Robin Hanson
Robin Dale Hanson (born August 28, 1959) is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University and a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. He is known for his work on idea futures and markets, and he was involved in the creation of the Foresight Institute's Foresight Exchange and DARPA's FutureMAP project. He invented market scoring rules like LMSR (Logarithmic Market Scoring Rule) used by prediction markets such as Consensus Point (where Hanson is Chief Scientist), and has conducted research on signalling. Background. Hanson received a B.S. in physics from  the University of California, Irvine in 1981, an M.S. in physics and an M.A. in Conceptual Foundations of Science from the University of Chicago in 1984, and a Ph.D. in social science from Caltech in 1997 for his thesis titled "Four puzzles in information and politics: Product bans, informed voters, social insurance, and persistent disagreement". Before getting his Ph.D he researched artificial intelligence, Bayesian statistics and hypertext publishing at Lockheed, NASA, and elsewhere. In addition, he started the first internal corporate prediction market at Xanadu in 1990. He is married to Peggy Jackson, a hospice social worker, and has  two children. He is the son of a Southern Baptist preacher. Hanson has elected to have his brain cryonically preserved in the event of medical death. He was involved early on in the creation of the Rationalist community through online weblogs. Views. Tyler Cowen's book "Discover Your Inner Economist" includes a fairly detailed discussion of Hanson's views: Nate Silver, in his book "The Signal and the Noise" (2012), writes: Hanson is credited with originating the concept of the Policy Analysis Market (PAM), a DARPA project to implement a market for betting on future developments in the Middle East . Hanson has expressed great disappointment in DARPA's cancellation of its related FutureMAP project, and he attributes this to the controversy surrounding the related Total Information Awareness program. He also created and supports a proposed system of government called futarchy, where policies would be determined by prediction markets. Hanson has also been criticised for his controversial take on the incel movement. In 2018 he wrote a blog post appearing to agree with the incel movement's likening of distribution of job opportunities to 'access to sex'. He found it puzzling that similar concern had not been shown to incels as  to low income individuals. Hanson was criticized by some for discussing sex as if it was a commodity. A 2003 article in "Fortune" examined Hanson's work, noting, among other things, that he is a proponent of cryonics and that his ideas have found some acceptance among extropians on the Internet. He has since written extensively on the topic. Hanson also created the term Great Filter referring to whatever prevents "dead matter" from becoming an expanding and observable intelligent civilization. He was motivated to seek his doctorate so that his theories would gain a wider audience. Hanson has written a  book, "The Age of Em", concerning his views on brain emulation and its eventual impact on society. His 2018 book, "The Elephant in the Brain", coauthored with Kevin Simler, looked at mental blind spots of society and of individuals.