The Valmy

Podcast: The TED Interview Episode: David Deutsch on the infinite reach of knowledgeRelease date: 2018-10-23Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIt can be easy to believe that humans are insignificant. We’re specks of dust on a random planet in a vast universe. Less powerful than elephants. Fewer than ants. But David Deutsch believes that’s all beside the point, because humans possess one unique skill: attaining knowledge. David Deutsch – Oxford professor, father of quantum computing, recluse – convinced Chris years ago to take over leadership of TED with his ideas about knowledge. In this mind-bending conversation, the two dive into his theory that the potential reach of knowledge is infinite. They explore how knowledge first developed, why it sets us apart and what all of these heady concepts really mean for our present and future. To find out more about TED, please visit TED.com.Find the transcript at: go.ted.com/interviewdeutsch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Podcast: Hear This Idea Episode: #26 – Thomas Moynihan on the History of Existential RiskRelease date: 2021-03-22Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationThomas Moynihan is a writer and researcher interested in the history of ideas surrounding existential risk and human flourishing. He completed a PhD on the history of human extinction, and currently works with Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute. His most recent book is called X-Risk: How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction. You can read much more about the topics we cover in this episode in our accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/thomas. It's not a transcript! If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free get in touch through our website or by using the star rating form on each episode page. Please also consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this. If you want to support the show more directly and help us keep hosting these episodes online, consider leaving a tip. Thanks for listening!

Podcast: Subversive w/Alex Kaschuta Episode: Patrick Deneen - Liberalism & The Meaning of FreedomRelease date: 2021-03-17Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationYou can support this podcast at https://www.patreon.com/aksubversive ​Or check out my writing on Substack at https://alexkaschuta.substack.com/ I talk with Patrick Deneen about why Liberalism failed, about the frictionless society, being alone, technology and supernormal stimuli, why Libertarianism failed and keeps failing, the problems of scale, the West strip-mining the world for intelligence, fertility traps, and much more. We also cover what could come next, which will be the topic of Prof. Deneen's next book. Patrick Deneen is a Professor of Political Science at Notre Dame and the author of "Why Liberalism Failed." Music: Discovery by Scott Buckley https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

Podcast: Many Minds Episode: Culture, innovation, and the collective brainRelease date: 2021-02-03Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationGreetings friends and happy February! Today’s episode is a conversation with Dr. Michael Muthukrishna, an Associate Professor of Economic Psychology at the London School of Economics. Michael’s research takes on a suite of topics that all start from a single big question: Why are we so different from other animals? Part of the answer has to do with our neural hardware. There’s no question we’ve got big brains—and Michael has some cool things to say about why they may have gotten so big. But Michael is just as focused on our cultural software—the tools and ideas we develop, tweak, share, and accumulate over time. You might say he’s more impressed by our collective brains than by our individual brains. To study all this, Michael builds formal theories and computational models; he runs experiments; and he constructs and analyzes huge databases. We cover a lot of ground in this episode. We talk about the finding that the size and interconnectedness of a social group affects the cultural skills that group can develop and maintain. We consider what actually powers innovation (hint: it’s not lone geniuses). We discuss how diversity is a bit double-edged and why psychology needs to become a historical science. And that, my friends, is hardly all—we also touch on cetaceans, religious history, and spinning plates. I’ve been hoping to have Michael on the show for months now. His work is deeply theoretical, advancing the basic science of what it means to be human. But it’s also engaged with important practical issues—issues like corruption and cultural diversity. Without further ado, here’s my conversation with Dr. Michael Muthukrishna. Enjoy! A transcript of this show is available here.   Notes and links 4:30 - An introduction to “dual inheritance theory.” 11:00 - A 2013 paper by Dr. Muthukrishna and colleagues about the relationship between sociality and cultural complexity. 12:15 - A paper on the loss of cultural tools and traditions in the Tasmanian case. 21:20 – A 2016 paper by Dr. Muthukrishna and Joseph Henrich on innovation and the collective brain. 28:30 - The original paper on the notion of cultural “tightness” and “looseness.” 30:20 - A recent short piece by Dr. Muthukrishna on the paradox of diversity. 34:50 - A 2019 popular piece of mine on the phenomenon of “global WEIRDing.” 40:27 - The so-called Flynn Effect refers to the puzzling rise of IQ scores over time. It is named after James Flynn, who died only weeks ago. 42:30 - A paper about the significance of Luria’s work on abstract reasoning in Uzbekistan. 50:26 - A paper on the “cultural brain hypothesis,” the subject of Dr. Muthukrishna’s dissertation. 51:00 - A paper on brains as fundamentally “expensive.” 58:00 - Boyd & Richardson, mentioned here, have authored a number of highly influential books. The first of these was Culture and the Evolutionary Process. 59:35 - A 2015 paper on head size and emergency birth interventions. 1:01:20 - The stylized model we mention here is discussed and illustrated in this lecture from the 2020 Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute. 1:03:15 – The paper by Dr. Muthukrishna and colleagues on cetacean brains and culture. 1:11:38 - The paper by Dr. Muthukrishna and colleagues on ‘Psychology as a Historical Science.’ 1:14:00 - The 2020 paper by Dr. Muthukrishna and colleagues introducing a tool for the measurement of cultural distance. 1:20:20 – Dr. Muthukrishna is part of the team behind the Database of Religious History. 1:24:25 - The paper by Dr. Muthukrishna and Joe Henrich on ‘The Origins and Psychology of Human Cooperation.’   Dr. Muthukrishna’s end-of-show reading recommendations: Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success & The WEIRDest People in the World Matt Ridley, How Innovation Works Matthew Syed, Rebel Ideas  You can keep up with Dr. Muthukrishna’s work at his personal website and on Twitter (@mmuthukrishna).   Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute (DISI) (https://www.diverseintelligencessummer.com/, which is made possible by a generous grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation to UCLA. It is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster, and Associate Director Hilda Loury. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd (https://www.mayhilldesigns.co.uk/. Our transcripts are created by Sarah Dopierala (https://sarahdopierala.wordpress.com/. You can subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com. For updates about the show, follow us on Twitter: @ManyMindsPod.

Podcast: Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS Episode: Bentham on PleasureRelease date: 2021-02-09Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationJeremy Bentham’s Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation is a definitive early statement of the basis of utilitarianism: how do we achieve the greatest happiness of the greatest number? David looks at Bentham’s rationale for this approach and the many criticisms it has faced. Bentham has often been accused of reducing politics to mechanical calculation and missing what really matters. But given the time in which he was writing, wasn’t the prioritisation of pleasure the most radical idea of all?Free online version of textRecommended version to purchaseGoing deeper…Philip Lucas and Anne Sheeran, ‘Asperger’s Syndrome and the Eccentricity and Genius of Jeremy Bentham’ (2006)Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1975) Thomas McMullan, ‘What does the panopticon mean in the age of digital surveillance?’, The Guardian (2015)(Audio) In Our Time, Utilitarianism See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Podcast: Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS Episode: Butler on MachinesRelease date: 2021-02-23Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationSamuel Butler’s Erewhon (1872) is a strange and unsettling book about a world turned upside down. Usually classified as utopian or dystopian fiction, it also contains an eerie prophecy about the coming of intelligent machines. David explores the origins of Butler’s ideas and asks what they have to teach us about the oddity of how we choose to organise our societies, both then and now.Free version of the textRecommended version to buyGoing Deeper:Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (1903)Virginia Woolf, 'Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown' (1924)George Dyson, Darwin Among the Machines (1997)(Video) James Paradis, 'Naturalism and Utopia: Samuel Butler's Erewhon' See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Podcast: Hear This Idea Episode: #16 – SJ Beard on Parfit, Climate Change, and Existential RiskRelease date: 2020-09-30Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationDr S. J. Beard is a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker. With a background in philosophy, he works on ethical problems relating to the long-term future of humanity, as well as evaluating extreme technological risks. In this episode we discuss: [2:00] Existential risks defined in brief; [4:45] SJ's background; [12:30] What made philosopher Derek Parfit so influential; [17:30] What is the repugnant conclusion? [22:12] What is the non-identity problem? [28:40] Meeting Parfit; [34:20] Why SJ chose a career in existial risk research; [36:43] What existential risk research looks like; [45:58] How can we estimate the probability of catastrophes with no strict precedents? [56:52] Under what circumstances could climate change cause a collapse of global civilization? [1:07:52] Why SJ ran as an MP for the Liberal Democrats; [1:17:25] Is academia broken? How can we fix it? [1:23:23] Why SJ changed his mind about whether COVID is a potential global catastrophe You can read much more on this episode's accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/Simon. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, please get in touch through our website. Please also consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to this. If you want to support the show more directly and help us keep hosting these episodes online, consider leaving a tip at https://www.tips.pinecast.com/jar/hear-this-idea. Thanks for listening!

