Very Bad Wizards

Hello, listener. Hello, listener? That's lame. Maybe I should give you a name, but that's a slippery slope. You're only in my head. Or maybe we're in your head. Are you listening to this with headphones? Shit. It's actually happened, I'm talking to imaginary listeners.   What I'm about to tell you is top secret, a conspiracy bigger than all of us. There's a powerful group of people out there that are secretly running the world. I'm talking about the guys no one knows about, the guys that are invisible. The top 1% of the top 1%, the guys that play God without permission. That's right, it's the Partially Examined Life guys. And now I think they're following me. Special guest Yoel Inbar joins us to talk about the best show of last year. Warning: This episode is full of spoilers. Do not listen until you've seen Season 1 of Mr. Robot. Links Mr. Robot  IMDB Wikipedia Special Guest: Yoel Inbar. Support Very Bad Wizards

It's our last episode on campus protests and political correctness for a while, we promise! But it's a fun one.  David and Tamler welcome two guests on the opposite side of the debate spectrum. Recent Yale Alum, cognitive scientist, freelance writer, (and writer of novel-length emails) Vlad Chituc joins both of us to defend the Yale protests, provide some context, and explain why the good people at FIRE are hypocritical about free expression. In the middle segment, Tamler talks with his notorious stepmother and "factual feminist" Christina Hoff Sommers (author of "Who Stole Feminism?" and "The War Against Boys"). They argue over whether the new political correctness poses a serious threat to campus climate, whether it is even "new," and over whether one is obligated to smoke weed on Joe Rogan's podcast. Plus, Tamler gets all huffy about the panic over terrorism, and we read some email responses to VBW Episode 78 ("Wizards Uprising").  Oh, and we have a recording a date set for the Mr. Robot episode! Links Vlad Chituc [vladchituc.com] Christina Hoff Sommers [aei.org] "Fear in the Air, Americans Look Over Their Shoulders" [nytimes.com] The Coddling of the American Mind [theatlantic.com] Who Stole Feminism by Christina H. Sommers [amazon.com affiliate link] The War Against Boys by Christina H. Sommers [amazon.com affiliate link] "CDS Appropriates Asian Dishes, Students Say" [oberlinreview.org]  (ht/@brittanyepage) Special Guests: Christina Hoff Sommers and Vlad Chituc. Support Very Bad Wizards

Special guest Valerie Tiberius joins us to talk about values, well-being, and friendship. What role should reflection play in the good life? What about emotion? How can we make our values more consistent and sustainable? Do we know our friends better than we know ourselves? Plus, are philosophers experts? Experts of what? What are the boundaries of our discipline? And what motivates a gay Mormon to stay in the Church? In the first segment, David and Tamler list a few things they're grateful for on Thanksgiving, including you, the listeners (awwwwww...) Links National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation [wikipedia.org] Valerie Tiberius personal website [sites.google.com] Tiberius, V. (2012) Cell Phones, iPods, and Subjective Well-Being. In Brey, P., A. Briggle & E. Spence (Eds.). The good life in a technological age. Routledge. [verybadwizards.com] Desire theories of well-being ( from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Well-Being) [plato.stanford.edu] Special Guest: Valerie Tiberius. Support Very Bad Wizards

David and Tamler return to the minefield of campus politics and talk about recent events at Yale, Missouri, and Amherst. Are the protests are long overdue response to systematic oppression and prejudice? Or is this new generation of students coddled, hypersensitive, and hostile to free speech? A little bit of both? Can our hosts get through this episode without fighting?    Links The New Intolerance of Student Activism by Conor Friedersdorf [theatlantic.com] President Peter Salovey's statement to Yale community [news.yale.edu] 2015 University of Missouri Protests [wikipedia.org] Amherst College Uprising (with list of demands) [amherstuprising.com] Vlad Chituc (@vladchituc) [vladchituc.com]   Support Very Bad Wizards

Special guest Eric Schwitzgebel joins David and Tamler to discuss the moral behavior (or lack thereof) of ethicists. Does moral reflection make us better people, or does it just give us better excuses to be immoral? Who's more right about human nature--Mencius or Xun Zi? What did Kant have against bastards and masturbating? Plus, we talk about jerks, robot cars, and killing baby Hitler. (Godwin's Law within 1:42--might be a new record for us).  Links Eric Schwitzgebel publications.  (Has links to all the discussed papers). Why Self-Driving Cars Must be Programmed to Kill  [technologyreview.com] Bonnefon, J. F., Shariff, A., & Rahwan, I. (2015). Autonomous Vehicles Need Experimental Ethics: Are We Ready for Utilitarian Cars? [arxiv.org] Mencius [wikipedia.org] Xun Zi [wikipedia.org] "The Philosophical Problem of Killing Baby Hitler." [vox.com] Why it's Unethical to Go Back in Time and Kill Baby Hitler. [forbes.com] Special Guest: Eric Schwitzgebel. Support Very Bad Wizards

