The Worst Teachers Are Trying to Persuade People

This is “Ask Me Anything” number 2: questions from Twitter (mainly) and elsewhere.

Here are the questions/timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

01:50 How do people learn false things?

06:32 Why does persuasion fail?

15:20 What’s wrong with physicalism?

18:30 How are mind and the laws of physics abstractions?

21:18 What are your favourite chapters from David’s books?

26:46 Are facts theory laden?

27:49 Is a fact “fallibly true”?

30:24 What are your thoughts on the mind-body problem?

34:50 How has Deutsch improved on Popper?

40:05 What is the most difficult idea to explain from David’s books?

44:58 Do the ideas in “BoI” trace back to Judeo-Christian values?

48:32 What is the plan for the future spreading of David Deutsch’s ideas?

51:38 How do we resolve the apparent conflict between “incremental change” and “rapid progress”?

54:27 What parts of David’s work do you disagree with? What did David Deutsch get wrong?

58:24 Why isn’t morality about suffering?

01:03:50 Are free will, consciousness and explanatory knowledge fundamentally tied?

01:06:10 Does Ayn Rand’s objectivism follow from Deutsch/Popper?

01:13:52 If a problem is a conflict between ideas, what is the conflict with the problem of the universe’s initial conditions?

01:15:52 How can we reconcile the subjectivity of problems with the objectivity of knowledge?

01:18:04 Can’t machines create new choices through abstraction?

01:20:58 Did Popper/Deutsch influence your libertarianism?

01:26:22 What is the beef between Popper/Deutsch and the formal education system?

01:27:02 Are there Popperian resources on child rearing?

01:31:59 Are there pre-requisites for understanding “The Beginning of Infinity”?

01:35:29 What other books can help with thinking?

01:36:10 If a person has struggled academically, what is to blame?

01:40:21 Do you have any (other!) book recommendations?

01:44:32 Doesn’t quantum mechanics and the multiverse violate common sense and logic?