ToKCast

Ep 59: The Nexus

My preferred way to experience this is the video version version which is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpTxBkmr4LE .  There is another version also published alongside this without any music - I don't think it is as good, but if you prefer "no music" - there is a version without that here: https://youtu.be/Ky4vMllidvM​
 
Note that episode 60 of the podcast is just "Episode 59 without the music" as well. 
 
In either case this episode seeks to answer the question "What is a person?" in the context of our best scientific and philosophical understanding of evolution by natural selection, the theory of computation (including quantum computation), the theory of epistemology - how knowledge is created - and finally quantum theory - in particular the Everettian multiverse understanding of it in its most modern incarnation, as explained primarily by David Deutsch in "The Beginning of Infinity" and invoking the concept of fungibility. The concept of "personhood" has been historically a very tricky idea; either mired in the murky waters of mysticism, or reduced by the near vacuousness of physicalism. This document attempts to provide a video essay on the topic given our most up to date notions of what is true in philosophy, mathematics, morality, epistemology and physics. Time stamps will be available soon. Credit for the music goes to “Ketsa” - https://ketsa.uk/​ where their music can be downloaded for free on a Creative Commons License here: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa​ and my own track breakdown is as follows: Track List and Times Save Ourselves (00:05​) Deliverance (03:02​) Astral Travel (06:22​) Blazing Stars (09:42​) Blessed Time (12:54​) Dancing by Twilight (38:30​) Wild Rivers (41:46​) Hear me out (44:42​) Gilded Moon (48:27​) Deep Math (53:58​) Built from Nothing (57:11​) Details for the creative commons license can be found at https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa​ and at the end of the video.

Ep 58 Ch 18 "The Beginning" Part 1

The beginning of "The Beginning" which is the chapter at the very end of "The Beginning of Infinity". :) Ignore what I say early on in this episode: this is episode 58, not 57. In this episode we revisit the idea that science, or knowledge broadly is coming to an "end". Even Feynman could become uncharacteristically pessimistic in this regard. Every new discovery reveals that there is more to know. Popper himself thought that as we increased our knowledge we would learn how much more ignorant we were - but that this has deep consequences for relating to each other. This is not the beginning of the end, but it may be the end of the beginning of The Beginning of Infinity. Support me monthly here: https://www.patreon.com/BrettRHall​ or per episode here: https://www.patreon.com/tokcast​ or even a one off donation by clicking on the "Donate" button found here: http://www.bretthall.org/​

Ep 57 "Existential Risk".

This is a podcast all about "Existential Risk". Made at the request of a Patreon, I cover the usual spectrum of ways in which people guess civilisation might end, discuss how to think about this from a rational - but critical - perspective and how to remain optimistic in the face of public intellectuals bombarding us with these claims about the coming end-times.
If you would like to get early access to podcasts like this, consider becoming a Patreon either at https://www.patreon.com/tokcast (for per-episode support) or https://www.patreon.com/BrettRHall (for per-month support).

Ep 56: Ch 17 "Unsustainable" Part 4

The final part of the penultimate chapter. Here we cover "The parable of Europium" and other memorable pessimists from David's formative years. Some analysis of the present concerns about climate change and the rational problem solving - and optimistic approach as contrasted to the standard pessimistic lines.

Ep 55:Existence

What does it mean for something to exist?

Ep 54 Ch 17 "Unsustainable" Part 3

Marx, Engels and Diamond present to us a vision of people as being in some sense impotent in the grand historical scheme - subject merely to natural forces and thus able to be predicted by a kind of natural law. This reductive view of people and their place in history (and the cosmos) leads to terrible historical ideas that bleed into pessimistic political ideologies. The truth instead is not bleak. People - in the form of their creative capacity to explain the world in which they find themselves leads to them being shapers of history. They are agents of change: powerful and good. We are reaching a crescendo of "The Beginning of Infinity".

Ep 53: Understanding Universality

This is additional material about Chapter 6 of "The Beginning of Infinity" - but goes into some additional areas. I compare Greek Gods to Blockchain (in a sense). I think "The Jump to Universality" is a particularly poorly understood chapter. I hope this inspires many to go back and re-read that part of the book. Again. And again.

Ep 52 Ch 17 "Unsustainable" Part 2

Easter Island, Incans, Llamas and Australia. Resources and knowledge, creativity and stasis. We begin to bring together the chapters that have come before as we move into the crescendo of "The Beginning of Infinity". Images (on Youtube) all used under a creative commons licence. All music composed by me.

Ep 51 Ch 17 "Unsustainable" Part 1

What does the watchword of today "sustainable" really mean when taken seriously? In this episode we compare two titans of science communication: David Attenborough and Jacob Bronowski - for although they have inspired generations of scientists and those interested in science, their underlying philosophies could not have been more different. What are those philosophies and what consequences could they have if they were to drive actual policy? Also - a diversion on aspects of Australian and British history.

Ep 50 Ch 16 "The Evolution of Creativity" Part 2

The 50th episode! This is the third part (given there was a part 0, introduction) referring to chapter 16 of "The Beginning of Infinity" with substantive readings. We get into how memes evolved in non-human animals and then how these memes, and genes at some point allowed for a jump to universality. Specifically the universality of explanatory knowledge - which is a quality of a special kind of software - that which runs on our brains, or otherwise known as "a person's mind".

Ep 49: An introduction to epistemology

What it says in the title :)
A short and sweet introduction to a particular way of thinking and knowing. This is all about fallibilism and the possibilities that being wrong opens up.

Ep 48: Cosmological Economics

This episode is highly visual and better viewed on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlcQ4ZFKrKk However, the substance is still there in this purely audio-only version. This is another episode not primarily about "The Beginning of Infinity" but it is deeply inspired by it. It is a discussion exploring the "resources" debate. Are resources finite or infinite? I look at the intersection between economics and cosmology or people and the universe. So this is all about how knowledge changes physical reality, or as David Deutsch has said: how explanations transform the world.

Ep 47: Are we alone?

A ToKCast Special: Brett talks about what he's learned over the years from various academics about the question of alien life. Although I don't mention it, I draw my inspiration from an academic paper I wrote years ago as part of my Masters degree in Astronomy - it can be found here: The Rare Earth That might be a bit more sober, hard-going and not exactly entertaining. I hope this video is fun. I don't read - I simply talk. It's a somewhat different style for ToKCast.

Ep 46 "The Evolution of Creativity" Part 1

This is the second part (after a part 0, introduction) referring to chapter 16 of The Beginning of Infinity with more substantive readings. We get into imitation and compare how apes "ape" and parrots "parrot" to what humans are doing when they learn. Meme replication and lyrebirds make an appearance.

Ep 45 Free Will Exists

This is not a regular episode - and if you have listened to episode 44 you do NOT need to listen to this because it is simply excerpts from that episode. It is simply an extraction from that episode of the material - solely my remarks rather than any reading - about the concept of "free will". The following is the Youtube description of this episode:
This is an excerpt from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oypz57aosnE but is focussed on my remarks about "free will". This is my best attempt at a response to Sam Harris or "CosmicSkeptic's" video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqj32jxOC0Y It seems to me almost every public intellectual, more or less (Daniel Dennett aside) is allergic to the notion of "free will" because they guess it must be linked to some supernatural notion or must defy physics or is in some other sense irrational. I try to explain the scientific notion of the little we know and advance the case that a denial of free will simply moves the same mystery - the same problem - elsewhere.

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.
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