The Theory of Anything

Episode 130: The "Pseudo Deutsch Theory of Knowledge"

8 snips
Jan 20, 2026
Dive into the intriguing debate on knowledge theories, where Bruce critiques popular notions by critical rationalists. He explores Popper's ideas on theories and concepts and contrasts them with Hofstadter’s insights on creativity. The discussion includes the pseudo-Deutsch theory, human knowledge creation through evolution, and the role of genetic algorithms. Bruce tackles misconceptions about inspiration versus perspiration in knowledge generation, urging a shift towards explicit, testable theories. It's a fascinating journey through complex epistemological landscapes!
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INSIGHT

What The Pseudo‑Deutsch Theory Is

  • The "pseudo-Deutsch" theory is a popular crit-rat interpretation that conflates Deutsch's two-sources idea with stronger claims.
  • Bruce argues the resulting view is a bad, unfalsifiable explanation that needs replacement with explicit, testable theories.
INSIGHT

Counting Knowledge Doesn’t Prove Origins

  • Counting how much human-provided knowledge exists doesn't prove humans provided all knowledge.
  • Bruce stresses falsification: show knowledge that could not have come from humans to refute the pseudo‑Deutsch claim.
INSIGHT

Inspiration Is Not Magically Non‑Algorithmic

  • All algorithms run on Turing machines and thus are deterministic mechanical processes.
  • The inspiration/perspiration distinction is a misleading intuition pump, since any inspiration program would still be algorithmic.
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