Кращі подкасти про Theory Of Anything (2024)

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Episode 85: Critical Rationalism and Douglas Hofstadter (Part 1) 1:49:52

6d ago1:49:52

1:49:52

This is the first of our two part series (that may or may not be released back-to-back) where Bruce delves into the work Douglas Hofstadter, specifically the book Surfaces and Essences. We consider what is the relationship—if there is any—between critical rationalism and Hofstadter's idea that analogy is a core mechanism of human cognition. Is it f…

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Episode 84: Are Video Games Harmful to Children? 1:27:46

20d ago1:27:46

1:27:46

Here we discuss a 1992 interview with David Deutsch where he makes the case that video games are inherently educational, not addictive, and that children should not be stopped from playing as much as they want. We contrast the view of humans, science, and knowledge promoted there by David Deutsch with the more pessimistic view of thinkers such as J…

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Episode 83: Popper's Second Axis (aka Bruce's Epistemology?) 2:01:24

1M ago2:01:24

2:01:24

Bruce summarizes his (unique?) understanding of Karl Popper’s epistemology that (possibly?) straddles the line between orthodox and unorthodox and is Influenced both by Deutsch, more old school Popperians, and his own unique interpretation of critical rationalism. Bruce claims that the key difference between regular "folk epistemology" (i.e. how hu…

1
Episode 78: Tabletop Role Playing 1:09:47

1M ago1:09:47

1:09:47

We try a tabletop role playing game and have a great time failing at it.A podcast where an old guy and two sons share their thoughts about anything spiritual, funny, inspiring from film, games, TV, music, literature, tech and church. Anything they find interesting really! You can vote for what we review next by clicking on these links:Read: https:/…

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Episode 82: Popper's Ratchet 1:53:02

2M ago1:53:02

1:53:02

In an episode that may (or may not) be his magnum opus, Bruce introduces his term for Karl Popper’s idea that you are only allowed to solve problems with your (scientific) theory by making it more empirical, not less empirical. Bruce makes the case that this is one of Karl Popper’s least appreciated ideas, as all of us are tempted by ad hoc saves t…

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Episode 81: Easy to Varyness vs Ad Hocness 2:14:02

2M ago2:14:02

2:14:02

Bruce sympathetically critiques David Deutsch’s concept of “easy to varyness” as a way to judge our explanations. Are our best theories about reality truly hard to vary? Bruce makes the case that Popper’s concept of “ad hocness” may be a strangely interwoven concept. Along the way we get deeper into whether Popperian epistemology is best seen as an…

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Episode 80: Knowledge vs. Simul-Knowledge 1:44:34

3M ago1:44:34

1:44:34

Bruce wraps up his epic 6 part series on knowledge and the 'two sources hypothesis' (i.e. Deutsch's theory that all 'knowledge' comes from only two sources: Biological evolution and human minds). What happens if we take all the non-two sources examples of 'adapted information that cause itself to remain so' (e.g. the walking robot, the immune syste…

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Episode 79: Perspiration vs Inspiration 1:31:33

3M ago1:31:33

1:31:33

Is human creativity algorithmic? What is the difference between an Inspiration and a perspiration algorithm? Can mechanical processes ever create knowledge? What is the relationship between creativity and explanation? If we had the 'inspiration' algorithm today, would it use perspiration? Here Bruce continues his exploration of these issues and mor…

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Episode 78: Are Animal Memes Knowledge In the Genes? 1:11:53

3M ago1:11:53

1:11:53

Do animals create knowledge? Deutsch claims they don't because all their knowledge is in their genes. Yet he admits that animals do have memes! But aren't memes, by definition, knowledge outside the genome? How does Deutsch attempt to deal with these problems with his theory of knowledge? And how well do his arguments hold up? --- Send in a voice m…

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Episode 77: Counter Examples To Deutsch's Theory of Knowledge? 1:35:51

3M ago1:35:51

1:35:51

Bruce continues to consider what our best theories tell us about knowledge. Is there something special (or even physically different) about the knowledge created by nature through biological evolution and human minds (i.e. the 'two sources hypothesis')? How should we think about knowledge created in human minds that could take us to the moon and be…

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Episode 76: The Constructor Theory of Knowledge 1:18:00

4M ago1:18:00

1:18:00

In the previous episode, Bruce pointed out an apparent contradiction between Deutsch's criteria for knowledge as 'adapted information that causes itself to remain so' and his example of the 'walking robot algorithm' which is a case of adapted information causing itself to remain so but that Deutsch doesn't consider to be knowledge. This time we con…

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Episode 75: Deutsch's Theory of Knowledge: The Walking Robot 1:09:47

4M ago1:09:47

1:09:47

What is the “two sources hypothesis,” or the idea that there exist only two sources of knowledge in the known universe: Darwinian natural selection and human minds? Does a “genetic programming algorithm” used to make a robot walk create knowledge? Thus begins our deep dive into Deutsch's Theory of Knowledge and particularly his "Two Source Hypothes…

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Episode 77: We Review Let's dance by David Bowie 36:26

4M ago36:26

36:26

We review the album Lets dance by David Bowie.A podcast where an old guy and two sons share their thoughts about anything spiritual, funny, inspiring from film, games, TV, music, literature, tech and church. Anything they find interesting really! Get in touch if you are interested in one of our Theory of Anything T-shirts! Theory of Anything | Face…

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Episode 74: The Problem of Open-Endedness 1:28:41

4M ago1:28:41

1:28:41

What is the “problem of open-endedness”? Bruce explores how what might sound like an esoteric machine-learning issue may actually be interwoven with our deepest theories on evolution, human consciousness, and knowledge creation. Also included: Bruce's guide to how NOT to argue with a Creationist. References: Kenneth Stanley's article: "Open-endedne…

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Episode 73: Argue Me Everything 2:11:29

5M ago2:11:29

2:11:29

Here we move three arguments from social media to the podcast. 1. Given Deutsch’s universal explainer hypothesis, does it make sense to say that men commit more crimes due to testosterone? Are humans only 'approximately' Universal Explainers?2. Can anything in reality be simulated? What exactly does it mean to be simulated? 3. Is “heat death” a bum…

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Episode 72: Moral Progress and Tolerance for Intolerance 1:51:19

5M ago1:51:19

1:51:19

Here we use Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s essay “The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority” as a springboard to discuss majority rule, moral progress, knowledge growth, wokism, Karl Popper’s paradox of tolerance, and “big agriculture.” --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/four-strands/messageSupport …

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Episode 71: Can Values be Objective? 1:56:20

6M ago1:56:20

1:56:20

With guest Ivan Phillips, we discuss and debate subjective vs objective morality. Does the concept of objective morality ever make sense given “Hume’s guillotine”? Can humans ever really live as though morality is subjective? Along the way, we take detours into Bayesian epistemology vs critical rationalism. --- Send in a voice message: https://podc…

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Episode 76: Human Bio-Tec Enhancements 45:55

6M ago45:55

45:55

We read and chat about an article on Human Bio-Technology and their pros and cons. A podcast where an old guy and two sons share their thoughts about anything spiritual, funny, inspiring from film, games, TV, music, literature, tech and church. Anything they find interesting really! Get in touch if you are interested in one of our Theory of Anythin…

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Episode 70: Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence? 2:14:47

6M ago2:14:47

2:14:47

How does ChatGPT really work? Is there a relationship between a program like ChatGPT and artificial general intelligence (AGI)? This time we review the famous paper "Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence: Early Experiments with GPT-4" from Microsoft Research as well as Melanie Mitchell's criticisms of it. Other papers mentioned: The Unreasonabl…

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Episode 75: We Review Soul 49:15

6M ago49:15

49:15

We talk through the Disney film Soul, listen along and hear what we think. This is a podcast where an old guy and two sons share their thoughts about anything spiritual, funny, inspiring from film, games, TV, music, literature, tech and church. Anything they find interesting really!You can vote for what we review next by clicking on these links: Re…

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Episode 69: Social Science and Critical Rationalism 1:33:55

7M ago1:33:55

1:33:55

This week we have criminologist Brian Boutwell on again for part 2 of our discussion on critical rationalism and social science. Does all science share the same structure? How do you apply Popper's epistemology to social sciences? Are there laws of human nature? If humans are universal explainers, what does it mean to study our behavior? See episod…

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Episode 68: Caldwell's "Clarifying Popper" 51:59

7M ago51:59

51:59

Bruce Caldwell (a scholar interested in Popper and Hayek) wrote a long paper in the Journal of Economic Literature (March 1991) called 'Clarifying Popper'. In this episode, Bruce Nielson summarizes and discusses Caldwell’s paper on how Popper’s ideas could be applied to economics. How well did Bruce Caldwell do in his goal of clarifying Popper's ep…

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Episode 74: Social Media 46:45

7M ago46:45

46:45

We read and chat about a study on social media's affect on humanity. A podcast where an old guy and two sons share their thoughts about anything spiritual, funny, inspiring from film, games, TV, music, literature, tech and church. Anything they find interesting really! Get in touch if you are interested in one of our Theory of Anything T-shirts! Th…

1
Episode 73: We Review Whats Behind My Name 48:47

7M ago48:47

48:47

A podcast where an old guy and two sons share their thoughts about anything spiritual, funny, inspiring from film, games, TV, music, literature, tech and church. Anything they find interesting really!You can vote for what we review next by clicking on these links:Read: https://pollie.app/bxsgcListen: https://pollie.app/p5t12Watch: https://pollie.ap…

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Episode 67: Disagreements with Deutsch 2:56:49

7M ago2:56:49

2:56:49

Though our guest Mark Biros is clearly immersed in critical rationalism and the worldview of Popper and Deutsch, he also has some fairly strong criticisms of some of the ideas popular in what could be called the CritRat community. Here we try to work out our differing ideas on environmentalism, epistemology, quantum mechanics, social media, optimis…

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Episode 66: The Alien Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill and the Search For Meaning 1:34:04

8M ago1:34:04

1:34:04

Historian Matt Bowman discusses his new book, The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill: Alien Encounters, Civil Rights, and the New Age in America. Betty and Barney Hill were one of the first and most famous persons who claimed to be abducted by aliens. Aside from being a story about UFOs, their life story hinges on a complicated relationship with re…

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Episode 65: Causality, Time, and Free Will 1:58:43

8M ago1:58:43

1:58:43

What did David Deutsch get right and wrong in chapter 11, “Time: The First Quantum Concept,” from his first book, Fabric of Reality? Is the flow of time real or an illusion? What does it mean to have free will in a deterministic world? And what are the implications of Bruce’s “Turing world within a Turing world” thought experiment? --- Send in a vo…

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Episode 72: Social Justice 1:08:33

8M ago1:08:33

1:08:33

A podcast where an old guy and two sons share their thoughts about anything spiritual, funny, inspiring from film, games, TV, music, literature, tech and church. Anything they find interesting really! Get in touch if you are interested in one of our Theory of Anything T-shirts! Theory of Anything | FacebookYou can vote for what we review next by cl…

1
Episode 64: What is a "Refutation"? 1:21:53

9M ago1:21:53

1:21:53

What did Karl Popper really mean by refutation? How are empirical theories special? How do objective criticisms differ from subjective criticisms? What is the difference between a theory and an explanation? We consider these questions with a tangent into the theory that animals don’t have feelings. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.sp…

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Episode 63: Brian Boutwell on Twin Studies and Heritability 2:43:36

9M ago2:43:36

2:43:36

Brian Boutwell is a professor of criminal justice at the University of Mississippi who specializes in “quantitative genetics, with a focus on environmental and psychological risk factors for antisocial and violent behavior.” He has a TED talk, numerous articles in Quillette, and has been published in many journals. Here we discuss his upcoming meta…

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Episode 71: Elder Scrolls Arena 59:43

9M ago59:43

59:43

A podcast where an old guy and two sons share their thoughts about anything spiritual, funny, inspiring from film, games, TV, music, literature, tech and church. Anything they find interesting really!Get in touch if you are interested in one of our Theory of Anything T-shirts!Theory of Anything | Facebook You can vote for what we review next by cli…

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Episode 62: Aliens!?!? 1:15:11

10M ago1:15:11

1:15:11

Is the government hiding a secret UFO recovery program? What should the critical rationalist attitude be towards these kinds of claims? Why exactly would aliens want to hide from us? We discuss these questions and much more. If you missed it, be sure to check out the congressional hearings on UFOs (UAPs). It was actually quite interesting. Mick Wes…

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Episode 61: A Critical Rationalist Defense of Corroboration 3:10:12

10M ago3:10:12

3:10:12

What did Popper say about corroboration in science? Can a theory NEVER be supported with evidence in any sense at all? Is the Popperian “war on words” justified? Are the positivists, Bayesianists, verificationists, and inductivists really wrong about EVERYTHING? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/four-strands/messa…

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Episode 60: Learning, Work, and Art in the Age of ChatGPT 1:37:08

11M ago1:37:08

1:37:08

We interview Bruce’s nephew, Brendon Nielson, who is a well-known electronic music artist under the name Dvddy. We discuss how he uses AI as a tool to create music and how this technology is changing how we work and learn. Could AI liberate us from menial labor and education? Along the way, Cameo makes an AI-generated comic book about David Deutsch…

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Episode 59: The Principle of Optimism (Round Table Discussion) 2:45:19

11M ago2:45:19

2:45:19

A deep dive into David Deutsch’s “principle of optimism” featuring Sam Kuypers, Vaden Masrani, Hervé Eulacia, Micah Redding, Bill Rugolsky, and Daniel Buchfink. (Plus, of course, Peter and Bruce).Are all evils due to a lack of knowledge? Are all interesting problems soluble? ALL the problems, really?!?! And what exactly is meant by interesting? Als…

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Episode 58: Deutsch's "Creative Blocks": A Decade Later 2:02:12

12M ago2:02:12

2:02:12

Back in 2012, David Deutsch wrote an article called "Creative Blocks: How Close are we to Creating Artificial Intelligence?" This article inspired Bruce to go back to school and study Artificial Intelligence and get a Master's degree in the field. A decade later, a lot has changed in the field of AI, and the field has never seemed so exciting. But …

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Episode 57: Quantum Immortality / Quantum Torment 1:03:00

1y ago1:03:00

1:03:00

Does every one of us live forever in the multiverse? Is death a solvable problem? What is “quantum suicide”? Is quantum torment a concern? Does every fantastical thing we can imagine occur somewhere in the multiverse? What are “Harry Potter universes? Are we Boltzmann brains? Bruce, Cameo, and Peter consider these questions in this week’s episode. …

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Episode 56: Rationality, Religion, and the Omega Point 3:01:29

1y ago3:01:29

3:01:29

Special guest, Lulie Tanett, asked me if she could come on my podcast and interview me about religion. Lulie and Peter ask me numerous religion-related questions such as: How is the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (i.e. Mormon church) similar and different from Deutsch's Four Strands worldview? What might the Deutsch Fou…

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Episode 55: Why are Empirical Theories Special? (IQ part 3) 1:36:46

1y ago1:36:46

1:36:46

We continue our discussion of ⁠Dwarkesh Patel's article "Contra David Deutsch on AI"⁠ compared to ⁠Brett Hall's tweet on IQ theory⁠. This time we concentrate on criticisms of Brett Hall's theory. Along the way, we ask the ultimate question: Why did Karl Popper make his epistemology specifically about refuting empirical scientific theories instead o…

1
Episode 70: Star Wars Tier List 1:55:39

1y ago1:55:39

1:55:39

A podcast where an old guy and two sons share their thoughts about anything spiritual, funny, inspiring from film, games, TV, music, literature, tech and church. Anything they find interesting really! Get in touch if you are interested in one of our Theory of Anything T-shirts! Theory of Anything | Facebook You can vote for what we review next by c…

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Episode 54: Computational and Explanatory Universality (IQ part 2) 2:09:50

1y ago2:09:50

2:09:50

In this episode, we continue our discussion of Dwarkesh Patel's article "Contra David Deutsch on AI" compared to Brett Hall's tweet on IQ theory. This time we concentrate on criticisms of Patel's Hardware+Scaling hypothesis. To Patel's credit, he admits that his hypothesis is problematic. Then Peter asks Bruce about why Brett Hall believes explanat…

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Episode 69: ChatGPT 3 41:11

1y ago41:11

41:11

A podcast where an old guy and two sons share their thoughts about anything spiritual, funny, inspiring from film, games, TV, music, literature, tech and church. Anything they find interesting really! Get in touch if you are interested in one of our Theory of Anything T-shirts! Theory of Anything | Facebook You can vote for what we review next by c…

1
Episode 68: We Review Bond Songs 26:18

1y ago26:18

26:18

A podcast where an old guy and two sons share their thoughts about anything spiritual, funny, inspiring from film, games, TV, music, literature, tech and church. Anything they find interesting really! Get in touch if you are interested in one of our Theory of Anything T-shirts! Theory of Anything | Facebook You can vote for what we review next by c…

1
Episode 67: Whatcha Watchin' 38:36

1y ago38:36

38:36

A podcast where an old guy and two sons share their thoughts about anything funny, inspiring from film, games, TV, music, literature, tech and church. Anything they find interesting really! Get in touch if you are interested in one of our Theory of Anything T-shirts! Theory of Anything | Facebook You can vote for what we review next by clicking on …

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Episode 53: Universality and IQ - Part 1 1:20:19

1+ y ago1:20:19

1:20:19

Dwarkesh Patel published an article called "Contra David Deutsch on AI". This article was actually a defense of IQ theory against the charge (often made by fans of David Deutsch) that the existence of Explanatory Universality destroys IQ theory entirely. But how accurately does Dwarkesh portray Deutsch's view? (For that matter, how accurately do fa…

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Episode 52: Is Being Dogmatic Ever a Good Thing? 1:17:34

1+ y ago1:17:34

1:17:34

In our previous episode, we asked if Karl Popper was Dogmatic. We also introduced the idea that Karl Popper wasn't convinced that dogmatism was always bad. In this episode, we further explore Karl Popper's idea that dogmatism is sometimes a good thing. We also ask difficult questions like 'How can you tell when you are being dogmatic?' and 'Is it p…

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Episode 51: Was Karl Popper Dogmatic? 1:03:12

1+ y ago1:03:12

1:03:12

There seems to be broad agreement, even among Karl Popper's own students, that he was a deeply dogmatic individual. In this episode we ask the question 'Was Karl Popper Dogmatic?' by reviewing a humorous article in Scientific American by John Horgan on August 22, 2018. Along the way, we discuss by what means we judge dogmatism. How do we even tell …

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Episode 50: The Turing Test 2.0 (aka is LaMDA Sentient?) 1:15:01

1+ y ago1:15:01

1:15:01

Blake Lemoine, the ex-Google engineer, claims LaMDA -- Google's language model -- is sentient. Is he right? Alan Turing is perhaps most famous for his "Turing Test" which is a test of intelligence. David Deutsch has some interesting things to say about the Turing Test in "The Beginning of Infinity." Unfortunately, Deutsch's critique of the Turing T…

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Episode 49: AGI Alignment and Safety 59:08

2y ago59:08

59:08

Is Elon Musk right that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) research is like 'summoning the demon' and should be regulated? In episodes 48 and 49, we discussed how our genes 'align' our interests with their own utilizing carrots and sticks (pleasure/pain) or attention and perception. If our genes can create a General Intelligence (i.e. Universal …

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Episode 48: Genetics and Universality (part 2): How Our Genes Coerce Us 1:42:40

2y ago1:42:40

1:42:40

How do we square genetically influenced mental disorders with the theory of explanatory universality? In a previous episode, Tracy asked Bruce how to reconcile her experience with mental disorders, like narcissism, with the idea of Universal Explainers. This is part 2 of that discussion. In the last episode, Bruce introduced the idea that emotions …

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