PhD biologists Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying discuss the modern Dark Age through an evolutionary lens. They explore topics like informational advantage, entropy, and reason. They examine totalitarianism, deception, compliance, and intellectual Stockholm syndrome. Additionally, they touch on balancing humility and confidence, academic conformity, and the importance of diverse perspectives in academia.
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insights INSIGHT
Dark Ages
We tend to get smarter over time, collectively and individually.
A Dark Age is a reversal of this natural process of increasing knowledge.
insights INSIGHT
Entropy and Complexity
The universe tends towards entropy, yet life gets more complex.
This isn't a contradiction, since local complexity increases while overall entropy still rises.
insights INSIGHT
Gameable Rules
Static rules are inherently gameable.
Institutions originally designed for fluid analysis, like science, can become rigid and dogmatic.
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In this 220th in a series of live discussions with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying (both PhDs in Biology), we talk about the state of the world through an evolutionary lens.
In this episode, we discuss the modern Dark Age. Topics include informational advantage, entropy, and reason. We discuss whether all static rules are gameable, and whether adjusting your model to increase predictive power can help you evade the sophists. We also ask what people in North Korea actually think about their lives relative to the rest of the world, and how their situation is analogous to that of people who have been kidnapped, or to that of a populace that is convinced by authorities to do things that are against their interests. At what scales does Stockholm Syndrome apply? We also discuss confidence and humility, intellectual obstructionism, and the value of track records.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Excerpt from Chandler Burr’s book about Luca Turin, The Emperor of Scent: https://chandlerburr.com/books
Mattias Desmet’s The Psychology of Totalitarianism: https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/the-psychology-of-totalitarianism/
Evolutionary Lens Livestream 121 from April 2, 2022, Welcome to the Noble Psy-Op: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrfL6fRW150
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