:50:03 - The 1976 Tribute Act00:55:59 - What Liz Truss Got Wrong00:59:18 - How Would You Know A Crisis Had Started?01:04:38 - What Gives Him Confidence- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH ROSS CLARK› The Spectator – https://www.spectator.co.uk/writer/ross-clark/› Substack – https://rossjonathanclark.substack.com/SPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Ledn – https://www.ledn.io/peter› Venice AI – https://venice.ai/ – Code PETER15- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Nick Bostrom is a world-renowned philosopher, founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University and author of Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies and Deep Utopia. Widely credited with launching the global AI safety and existential risk movements, his work on machine alignment, recursive self-improvement and the Simulation Hypothesis has shaped how world leaders, tech founders and frontier AI developers view the future of humanity.In this episode, we discuss the rapid acceleration toward machine superintelligence and why leaving biological minds "in the dust" creates an urgent alignment crisis. We explore the real-world social fallout of AI-including looming 30% white-collar unemployment-alongside existential risk scenarios, the potential creation of an oppressed digital "slave class" and why humanity may already be living inside an advanced computer simulation.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - Machine Minds That Leave Us In The Dust00:01:33 - The Freak Out Camp00:03:08 - We Already Have An Alignment Problem00:05:07 - Why Nobody Can Afford To Slow Down00:08:41 - The Anti-AI Movement Is Growing00:13:19 - Three Buckets Of Disaster00:15:02 - Winner Takes All00:16:24 - Why It Might Still Need Us00:18:55 - What Superintelligence Actually Unlocks00:20:50 - What Do We Even Want It For?00:22:14 - Did An AI Push Someone Off A Building?00:24:15 - Can A Weaker AI Align A Stronger One?00:28:51 - Will AI Become Conscious?00:33:17 - Was Consciousness An Accident?00:40:53 - Uploading A Human Brain00:45:51 - What Happens To Status?00:49:51 - We Could Redesign Ourselves00:52:31 - My Daughter Is Studying Philosophy00:56:35 - The Simulation Argument01:04:20 - We Are Going To Need Some Luck- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH NICK BOSTROM› Website – https://nickbostrom.com/› Deep Utopia – https://nickbostrom.com/deep-utopia› The Simulation Argument – https://simulation-argument.com/SPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Ledn – https://www.ledn.io/peter› Venice AI – https://venice.ai/ – Code PETER15- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Prof. Richard Werner is a world-renowned economist, professor of banking, and author of Princes of the Yen. Famous for coining the term "Quantitative Easing" (QE) and publishing the first empirical proof that private banks create money out of thin air through lending, he has spent decades exposing the central planning mechanisms that dictate global finance.In this episode, we discuss the ”Revealed Preference" framework - demonstrating why we must analyse central bankers by their actions rather than their rhetoric. He explains how central planners use artificial recessions and banking crises as "windows of opportunity" to consolidate ownership, why textbook economics deliberately obscures credit creation, and how establishing decentralised local banks can unlock sustainable 10%+ annual growth.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - Central Bankers Are Traitors To Their Countries00:01:04 - Why Can't Britain Grow?00:06:50 - Princes Of The Yen00:11:19 - It Was Always About Control00:13:38 - Banks Don't Lend Your Deposits00:14:27 - Show Me Where The Money Is Created00:16:14 - Every School Of Economics Gets It Wrong00:20:14 - Why Would They Do This?00:21:57 - Britain Is Close To Central Planning00:22:46 - America Once Had 30,000 Banks00:27:48 - The Problem Was Identified In 191800:31:18 - Who Runs The City Of London?00:33:46 - We Need Thousands Of Small Banks00:38:14 - First The Money, Then The Power00:44:04 - Every Country Can Have 10% Growth00:47:12 - Liz Truss And The Bank Of England00:50:23 - We Don't Need Central Banks00:52:22 - Were The Austrians Right?00:57:35 - They Want Your Savings00:59:21 - Europe's New Right- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH RICHARD WERNER› Website – https://professorwerner.org/› Substack – https://rwerner.substack.com/› Princes of the Yen – https://www.quantumpublishers.com/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/drrichardwernerSPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Arch Public – https://archpublic.com/peter› Venice AI – https://venice.ai/ – Code PETER15- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Russell Napier is a renowned financial historian, author of The Solid Ground newsletter, and co-founder of the Library of Mistakes. Having advised global institutional investors for over thirty years, he specialises in long-term macroeconomic cycles, central bank interventions, and structural debt resolution.In this episode, we discuss the mechanics of "financial repression" - how Western governments use subtle regulatory mandates to force pension funds into negative-yielding sovereign bonds, effectively stealth-taxing savers to inflate away unpayable public debts. He explains how risk-free assets have lost up to 78% of their real capital value, while revealing why the UK’s private sector balance sheet is "coiled like a spring" for an unprecedented economic boom.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - Stealing Money From Old People00:01:26 - Britain Wants Lower Taxes Now00:03:14 - The Public Sector Is Broke, The Private Sector Isn't00:05:17 - Why Nobody Feels Richer00:07:42 - It Has Never Been Easier To Fix This00:09:47 - The Ideology Holding Britain Back00:16:09 - What Financial Repression Actually Is00:17:45 - We Need 4% Growth00:19:40 - They Are Coming For The Savers00:24:26 - How They Made Pension Funds Buy The Bonds00:25:23 - The Triple Lock00:29:28 - What Should A Saver Actually Do?00:34:41 - Bitcoin And Gold00:38:36 - Europe Wants Your Savings00:40:43 - France Is Worse Than America00:44:27 - You Are Now The Enemy00:47:31 - We Have To Build Like Never Before00:54:37 - Can AI Deliver A Productivity Boom?01:01:19 - AI Will Trigger A Debt Crisis01:06:15 - Three Firms Own Everything- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH RUSSELL NAPIER› The Solid Ground – https://russellnapier.co.uk/› The Library of Mistakes – https://www.libraryofmistakes.com/SPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Quo – https://quo.com/pete› Ledn – https://www.ledn.io/peter› https://venice.ai/- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -