Why Rational Agents 'Cannot Agree to Disagree'

Get 3 months off the annual plan and start learning faster at shortform.com/impossible In this episode, Steven Pinker unpacks how common knowledge shapes everything from why rational people can’t agree to disagree to why markets boom and bust. We explore the risks of falsifying expert claims, the power of social norms, and whether civilization is held together by truths—or by the fictions we all agree to share.

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Key Takeaways: 

• 00:00 Intro 

  00:58 When common knowledge is wrong

  02:37 The role of common knowledge in social coordination 

  08:48 Free will and determinism 

  14:48 Judging a book by its cover

  21:08 Government suppression and common knowledge

  30:08 The agree to disagree theorem 

  34:54 Generosity and charity in human affairs

  41:12 The role of common knowledge in religious beliefs 

  48:31 LLMs and common knowledge 

  50:39 Outro

  Additional resources: 

  📚 When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows… by Steven Pinker: ⁠https://a.co/d/bKJzohi⁠ 

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  Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

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