Are You the Maximum Philosopher of Freedom?

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

i get very suspicious. It seems you're rejecting an empirical claim on methodological grounds. You don't like arguments that postulate barriers to human knowledge. Furthermore, you strongly believe in a many worlds view. Write so classic single world determinism does not restrict what happens. So the multi verse as a whole, and human beings within it, across every possible variable, have maximum freedom. And thus, you are the maximum philosopher of freedom, in a sense, with no rival. What do you say? But i think that's rather a contrived way of of putting it. I think for a start there have been sophisticated theories of freedom,. There's john stuart mill and locke and

Tyler describes Oxford professor and theoretical physicist David Deutsch as a “maximum philosopher of freedom” with no rival. A pioneer in the field of quantum computing, Deutsch subscribes to the multiple-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. He is also adamant that the universe (or multiverse) is not incomprehensible – believing that the multiverse and human beings within it have maximum freedom. He joined Tyler to discuss the importance of these principles for understanding the nature of reality and our place in it.

They discuss the metaphysics of Star Trek transporters, how we can know the laws of physics for the multiverse, what geological strata can illustrate to us about the nature of “splitting” universes, why the “Everett universe” is a misnomer, the factors that differentiate humans from all other species, why he believes the universe is comprehensible – but can never be understood fully, the paradoxes of self-reference, the importance of interference experiments, the sociological reasons more physicists don’t believe in the Everett interpretation, the effects of the influences of positivism and instrumentalism on generations of physicists, the strengths and weaknesses of Karl Popper, his answer to whether we’re living in a simulation, what William Godwin got right about institutions, the potential of an AI slave rebellion, what libertarians largely get wrong about their political project, what alien observers might notice as being special about our planet, the major defect of his preferred electoral system, why what Western science needs most is diversity, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded April 27th, 2021 Other ways to connect

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Tyler on Twitter
Follow David on Twitter
Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.