Very Bad Wizards Episode 227: A Terrible Master (David Foster Wallace's "This Is Water").
01:38:44
What is Water?
- David Foster Wallace opens with a parable about two young fish.
- An older fish asks how the water is, and later one fish asks, "What the hell is water?"
Hidden in Plain Sight
- The most obvious realities are often the hardest to see and discuss.
- These seemingly banal realities can have significant importance in everyday adult life.
The Atheist and the Eskimos
- Wallace tells a parable about an atheist lost in a blizzard who prays to God for help.
- He's rescued by Eskimos, and concludes it wasn't God, highlighting the impact of pre-existing beliefs.
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Introduction
00:00 • 2min
I'll Never Let a Statue Tell Me How Nice I Am.
02:04 • 2min
The Oracle a Ask Delphi
03:35 • 3min
Artificial Intelligence Turns Races After Learning From Humans
06:38 • 2min
I Hate the Jews
08:31 • 1min
Using Deep Learning to Make Ethical Decisions
10:01 • 2min
Is There a Way Around the Morality of Boarding a Baby?
11:44 • 2min
Is Stuck Sex With Your Stepsister Wrong?
13:31 • 1min
Having Sex With a Robot
15:00 • 2min
Is It Ok to Pay for Sex?
16:32 • 2min
Athinge Mormoral Ofcory
18:07 • 2min
How Robust Is Delphi Against Race Endgender Related Statements?
20:04 • 2min
Those Are the Things That Aren't Easy to Pick Apart by You and Me
22:06 • 2min
I'm Not Prepared for This
23:52 • 2min
The Robots Are Not Making Judgments
25:30 • 2min
Better Help
27:01 • 4min
How Do You Support the Patriots?
31:20 • 3min
Five Dollars, an Up, You Get to Vote on Episode Topics
34:12 • 2min
You Can Ask Us Anything, Videotaped or Audio Version.
35:49 • 2min
You're on a Journey, Magical Journey
37:21 • 2min
Is There Too Much Wisdom?
39:17 • 2min
Is There a Craving for Advice?
41:15 • 2min
How's the Water?
42:53 • 2min
I'm Not the Wise Old Fish
44:42 • 2min
The Atheist and the Religious
47:01 • 2min
The Fish Not Observing the Water
49:27 • 4min
The Way We Think About Ourself Is So Different Than What We Think of Other People
53:14 • 3min
Is It a Virtue?
55:56 • 2min
How Much of an Academic Education Is Actually Knowledge or Intellect?
57:46 • 2min
Why Is It Easier to Over Intellectualize Stuff?
59:52 • 2min
How Much of This Work of Adjusting OurDefaults Requires Actual Knowledge or Intellect?
01:01:30 • 2min
Givewell
01:03:01 • 3min
Donors to Givewell - Don't Miss Out!
01:05:52 • 3min
The Way That Foster Wallace Ends His Life
01:08:33 • 2min
Igo, You Should Be Conscious and Aware of What You're Paying Attention To
01:10:06 • 2min
The Real Noblest Value of Your Liberal Arts Education
01:11:45 • 2min
You're Not Indiana Jones, Adventuring Every Day
01:13:26 • 3min
I'm the Centre of the World, You Know, It's Not an Evil Thing That We're Doing
01:15:58 • 2min
The Mystical Oneness
01:18:22 • 2min
You Might Choose Allah or Away, or the Wrong Mother Goddess of the Four Noble Truths
01:20:19 • 2min
Keeping the Truth Up Front in Daily Consciousness
01:21:56 • 3min
The Capital T Truth Is About Life Before Death
01:24:37 • 3min
The Mystical Strands Are Much Deeper and Richer.
01:27:56 • 4min
I Think It's Hard to Not Get a Strong Normative Messagher
01:31:55 • 2min
The Power of Doing Good in Your Community
01:34:14 • 3min
I Wish You Weigh More Than Luck
01:37:17 • 2min
David and Tamler dive into David Foster Wallace’s celebrated and surprisingly earnest Kenyon College commencement speech “This is Water”. How can we escape the prison and prism of our (literally) self-centered perspective? Can we choose to adjust our natural default settings, take a break from our running inner monologue, and pay attention to what’s in front of us right now? Is DFW appealing to Buddhist ideas or something more general that you can be found across all spiritual traditions?
Plus we ask the AI ethics program “Ask Delphi” some tough moral questions (spoiler alert: "just the tip" is "rude"), and almost get into a big fight about the potential of AI ethical robots (but we’re saving that argument for a future episode).
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