Political philosopher Hannah Arendt’s 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil became a classic in part by introducing the concept in noted its subtitle. She argued that the full context of Eichmann’s actions in helping organize and carry out the Holocaust weren’t fully elucidated by his trial, which thus obscured, “the lesson that this long course in human wickedness had taught us—the lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil”. Not to say that what FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is currently on trial for rises to the level of evil, but I’ve been struck over and over by the banality and seemingly utter disregard for…
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60 Minutes Interview of Michael Lewis Contains Two Doozies
Superstar author promotes new SBF book
In the US, books are always published on Tuesdays, and around my house, the Tuesday of a new Michael Lewis book brings heated anticipation. And not just cuz we own a bookstore. Liar’s Poker, Money Ball, The Big Short, Flash Boys and Next are all key books in our household. And even the misses — The Blind Side and Trail Fever come to mind — offer a few insights and some great turns of Crawfish phrase. So a book by a gifted storyteller about crypto’s most impossible to ignore character is naturally of great interest to Modern Consensus. But Lewis’ appearance last night on 60 Minutes to promote his book…
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Cameron Winklevoss, Co-Founder of Gemini, at Day 3 of TechCrunch Disrupt, May 6, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for TechCrunch)Did Cameron Winklevoss Libel Barry Silbert?
Exceptionally nasty spat has Gemini chief accusing Genesis head of ‘fraud’
The crypto world is abuzz about the can’t-look-away anger between Cameron Winklevoss and Gemini on one side versus Barry Silbert and Genesis on the other. As fun as it would be to see this cage match as the undercard on a Musk-Zuckerberg UFC dream bout, it will actually unfold in a courtroom in State Supreme Court in Manhattan sometime this fall. Last Friday, Gemini sued Genesis, claiming that “Defendants DCG and Silbert engaged in a fraudulent scheme to induce a variety of depositors, including Gemini users for whom Gemini acted as custodian and agent, to continue to lend huge amounts of cryptocurrency and U.S. Dollars to DCG’s subsidiary Genesis Global…
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Harnessing AI’s Limitless Potential
Head of Machine Learning at Iterate.ai Calls for Less Hysteria, More Nuance
The recent op-ed published by The New York Times, “The AI Duopoly: Microsoft and Google’s Stranglehold on Our Future,” makes clear that a more balanced discourse around artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on society is warranted. While Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson present a dire and pessimistic view of AI as a tool wielded primarily by Big Tech, the reality is that AI holds vast potential for diverse actors and contexts. Like all technological advancements, AI is not solely the domain of a few tech giants but a catalyst of innovation for businesses of all sizes. With a thoughtful approach and careful implementation, AI can help level the playing field, enabling…
