The chapter delves into a video game where the main character, Simon, gradually realizes he is a robot through various cues like looking at his reflection in a mirror. The discussion touches on Catherine, an artificial intelligence guiding Simon, who explains his perception of self is limited by his human-centric mind. The conversation explores the philosophical ideas of identity, body, and the impact of a different physical form on one's consciousness.
We’ve done deep dives on three of his stories, and now THE MAN HIMSELF, multi-award winning science fiction author Ted Chiang, joins us to explore the post-apocalyptic world of the video-game SOMA. You play Simon Jarrett, a man who goes for a brain scan in Toronto and wakes up a 100 years later in an underwater research facility, the last remaining hope to preserve human consciousness from extinction. Pizarro confronts his worst nightmare, a first-person experience of stepping into a transporter-style scenario. We talk about how video games can make philosophical problems come alive, what “fission-cases” tell us about personal identity (Tamler’s note: this really should count as our Parfit episode), what it’s like to be conscious without a body, the problem with thought experiments, and lots more.
Plus, a new evo-psych study on why bullshitting is adaptive – convince people you’re smart and save energy while you do it!
Special Guest: Ted Chiang.
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