The Penultimate “The Beginning of Infinity” episode. Herein we contrast pessimism with optimism - what the conditions are for providing succour to either philosophy and who some of the leaders are. While science writers such as John Horgan, author of “The End of Science” may provide something of an introduction to the ways in which people can conclude “the end is night”, philosophers like Nick Bostrom and Verner Vinge take things further providing academic papers on “the singularity” and “the doomsday argument” and “the simulation argument” - all of which regard people as being but a prelude to something else: a time without or beyond people. The arguments are summarised and countered. I provide my own spin on things, and invoke the work of computer scientist Jaron Lanier, who (while at times writing of a bleak *now*) exhaults people in the same way as David Deutsch via a different method and looks forward to a future where people are ascendant. What does our best science tell us about what is to come? If we are to take seriously our best theories - is there hope? And is there an opportunity to even find fun and funniness in what we are promised for the future? I have some ideas.
Ep 188: Nick Bostrom on AI on ”Talk TV” - analysis
Ep 187: Red Pens and Fallibilism
Ep 186: Brett, Naval and more on AI & AGI
Ep 185: Possibility and Actuality. Facts and Counterfactuals.
Ep 184: ToKCast Digest - An Overview of Optimism
Ep 183: St George in retirement syndrome on St Patrick’s day.
Ep 182: Livestream Science News and AMA
Ep 181: The Big Bang Livestream ToKCast
Ep 180: Livestream: ”The Open Hand of Reason”
Ep 179: Livestream March 14, 2023
Ep 178: Its, Bits, Qubits *Part 2*
Ep 177: Its, Bits, Qubits. Part 1
Ep 176: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 9 ”Quantum Computers” Part 2
Ep 175: Science News 1: Population III - The First Generation of Stars in the Universe Observed?
Ep 174: A message for next millennium.
Ep 173: Brett Talks Twitter 2
Ep 172: Talents and Testing
Ep 171: Knowledge and Ignorance 6
Ep 170: Are creativity and consciousness the same thing?
Ep 169: Livestream & Happy New Year
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