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 Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon.

This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, 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