Bertrand Russell and the Future of Politics

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Why didn't Bertrand Russell go into politics? He's such a genius in such a creative wise man. I'd like to see more men like the current president of Ireland. Because he's about five foot in his socks and there's a massive white hair and he looks like a weird professor. But anyway, no particular party affiliation. He just wanted to run the country. Right. It could be that anyone who is really smart and also wise and a deep thinker thinks, why would I want to put myself into that world where half the people hate you,. Half your own party hates you, you know, anything you ever do is going to be splattered all over the media. And

How humans transfer knowledge through time might affect our ability to think.

With the advent of the internet, any topic we want to know about is instantly available with the touch of a smartphone button. With so much knowledge at our fingertips, what is there left for our brains to do? At a time when we seem to be stripping all value from the idea of knowing things — no need for math, no need for map-reading, no need for memorization — are we risking our ability to think? Simon Winchester takes a deep dive into learning and the human mind, and forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming.

Shermer and Winchester discuss: how to become a professional writer • ChatGPT, GPT-4, and AI • knowledge as justified true belief • What is truth? • Are we living in a post-truth world? • education, past and present • books and the printing press • the history and future of encyclopedias • museums: repatriating objects taken during colonialism • print and broadcast journalism • internet and knowledge.

Simon Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Men Who United the States, The Perfectionists, The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906, Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World, and Krakatoa, most of which were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen. He resides in western Massachusetts. His new book is Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic.