Jack Roycroft-Sherry

David Dickinson is an experimental and behavioral economist. Economic theory views people as rational and self-interested. However, in recent decades experiments have shown how psychological biases influence decision making, radically changing economics. In this podcast expect to learn about how behavioral economics is bridging economics with psychology, about why economists modeled people as fully rational, the reasons for the confirmation bias, and more... 00:00 - What is Behavioral Economics? 04:34 - History of Rationality and Selfishness in Economics 09:34 - confirmation bias 22:30 - Dark Personality Personality and Behavior Differences 33:00 - Big 5 Personality and Behavior

Coltan Scrivner is a behavioral scientist and expert on the science of horror, crime, and morbid curiosity.What attracts us to horror movies, violent video games, the psychology of murderers, and car wrecks on the side of the road? This morbid curiosity is an evolved trait within us, but why do we possess it?In this podcast, expect to learn about the reasons behind our morbid curiosity, why it's beneficial for us, how to understand this trait in relation to other personality factors, how morbid curiosity helps explain dreaming and the paranormal, and more... TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - What is Morbid Curiosity ? 01:26 - Why Morbid Curiosity Is Not A Bad Thing 04:10 - Why Are We Morbidly Curious? 13:26 - Why Morbid Curiosity Helps Us to Learn 22:17 - Morbid Curiosity and Personality 31:00 - The Paranormal in Scientific Terms 35:25 - Threat Detection Theory of Dreaming 43:28 - Morbid Curiosity and Relationships https://coltanscrivner.substack.com/ https://www.coltanscrivner.com/

Adam Safron is a cognitive scientist with expertise in consciousness, AI, psychedelics, and more.What is consciousness? Is it fundamental to the universe? And could AI be conscious? This podcast attempts to answer these questions.In this podcast, expect to learn what consciousness is, whether panpsychism (the idea that consciousness is fundamental to the universe) is plausible, whether AI could be conscious and how to think about its intelligence, the power of language in aiding cognition, how psychedelics work in the brain, and more... TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - What is Consciousness? 04:50 - Is Consciousness Fundamental to the Universe? 10:50 - Combining Theories of Consciousness: Role of Emotions 18:57 - What Do We Mean by Conscious vs Unconscious? 23:03 - Could AI Be Conscious? 32:00 - General vs Specialized Intelligence 37:10 - How Intelligent Are Large Language Models? 44:00 - The Power of Language and How It Aids Cognition 49:00 - Measuring Consciousness Using IIT 55:29 - Could an AI Have Personality? 01:03:22 - How Similar Will AI Be to Us? 01:08:00 - Psychedelics and the Brain ADAM SAFRON: -Research: https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/safron -X:  @AdamSafron  JACK ROYCROFT-SHERRY: -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DGVMa1qAI1huc87xNDrgy?si=62c281d9e8274694-X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft-Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry

Célia Lacaux is a cognitive neuroscientist studying sleep, dreams, and the sleep-onset period. We often view sleep as totally distinct from waking states. But what if they are more similar than we think? In this podcast, expect to learn about the study of the rapid transition period from waking to sleep and its enhanced creativity, how the science of sleep is changing the way it views sleep by thinking of it as a continuum rather than a hard line, how parts of our brain may be asleep during the day (so-called "local sleeps"), the benefits of dreams and lucid dreaming, and more. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:44 - Enhanced Creativity in the Sleep Onset Period 06:45 - Celia's Personal Experimentation With Sleep Transition Creativity 10:00 - The Continuum Between Wake & Sleep 14:00 - What Happens in the Brain During Sleep & Creativity 18:50 - Dreams and Increased Insight 25:22 - Lucid Dreaming & Creativity 30:00 - Narcolepsy Explained Célia Lacaux: -X: @CeliaLacaux -Publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KhhcqVAAAAAJ&hl=en Jack Roycroft-Sherry Podcasts -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DGVMa1qAI1huc87xNDrgy?si=62c281d9e8274694 -X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft -Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry

Stephen J. Shaw is a data scientist and demographer, and the creator of "The BirthGap" documentary. Fertility rates are below replacement in many countries, and the trend looks like it will spread to the entire world. This will mean population levels will fall dramatically in the coming decades. Why is this happening, what will be the consequences, and can we solve these issues before it's too late? In this podcast, expect to learn about Stephen's shock that falling fertility issues are not being recognized as a problem, how the real problem is due to a crisis of unplanned childlessness, the biological reality of when you can have children, how society will have to deal with the inevitable older and shrinking populations, and more. Find Stephen: -twitter: @StephenJShaw -website: https://www.birthgap.org/feed -Birthgap - Childless World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6s8QlIGanA&t=1673s TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Intro 00:20 - Stephen's Alarm at Falling Fertility Being Ignored 04:45 - How Stephen Realized Why Fertility Rates Were Falling 10:47 - How Economic Crises Lead to Childlessness 22:00 - Biological Facts About When You Can Have Children 26:30 - The Risks of Not Having Children When You Can 29:28 - Inevitable Aging Societies and Population Declines 46:16 - The Trade-off Between Economic Growth and Having Children 53:00 - Impact of Falling Populations

