Lawyers Don't Want to Know What's True

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The purpose of a lawyer is to defend his client and to try to win at any cost. Lawyers don't want to know what's true, right? Alan Derschvett tells the story of meeting one of the one of the prime ministers of Israel. And he said, let me ask you something. Does Israel have nuclear weapons? He says, you know, I can't tell you that. But there really are predators. They're really there. So there has to be some perception of reality.

Shermer and Rees discuss: existential threats • overpopulation • biodiversity loss • climate change • AI and self-driving cars, robots, and unemployment • his bet with Steven Pinker • his disagreement with Richard Dawkins • how science works as a communal activity • scientific creativity • science communication • science education • why there aren’t more women and people of color in STEM fields • verification vs. falsification • Bayesian reasoning and scientific progress • Model Dependent Realism and the nature of reality Fermi’s Paradox • why he’s an atheist but wants to be buried in the Presbyterian church in which he was raised • mysterian mysteries.

Martin Rees is Astronomer Royal, former President of the Royal Society, Fellow (and former Master) of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. He sits as a member of the UK House of Lords. He is the author of many bestselling popular science books, including: On the Future; Just Six Numbers; Before the Beginning; and Our Final Hour. His newest book is If Science is to Save Us.