
Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content #40 - Complexity & Stupidity
Jul 11, 2016
Sam Harris speaks with biologist David Krakauer about information, intelligence, the role of IQ, complex systems, technological advancement, and the future of humanity. They discuss the importance of culture and artifacts in relation to human intelligence and the rise of stupidity, the concept of information and its connection to genetics, brain science, and physics, the mathematical meaning of complexity, the value of cursive writing and early experiences in learning, normative claims surrounding changes in cognition and ethics, the relationship between complexity, ethics, and intellectual honesty, the search for life beyond Earth, and the smartest person in human history.
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Introduction
00:00 • 2min
Culture, Artifacts, and the Rise of Stupidity
01:46 • 6min
The Concept of Information
07:36 • 18min
Complexity and Mathematical Meaning
25:28 • 31min
Importance of Cursive Writing, Early Experiences, and Spatial Navigation in Learning
56:26 • 2min
Normative Claims, Better Ways of Interacting, and the Cultural Implications
58:12 • 5min
Complexity, Ethics, and Intellectual Honesty
01:03:13 • 24min
The Search for Life Beyond Earth
01:27:19 • 10min
The Smartest Person in Human History
01:37:26 • 5min