Maxwell Ramstead is a cognitive scientist and physicist, and Director of Research at VERSESAI. What if we could build AI that performs real inference, just as humans do? What will the future of AI look like? Understanding cognition, active inference, collective intelligence, and consciousness can help us find out. Expect to learn about AI that conducts real-time inference and learning, how to conceptualize LLMs, why it doesn't make sense to think of "general intelligence" or AGI, how all intelligence is inherently collective, about the nature of consciousness and the self, and more... TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Intro 00:26 - VERSESAI and Utilizing Cognitive Science to Design AI 09:39 - How All Intelligence Is "Collective Intelligence" 22:26 - Innovative Approaches to AI Development 30:46 - Computational Specialization & The Intelligence of Distributed Cognition 38:26 - Explaining Consciousness Using the FEP 53:56 - Debating the Unity of Consciousness MAXWELL RAMSTEAD: -X: @mjdramstead -Research: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maxwell-Ramstead REFERENCED IN THE EPISODE: -Podcast on improving computation by learning from biology: https://youtu.be/4iR6lVxioHs -Podcast on collective intelligence and the flowy, multifractal nature of cognition: https://youtu.be/nwj9TZDguwc FOLLOW THE PODCAST: -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DGVMa1qAI1huc87xNDrgy?si=62c281d9e8274694 -X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft -Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry

[Re-uploaded podcast with audio at the start fixed] Mark Miller is a cognitive scientist, and Ben White is currently completing a PhD in the philosophy of cognitive science. From social media to AI to smart environments, technologies are transforming our lives. How can we understand the profound positive and negative effects they have? Cognitive science provides a framework to understand how these technologies influence our minds. In this podcast, expect to learn about the benefits and harms of social media, how social media subverts our natural drives, beliefs, and expectations that typically guide us through the world, how we are natural-born cyborgs that instinctively embrace technologies, and how we should think about ourselves and our relationship with technologies in this context. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 02:19 - The Predictive Processing Framework of Cognition 06:40 - How Social Media Impacts Us Psychologically 09:48 - How Social Media Subverts Our Cognition 17:40 - Social Media Takes Advantage of Natural Social Proclivities 22:37 - Why We Are Drawn To Social Media In the First Place 26:10 - Technology and How to Improve It 31:57 - Understanding Technology & Natural Born Cyborgs 43:00 - Predictive Processing as a Unified Framework in Cognitive Science Find Ben and Mark's work: -Ben's work: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0Or4GMkAAAAJ&hl=en -Mark's Website: https://www.markdmiller.live/ Jack Roycroft-Sherry: -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DGVMa1qAI1huc87xNDrgy?si=62c281d9e8274694 -X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft -Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry

Jonathan Davies is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Contemplative Studies Centre within the School of Psychology, renowned for his expertise in the placebo effect and meditation. The placebo effect is real and incredibly powerful. How and why does it work? And how will it change our understanding and practice of medicine going forward? Expect to learn about how placebos were discovered, how they work within a cognitive science and psychological framework, why the placebo effect might never be separated from so-called "real" or "biological" effects, how placebos may have helped ancient cultures with their medicine, and more... 00:00 - What is the Placebo Effect? 01:49 - The Placebo Effect Found During World War II 04:00 - How the Placebo Effect Works 08:46 - Western Medicine and The Difficulty Separating Placebo from "Real" Effects 12:43 - Placebos Used in Ancient Medicine & Shamanism 18:06 - Meditation and the Placebo Effect 29:20 - Placebo Meditation Works Surprisingly Well 39:10 - How Placebo The Effect May Change Medicine 43:02 - Meditation Apps Jonathan Davies: -website:https://psychologicalsciences.unimelb.edu.au/CSC/news/csc-staff-profile-dr-jonathan-davies -papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Y54gmsIAAAAJ&hl=en

Erica Schoenberger is an economic geographer and environmental historian. We often think that capitalism is somehow natural and inevitable. The real story is a bit more complicated. The first markets came about through wars and the projects of the rich, disrupting the lives of many. How can we come to understand the true history of capitalism? Expect to learn about how markets were created by states to help fund wars, how markets and states are intertwined and rely on each other, how capitalism and money have evolved over time, modern economic systems and unnecessary work, the economy's need for perpetual growth, how to keep the good parts of capitalism without the bad, and more... 00:00 - Intro 00:39 - What We Misunderstand about Capitalism and Money 10:45 - Why Capitalism and Markets Are Unnatural 18:30 - How Wars Led To Capitalism 21:05 - Gold as a Means of Control 29:38 - The Paradoxical Nature of Money 35:26 - How the State and Market Evolved Together 38:36 - "Bullshit" Jobs 43:34 - Improving Capitalism 49:23 - Capitalism's Need for Perpetual Growth Erica Schoenberger: -https://engineering.jhu.edu/faculty/erica-schoenberger/ -Most recent book: Nature, Choice and Social Power Jack Roycroft-Sherry: -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DGVMa1qAI1huc87xNDrgy?si=103427a899754a3f -X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft -Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry

Jose Yong is an evolutionary psychologist. Why are fertility rates falling across the world? What is about our modern lives that might explain this? Evolutionary psychology have some answers. Expect to learn about why our social media filled world makes us starved for social status and thus less likely to have kids, whether cities are the cause of falling fertility, why the problem is so dire in East Asian countries, why our modern world makes us feel bad, the origins of monogamy, and much more... TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:20 - Why Jose Studied Evolutionary Psychology 03:44 - Men and Women's Opposite Mating Strategies 06:00 - Does evolutionary theory actually apply to modernity? 11:40 - Why Falling Fertility Rates Are Falling 18:06 - The Problem of Huge Status Disparities 28:26 - The Crisis In Japan & "Otakus" 34:33 - Why We Over-Think Having Children 42:48 - Are Cities Why Fertility Rates Are Falling? 51:10 - How Evolutionary Adaptations Can Go Wrong 01:02:50 - The Interesting Case of The Mosuo Tribe 01:06:50 - Is Monogamy A Recent Invention? 1:11:57 - What Is The Meaning Of Life? 1:17:50 - Reflecting On The Modern World For Men Jose Yong: -Website: https://joseyong.com/index.html -Status Mistmatch Paper: https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2055/aop/article-10.1556-2055.2022.00028/article-10.1556-2055.2022.00028.xml Jack Roycroft-Sherry: -X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft -Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry