Jack Roycroft-Sherry

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

David C. Shindler is a Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology at the John Paul II Institute, Washington, DC. If modern physics tells us that time and reality are not as they appear to us, what is real? Can we ever know and touch reality? Relatedly, does objective truth exist (or is it just in our minds)? This podcast explores these questions through philosophy. In this podcast, we consider the nature of truth, whether reality could be an illusion, how to deal with skeptical over the realness of truth, as well as how love, beauty, and goodness, relate to these questions. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:25 - Ancient Philosophy vs Academic Philosophy 10:00 - Theory Of Everything in Philosophy? 13:52 - Truth, Illusion, & Realness 21:59 - Skepticism About Reality 28:08 - Free Will and Nature of Truth 31:32 - Connection Between Truth, Goodness & Beauty 42:07 - Rituals and Symbols 58:38 - Unity and Disunity D.C Shindler -Website: https://www.johnpaulii.edu/academics/faculty/d-c-schindler/ -(Book) Freedom from Reality: The Diabolical Character of Modern Liberty -(Book) Love and the Postmodern Predicament: Rediscovering the Real in Beauty, Goodness, and Truth Jack Roycroft-Sherry: -X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft -Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry

Toby Woods is a scientist at the Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies. Subjective experience is notoriously difficult to study scientifically. This is even more the case for subjective experience in meditation and for this reason it has not been widely examined. In this podcast I am joined by Toby Woods, who is part of a growing movement to examine meditation experiences in a systematic and fine-grained manner using scientific methods. In the podcast we discuss the experience of "stillness" or "pure consciousness" in meditation, including the content that is present and absent, and we compare the experiences attained in different types of practices. We also look at the benefits of accessing the stillness and the risks and benefits of practising meditation more generally. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Start 0:40 Why Meditation Is Interesting To Study 3:20 What is Meditation? 9:30 Contentless Experience and Pure Consciousness 18:50 Beginner vs Advanced Meditators / Different Traditions 30:10 Buddhism and Advanced States of Meditation 33:35 Different Meditation Techniques For Different People 37:22 Science of Enlightenment 40:00 "Cessation" / Dropping Out of Consciousness 46:49 Risks of Meditation 55:45 Attention, Smartphones and Modern Distractions TOBY WOODS -Toby on X/Twitter: @TobyJWoods -Toby's papers: 1. Analysis of contentless goal-states using expert texts https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11097-022-09811-z 2. Analysis of paths to contentless goal-states using expert texts https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11097-022-09812-y 3. Analysis of contentless experience using participant reports https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-023-02145-0 MENTIONED IN THE PODCAST -Example of Peter Sedlmeier and Karin Matko papers on types of meditation practices: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-021-01641-5 -Papers by Ruben Laukkonen and colleagues on cessation: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37714573/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37777153/ -Seminal paper by Willoughby Britton, Jared Lindahl and colleagues on adverse experiences in meditation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5443484/ -Article on how "silent walking" is taking off on TikTok: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-08/silent-walking-taking-off-on-tiktok-boosting-youth-mental-health/102938224 JACK ROYCROFT - SHERRY -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DGVMa1qAI1huc87xNDrgy?si=62c281d9e8274694 -X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft -Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry

Garri Hovhannisyan recently completed his PhD in clinical psychology and is working towards becoming a fully qualified clinical psychologist. In this podcast, we explore what happens when someone starts psychotherapy, both from the patient's and the psychotherapist's perspectives. We discuss the biggest challenges and setbacks one faces in this journey. We also discuss attachment theory, personality theory, & addiction. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Introduction 2:00 - Who Garri is 2:54 - Garri's approach to psychotherapy 5:30 - What happens at the beginning of psychotherapy 14:00 - What the psychotherapist does 18:30 - Psychology of avoidance 23:25 - History of schools in psychotherapy 31:00 - Emotion-focused therapy 33:50 - Garri's style of psychotherapy 39:00 - Attachment theory 1:01:00 - Should we change our attachment style? 1:18:00 - Addiction GARRI: -Our previous podcast on the big 5 personality theory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fCdKTqh7CA -Academic papers: https://philpeople.org/profiles/garri-hovhannisyan PODCAST: -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DGVMa1qAI1huc87xNDrgy?si=62c281d9e8274694 -X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft -Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry

Robin Hanson is an economist at George Mason University. In this podcast we start off by exploring the panspermia hypothesis as a plausible explanation for both the origins of life on earth and UFO sightings. We then delve into existential risks to our species, such as declining population levels and AI. Finally, we cover the nature of money, economics, prediction markets, and academia and science. ROBIN HANSON -Learn more about Robin Hanson and his work: https://economics.gmu.edu/people/rhanson -Twitter: https://x.com/robinhanson?s=20 -Substack: https://www.overcomingbias.com/ THE PODCAST Jack Roycroft-Sherry Podcasts: -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DGVMa1qAI1huc87xNDrgy?si=62c281d9e8274694-X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft-Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry