ToKCast

Ep 107: What is a good explanation?

This is a plain language summary of the most up to date epistemology (as of early 2022) in the tradition of Karl Popper due to the work of David Deutsch about what explanations are. Some of David's earliest work published on this is found in his TED talk here: https://youtu.be/folTvNDL08A . For further details consult "The Beginning of Infinity" - all of it, but especially chapter 1. The search for good explanations does not merely solve our problems and provides us with objective knowledge about all aspects of reality but in a sense might be thought of as among the most profound reasons for human existence.

Ep 106: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 4 “Criteria for Reality” Part 2

In this podcast we cover the supposed hierarchy of knowledge from "the certainty" of mathematical proof through to the "near certainty" gifted to us by scientific arguments supported by evidence all the way down to the lowly philosophical arguments that are a mere matter of taste. We explore more about the tension between realism and its alternatives, how contributing to science is available to anyone (because the evidence is almost everywhere) and finally we end with an exploration of what Popper had to say on some of these topics.

Ep 105: David Deutsch’s “The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 4 “Criteria for Reality” Part 1

In this podcast we cover realism: the common sense claim that there exists an external reality beyond our own minds that we can come to understand through the tools of science and reason more broadly. We compare this to some of the popular rivals that have cropped up over the years out of academic philosophy including, chiefly, solipsism: the claim that "it's all a dream". We explain how we cannot logically disprove solipsism and we can mount no scientific argument, or bring forth evidence, to show solipsism is false. However we can do something more powerful: we can refute it by philosophical argument. This episode is chiefly about what is real, what exists and how we know.

Ep 104: Are We Running Out Of Resources?

This episode explores the issue of the finiteness of our “natural resources”, taking an optimistic view of our place in the cosmos and hence where we can expect to find resources. We must first explain what a resource is. Is the notion of a "natural resource" an oxymoron? I explain some of that in a Twitter thread here: https://twitter.com/ToKTeacher/status/1473642761676988418?s=20:
I then go on to explain this position in this short podcast.
I expect to be making more podcasts of about this length or shorter in the coming months and years.
I know some would prefer with this style of podcast that I did not have music underneath the speech. It would be possible for me to release both a music and a non-music version. Let me know if this is something that would appeal to you. Either on Twitter @ToKCast or email me at: brett@bretthall.org
Music in order of appearance is:
Dark Sky - Ketsa
Solstice Sighing - Ketsa
Vibration - Ketsa
Boats - Ketsa
Gloomy - Ostin
We know - Ketsa
Dark Sky - Ketsa

Ep 103: Ask Me Anything #2

This is “Ask Me Anything” number 2: questions from Twitter (mainly) and elsewhere.
 
Here are the questions/timestamps:
 
00:00 Introduction
01:50 How do people learn false things?
06:32 Why does persuasion fail?
15:20 What’s wrong with physicalism?
18:30 How are mind and the laws of physics abstractions?
21:18 What are your favourite chapters from David’s books?
26:46 Are facts theory laden?
27:49 Is a fact “fallibly true”?
30:24 What are your thoughts on the mind-body problem?
34:50 How has Deutsch improved on Popper?
40:05 What is the most difficult idea to explain from David’s books?
44:58 Do the ideas in “BoI” trace back to Judeo-Christian values?
48:32 What is the plan for the future spreading of David Deutsch’s ideas?
51:38 How do we resolve the apparent conflict between “incremental change” and “rapid progress”?
54:27 What parts of David’s work do you disagree with? What did David Deutsch get wrong?
58:24 Why isn’t morality about suffering?
01:03:50 Are free will, consciousness and explanatory knowledge fundamentally tied?
01:06:10 Does Ayn Rand’s objectivism follow from Deutsch/Popper?
01:13:52 If a problem is a conflict between ideas, what is the conflict with the problem of the universe’s initial conditions?
01:15:52 How can we reconcile the subjectivity of problems with the objectivity of knowledge?
01:18:04 Can’t machines create new choices through abstraction?
01:20:58 Did Popper/Deutsch influence your libertarianism?
01:26:22 What is the beef between Popper/Deutsch and the formal education system?
01:27:02 Are there Popperian resources on child rearing?
01:31:59 Are there pre-requisites for understanding “The Beginning of Infinity”?
01:35:29 What other books can help with thinking?
01:36:10 If a person has struggled academically, what is to blame?
01:40:21 Do you have any (other!) book recommendations?
01:44:32 Doesn’t quantum mechanics and the multiverse violate common sense and logic?

Ep 102: The Thin Veneer

Yes, the AMA will be delayed until episode 103 because of some wonderful remarks made by Joe Rogan that resonated so well with some of what I like to say about the multiverse, our place in it, and what we come to understand about it and how. 
Credit to the Joe Rogan Experience #1746 with Blaire White where Joe explains his understanding of our ability to experience reality. I compare this to what we understand from physics and our best understanding of the philosophy of science.Music in order of tracks is:Ketsa - Rewinding Time (First half of video)Ketsa - Heart Science (Second half of video).Both tracks available at https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa#contact-artist
 

Ep 101 Ask Me Anything 1

As it says: an "AMA" episode.
00:00 Introduction
01:24 When defines the "tipping point" between a static and a dynamic society - specifically our own? 
08:13 Why do children seem to learn faster than adults?
14:00 What are the best refutations of anti-realism & instrumentalism?
19:25 What does quantum computation tell us about reality?
25:00 What is the delineation of reason vs unreason?
27:23 What is a "fact"?
28:45 Is a person a "beginning of infinity"?
31:10 What are your thoughts on "inborn knowledge" in people?
37:08 What do you think about monopolies in markets?
44:42 What is the role of the state to realise the ethics of society?
48:51 What open questions does David's work point us to?
54:38 Could you please elaborate on the Simulation Argument?
01:01:35 Can you do a response video about Yoval Harari?
01:04:14 Why has the Beginning of Infinity risen in popularity in recent years? Do you think this will continue?

Ep 100: David Deutsch

This is the complete and unabridged discussion I had with David Deutsch largely about "The Beginning of Infinity". It contains all my "Questions for David" - which were published separately - AND much more content too.
00:00 Introduction
12:51 Why aren’t testable theories enough?
14:37 Predictions vs Explanations
18:33 Verisimilitude
23:54 Are people a “chemical scum”?
25:43 The Earth is uniquely suited to life?
30:22 What does “provable” mean?
33:44 Undecidability
37:45 Classifying abstractions
41:29 The nature of physical laws.
47:06 Direct Observation
50:29 The nature of mind
55:40 The Supernatural
59:52 Epistemology and Morality
01:02:00 The physical limitations of knowledge?
01:09:24 Some history of quantum computation
01:16:44 Tic Tacs, UFOs and aliens
01:19:01 Dark Energy
Support the podcast by following the links to Patreon or Paypal here: www.bretthall.org

Ep: 99 David Deutsch‘s ”The Beginning of Infinity” - a retrospective in 99 minutes

This is episode 99 of ToKCast. More than any other work, the contents of "The Beginning of Infinity" (BoI) have informed the content of this podcast, so in celebration of Episode 99 I set myself the challenge of taking on each chapter in sequence, retelling the main points of it in my own words (no readings from the actual book itself this time) and construct an episode as close as possible to 99 minutes long. Obviously this required quite some editing - this episode now holds the record for time-taken-to-edit. As much was left on the virtual "cutting room floor" and extended "directors cut" is available for Patreons and other supporters of ToKCast. Become a Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/tokcast (per episode support) or https://www.patreon.com/BrettRHall (monthly donation).
 
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:10:10 Chapter 1 The Reach of Explanations
00:15:21 Chapter 2 Closer to Reality
00:19:50 Chapter 3 The Spark
00:24:14 Chapter 4 Creation
00:29:06 Chapter 5 The Reality of Abstractions
00:34:14 Chapter 6 The Jump to Universality 
00:38:51 Chapter 7 Artificial Creativity
00:43:58 Chapter 8 A Window on Infinity
00:49:01 Chapter 9 Optimism
00:53:47 Chapter 10 A Dream of Socrates
00:58:20 Chapter 11 The Multiverse
01:03:26 Chapter 12 A Physicist's History of Bad Philosophy
01:08:36 Chapter 13 Choices
01:13:42 Chapter 14 Why are Flowers Beautiful?
01:18:00 Chapter 15 The Evolution of Culture
01:22:56 Chapter 16 The Evolution of Creativity
01:28:23 Chapter 17 Unsustainable
01:33:24 Chapter 18 The Beginning
01:37:43 Concluding Remarks

Ep 98: ”Knowledge” Chiara Marletto‘s ”The Science of Can and Can‘t” Ch 5 Readings and discussion.

This is cutting edge physics and epistemology from Chiara Marletto, following David Deutsch and working from and upon to advance the discoveries of Karl Popper. Here I make some quite lengthy introductory remarks laying out the standard academic takes when it comes to epistemology in order to set the scene for the most modern interpretation in our quest to refine our understandings of what knowledge is. We leave behind ancient and modern subjective notions of knowledge (which still prevail in the academy, intellectual circles and even attempts to counter those trends in other traditions of counter-culture communities) and take seriously objective knowledge and then build on it. This is a unique and very modern take on knowledge which brings epistemology within the scope of physics for the very first time. Marletto leads the reader gently through this landscape of physics and philosophy and so it is unsurprising some reviewers have not understood the profundity of the points made in the book as a whole let alone this chapter. This is subtle and powerful stuff: a new unification which one might guess is going to direct the course of progress on many fronts. I hope this video serves as a useful companion to the book and to further investigations into "the land of counterfactuals" as some of the deep ideas are, I think, easy to miss for the casual reader.

Ep 97: David Deutsch answers a question about dark energy. A question for David number 10.

Here I provide some background information on dark energy and then David answers a question about possible explanations for dark energy given what we already know about the big bang.

Ep 96: Computational Universality: Yaron Brook vs Sam Harris response

This is a video in response to this video by Yaron Brook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFqbC...
I'm a fan of both Yaron and Sam. I turn to Yaron for all things economics and individual rights and have great respect for him: indeed so much respect I bothered to spend hours making and editing this video.
In the video I refer to:
1. Michael Neilsen's article on the Church-Turing-Deutsch principle: https://michaelnielsen.org/blog/inter...
2. David Deutsch's speech from his Dirac Medal Award ceremony. Transcript here: http://www.daviddeutsch.org.uk/wp-con...
3. David Deutsch's seminal historic paper that laid the foundations for quantum computation and which brought computation into physics: http://www.daviddeutsch.org.uk/wp-con...
4. "The Nexus" - my video which goes into detail on the mystery of personhood and the science of what we know about this presently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpTxB...
Number 2 on that list above is "required extra reading" if my argument alone is not convincing. For more, see "The Fabric of Reality" chapters 5 and 6 especially. See also "The Beginning of Infinity" and consult the index for passages on computation and universality. Universality is poorly understood as being central to understanding computers and people. For more on that see my video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnkPl...
Images used in the thumbnail and in this video are used under a "Creative Commons" license. Fair use for commentary is claimed for the clips of The Yaron Brook Show (which is one of my favourite podcasts).

Ep: 95 Steven Pinker‘s ”Rationality” Chapters 1 & 2 Remarks and Analysis

This video and associated podcast are about Steven Pinker's new book "Rationality". I read a small number of brief excerpts from the book itself, alongside commenting, criticising and reviewing the content of the first two chapters. There are a number of images and videos in the Youtube version which may help with particular concepts as we go along.
I compare Pinker's vision of rationality with what might be interpreted about that same topic from the work of David Deutsch and Karl Popper. In summary: I found the book highly entertaining in places and an excellent overview of this topic as it might be taught in an Ivy League University in The United States (indeed Pinker says that such a course that he taught was part of the impetus for the book). In terms of being a good substitute for those who might never have been able to afford due to chance, location or cost actually attending such an institution and taking on a course such as one on "Critical Thinking" and "Rationality" the book could readily serve as a series of well written university lecture notes. To that end, it is certainly worth the cost for anyone interested in these topics. In Chapter 2, Professor Pinker not only agrees with the "justified true belief" conception of knowledge but uses it in practise to explain what might be called the "rational" and "irrational". I thus spend a good portion of the second half of this video suggesting ways in which that very conception of knowledge itself leads to irrationality and explain a better way of understanding concepts like "knowledge" as compared to "belief" and how to understand the phrase "I know". I intend to cover 2 chapters per episode.
00:00 Introduction
03:30 “Enlightenment Now” and praise for "The Beginning of Infinity".
07:50 Timeless errors, timely examples.
13:05 “Rationality” in “The Beginning of Infinity” sense.
17:15 Do ancient-type tribal people have a “scientific mindset”?
25:00 Explanatory Universality & Anti-rational memes
34:34 Skill with logic puzzles and *being* logical/rational
42:00 The Wason Selection task
51:25 The Monty Hall Problem
1:02:50 The Linda Problem (& remarks on uses and misuses of probability) 1:11:42 Popper and theory laden observations
1:14:20 Knowledge as Justified True Belief - Why Popper matters
1:27:00 Objective truth
1:32:30 Reason is fun
1:38:18 Closing remarks about chapter 2

Ep 94: Wealth and the Conflict of Ideas

I recommend this episode be viewed in its video format here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfuQI_LgDBE or here https://odysee.com/@BrettHall:c/wealth-and-the-conflict-of-ideas:1 as it's got lots of nice images and videos...some of which I constructed myself. That said, the actual "message" can be appreciated fully with audio only. 
 
Although I do not explicitly mention it, this entire episode was motivated by a Sam Harris “meme post” found here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-sWqk5n1... The claim that appears there (which reads “The free market is not producing effective responses to our most important problems” is emblematic of an intellectual culture that now holds sway not only in the academy but broadly in public discourse and, of course, it is readily consumed by people hungry for simple solutions and perversely promoted by business people afraid of their left-leaning customers. In this episode I spend time on a very brief historic analysis of the motivation for such rejections of freedom and capitalism (which we must admit are relatively new creations when put beside ancient tribalism) and I look at some of the failures of central planning or rejection of the free market. I agree with those who say “there is no actual capitalism” there are merely degrees of socialism in existence. Where there is freedom in a socialist framework, to the degree there is freedom: wealth grows. And to the degree there are top down controls: poverty increases. I regard this as an opportunity cost to some extent. It should not be necessary to defend the fundamentals of economic systems that allow for wealth creation and problem solving. But we live in a time where, for various reasons, a neo-Marxist move is on the ascendency. On that: I also voice concerns I have about allies on the side of liberty turning on one another rather too often out of concern this or that “capitalist” is not sufficiently “capitalist”. I see this as a wonderful way for socialists to continue to gain ground in institutions at all levels of government. A partial script for this episode can be found here: https://www.bretthall.org/our-most-im... This video and ones like it take many days (sometimes weeks) of production from research and reading for the script through to filming and audio recording, searching libraries of stock videos and music, organising copyright issues and finally editing - because I work alone. If you would like to support this effort, you may donate at www.bretthall.org where there is a "Donate" button for one off or monthly donations. On the same page are links to my Patreon accounts where you can also support me. Thankyou :)

Ep 93: David Deutsch answers a question about the nature of mind. A question for David number 9.

In this answer David provides some unique insight into the mystery that remains the nature of the mind. We are constrained by some of what we already know (like computational universality, among other things) and so given this, what can we say about the mind?

Ep 92: David Deutsch answers a question about observations. A question for David number 8

In this “question for David” number 8 we speak about direct observation - “empiricism” and how that was progress over what came before even if it is false. More than anything else this question serves as a “teaser” for the content of question 9: some of David’s views on the nature of mind. Ways to support my work can be found at www.bretthall.org via Patreon or the "Donate" button. Visit https://nav.al and subscribe.

Ep 91: David Deutsch‘s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 3 “Problem Solving” Part 2

In this podcast we cover a universal scheme for problem solving and then focus in on the special case of problem solving in science and compare this to outdated and refuted attempts to explain how knowledge was supposed to be "justified". Popper wrote that "all life is problem solving" - so I discuss that briefly and throughout we consider that if problems are indeed soluble (as they are) how it is that problems eventually get solved. It takes effort, it takes creativity, the process can be messy and there is no single method: but there are ways to be right about what's going on and ways to be wrong.
 
Credit to: David Deutsch for writing "The Fabric of Reality"
Naval Ravikant for his ongoing support of this project.
My other Patrons and supporters at Patreon.
If you would also like to support this podcast, please head over to either https://www.patreon.com/tokcast to sponsor me per episode.
Or per month here: https://www.patreon.com/BrettRHall
Or click on the "Donate" button at www.bretthall.org where you can send me a one off or monthly donation. Though this has always been and will remain a "labour of love" I thankyou everyone for any and all support which will allow me to continue to improve the sound, presentation and delivery of this series.

Ep 90: Fallibilism

This is the audio only version of the video found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxeXbTv1dug and is one of my occasional episodes backed by some music.
 
Inspired largely by the work of David Deutsch with underlying themes of Popperian critical rationalism: this is my exploration of fallibilism. The three music tracks were composed by Ketsa https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/ and are, in order:
1. "Mixed Up"
2. "Start of Something Beautiful"
3."Hear me out"
and are used under a Creative Commons license.
 
All videos are purchased from and used under license from "Storyblocks" https://www.storyblocks.com/

Ep: 89 ”Quantum Information” Chiara Marletto‘s ”The Science of Can & Can‘t” Ch 4 readings and discussion

As the title suggests: this is about Quantum Information. It is “Quantum Information Theory” to be more precise. Now physics is sometimes regarded as strange by people who know little about it. And even for people who know a little more about it - well they might regard quantum physics as strange. And even those who know a little about quantum physics - they can regard quantum information theory as rather esoteric. This episode, following Chapter 4 of Chiara Marletto’s excellent book, begins from the ground up to explore how quantum systems can do more with information than classical systems (which is what all present day computers use). There is an excellent talk by David Wallace about the Mach Zehnder interferometer that I mention. It’s here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRJT9... Coupled with my own remarks about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu4HH... Anyone should come away with a good understanding of what is actually going on.

Ep: 88 Critically Creative (Critical and Creative Thinking 2.0).

There is an article associated with this podcast episode here: https://www.bretthall.org/critically-creative-1.html
 
I mention this article from the University of Sydney, Australia: https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/critical-thinking.html
 
While recording this podcast, I had in mind teachers: they are my primary “target audience” so to speak. But this will, I hope be useful for anyone with a “stake” in the education system: so of course students, their parents, university lecturers, administrators - people in a position to make decisions about schools and curriculum. The topic is essentially “Critical Thinking” and what I think it is, in the Popperian tradition. As I will mention, unlike even just 15 years ago, “Critical Thinking” is now a fashionable term thrown around in schools, universities and among those charged with deciding what students are taught and how. Often “Creative Thinking” is thrown into the mix as well. All sorts of activities are devised for students to improve these “skills”: sometimes entire new subjects are created for students to take that are supposed to be about improving “critical thinking”. It’s all - from the education system’s point of view - very new. And because it’s new *there* they are, largely speaking, inventing things on the fly or designating certain techniques or rules or activities “critical and creative thinking”. It really is all the buzz in many places.
The time stamps below will give you some better idea of the full content.
Time Stamps
 
00:00:00 Introduction - and what should be in a school curriculum.
00:04:00 Educational buzz words and “lock in”.
00:07:55 Some initial thoughts about +the practical* uses of epistemology
00:10:30 Teaching vs Learning Strategies and “Student Engagement”
14:30 Criticisms - what are they?
15:30 What it takes to pass exams.
16:40 To be creative should you obey no rules?
18:30 A second pass on the practical applications of critical thinking
22:25 The Grass Eating cure for the 100th time ;)
25:20 “The Explanation Criteria”
28:30 Peer review (& double blind placebo controlled trials in medicine) and *when* it is we can say we know what we know.
32:45 Critical Thinking everywhere
33:00 Explanationless science, mathematics 35:30 What is “criticism” exactly?
36:00 As applied to history & music.
36:50 How to come up with good criticisms and some discussion of the possibility of heuristics for better critical thinking.
39:10 Constructive vs Destructive criticism. (& the distinction between ideas and people).
44:00 Popper - an introduction for those involved in education
45:30 The anti-rational hangup ballast.
48:35 A very general two-step process for framing any analysis that requires the use of “critical thinking”.
50:13 Some more specific explicit unpacking of some critical thinking “techniques” or heuristics.
52:09 A “fundamental” theorem of criticism or the chief principle of critical thinking. :)
56:27 Creative thinking: the little we know.
59:00 Remarks about economics and free vs regulated markets
01:01:27 How can we improve creative thinking?
01:01:03 Creativity and criticism in evolution by natural selection
01:04:07 How does human creativity work? Remarks on AGI.
01:09:09 How a child teaches us
01:14:38 Final “critically creative” thoughts.
01:18:00 Typical “critical thinking” as it is taught at university: https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/critical-thinking.html
01:20:00 The purpose of critical and creative thinking as taught at schools/universities.