The Tortoise and Achilles

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Every chapter starts with a dialogue between tortoise and Achilles in the tortoise that just presents an idea like self-reference or infinity. He takes after Lewis Carroll, who borrowed those characters from Zeno. And so there's a lot of ideas about just artificial intelligence and cognitive science which I only realized years later had planted the seed for my interest in these topics.

Dave and Tamler celebrate their one year anniversary and 30th episode with one of their least cynical episodes yet. They talk about 5 philosophy/psychology(-ish) books that influenced and inspired them throughout the years. They also respond to a listener email that accuses them (mostly Tamler) of being "reckless and irresponsible" in their discussion of responding to insults.

Episode Links

(Please note that the Top 5 links below are to purchase books through amazon.com via the Very Bad Wizards amazon affiliate account)

Tamler's Top 5

5. The Razor's Edge

4. Culture Of Honor: The Psychology Of Violence In The South (New Directions in Social Psychology)/Humiliation: And Other Essays on Honor, Social Discomfort, and Violence

3. The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene (Popular Science)

2. Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions

1. Jacques the Fatalist and His Master (Penguin Classics)

David's Top 5

5. Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman

4. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

3. The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology