

Philosophers In Space
Aaron Rabinowitz and Callie Wright
Welcome to Philosophers In Space, where the intrepid trekker captain Callie Wright and their questionable Chief Ethics Officer Aaron Rabinowitz explore the weird, gooey world of sci-fi, searching for tantalizing hypotheticals and gear-stripping questions in a space odyssey of meaning and amusement.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 11, 2019 • 42min
0G84: A Subway named Mobius and Emergent Properties
Well, the level of meta connections involved in these show notes has gotten so interconnected it has formed a singularity of infinite metaness. If you're reading this you're sadly trapped in the meta and will not be able to escape until things get a bit more straightforward around here. We read A Subway named Mobius and Jeremiah Traeger joined us to discuss emergent properties and how absurd they are as a term of art. Emergent Properties: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/properties-emergent/ Jerb's Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmE8jnO-2WwKYjSpRXEu2Hw/featured?view_as=subscriber&fbclid=IwAR0wFydQ9_V_XpsKwDI5qx9-UtEZiek0vQrKlt5zBEVO6QVrhcZeyARcqW4 Support us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/0G Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/0gPhilosophy Join our Facebook discussion group (make sure to answer the questions to join): https://www.facebook.com/groups/985828008244018/ Email us at: philosophersinspace@gmail.com If you have time, please write us a review on iTunes. It really really helps. Please and thank you! Sibling shows: Serious Inquiries Only: https://seriouspod.com/ Opening Arguments: https://openargs.com/ Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/ Editing by Brian Ziegenhagen, check out his pod: http://youarehere.libsyn.com/s02e02-rex-manning-day?fbclid=IwAR2L2_YIJvQpcw0nx6nTSfz0GmyJ1DtWsF--vvdI9W1ug3XW7IAtU6dQ36s Recent appearances: Thomas was just on Cog Dis talking trash about me. You should go listen and then talk trash about everyone involved to defend my honor. CONTENT PREVIEW: Blindsight and Philosophical Zombies

Dec 4, 2019 • 47min
0G83: The Society and The State of Nature and Game Theory
::blows the conch shell of fan service:: In the spirt of social cohesion, we provide you with a triple dose of fan service. We present The Society, a much requested A- tweets in a bottle series, and we explain how it perfectly encapsulates the war of bro against bro that would arise in the absence of the social contract. To sweeten the deal, we even throw in some prisoners dilemmas and stag hunts to help understand why the state of nature is just the worst. Game Theory: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/game-theory/ Hobbesian Trap: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbesian_trap Hobbes and Game Theory: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0953820809990069 Hobbes and Game Theory Revisted: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.2041-6962.2011.00071.x Support us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/0G Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/0gPhilosophy Join our Facebook discussion group (make sure to answer the questions to join): https://www.facebook.com/groups/985828008244018/ Email us at: philosophersinspace@gmail.com If you have time, please write us a review on iTunes. It really really helps. Please and thank you! Sibling shows: Serious Inquiries Only: https://seriouspod.com/ Opening Arguments: https://openargs.com/ Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/ Editing by Brian Ziegenhagen, check out his pod: http://youarehere.libsyn.com/s02e02-rex-manning-day?fbclid=IwAR2L2_YIJvQpcw0nx6nTSfz0GmyJ1DtWsF--vvdI9W1ug3XW7IAtU6dQ36s Recent appearances: Aaron just gave his Moral Luck talk to the NYC Skeptics. If you have a local skeptics group and want to hear a talk get us invited! CONTENT PREVIEW: Blindsight and Philosophical Zombies

Nov 27, 2019 • 49min
0G82: Dr. Who's Girl in the Fireplace and the AI Alignment Problem
My usual urge to be snarky here is tempered by concern that we're already about to get teabagged into some hot water for our treatment of the good Dr. Who. Please forgive us our Yankness, and maybe consider a more moderate position for your media output, somewhere between 6 episodes a show and 6,000. Feels like there's room for some middle ground there. Oh right, enough meta banter, we watched Dr. Who season 2 episode 4 of the rebooted version, so the one with David Tennant. We discuss how the story is a classic case of misaligned AI and recommend several ways to better tune your AI so they don't cronenberg your ship. Enjoy! McCarthy Making Robots Conscious of their Mental States: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/56fd/32741b91482798c35c3344f9fceba7a846f0.pdf Support us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/0G Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/0gPhilosophy Join our Facebook discussion group (make sure to answer the questions to join): https://www.facebook.com/groups/985828008244018/ Email us at: philosophersinspace@gmail.com If you have time, please write us a review on iTunes. It really really helps. Please and thank you! Sibling shows: Serious Inquiries Only: https://seriouspod.com/ Opening Arguments: https://openargs.com/ Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/ Editing by Brian Ziegenhagen, check out his pod: http://youarehere.libsyn.com/s02e02-rex-manning-day?fbclid=IwAR2L2_YIJvQpcw0nx6nTSfz0GmyJ1DtWsF--vvdI9W1ug3XW7IAtU6dQ36s Recent appearances: Aaron just gave his Moral Luck talk to the NYC Skeptics. If you have a local skeptics group and want to hear a talk get us invited! CONTENT PREVIEW: The Society and The State of Nature AND Game Theory

Nov 20, 2019 • 50min
0G81: HBO's Watchmen and Reparations
An excerpt from Rorschach's rebooted journal: Viewers are afraid of HBO, for it has seen their true faces. The shows are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and boobies and when the drains finally scab over, all the bingers will drown. The accumulated filth of high budget, high concept sex and murder will foam up about their waists, and all the millennials and the boomers who's log ins they use will look up and shout "can't you make less compelling content", and HBO will look down and whisper "no." We're doing the first episode of Watchmen (with some minor references to the second episode)! The HBO version for the main show, and the movie version for NASA this month, so definitely get on that if you want to here Thomas complain about three hours of Zach Snyder. For the main show we'll be discussing the arguments for and against reparations. The case for reparations: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/ The case against reparations: https://www.nationalreview.com/2014/05/case-against-reparations-kevin-d-williamson/ Support us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/0G Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/0gPhilosophy Join our Facebook discussion group (make sure to answer the questions to join): https://www.facebook.com/groups/985828008244018/ Email us at: philosophersinspace@gmail.com If you have time, please write us a review on iTunes. It really really helps. Please and thank you! Sibling shows: Serious Inquiries Only: https://seriouspod.com/ Opening Arguments: https://openargs.com/ Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/ Editing by Brian Ziegenhagen, check out his pod: http://youarehere.libsyn.com/s02e02-rex-manning-day?fbclid=IwAR2L2_YIJvQpcw0nx6nTSfz0GmyJ1DtWsF--vvdI9W1ug3XW7IAtU6dQ36s Recent appearances: Aaron just gave his Moral Luck talk to the NYC Skeptics. If you have a local skeptics group and want to hear a talk get us invited! CONTENT PREVIEW: The Society and the State of Nature

Nov 13, 2019 • 49min
0G80: Primer and the Ethics of Time Travel
Here's what's going to happen, I'm going to do a matrix like voiceover and you're going to listen, and when that's over, you're going to have even less of a clue what's going on. It all started with a box... We're doing primer! Y'all asked, and we finally looped enough times to find the timeline where we deliver! You get to hear Thomas explain the 60% of the plot he was able to follow and then we haggle a bunch over the nature of time travel as per usual before settling in to argue if it's wrong to do what they do in the movie, whatever that is. The Ethics of Time Travel: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/news/news-stories/2017/may/time-travel.html Support us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/0G Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/0gPhilosophy Join our Facebook discussion group (make sure to answer the questions to join): https://www.facebook.com/groups/985828008244018/ Email us at: philosophersinspace@gmail.com If you have time, please write us a review on iTunes. It really really helps. Please and thank you! Sibling shows: Serious Inquiries Only: https://seriouspod.com/ Opening Arguments: https://openargs.com/ Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/ Editing by Brian Ziegenhagen, check out his pod: http://youarehere.libsyn.com/s02e02-rex-manning-day?fbclid=IwAR2L2_YIJvQpcw0nx6nTSfz0GmyJ1DtWsF--vvdI9W1ug3XW7IAtU6dQ36s Recent appearances: Aaron just gave his Moral Luck talk to the NYC Skeptics. If you have a local skeptics group and want to hear a talk get us invited! CONTENT PREVIEW: HBO's Watchmen and Reparations

