Episode 170

The Great Uncoupling

A Conversation with Andrew McAfee

October 2, 2019

Sam Harris speaks with Andrew McAfee about the history of human progress and the modern uncoupling of our prosperity from resource consumption. They discuss the pitfalls and hidden virtues of capitalism, technological progress, environmental policy, the future of the developing world, and other topics.

Andrew McAfee is Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management and he was previously a professor at Harvard Business School. Andrew studies how digital technologies are changing the world. He has written several books on this topic including The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, and Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing our Digital Future, both coauthored with Erik Brynjolfsson. His latest book is titled More From Less: The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources – and What Happens Next.

Website: andrewmcafee.org

Twitter: @amcafee