#21 - Brett Hall: the beginning of infinity, popper and epistemology

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