# TRC #725: Infant Simulator Programs + Book Reviews: The Thinking Machine, The Philosopher in the Valley & Peak Human Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reality-check-509868/trc-725-infant-simulator-programs-book-reviews-the-thinking-machine-the-philosopher-in-the-valley-peak-human Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reality-check-509868/trc-725-infant-simulator-programs-book-reviews-the-thinking-machine-the-philosopher-in-the-valley-peak-human.md Podcast: [The Reality Check](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reality-check-509868) Published: 2026-01-15T00:38:00+00:00 Episode link: https://therealitycheck.libsyn.com/trc-725-infant-simulator-programs-book-reviews-the-thinking-machine-the-philosopher-in-the-valley-peak-human Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/therealitycheck/TRC_725.mp3?dest-id=14610 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-reality-check-509868/episodes/trc-725-infant-simulator-programs-book-reviews-the-thinking-machine-the-philosopher-in-the-valley-peak-human Duration seconds: 1644 ## Resource For our first show of 2026 Adam looks at the efficacy of Infant Simulator Programs, which involves giving a fake baby to high school kids to discourage teen pregnancy. Darren gives us a review of three books, "The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip" by Stephen Witt, "The Philosopher in the Valley: Alex Karp, Palantir, and the Rise of the Surveillance State" by Michael Steinberger and "Peak Human: What We Can Learn From History's Greatest Civilizations" by Johan Norberg. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-reality-check-509868/episodes/trc-725-infant-simulator-programs-book-reviews-the-thinking-machine-the-philosopher-in-the-valley-peak-human/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reality-check-509868/trc-725-infant-simulator-programs-book-reviews-the-thinking-machine-the-philosopher-in-the-valley-peak-human.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.