This episode is an interview I did with the new podcast Information Theory. The host of Information Theory is an anonymous technologist trained in physics and machine learning.

• Information Theory Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InformationTheoryPod
• Information Theory Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PbxeOYInRuH4DBXOAOq5u?si=q90fZh8PRUut5c1XG4K7Sw

• (00:00) - Introduction to Information Theory podcast
• (01:19) - The education of a physicist
• (10:53) - Computational genomics
• (19:40) - Thinking styles and collaboration in theoretical physics
• (26:08) - Scientific progress and the Great Stagnation
• (40:39) - University research administration
• (45:05) - Reproducibility crisis
• (57:58) - Impact of basic research
• (01:03:16) - Critique of NIH and biomedical research
• (01:06:48) - Personal reflections on Trump's re-election and an inside view of the 47 transition
• (01:12:37) - Silicon Valley and US politics
• (01:15:30) - Concerns and hope for America's future

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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to manifold1podcast@gmail.com or Steve on X @hsu_steve.

Pascal Lottaz is Associate Professor at Kyoto University’s Faculty of Law & Hakubi

Center. His research area is Neutrality Studies - the study of neutrality as a concept in international relations, sociology, international law, diplomacy, political science, security, and history.

• Follow Pascal on X @Plottaz
• Pascal's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@neutralitystudies

• (00:00) - Professor Pascal Lattaz's background, early life, and experiences in Japan
• (14:17) - Neutrality in international relations
• (20:07) - Ukraine's struggle for neutrality
• (28:44) - Debating the Ukraine conflict
• (37:50) - Physics, social sciences, and observer-independent reality
• (46:13) - The importance of dissent in open societies
• (47:01) - Russian resilience, NATO, escalation strategies, and potential outcomes
• (51:43) - European realism and U.S. influence
• (56:16) - Incentive structures and NATO dynamics
• (01:04:11) - Japan's strategic position and U.S. alliance
• (01:13:49) - Potential conflicts and proxy wars in East Asia
• (01:30:35) - Philippines' strategic dilemma
• (01:36:26) - Concluding thoughts

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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to manifold1podcast@gmail.com or Steve on X @hsu_steve.

Han Feizi is the pseudonym of a columnist for Asia Times, who covers the Chinese economy, technology, and US-China competition. The author lives in Beijing, and has an extensive background in finance and investment banking.

Han Feizi's articles for Asia Times: https://asiatimes.com/author/han-feizi/

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to the guest: Han Feizi
01:39 What it's like in Beijing right now

06:38 Modern Conveniences in Beijing

12:11 What the economy feels like for ordinary people

19:09 China's economic structure: consumption, infrastructure investment, Michael Pettis

30:32 Currency Valuation and PPP: real PRC is significantly larger than US economy

31:45 US high living standards and manufacturing competitiveness

34:13 Globalization and its discontents

40:15 Reversing globalization and the myth of American exceptionalism

45:58 China's increasingly high quality standards and quality of life

58:09 Whither China? Xi Jinping

Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.

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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to manifold1podcast@gmail.com or Steve on X @hsu_steve.

This is a crossover episode with the Seeking Truth From Facts podcast.

• (00:00) - Iranian missile attack vs Israel and missile defense
• (13:10) - Is there potential for a 1973-style oil crisis?
• (21:41) - Is NATO getting tired of the proxy war in Ukraine?
• (25:43) - Why has Europe declined relatively since 2008 and what are the consequences of said decline?
• (30:13) - Is procyclical European fiscal policy to blame?
• (34:51) - Has China's infrastructure boom been a white elephant?
• (41:37) - China's energy grid and solar energy transision
• (46:57) - Will India catch up to or overtake China?
• (57:06) - Is liberal democracy really necessary for long-term economic prosperity?
• (01:00:14) - How did Lee Kuan Yew transform Singapore?

Links:

Iran ballistic missiles and missile defense

https://stevehsu.substack.com/p/iran-vs-israel-implications-for-missile

Pershing 2 Missile

https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1843450614552113316

Russia-Ukraine war and Iran blowback

https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1844551899103863154

India development

https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1814994391502667953

https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/1815047688829706279

Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.

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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to manifold1podcast@gmail.com or Steve on X @hsu_steve.

