Is There a Consensus on Climate Change?

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Philosophy is almost, by definition, the too hard basket of problems that we haven't made enough progress on to get to the point of consensus yet. Many questions about key features of consciousness and how it connects to the brain has gradually over the last 30 years, turned into the kind of thing you can do science with. So i see the problem of consciousness as one of those things that could potentially move across that border from no consensus and philosophy to something like at least consensus on methods, and therefore science. But yets not. It's not there yet. There are going to be some problems like that. Those will be the ones we call philosophy.

Shermer speaks with University Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science and codirector of the Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness at New York University, Dr. David Chalmers, to discuss: the hard problem of consciousness; virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence; VR inside a VR, indistinguishable from Reality; Are we living in a simulation?; Can you live a good life in VR?; Can AI systems be conscious? and more…

How do we know that there’s an external world? What is the nature of reality? What’s the relation between mind and body? Virtual reality is genuine reality; that’s the central thesis of David Chalmers’ book: Reality+ — a highly original work of “technophilosophy” in which Chalmers gives a compelling analysis of our technological future. He argues that virtual worlds are not second-class worlds, and that we can live a meaningful life in virtual reality. He uses virtual reality technology to offer a new perspective on long-established philosophical questions. We may even be in a virtual world already.