Michael Stevens: Vsauce

Michael Stevens is the creator of Vsauce, one of the most popular educational YouTube channel in the world, with over 15 million subscribers and over 1.7 billion views. His videos often ask and answer questions that are both profound and entertaining, spanning topics from physics to psychology. As part of his channel he created 3 seasons of Mind Field, a series that explored human behavior.

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on ApplePodcasts or support it on Patreon.

This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (AppStore, Google Play), use code “LexPodcast”. 

Episode links:
Vsauce YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/Vsauce
Vsauce Twitter: https://twitter.com/tweetsauce
Vsauce Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/electricpants/

Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

00:00– Introduction
02:26– Psychology
03:59– Consciousness
06:55– Free will
07:55– Perception vs reality
09:59– Simulation
11:32– Science
16:24– Flat earth
27:04– Artificial Intelligence
30:14– Existential threats
38:03– Elon Musk and the responsibility of having a large following
43:05– YouTube algorithm
52:41– Mortality and the meaning of life