Samo Burja founded Bismarck Analysis, a consulting firm that investigates the political and institutional landscape of society. He is a Senior Research Fellow in Political Science at the Foresight Institute where he advises on how institutions can shape the future of technology. Since 2024, he has chaired the editorial board of Palladium Magazine, a non-partisan publication that explores the future of governance and society through international journalism, long-form analysis, and social philosophy. From 2020 to 2023, he was a Research Fellow at the Long Now Foundation where he studied how institutions can endure for centuries and millennia.

Samo writes and speaks on history, institutions, and strategy with a focus on exceptional leaders that create new social and political forms. Image has systematized this approach as “Great Founder Theory.”

Steve and Samo discuss:

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (01:38) - Meet Samo Burja: Founder of Bismarck Analysis
• (03:17) - Palladium Magazine: A West Coast Publication
• (06:37) - The Unique Culture of Silicon Valley
• (12:53) - Inside Bismarck Analysis: Services and Clients
• (21:35) - The Role of Technology in Global Innovation
• (32:13) - The Influence of Rationalists and Effective Altruists
• (48:07) - European Tech Policies and Global Competition
• (49:28) - The Role of Taiwan and China in Tech Manufacturing
• (51:12) - Geopolitical Dynamics and Strategic Alliances
• (52:49) - China's Provincial Power and Industrial Strategy
• (56:02) - Urbanization and Demography, Ancient Society
• (59:41) - Intellectual Pursuits and Cultural Dynamics
• (01:04:09) - Intellectuals, SF, and Global Influence
• (01:13:45) - Fertility Rates, Urbanization, and Forgotten Migration
• (01:22:24) - Interest in Cultural Dynamics and Population Rates
• (01:26:03) - Daily Life as an Intellectual

Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.

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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU.

Please send any questions or suggestions to manifold1podcast@gmail.com or Steve on X @hsu_steve.

This is a crossover episode in which https://x.com/loubohan interviews me for his podcast Deus Ex Machina.

I was obviously in an exuberant mood for this interview - it's one of my favorites!

Deus Ex Machina podcast:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7mXUfNJdNnOjGfu6VGactr?si=Y3j1OZG4QsGdPhXd8dKsrw…

Timestamps:

• (00:00) - Growing up in Iowa. Athletics, Chinese culture. KMT and military family background.
• (11:48) - Hearing about the Cultural Revolution from my dad: his family experienced it firsthand in Zhejiang. Meanwhile, US experts and academics were entirely deluded about reality in PRC
• (20:55) - "Experts" are often miscalibrated
• (35:03) - Physicists and finance. Was Charlie Munger right to say it's a waste of talent to channel top brains into finance?
• (45:15) - Hedgehogs, Foxes, and Eagles. Polymathy.
• (48:41) - Development of modern China as the greatest story of the last 50 years. My first visit to China: the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in 1992. US-China competition and the future of Asian Americans.
• (56:52) - Genomic Prediction. Genomics of cognitive ability. Leftists holding back genetic science. PING = NIH-funded Pediatric Imagining, Neurocognition, and Genetics study. Stephen J. Gould was a fraud. Asian culture (pragmatic realism) and resistance to woken...
• (01:05:20) - Physics and Free Will. Meat machines programmed by evolution to have an illusion of self?
• (01:10:04) - Copenhagen Interpretation of QM: Is there true randomness in Physics? Many Worlds, Foundations of QM, and groupthink in modern physics.
• (01:19:09) - Christianity, raised as a Methodist by my mother, whose family has been Christian since the 19th century. Religious Experience vs Physics viewpoint. Meat machines programmed by evolution to have mystical religious feelings?
• (01:21:28) - Raising children, family, happiness, the meaning of life in view of my father's life
• (01:24:34) - The meaning of life, "All is Vanity" (Ecclesiastes), Religion

Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.

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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to manifold1podcast@gmail.com or Steve on X @hsu_steve.

This is a crossover episode in which Alf of the Seeking Truth from Facts podcast interviews Steve Hsu about the Chinese economy and political system, and US-China competition.

Seeking Truth From Facts podcast: https://substack.com/@seekingtruthfromfacts/p-148705853

Steve and Alf discuss:

• (00:00) - Introduction to the Podcast Collaboration
• (00:48) - Steve Hsu's Background and Expertise
• (02:22) - US-China Geopolitical Dynamics
• (28:44) - China's Political System: Meritocracy vs. Autocracy
• (32:23) - China's Path to Liberalization: Past, Present, and Future
• (45:57) - Geopolitical Dynamics: China, Russia, and the West

–

Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to manifold1podcast@gmail.com or Steve on X @hsu_steve.