David and Tamler list three things they've changed their minds about in their careers. (This episode was recorded before Episode 75, but that one was way too long already.) What does Tamler think about X-phi these days? Has Dave lost his faith in the power of reason? What the hell is 'non-cognitivism'? Plus, Dave disagrees with John Hodgman about the metaphysical property of a hot dog. And a couple of listener shout-outs, including giving credit to a listener for giving us a topic idea we discussed without realizing she had suggested it in an email weeks ago.  Links Ethical Expressivism (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) Moral Anti-Realism (Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy) John Hodgman on the hot dog/sandwich debate.  (NY Times Mag) "Perspectives on P.F. Strawson's "Freedom and Resentment." (Really good introduction by Michael McKenna and Paul Russell.) Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler celebrate their 75th episode by welcoming six BFFs of the podcast and asking them to share the biggest thing they've changed their minds about in their professional careers. You'll hear Dan Ariely on our moral duty to take science into the real world, Laurie Santos on the the role of neuroscience in explaining psychological findings, Yoel Inbar on what it means to do good science as a psychologist, Eric Schwitzgebel on his metaphysical epiphany about materialism, Nina Strohminger on breaking-up with priming research, and Sam Harris on Artificial Intelligence and its perils, and his recently changed views about vegetarianism. (Sadly, we had a technical glitch with the audio when we recorded our most-frequent guest Paul Bloom, but we'll bring him on again soon.) Plus we play some hilarious mash-ups, raps, and voicemails sent in from listeners. Links to info about our Guests Dan Ariely Laurie Santos Yoel Inbar Nina Strohminger Eric Schwitzgebel Sam Harris   Listener-Created Music in this Episode Special Guests: Dan Ariely, Eric Schwitzgebel, Laurie Santos, Nina Strohminger, Sam Harris, and Yoel Inbar. Support Very Bad Wizards

David and Tamler return after an end of summer hiatus to finally talk about the ethics of deception….eventually. But first they break down a recent article in the journal Science documenting an attempt to replicate 100 recent psychology experiments. What does it mean that just over 1/3 of the studies were successfully replicated? Is social psychology in crisis or is this just how science works? Will David somehow try to pin the blame on philosophers? Plus--a brief and almost certainly regrettable foray into the Ashley Madison hack, the neuroscience of lying to your kids about Santa, and we announce a new way to contact us to help celebrate our 75th anniversary. Links Authors, Shitload of (2015) Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science, Science, 39.  The Bayesian Reproducibility Project  post by Alexander Etz [alexanderetz.com] Harris, S. (2013). Lying. Four Elephants Press. Buy on Amazon Bok, S. (2011) Lying: Moral choice in public and private life. Vintage, 2011. Buy on Amazon Santa on the Brain by Kelly Lambert [nytimes.com] James Randi (aka "The Amazing Randi") [wikipedia.org] An Honest Liar [anhonestliar.com] (Available on Netflix in the U.S.) The Honest Truth about Dishonesty [amazon.com affiliate link]  (Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies [thedishonestyproject.com] Exit Through the Gift Shop [wikipedia.org] F for Fake [imdb.com] Support Very Bad Wizards

In what is possibly our most repugnant first segment ever, David and Tamler break down the ethics of zoophilia and investigate the true nature of consent. In the second segment we answer some listener emails and address our first question in our new capacity as International Ethics Experts.™  If your family is religious, how honest should you be with your children about your non-belief? Do the comforting aspects of religious belief outweigh the fears and anxieties? What’s the deal  with Christians and hell? Plus, sex-ed from a female perspective, a brief nostalgic trip to The Electric Company, and David overcomes his horror of self-promotion to thank some people for praising the podcast.  Links Top 25 Podcasts for Men [hiconsumption.com] People Behind the Science podcast episode featuring David [peoplebehindthescience.com] Radio Tatas! Episode 37: "In a Row?!?" (their review of VBW starts at around the 30:00 mark) [radiotatas.libsyn.com] Cecil the Lion [wikipedia.org] New York Court: Chimps Are Still Property, Not People [npr.org] The Electric Company Intro [youtube.org] Suggestions for our listeners for the next podcast episode:  Santa on the Brain by Kelly Lambert [nytimes.com] James Randi (aka "The Amazing Randi") [wikipedia.org] An Honest Liar [anhonestliar.com] (Available on Netflix in the U.S.) The Honest Truth about Dishonesty [amazon.com affiliate link]  (Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies [thedishonestyproject.com] F is for Fake [imdb.com]   Support Very Bad Wizards

It finally happened: David and Tamler welcome special guest Joshua Weisberg to the podcast to talk about Turing machines, Chinese Rooms, and AI. What does it mean for a machine to acquire intelligence? What is the proper test? How much processing power would it take? Do computers shed light on how human beings think? Why is John Searle trapped in a Chinese room, anyway? Plus, a spoiler-filled discussion (beginning at 58:20) of the recent movie Ex Machina. David tries to assert his feminist bonafides but Tamler takes Eva's side, proving once again that he is the real feminist. And we have a quick 5-minute discussion of Mr. Robot Episode 4 (beginning at 1:24) and respond to a couple of emails from the authors of the Inside Out article we discussed in our previous episode.  Links Turing Test [wikipedia.org] Chinese Room thought experiment [wikipedia.org] Artificial Intelligence [wikipedia.org] Weisberg, J. (2009). It stands to reason: Skynet and self-preservation. In Irwin, W., Brown, R., & Decker, K. S. (Eds.) Terminator and philosophy: I'll be back, therefore I am (Vol. 13). John Wiley & Sons. Ex Machina [IMDB.com] Special Guest: Josh Weisberg. Support Very Bad Wizards