ToKCast

Ep 44 Ch 16 "The Evolution of Creativity" Part 0

Early on in the episode, I wrongly refer to this as "Episode 43". It's not: it's episode 44. This particular episode is largely about the concepts underpinning chapter 16 - with very little reading (I get through the first page or so). We explore creativity, choice and the associated "mysteries" (or problems of) consciousness and free will. Are these all facets of the same underlying - deeper truth - about personhood? This is one of those episodes with a couple of references to what is going on in the video version of the podcast...but I think most people will have sufficient imagination to guess what is going on :)

Ep 43 Ch 15 "The Evolution of Culture" Part 3

This is the third in a 3 part series devoted to Chapter 15 of "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. All about "The Evolution of Culture", in this part we are looking at the conditions under which a dynamic society can gradually evolve and persist. Importantly we distinguish between rational and anti-rational (not merely irrational) memes.

Ep: 42 An autobiography of wealth

This episode is not about "The Beginning of Infinity". It is largely a reading of an article that can be found on my website at http://www.bretthall.org/blog/an-autobiography-of-wealth
The purpose of that article and this episode is to discuss the pervasive claim that the middle classes have seen a stagnation in "real wage growth". I do not go deep into economic matters but rather take a personal perspective which, I would guess, is applicable to almost anyone.

Ep 41: Deutsch Discoveries: Part 2 of an introduction to the philosophy of David Deutsch

In this episode I cover more of David Deutsch's contributions to philosophy. In order these are:
1. The true function of evidence in science
2. How the quantum multiverse is a testable theory
3. All evils are due to insufficient knowledge and how morality is about "What to do next".
4. The mathematician's misconception (i.e: that mathematical proof is independent of the known laws of physics).

Ep 40: Popper Pieces - Part 2 of an Introduction to Popper

This is part 2 of my introduction to Popper series.
Here I cover
1. The concept of "conjectures"
2. Common Sense
3. Realism
4. The bucket and the searchlight
5. Debating definitions
Yes. It's only 2 episodes in, and I have violated my self-imposed 10 minute limit rule. But I think it was worth it, rather than splitting these in two.
To support this podcast, visit https://www.patreon.com/BrettRHall to make a monthly donation
or https://www.patreon.com/tokcast to contribute per episode. Thank you kindly to all donors.

Ep 39 Ch 15 "The Evolution of Culture" Part 2

This is the second in a 3 part series devoted to Chapter 15 of "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. All about "The Evolution of Culture", in this part we are looking at the causes of a static society: that rule (rather than the exception) about progress coming to a halt in human communities. We follow on from part 1 in looking at how memes get replicated and how different kinds of memes have different effects upon their holders the the wider society.

Ep 38 Ch 15 "The Evolution of Culture" Part 1

This is the first in a 3 part series devoted to Chapter 15 of "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. All about "The Evolution of Culture", in this part we are looking at the notion of a meme and consider under what conditions ideas replicate. As we touch upon: this is a question of civilizational consequence as it is related to the ability of a society to break out of being "static" (one with little to no progress) and become a modern "dynamic" one (where progress is unbounded).

Ep 37: An intermittent introduction to Popper and Deutsch

A very brief, and personal, introduction to the philosophy of Karl Popper and David Deutsch. Note that the Youtube version of this exists in 3 parts, each of which has visuals that may help some with the explanations.

Ep 36: The Borders of Ideas

This is some commentary upon a recent debate Douglas Murray was engaged in - which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3sSnmq9uKU It is, broadly speaking, an excellent encounter, modulo - as Douglas rightly observes - the tendency for his interlocutor to resort to insults or other ad hominem remarks. I reflect on Douglas' position (with which I largely agree) and attempt to connect his remarks to some underlying modern philosophy. (Modern, I hasten to add, not "postmodern"!).

Ep 35 Ch 14 "Why are Flowers Beautiful?"

Audio listeners, please note: This episode contains a lot more visuals than my usual podcasts. As always this can be found on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWZ4GcRd-_8 if you want the full experience. I'm referring to images and so on throughout, or the images are illustrating what I am saying without comment.
In this chapter we counter a number of prevailing views about the arts: the purposes of art and the possibility of objective standards of beauty. This leads to a discussion of the place of inexplicit knowledge when creating in the arts and how the "hard to vary" quality of explanations finds an analogue in the art. All of this discussion comes through the lens of beauty in nature and how flowers evolved to be attractive. But this attractive quality of flowers is not a mere matter of opinion for both insects and people find flowers attractive.
 
 

Ep 34 Ch 13 “Choices” Part 2. Some readings and remarks.

This is some reading and reflections upon chapter 13 of "The Beginning of Infinity". In this second part we consider criteria for democracy and democratic institutions. I take a deep dive into Popper's own writings on the topic to supplement the material in David's book. There is even, what we might call, some "self help" when it comes to making choices, or making better choices, or cultivating a better approach to problem solving when no option seems viable. Popper's article on democracy can be found here: https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2016/01/31/from-the-archives-the-open-society-and-its-enemies-revisited

Ep 33 Ch 13 "Choices" Part 1. Some readings and remarks.

This is the first episode of 2 parts all about chapter 13 "Choices" from "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. Here we take a deep dive into voting systems and what this means for decision making more broadly: both as societies and individuals. Logic and fairness seem to come in conflict if we become reductionist and turn only to mathematics in order to make rational choices. As always the "David Deutsch" take on what might otherwise seem to be a parochial issue turns out to have civilisation level consequences.

Ep 32 Ch 12 "A Physicist's History of Bad Philosophy" Part 3. Some readings and remarks

This is the third episode in a 3 part series about chapter 12 of "The Beginning of Infinity". This part is focussed in a more specific way on bad science (that being explanationless science). We also delve into the nature of personhood once more, its moral significance and the possibility of having an experience as a human animal versus a non-human animal. 

Ep: 31 Ch 12 "A Physicist's History of Bad Philosophy" Part 2: Some readings and remarks.

This is the second episode in a 3 part series about chapter 12 of "The Beginning of Infinity". Here we get into some of the connections between poor "interpretations" of quantum theory and relativism.

Ep: 30 Ch 12 "A Physicist's History of Bad Philosophy" Part 1: The Introduction

This is the first episode in a 3 part series about Chapter 12 of "The Beginning of Infinity". As this chapter is about Bad Philosophy, I thought an episode that sets the context - especially the contemporary context - might be timely. 

Ep: 29 Ch 11 "The Multiverse" Part 5

The final part of "The Multiverse" series - and with some discussion (and a story!) of some little known material about how to test "The Multiverse" against other (so-called) interpretations of quantum theory.

Ep 28: Ch 11 "The Multiverse" Part 4

With apologies to audio only listeners, this one was up on Youtube for a while (and contains a few visuals) - I simply forgot to upload it to Podbean and Apple Podcasts. It is largely an analysis of common misconceptions about the multiverse and references a conversation between Sam Harris and Bret Weinstein who spoke about the multiverse during a recent conversation. 

Ep 27: Christian Atheists

This is a very brief and non-standard non-Beginning of Infinity podcast. It also does not mention COVID-19 at all. It is inspired in part by some remarks made by Yaron Brook. There is an important post associated with this episode which appears here: http://www.bretthall.org/blog/mainstream-morality
As with my last episode, we will return to the usual programming soon.

Ep 26: Problems, Knowledge and Wealth

This is a non-Beginning of Infinity Podcast. While it makes some references, as always, to the work of David Deutsch, it is primarily some thoughts about finding ourselves in a given problem situation and what we need to find our way out in time. Of course there is some reference made to the present COVID-19 situation. A rather different episode to the usual. I hope to get back to regular programming soon.
Includes also: some response to Sam Harris "Making Sense" podcast on April 16 2020. And some explanation for the BoI "hiatus" (essentially that my studio is presently a "home office").
I hope it's still worth your time :)

Ep 25: Ch 11 "The Multiverse" Part 3

Some readings and remarks about David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity" Chapter 11 "The Multiverse". This is the 3rd episode in this series. As with some of the others, audio only listeners may miss a few visuals in this one...but they're not absolutely crucial this time around. There is a way to support this endeavor on my website www.bretthall.org where you can click the donate button and contribute one time, or monthly. Thank you :)