Nov 6, 2019 • 39min
0G79: The Ones Who Stay and Fight and The Paradox of Tolerance
Now imagine an even greater and glorious afrofuturist podcast, where everyone gets equitable access to boxes. What price would you be willing to pay for that podcast?! Could you truly enjoy such a podcast knowing that those who challenge the podcast are summarily executed? What if we call their objections a disease that must be cut out at the root? Better or worse? This week we're doing the N.K. Jemisin's The Ones Who Stay and Fight, and we cover the paradox of tolerance and try to interpret what the story is saying about this very relevant issue. The Paradox of Tolerance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance Tweets with Jemisin: https://twitter.com/0gPhilosophy/status/1184975338784382978 Support us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/0G Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/0gPhilosophy Join our Facebook discussion group (make sure to answer the questions to join): https://www.facebook.com/groups/985828008244018/ Email us at: philosophersinspace@gmail.com If you have time, please write us a review on iTunes. It really really helps. Please and thank you! Sibling shows: Serious Inquiries Only: https://seriouspod.com/ Opening Arguments: https://openargs.com/ Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/ Editing by Brian Ziegenhagen, check out his pod: http://youarehere.libsyn.com/s02e02-rex-manning-day?fbclid=IwAR2L2_YIJvQpcw0nx6nTSfz0GmyJ1DtWsF--vvdI9W1ug3XW7IAtU6dQ36s Recent appearances: Aaron just gave his Moral Luck talk to the NYC Skeptics. If you have a local skeptics group and want to hear a talk get us invited! CONTENT PREVIEW: Primer and Science without Values

Oct 30, 2019 • 43min
0G78: Omelas and Distributive Justice
Imagine a great and glorious golden podcast, filled with as many or as few boxes as your heart could desire. What price would you be willing to pay for that podcast? I don't mean on patreon, I'm talking cost in human suffering. Could you truly enjoy such a podcast knowing that it relied on the constant pain of one poor co-host at the hands of the other cohost? Would you continue to partake of the pernicious podcast, or would you be one of the ones who unsubscribes away? This week we're doing the much requested classic The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin and we're covering the various options in the field of distributive justice. Spread the love around! TOWWAFO: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Ones-Who-Walk-Away-from-Omelas-Guin/e57397df8d6841d62d5771eae936d60028fffd4e Distributive Justice: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-distributive/ Support us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/0G Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/0gPhilosophy Join our Facebook discussion group (make sure to answer the questions to join): https://www.facebook.com/groups/985828008244018/ Email us at: philosophersinspace@gmail.com If you have time, please write us a review on iTunes. It really really helps. Please and thank you! Sibling shows: Serious Inquiries Only: https://seriouspod.com/ Opening Arguments: https://openargs.com/ Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/ Editing by Brian Ziegenhagen, check out his pod: http://youarehere.libsyn.com/s02e02-rex-manning-day?fbclid=IwAR2L2_YIJvQpcw0nx6nTSfz0GmyJ1DtWsF--vvdI9W1ug3XW7IAtU6dQ36s Recent appearances: Aaron and Thomas each got their own episodes of GAM. Lots of bonus content! https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/scathing-atheist/god-awful-movies/e/64118049 https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=64281252 CONTENT PREVIEW: The Ones Who Stay and Fight by Jemisin

Oct 23, 2019 • 45min
0G77: DS9 Heart of Stone and Deontology
Hey friends, show notes guy here. This one's a feels show so I'm gonna play it straight. Aron Eisenberg, the actor who played Nog on DS9, passed away recently. He was a beloved member of the Star Trek community and we wanted to do a tribute episode to pay our respects. So, we brought on the perfect person to guide us through, Callie Wright. Besides being an amazing podcaster, Callie is very active in the Star Trek community and brings with her a wealth of Star Trek background stories. We cover the first episode where Nog really gets to shine, season 3 episode 14, Heart of Stone. Given his love for duty, it felt right to use this story to introduce the Deontological theory of ethics, something we'll of course develop in further episodes. We hope you pour yourself a tall glass of root bear and enjoy a bit of Nog glory. Also, Callie mentions a charity at the end of the episode, which has since stopped accepting donations. I didn't want you to think we'd just left it out. Here's the link if you're interested: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-aron-fight-to-right-this-wrong?fbclid=IwAR3XgaPcrBTRPTTvbFCyTOqb6WyQebrjxGsqNoUQelDukNePxrDuAuiowHY Callie's Show: http://www.queersplaining.com/author/callie/ Deontology: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-deontological/ Support us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/0G Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/0gPhilosophy Join our Facebook discussion group (make sure to answer the questions to join): https://www.facebook.com/groups/985828008244018/ Email us at: philosophersinspace@gmail.com If you have time, please write us a review on iTunes. It really really helps. Please and thank you! Sibling shows: Serious Inquiries Only: https://seriouspod.com/ Opening Arguments: https://openargs.com/ Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/ Editing by Brian Ziegenhagen, check out his pod: http://youarehere.libsyn.com/s02e02-rex-manning-day?fbclid=IwAR2L2_YIJvQpcw0nx6nTSfz0GmyJ1DtWsF--vvdI9W1ug3XW7IAtU6dQ36s Recent appearances: Aaron and Thomas each got their own episodes of GAM. Lots of bonus content! https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/scathing-atheist/god-awful-movies/e/64118049 https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=64281252 CONTENT PREVIEW: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas and Distribution Ethics

Oct 16, 2019 • 42min
0G76: The Golden Man and The Ubermensch
And lo, Philip K Dick descended from the mountaintop, perspiring heavily, to convey to the world that there were super hot wicked smart mutant Ubermensches coming for their wimmins, and only by acting like total nazis can humans avoid being holocausted by the mutant nazis Ubermensches. If you're not impressed by a half hour podcast that makes the previous sentence comprehensible, I got nothing. Big thanks to our guests on the show, Bryan and Katie of the killer podcast This Film is Lit. Patrons can look forward to hearing their analysis of the Nick Cage "adaptation" Next on NASA. It's up there with Wicker Man. AFTER DARK CONTENT WARNING: The M word (moist) comes up quite a bit. The Golden Man: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Golden_Man Ubermensch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cbermensch This Film is Lit Podcast: https://thisfilmislit.podiant.co Support us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/0G Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/0gPhilosophy Join our Facebook discussion group (make sure to answer the questions to join): https://www.facebook.com/groups/985828008244018/ Email us at: philosophersinspace@gmail.com If you have time, please write us a review on iTunes. It really really helps. Please and thank you! Sibling shows: Serious Inquiries Only: https://seriouspod.com/ Opening Arguments: https://openargs.com/ Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/ Recent appearances: Aaron and Thomas each got their own episodes of GAM. Lots of bonus content! https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/scathing-atheist/god-awful-movies/e/64118049 https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=64281252 CONTENT PREVIEW: DS9: Hearts of Stone and Deontology

Oct 9, 2019 • 43min
0G75: Repo Men and Organ Markets
REEEEEEPPPPPOOOOO MEEEENNNNN!!! Sorry, still got those killer tunes stuck in my head from our NASA9 coverage of Repo! The Genetic Opera. Highly recommend for the original improvised music by Thomas. For this week we have the non-musical version, Repo Men starring Jude Law and Forest Whittaker. It's a much more banal kind of bad, but it's a great basis for discussing the ethics of buying and selling organs. Ethical Organ Markets: https://jme.bmj.com/content/29/3/137 Support us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/0G Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/0gPhilosophy Join our Facebook discussion group (make sure to answer the questions to join): https://www.facebook.com/groups/985828008244018/ Email us at: philosophersinspace@gmail.com If you have time, please write us a review on iTunes. It really really helps. Please and thank you! Sibling shows: Serious Inquiries Only: https://seriouspod.com/ Opening Arguments: https://openargs.com/ Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/ Recent appearances: Here's the audio from Aaron's Syndey Moral Luck talk! Sorry the questions are hard to hear. https://voidpod.com/podcasts/2019/9/7/aarons-sydney-skeptics-moral-luck-talk CONTENT PREVIEW: The Golden Man and the Ubermensch