Brett Hall is the host of the TokCast podcast, a physicist and teacher, and one of the most insightful explainers of David Deutsch’s philosophy. He’s been writing and speaking about Popperian epistemology, optimism, and the universal reach of explanation for over a decade, follow Brett on Twitter
We talk about what makes people people, why consciousness might be rarer than we think, why explanatory knowledge is the most powerful force in the universe, and what AGI and progress really mean. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Timestamps
00:00 – Intro
03:18 – How The Fabric of Reality changed Brett’s worldview
06:42 – Optimism, meaning, and the rejection of mysticism
09:52 – What makes humans unique: universal explainers
13:07 – Consciousness, personhood, and moral status
16:44 – Popper’s critiques of academia and progress
19:59 – Why Brett rejects labels like “Popperian” or “Deutschian”
23:15 – What it means to explain something — and why we can’t define it
26:21 – Explanations vs metaphors and epistemic clarity
29:33 – Are good predictions overrated in science?
32:55 – Why AI isn’t approaching AGI (and might be moving away)
36:20 – Creativity, disobedience, and what people really are
39:40 – Tools vs tool users: moral error in anthropomorphizing AI
42:16 – Is empathy overrated? Sympathy, kindness, and curiosity
45:02 – Why “facts” are interpretations too
48:20 – Stagnation, error correction, and what still blocks progress
51:14 – Brett’s vision of extending the Enlightenment
54:38 – The path to AGI — and why forecasts are mostly fake
58:01 – Final thoughts on truth, individuality, and cosmic responsibility
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