Today @Brendan_McCord and I are launching Cosmos Ventures. AI is overturning assumptions society has organized itself around for centuries. The models keep getting better, but no level of capability can tell us what kind of society we should make with them. We need a new class of founders to build what comes next. Instead of only “building what people want” and iterating their way to product-market fit, these founders start from the question of how we should live together. They build new institutions that set the standards for how entire industries operate. They combine a philosophical vision of the society they’re building toward with the technical ability to realize it. We call them philosopher-builders. Immanuel Kant gave the Enlightenment its motto: Sapere aude. Dare to know. The AI age demands another. Condere aude. Dare to found. 🫡

Come join @GilRubinstein and me in reading texts—ancient, modern, and contemporary—to better understand the philosophical (i.e., the human) stakes of AI. Thank you to @cosmos_inst for the support, and we're excited to be piloting this experiment! 👇👇👇

This is a good read from @aengus_lynch1, gives a useful way to think about the emerging ai safety stack and the role of formal verification

"Understand" – Ted Chiang (1991)

Found @slatestarcodex’s machzor

I find this attitude from academic philosophers baffling I have deep philosophical disagreements with EA (eg matthewmandel.com/writing/on…) But it’s easily the most vital philosophical movement of the 21st century so far. Far from finding it embarrassing, other philosophers should aspire to do work that matters as much

Matt was the one of the first people in the @usv ecosystem I got to know - as a fellow philosophy + startups enthusiast we bonded over what it means to "do philosophy impactfully" today It's incredible to see the vision of Cosmos Ventures come to fruition. In an era where slop commodifies right-brain labor, having a humanities/mission-driven philosophical mindset is more important than ever to drive tech for the betterment of humanity. Excited for the future, congrats @_mattmandel @Brendan_McCord !!

C V

Also I thought this would look cool Now I’m hearing @_mattmandel is doing what is known as “flower pose”

Dare to Found @cosmos_vc is live

Honored to back @Brendan_McCord and team.

This is a very exciting initiative. Almost every time I see a cool new company working to build a safe, decentralised AI agent economy, where agents actually work in people's interests, I discover that they've been seeded by @Brendan_McCord and his buddies. There are so many exciting ideas for philosopher-builders to work on: get to it!

Either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing. –Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1738

Congrats to Brendan, Matt, and team on their new fund launch!

have been grateful to be a small part of the @cosmos_inst community — this expansion makes me very optimistic about the future of AI

I'm very inspired by @Brendan_McCord and @_mattmandel's vision of philosopher-builders. The machine intelligence era will need us to rapidly stand up civilizational infrastructure.

Exciting funding possibilities for much-needed institution-building

Cosmos was one of the first believers in the Workshop Labs vision. They’re one of the few funds that thinks hard about the future they’d like to see get built and then funds the people building it. Very excited to see it officially launch.

@Brendan_McCord and @_mattmandel are doing great work with their philosopher-builder VC fund. On Workshop I’m biased but @aiunderwriting and @PrimeIntellect are philosophically-right & exciting companies too. We need more daring investments into a human future