In the same way that we're not quite as good with axes as some of our forebears, do you think that generations get better and worse at using thinking tools? And if so, where do you see the future? Well, first of all, let's confirm that people get worse. How many in this room know how to run a slide rule? Is there anybody under 40 who can actually do the algorithm for finding a square root? Yeah, but not many. When you can do it all on your hand calculator, you don't bother learning the technique anymore. GPS is probably seriously diminishing our capacity to read maps. Wonderful thinking tool which is becoming more and more sort of obsolete
Daniel Dennett is one of the world's most original and provocative thinkers. A philosopher and cognitive scientist, he is known as one of the 'Four Horseman of New Atheism' along with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens. In 2013 he came to Intelligence Squared to share the insights he has acquired over his 40-year career into the nature of how we think, decide and act. Dennett revealed his favourite thinking tools, or 'intuition pumps', that he and others have developed for addressing life's most fundamental questions. As well as taking a fresh look at familiar moves - Occam's Razor, reductio ad absurdum - he discussed new cognitive solutions designed for the most treacherous subject matter: evolution, meaning, consciousness and free will.
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