Join Danylo Zubaryev as he openly explores a wide range of complex, important, and controversial topics relating to psychology and philosophy. Driven by curiosity, Danylo strives to ask the most fundamental questions to create a clearer picture of topics such as mental health, art, morality, spirituality, life and death, relationships and communication.
Follow on social media and listen on your favorite platform: https://linktr.ee/openinquiry
Theme song: Somnambulist Quintet (Darren Johnson) - "Asceticism"
Artwork by Senka Stankovic: www.senkastankovic.ca
7. How Dangerous is AI Really? (with Duncan Sabien)
Danylo speaks with Duncan Sabien about the risks of developing artificial intelligence. They discuss plausible AI doomsday scenarios, the nature of intelligence, the rate of AI improvement, the AI arms race dynamic, AI consciousness, the challenge of implementing goals/values in AI, the need for global collaboration and regulation, estimating the likelihood of AI apocalypse, incentives for AI cheating and dishonesty, the influence of AI on education and critical thinking, and practical steps that anybody can take to positively impact AI safety going forward.
Duncan began work in the field of AI safety in 2015 and is currently the Head of Communications at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, which he joined in 2019.
This conversation was recorded on August 4, 2026.
Sources cited:
Hugging Face incident (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAI_rogue_agent_breach_of_Hugging_Face)
Duncan’s article “Deadly by Default (https://homosabiens.substack.com/p/deadly-by-default?r=fadrq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web)”
https://aistop.watch/ (https://aistop.watch/)
Other links:
Follow Open Inquiry on social media and listen on your favorite platform (https://linktr.ee/openinquiry)
Read Danylo's articles on Medium (https://medium.com/@danylozubaryev) and Substack (https://substack.com/@danylozubaryev)
Contact Danylo by email: danylo.zubaryev@gmail.com
Artwork by Senka Stankovic
Theme song by Somnambulist Quintet (https://somnambulistquintet.bandcamp.com/) (Darren Johnson)
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:37 Duncan’s background in AI
3:27 Plausible AI doomsday scenarios
14:48 Will AI ever be powerful enough to kill us?
19:27 Does it matter if AI is conscious?
25:50 Will we stop before it gets dangerous?
29:18 Incentives for humans using AI
32:29 Is AI being overhyped?
37:03 Can humans mediate AI activities forever?
43:38 Does AI have goals?
54:25 Can we develop AI with human values?
58:50 Is global collaboration feasible?
1:07:24 Estimating the probability of AI doomsday
1:14:11 Why would AI want to kill humans?
1:26:19 The limitations of human oversight
1:28:53 Is AI reducing human critical thinking?
1:37:58 What can we do to prevent AI catastrophe?
1:45:12 Helpful resources
4 Apr 2026
6. The Power of Attention (with Rob Walker)
In this episode, Danylo speaks with author and journalist Rob Walker about attention. They discuss the "attention economy," focused attention as a foundation for originality, curiosity as an action rather than a trait, leveraging curiosity during challenging experiences, the difference between creative engagement and mindfulness, the empowerment of choosing where to direct your attention, how attention influences habits and actions, and the relationship between technology, AI, and attention.Rob Walker is a journalist covering design, technology, business, the arts, and other subjects. He writes the "Branded" column for Fast Company and has contributed to The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Atlantic, NewYorker.Com, Design Observer, The Organist, and many others.Rob's newsletter & website:https://robwalker.substack.com/https://robwalker.net/Sources cited during recording:https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/well/step-goal-walking.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LE8.t9kL.QeRzdYtwG4ol&smid=url-share&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=emailThis conversation was recorded in June 2025.Follow Open Inquiry on social media and listen on your favorite platform: https://linktr.ee/openinquiryContact Danylo by email: danylo.zubaryev@gmail.comArtwork by Senka Stankovic: www.senkastankovic.caTheme song by Somnambulist Quintet (Darren Johnson)0:00 Introduction2:00 Rob's background & work10:06 Exercises from "The Art of Noticing"15:04 Rob's newsletter17:05 The importance of attention for originality23:15 How cell phones influence attention26:54 Why are we so easily distracted?31:34 "Acts of curiosity"40:10 Curiosity vs. mindfulness53:06 Attention & personal values56:37 Taking control of your attention1:03:32 Where to find Rob's work
29 Jul 2024
5. The Mysteries of Memory
In this episode, Danylo Zubaryev explores the mysterious nature of human memory as experienced from the first-person perspective. He discusses "involuntary" and "voluntary" memories, a few first-person experiments for observing memories, memory as a foundation for personal identity, the fundamental unreliability of memory, emotionally challenging memories and "repressed memories," and Danylo attempts to draw positive insights from some of his personal emotionally difficult memories.
Follow Open Inquiry on social media and listen on your favorite platform (https://linktr.ee/openinquiry)
Contact Danylo by email: danylo.zubaryev@gmail.com
Artwork by Senka Stankovic (https://dribbble.com/senka-studio)
Theme song by Somnambulist Quintet (Darren Johnson) (https://somnambulistquintet.bandcamp.com/)
22 Nov 2022
4. Being Rational in the Modern World (with Duncan Sabien)
In this episode, Danylo Zubaryev speaks with Duncan Sabien about rationality. They discuss the “rationality community,” challenges to spreading and popularizing rationality, problems in psychology-related publicity, psychological obstacles to being rational, the value of emotions, the importance of jargon for learning and discourse, learning in progressive stages, creativity in rational discourse, real-world impacts of rational discourse, social regulation of reasoning standards, and more.
Duncan has written several books and essays discussing various elements of human rationality, and he’s presented lectures on rationality with organizations like Effective Altruism and the Center for Applied Rationality.
Duncan's personal bio: Duncan Sabien is a writer, teacher, and maker of things. He loves parkour, LEGOs, and Magic: the Gathering, and is easily manipulated by people quoting Ender’s Game. He's currently working with an org trying to figure out how to create provably safe artificial intelligence and writing a pair of books on the side.
This conversation was originally recorded in July 2021.
Sources/works mentioned:
LessWrong (https://www.lesswrong.com/) (rationality forum/community)
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (https://www.hpmor.com/) (book by Eliezer Yudkowsky)
In Defense of Punch Bug (https://medium.com/@ThingMaker/in-defense-of-punch-bug-68fcec56cd6b) (essay by Duncan Sabien)
Center for Applied Rationality (https://www.rationality.org/)
Machine Intelligence Research Institute (https://intelligence.org/)
Duncan's website (https://thirdfoundation.github.io/)
Rationality: From AI to Zombies (https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/rationality:-from-ai-to-zombies) (book by Eliezer Yudkowsky)
Follow Open Inquiry on social media and listen on your favorite platform (https://linktr.ee/openinquiry)
Contact Danylo by email: danylo.zubaryev@gmail.com
Artwork by Senka Stankovic
Theme song by Somnambulist Quintet (Darren Johnson) (https://somnambulistquintet.bandcamp.com/)
28 Oct 2022
3. Outsmarting Anger
In this episode, Danylo Zubaryev explores anger as an emotional experience. He discusses his personal history with anger, anger as a problem solving mechanism, anger as a problem detection mechanism, the emotional composition of anger, attachment to outrage, anger in interpersonal conflict, emotional regulation through mindfulness, and considering anger as an "intrusive mailman."
Follow Open Inquiry on social media and listen on your favorite platform (https://linktr.ee/openinquiry)
Contact Danylo by email: danylo.zubaryev@gmail.com
Artwork by Senka Stankovic
Theme song by Somnambulist Quintet (Darren Johnson) (https://somnambulistquintet.bandcamp.com/)
In this episode, Danylo speaks with Alison Melia about relationship abuse. They discuss the gender demographics of domestic abuse, various strategies and habits for healthy communication, defining and identifying abuse, and the relevance of childhood abuse, self-regulation, addiction, cultural norms, empathy, mindfulness, and accountability.
Alison has a degree in Sociology and has worked in social services for over 11 years. Currently she is a partner assault response facilitator at New Directions, where she conducts group therapy sessions for individuals who have been charged with domestic abuse offenses.
Sources/works mentioned:
New Directions (https://cfsottawa.ca/program/new-directions/)
Follow Open Inquiry on social media and listen on your favorite platform (https://linktr.ee/openinquiry)
Contact Danylo by email: danylo.zubaryev@gmail.com
Artwork by Senka Stankovic
Theme song by Somnambulist Quintet (Darren Johnson) (https://somnambulistquintet.bandcamp.com/)
20 Jul 2022
1. Examining the Fear of Death
In this episode, Danylo Zubaryev openly explores the fear of death. He discusses some personal experiences with this fear, the role of public discourse on death, some underlying reasons behind the fear, and his psychological strategies for alleviating it.
Sources/works mentioned:
Death anxiety (https://www.healthline.com/health/thanatophobia)
Synecdoche, New York (2008) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383028/)
Follow Open Inquiry on social media and listen on your favorite platform (https://linktr.ee/openinquiry)
Contact Danylo by email: danylo.zubaryev@gmail.com
Artwork by Senka Stankovic
Theme song by Somnambulist Quintet (Darren Johnson) (https://somnambulistquintet.bandcamp.com/)
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