Open Inquiry

Danylo Zubaryev

Join Danylo Zubaryev as he openly explores a wide range of complex, important, and controversial topics relating to psychology and philosophy. Driven by curiosity, Danylo strives to ask the most fundamental questions to create a clearer picture of topics such as mental health, art, morality, spirituality, life and death, relationships and communication. Follow on social media and listen on your favorite platform: https://linktr.ee/openinquiry Theme song: Somnambulist Quintet (Darren Johnson) - "Asceticism" Artwork by Senka Stankovic: www.senkastankovic.ca

Episodes

  1. 4h ago

    7. How Dangerous is AI Really? (with Duncan Sabien)

    Danylo speaks with Duncan Sabien about the risks of developing artificial intelligence. They discuss plausible AI doomsday scenarios, the nature of intelligence, the rate of AI improvement, the AI arms race dynamic, AI consciousness, the challenge of implementing goals/values in AI, the need for global collaboration and regulation, estimating the likelihood of AI apocalypse, incentives for AI cheating and dishonesty, the influence of AI on education and critical thinking, and practical steps that anybody can take to positively impact AI safety going forward. Duncan began work in the field of AI safety in 2015 and is currently the Head of Communications at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, which he joined in 2019. This conversation was recorded on August 4, 2026. Sources cited: Hugging Face incident Duncan’s article “Deadly by Default” https://aistop.watch/ Other links: ⁠Follow Open Inquiry on social media and listen on your favorite platform⁠ Read Danylo's articles on ⁠⁠⁠Medium⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠ Contact Danylo by email: danylo.zubaryev@gmail.com Artwork by Senka Stankovic Theme song by Somnambulist Quintet (Darren Johnson) Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 1:37 Duncan’s background in AI 3:27 Plausible AI doomsday scenarios 14:48 Will AI ever be powerful enough to kill us? 19:27 Does it matter if AI is conscious? 25:50 Will we stop before it gets dangerous? 29:18 Incentives for humans using AI 32:29 Is AI being overhyped? 37:03 Can humans mediate AI activities forever? 43:38 Does AI have goals? 54:25 Can we develop AI with human values? 58:50 Is global collaboration feasible? 1:07:24 Estimating the probability of AI doomsday 1:14:11 Why would AI want to kill humans? 1:26:19 The limitations of human oversight 1:28:53 Is AI reducing human critical thinking? 1:37:58 What can we do to prevent AI catastrophe? 1:45:12 Helpful resources

  2. Apr 4

    6. The Power of Attention (with Rob Walker)

    In this episode, Danylo speaks with author and journalist Rob Walker about attention. They discuss the "attention economy," focused attention as a foundation for originality, curiosity as an action rather than a trait, leveraging curiosity during challenging experiences, the difference between creative engagement and mindfulness, the empowerment of choosing where to direct your attention, how attention influences habits and actions, and the relationship between technology, AI, and attention. Rob Walker is a journalist covering design, technology, business, the arts, and other subjects. He writes the "Branded" column for Fast Company and has contributed to The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Atlantic, NewYorker.Com, Design Observer, The Organist, and many others. This conversation was recorded in June 2025. Sources cited: Rob's newsletter & website New York Times article Read Danylo's articles on ⁠⁠Medium⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠ Other links: Follow Open Inquiry on social media and listen on your favorite platform Contact Danylo by email: danylo.zubaryev@gmail.com Artwork by Senka Stankovic Theme song by Somnambulist Quintet (Darren Johnson) Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 2:00 Rob's background & work 10:06 Exercises from "The Art of Noticing" 15:04 Rob's newsletter 17:05 The importance of attention for originality 23:15 How cell phones influence attention 26:54 Why are we so easily distracted? 31:34 "Acts of curiosity" 40:10 Curiosity vs. mindfulness 53:06 Attention & personal values 56:37 Taking control of your attention 1:03:32 Where to find Rob's work

  3. 11/22/2022

    4. Being Rational in the Modern World (with Duncan Sabien)

    In this episode, Danylo Zubaryev speaks with Duncan Sabien about rationality. They discuss the “rationality community,” challenges to spreading and popularizing rationality, problems in psychology-related publicity, psychological obstacles to being rational, the value of emotions, the importance of jargon for learning and discourse, learning in progressive stages, creativity in rational discourse, real-world impacts of rational discourse, social regulation of reasoning standards, and more. Duncan has written several books and essays discussing various elements of human rationality, and he’s presented lectures on rationality with organizations like Effective Altruism and the Center for Applied Rationality. Duncan's personal bio: Duncan Sabien is a writer, teacher, and maker of things. He loves parkour, LEGOs, and Magic: the Gathering, and is easily manipulated by people quoting Ender’s Game.  He's currently working with an org trying to figure out how to create provably safe artificial intelligence and writing a pair of books on the side. This conversation was originally recorded in July 2021. Sources/works mentioned:LessWrong (rationality forum/community)Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (book by Eliezer Yudkowsky)In Defense of Punch Bug (essay by Duncan Sabien)Center for Applied RationalityMachine Intelligence Research InstituteDuncan's websiteRationality: From AI to Zombies (book by Eliezer Yudkowsky) Follow Open Inquiry on social media and listen on your favorite platform Read Danylo's articles on ⁠Medium⁠ and ⁠Substack⁠Contact Danylo by email: danylo.zubaryev@gmail.comArtwork by Senka StankovicTheme song by Somnambulist Quintet (Darren Johnson)

About

Join Danylo Zubaryev as he openly explores a wide range of complex, important, and controversial topics relating to psychology and philosophy. Driven by curiosity, Danylo strives to ask the most fundamental questions to create a clearer picture of topics such as mental health, art, morality, spirituality, life and death, relationships and communication. Follow on social media and listen on your favorite platform: https://linktr.ee/openinquiry Theme song: Somnambulist Quintet (Darren Johnson) - "Asceticism" Artwork by Senka Stankovic: www.senkastankovic.ca