Tech Acceleration vs Deceleration: e/acc vs. d/acc debate | Erik Torenberg & Haseeb Qureshi
Bankless
Bankless
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2024
⏱️ 103 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Erik Torenburg and Haseeb Quereshi join us for today's debate.
Should we accelerate or decelerate our tech progress? How about when it comes to something as powerful as AI? This is not just a debate in tech circles - this is a political debate that poised to define the next decade.
We’ve had leaders from both sides of the debate on the podcast - episodes with Elizer Yudkowski and Beff Jezos. You’ve heard what they think.
Today’s episode is a discussion and at times a debate on these opinions to help you think through where you stand on this issue - Haseeb Quereshi tends toward the EA side which favors more caution and regulatory intervention around AI while Erik Torenburg tends toward the e/acc side of the issue which favors faster progress and lighter touch.
------
📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24
https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium
------
🔐 SAFE | USE SAFE, GET REWARDED. CHECK OUT SAFE PASS
https://bankless.cc/SafePass_NL
------
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:
🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE
https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2
🔗CELO | CEL2 COMING SOON
https://bankless.cc/Celo
🔐 SAFE | USE SAFE, GET REWARDED
https://bankless.cc/SafePass_NL
⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM
https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum
🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK
https://bankless.cc/Mantle
🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION
https://bankless.cc/toku
🏙️ CONSENSUS | SAVE 20% WITH CODE BANKLESS
https://bankless.cc/4aykesD
------
TIMESTAMPS
00:00:00 Start
00:03:51 Intro To Haseeb and Erik
00:05:58 Definind EA
00:11:30 Reflecting on EA
00:19:23 Erik's Case For E/Acc
00:23:05 Defining E/Acc
00:27:18 The Problem with E/Acc & Humanism
00:34:20 How Big is This Debate Really?
00:46:31 AI Safety & Regulatory Capture
00:56:39 EA's Political Affiliation
00:59:43 Extinction Risk
01:11:04 Politicizing the Debate
01:19:56 The Pro Tech Case
01:24:08 Productive Tension
01:28:33 AI Ethics vs Safety
01:32:53 Pick a Side
------
RESOURCES
Haseeb Qureshi
https://twitter.com/hosseeb
Erik Torenberg
https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg
------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | If you look at the companies that are actually accelerating, |
| 0:03.4 | they're mostly EAs, right? |
| 0:04.8 | Which like kind of fucks up the narrative, |
| 0:06.5 | which is like, oh, the EAs are ruining everything, |
| 0:08.9 | they're slowing everyone down, |
| 0:09.9 | and like it's the accelerationist who want to go fast. |
| 0:12.1 | The accelerationists are mostly |
| 0:14.4 | not building anything. They're just like on the sidelines cheerleading for this |
| 0:17.6 | imaginary team that they think is in the driver's seat when it's reality it's |
| 0:21.2 | fucking EA people who are even thinking that this was possible in the first place right it was the it was all the VCs who were not investing in any of the stuff |
| 0:27.6 | because they thought it was so impractical and it was worth it is the EA's who believed that AI risk was a real thing because AI was going to become really powerful really quickly who created all this ship. |
| 0:40.2 | Welcome to Bankless where today we're exploring the frontier of the tech acceleration versus deceleration debate. |
| 0:47.0 | This is Ryan John Adams. |
| 0:48.0 | I'm here with David Hoffman and we're here to help you become more bankless. |
| 0:52.0 | The question on today's episode, I think a question that is |
| 0:54.9 | everywhere right now, should we accelerate or decelerate our tech progress? |
| 0:59.3 | And how about when it comes to something as powerful as AI? |
| 1:03.2 | This isn't just a debate in tech circles, |
| 1:05.0 | at least not any longer. |
| 1:06.3 | This is now a political debate. |
| 1:08.2 | I think it's poised to define the next decade. |
| 1:11.2 | We've had leaders from both sides of the debate on the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bankless, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Bankless and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.