Image of the line drawn sea-monarch figure from the original cover of Hobbes's Leviathan against a colorful background.

The Aboard Podcast

LevAIthan? A Hobbesian Look at AI

June 16, 2026 - 36 min 30 sec

Is the AI era destined to make our software lives nasty, brutish, and short? On this week’s podcast, Rich brings Paul the framing of “Hobbesian AI,” specifically from 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes’s greatest work, Leviathan. Humans need some kind of order, Hobbes argued in the wake of the English Civil War, otherwise they will destroy each other. How can these lessons be applied to our decidedly order-less AI moment? 

 

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Show Notes

  • You can read Leviathan on Project Gutenberg.

Transcript

Transcript coming soon!