Lex Fridman Podcast: #77 – Alex Garland: Ex Machina, Devs, Annihilation, and the Poetry of Science

Alex Garland is a writer and director of many imaginative and philosophical films from the dreamlike exploration of human self-destruction in the movie Annihilation to the deep questions of consciousness and intelligence raised in the movie Ex Machina, which to me is one of the greatest movies on artificial intelligence ever made. I’m releasing this podcast to coincide with the release of his new series called Devs that will premiere this Thursday, March 5, on Hulu.

EPISODE LINKS:

Devs: https://hulu.tv/2x35HaH

Annihilation: https://hulu.tv/3ai9Eqk

Ex Machina: https://www.netflix.com/title/80023689

Alex IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0307497/

Alex Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Garland

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, follow on Spotify, or support it on Patreon.

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

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

OUTLINE:

00:00 – Introduction

03:42 – Are we living in a dream?

07:15 – Aliens

12:34 – Science fiction: imagination becoming reality

17:29 – Artificial intelligence

22:40 – The new “Devs” series and the veneer of virtue in Silicon Valley

31:50 – Ex Machina and 2001: A Space Odyssey

44:58 – Lone genius

49:34 – Drawing inpiration from Elon Musk

51:24 – Space travel

54:03 – Free will

57:35 – Devs and the poetry of science

1:06:38 – What will you be remembered for?