Podcast: In Our Time Episode: UtilitarianismRelease date: 2015-06-11Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationA moral theory that emphasises ends over means, Utilitarianism holds that a good act is one that increases pleasure in the world and decreases pain. The tradition flourished in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and has antecedents in ancient philosophy. According to Bentham, happiness is the means for assessing the utility of an act, declaring "it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong." Mill and others went on to refine and challenge Bentham's views and to defend them from critics such as Thomas Carlyle, who termed Utilitarianism a "doctrine worthy only of swine."WithMelissa Lane The Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton UniversityJanet Radcliffe Richards Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of OxfordandBrad Hooker A Professor of Philosophy at the University of ReadingProducer: Simon Tillotson.

Podcast: a16z Podcast Episode: GPT-3: What's Hype, What's Real on the Latest in AIRelease date: 2020-07-30Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this episode -- cross posted from our 16 Minutes show feed -- we cover all the buzz around GPT-3, the pre-trained machine learning model from OpenAI that’s optimized to do a variety of natural-language processing tasks. It’s a commercial product, built on research; so what does this mean for both startups AND incumbents… and the future of “AI as a service”? And given that we’re seeing all kinds of (cherrypicked!) examples of output from OpenAI’s beta API being shared — how do we know how good it really is or isn’t? How do we know the difference between “looks like” a toy and “is” a toy when it comes to new innovations? And where are we, really, in terms of natural language processing and progress towards artificial general intelligence? Is it intelligent, does that matter, and how do we know (if not with a Turing Test? Finally, what are the broader questions, considerations, and implications for jobs and more? Frank Chen explains what “it” actually is and isn’t and more in conversation with host Sonal Chokshi. The two help tease apart what’s hype/ what’s real here… as is the theme of 16 Minutes. Stay Updated:Find a16z on XFind a16z on LinkedInListen to the a16z Podcast on SpotifyListen to the a16z Podcast on Apple PodcastsFollow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Podcast: TALKING POLITICS Episode: Helen's History of IdeasRelease date: 2020-07-09Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationDavid talks with Helen to get her take on the history of ideas - both what's there and what's missing. Why start with Hobbes? What can we learn from the Federalist Papers? Where's Nietzsche? Plus we talk about whether understanding where political ideas come from isliberating or limiting and we ask how many of them were just rationalisations for power.Talking Points: Should we start the story of modern politics with Hobbes?Hobbes poses a stark question: what is the worst thing that can happen in politics? Civil war or tyranny?Is Hobbes’ answer utopian?What are the consequences of the breakdown of political authority—and how do they compare to the consequences of empowering the state to do terrible things? Who has the authority to decide is a fundamental question in politics.But there are lots of ways of thinking about politics that avoid this question.If you accept the notion that political authority is essential, what form should that authority take and how can it be made as bearable as possible for as many people as possible?Constant says that the worst thing that can happen isn’t civil war; it’s the tyranny of the state.To him, the French Revolution showed that when people who hold the coercive power of the state also hold certain beliefs, the damage can be much worse.Constant wants to say that the beliefs people have in the modern world are a constraint on political possibilities.What does the pluralism of beliefs mean for politics? Constant is also more direct about the importance of debt and money. From the French revolution onwards, nationalism became the dominant idea by which the authority of states was justified to those over whom it exercised power.Sieyès equated the state with its people.The idea of federalism as enshrined in the US constitution is also important: Hobbes did not think sovereignty could be divided.How do you reconcile constitutional ideals with the horrors they justified?Nietzsche forces a reckoning with the religion question.This blows up the distinction between pre-modern and modern.He presents a genealogy not just of morality, but civilization, ideas of justice, religion.For Nietzsche, Christianity is the manifestation of the will to power of the powerless.Nietzsche tells us how we became the way we are—it didn’t have to go that way.In exposing contingency, he forces us to engage with political questions we don’t really want to think about.What do ideas explain about human motivation in politics, and to what extent are they rationalizations of other motives?Helen thinks that the history of ideas can make political action seem too straightforward. How should we think about the relationship between ideas and material constraints (or opportunities)?Studying history more generally leads to at least some degree of cynicism about the relationship between ideas and power.Mentioned in this Episode: Talking Politics: the History of IdeasThe Federalist PapersThe Genealogy of MoralityOur episode on Weber’s ‘Politics as a Vocation’Further Learning: