#41 – Michael Bhaskar on Big Ideas and the Great Stagnation

Hear This Idea

Michael Bhaskar is a writer, researcher and publisher. He is a former consultant Writer in Residence at DeepMind, and most recently he wrote a book called Human Frontiers, which tries to answer the question: “why has the flow of big, world-changing ideas slowed down?”

In our conversation, we discuss —

• The 'Adams curve'
• How so much of the modern world was invented in exceptional 20th century research institutes such as Bell Labs and Xerox PARC
• Evidence for slowdown in new ideas from analysing the patent record
• Whether scientific progress is limitless, or whether there are things we'll never be able to know
• Whether 'big ideas' are also slowing in the arts
• Reasons for optimism about progress in big ideas, especially from advanced AI

You can read more about the topics we cover in this episode's write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/michael/.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to get in touch through our website. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. If you want to support the show more directly, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!