Review of Waking Up #120: WHAT IS AND WHAT MATTERS

Official Notes:

In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Rebecca Goldstein and Max Tegmark about the foundations of human knowledge and morality.

Another one in front of a live audience. At the Q &A after someone even asked about the live audience thing and SH affirmed that it has the advantage of bringing an audience into the conversation. He also said it might be weird for podcast listeners since some laughs won’t seem justified. They don’t address my principal complaints that a live podcast tends to pander just a little more. But actually, the pandering was less of an issue in this one. This actually felt more like a genuine conversation and less like an attempt to squeeze in as many one-liners as possible.

The main focus was on how science can answer the question of what is matter but not the question of what matters. Topics covered: counterfactuals, modal realism (everything that can exist, does) multi universes. Refinement of free will explanation by Sam.

Science= what is

Philosophy =what matters.

Sam claims that even if you think you don’t care about philosophy, only science, you still have to decide what science you like and that means some elements of philosophy gets involved. Not sure I buy this.

I also dispute their agreement that that that human brain cognitively developed to be able to understand parabolic arcs, but not quantum mechanics. 

Having studied quantum mechanics, I think the human brain is more of a blank slate than that. It may be true that we understand parabolic arcs better than a lot of other mathematical forms because of our brain structure, but I think that's something that develops as we mature through childhood.

It’s maybe also true that quantum mechanics doesn’t make sense to the human brain because it's a nonsensical theory.

Review of Waking Up #119. HIDDEN MOTIVES

Official Notes:

In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Robin Hanson about our hidden motives in everyday life. They discuss selfishness, hypocrisy, norms and meta-norms, cheating, deception, self-deception, education, the evolutionary logic of conversation, social status, signaling and counter-signaling, common knowledge, AI, and many other topics.

Robin has a pretty cynical view of people and tries to cover the appalling things he says with a deprecating chuckle every time he talks. By the end of the hour that gets old. 

Also, this has the disadvantage of being before a live audience, with all the irritating features that come with this forum.

As for the actual content of the podcast, I'm not sure there's much in here that's very deep. If I were Sam and not afraid of offending the guest, I'd label the episode "Extreme Cynicism." Because that seems to be all there is here.

Review of Waking Up #117: NETWORKS POWER AND CHAOS

Official Notes:

In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Niell Ferguson about his new book "The Square and the Tower." They discuss his career as a writer, networks and hierarchies, how history gets written, the similarity between the 16th century and the 21st, the role of social media in the 2016 Presidential election, the influence of advertising on the public sphere, Trump, the Russian investigation, Islamic extremism, counterfactuals, what would have happened if Clinton had won the presidency, immigration in Europe, conspiracy theories, capitalism, globalization, communism, wealth inequality, universal basic income, Henry Kissinger, the prospect of a US war with China, cyberwar, and other topics.

Here's a crazy idea: the counterfactuals if Clinton were elected may be even grimmer than our Trump factuals.

I'm not sure I believe that, but it intrigued me enough to check Fergeson's book out of the library. And I'm glad I did--he's a wonderful writer and historian. Plus he didn't drink the Obama Koolaid, so you can actually read an intellectual and a scholar who doesn't gush mindlessly over the Obama years.

The episode was stimulating, I suppose, but nothing in it leapt out at me. But read the book. Or at least a few chapters of it.

Review of Waking Up #116: AI RACING TOWARD THE BRINK

Official Notes:

In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Eliezer Yudkowsky about the nature of intelligence, different types of AI, the “alignment problem," IS vs OUGHT, the possibility that future AI might deceive us, the AI arms race, conscious AI, coordination problems, and other topics.

The one thing I got out of this is that there’s an unknown number of brilliant solutions to problems that afflict millions of people but if there’s no exploitable market for it then no one has published their solutions such as using 100 lightbulbs to alleviate Seasonal Affective Disorder.

I have little interest in the idea that AI will run out of control soon. Why? Because it's inevitable. Like the next idiotic thing Trump will do.

Review of #115: SAM HARRIS, LAWRENCE KRAUSS, AND MATT DILLAHUNTY

Official notes:

In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Lawrence Krauss and Matt Dillahunty about the threat of nuclear war, Christian support for Trump, science and a universal conception of morality, the role of intuition in science, the primacy of consciousness, the nature of time, free will, the self, meditation, and other topics.

I’m beginning to think that I do not like his podcasts involving a live audience. it seems like a lot of what is said ends up being for comic effect and earnestness goes by the wayside.

Review of Waking Up #114: POLITICS AND SANITY

Official podcast notes: 

In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with David Frum and Andrew Sullivan about the Trump presidency, hyper-partisanship, how democracies fail, immigration, the lowering life expectancy in the U.S., racism, social media, the opioid crisis, marijuana legalization, religion, what a healthy politics might look like, and other topics.

Here’s another podcast that is not terribly interesting, if you’ve already listened to the earlier ones. In a nutshell: Trump bad, cell phone addiction bad, facism bad, no consensus on free will. 

Review of Waking Up #113: CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE SELF

Official podcast notes: 
In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Anil Seth about the scientific study of consciousness, where consciousness emerges in nature, levels of consciousness, perception as a “controlled hallucination,” emotion, the experience of “pure consciousness,” consciousness as “integrated information,” measures of “brain complexity,” psychedelics, different aspects of the “self,” conscious AI, and many other topics.

I have to admit that this episode was not terribly appealing to me. I don’t buy Sam’s theory of the lack of free will.  And the “controlled hallucination” idea is trivially true and uninteresting. 

So I don’t recommend this podcast to any except the truest fan.