Steven Pinker on Coordination, Common Knowledge, and the Retreat of Liberal Enlightenment

In this episode of Conversations with Tyler, Tyler Cowen interviews Steven Pinker about his new book, "When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows..." They discuss the importance of common knowledge in economics, politics, and everyday life, exploring its role in coordination and the potential fragility of common knowledge models. They delve into the interplay between differential knowledge and common knowledge, the impact of anonymous online posters, and the concept of "noble lies" or "benign hypocrisy." The conversation extends to Schelling points, epistemic peers, and the challenges to the liberal enlightenment, touching on topics like grade inflation at Harvard and the impact of linguistics on large language models, and future of AI in creative fields.