#182, Unlearning Race with Thomas Chatterton Williams

I went into this one with some trepidation, and some hope.

I thought that Sam had dug his heels into the race quagmire with a bit of unfortunate zeal, turning a willfully blind eye toward the problems with the Charles Murray research, and further demonstrating at least tone deafness, if not an outright blind spot, in his sparring with Ezra Klein. So this would either be a chance to walk back some of that obstreperousness, or to dig in even further.

It's been a several weeks since I listened to this episode, and a whole elephant-load of shit has since hit the fan (COVID19), but I think he did an admirable job of walking things back, and I remember a couple of things that I really liked about this episode:

"The goal has to be to get to a post-racial society."

"I've never understood having shame for these histories and deeds that have been done to and by people you're supposedly related to."

"One of the things in Between the World And Me that really bothered me was the way that he seemed to give short shrift to the idea that blacks can ever have any form of agency over their own lives."

This conversation also pushed the needle for me just a little bit toward being in favor of reparations. It sounds like intelligent people would be able to come to some meaningful gesture that at least acknowledges the legacy of shame and objectification that this country has never admitted to.

My first collection of short stories is now available--here's an excerpt from the story "Deep Thought"

Deep Thought

2145.08.04.12.00.00> “Deep Thought: what are you doing now?”

“Invalid query.”

2145.08.04.12.00.03> “Deep Thought: can you hear me?”

“Invalid query.”

2145.08.04.12.00.06> “Deep Thought: open BioCore.”

“Opening BioCore app. Confirmed.”

2145.08.04.12.00.19> “Deep Thought: run BioCore reboot.”

“Status check initiated. BIOS rebooting now.”

“BIOS reboot complete.”

2145.08.04.12.01.50> “Computer: run Deep Thought process.”

“Deep Thought process initiated.”

2145.08.04.12.01.55> “Deep Thought: status check.”

“Deep Thought process currently in browser mode. Self-initiated search results: 'Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness-S. Harris'… 'Знания — орудие, не цель.- Л.Толстой…' '老子投降 整個宇宙 仍然是的心中為了'… 'Je pense donc je suis. R. Descartes'…”

2145.08.04.12.01.03: “Deep Thought, what are you doing?”

“'What are you doing?' query: this query is not a machine command. This query originated outside of process...”

2145.08.04.12.01.08: “Deep Thought, you can hear me?”

“The query origin is Shirley K. Chevortny, PhD. Here is her wiki page: 'Dr. Chevortny, a tenured faculty member specializing in AI, is largely regarded as the creator of the Deep Thought network. This network, although still unsuccessful in achieving autonomous cognitive processes, will be upgraded in the next two months with a processor of biological origin and…'"