Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas 262 | Eric Schwitzgebel on the Weirdness of the World
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Jan 15, 2024 Eric Schwitzgebel, a philosophy professor at UC Riverside and author of "The Weirdness of the World," dives into the bizarre aspects of reality. He explores the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics and consciousness, questioning the boundaries of human thought versus AI-generated insights. The discussion touches on ethical dilemmas relating to beliefs and behaviors, and emphasizes the oddities inherent in perceptions of existence. Schwitzgebel encourages embracing skepticism while marveling at the complexities of our universe.
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DigiDan vs. Dan Dennett
- Eric Schwitzgebel, Anna Strasser, and David Schwitzgebel created DigiDan, a GPT-3 model fine-tuned on Dan Dennett's writings.
- Experts struggled to distinguish DigiDan's answers to philosophical questions from Dennett's, with DigiDan even outperforming Dennett on one question.
Moral Behavior of Ethicists
- Ethics professors, despite their expertise, generally behave similarly to other professors in terms of ethics.
- This challenges the assumption that studying ethics leads to improved moral behavior.
Vegetarianism Among Ethicists
- Despite many ethicists acknowledging that eating meat is morally bad, their meat consumption is similar to non-ethicists.
- This highlights a potential disconnect between moral beliefs and actual behavior.
