We left off last week with the question of how much weight we should give to Nick Bostrom’s argument that we are not only possibly simulated, but likely to be so. This argument, or at least our representation of it, rests on two key claims: first, that our descendants will be able to create people just like ourselves; and second, that they will create a lot of them. The argument is compelling only in the case that both are true.
Saints & Simulators 7: #GoingBayesian
Episode 210: Frantz Fanon’s Black Existentialism (Part Two)
Continuing on Black Skin White Masks (1952), starting with the influential ch. five, “The Fact of Blackness.” Are the successive coping strategies to racism (including “anti-racist racism” and embrace of negritude) that Fanon describes, necessary steps in a dialectic that should be encouraged, or would it be best to learn from his “mistakes” and jump right to the humanistic end-point? With guest Lawrence Ware.
Start with part 1 or get the ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL! See PEL Live in NYC on April 6.
End song: “Malaika” by John Etheridge and Vimala Rowe; hear John interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #85.
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Saints & Simulators 6: #AllYouZombies
Although there have been attempts at creating true simulations of intelligence, machines that can learn and respond appropriately to unbounded input, they have not, as of the time of this writing, progressed significantly far in the way of believably duplicating human interactions (although they have mastered tasks as diverse as as playing chess, competing on the television game show Jeopardy, and identifying other robots as robots). Are these major steps on the pathway, or deceptive dead ends? Could technology ever improve to the point where it could convincingly simulate, not you perhaps, but other people, in all their deep, multifaceted, and endlessly surprising soulfulness? Is true artificial intelligence, to the point that computers could believably create people, actually achievable?
Constellary Tales #6: Philip K. Dick’s “The Minority Report,” Guest Mark Linsenmayer
PEL’s Mark Linsenmayer joins the Constellary crew to weigh in on the philosophical implications of precognitive crime fighting in Philip K. Dick’s “The Minority Report.” Brian quizzes Mark and Ken on PKD movie trivia.
Get more Constellary Tales podcasts, and read original sf in the magazine at constellary.com.
Episode 210: Frantz Fanon’s Black Existentialism (Part One)
On Black Skin White Masks (1952).
How does growing up in a racist society mess people up? Fanon’s “clinical study” includes phenomenology, poetry, and a lot of existentialism, which means that the “let’s embrace negritude in the face of bigotry” solution isn’t ultimately available to him: We’re all radically free, with no race-specific essence, whether positive or negative. With guest Lawrence Ware.
Don’t wait for part two; get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL! Don’t miss PEL Live in NYC on April 6.
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Podchaser Interview of Mark Linsenmayer: Partially Examined Life and Nakedly Examined Music
Morgan DeLisle, writer for the PodChaser “Behind the Streams Blog,” interviewed Mark for a feature of our podcasts. Learn about the origins of PEL and NEM, how we make the shows, and what’s coming up.
Listen to all of the PEL network podcasts at partiallyexaminedlife.com, or subscribe to them individually on Apple Podcasts or via your preferred player.
Saints & Simulators 5: #3MinuteUniverse
The technological ability to emulate a convincing world is plausible in the not-so-distant future. We additionally know that the motivation to create one already exists, given the huge popularity of video games, and the amount of money and effort put into making them. A big difference, however, between a current-day video game and this potential game of tomorrow, is that the player of a current game knows she is playing a game. Could we really be in a game and not know it?
NEM#92: Steve Young (Hedflux): Electronica Breaking Club Conventions
Steve started producing tracks for dance clubs in 2007, changing his style in 2013 to slow down, carve out space for spontaneous performance, and develop “audio alchemy” over a few EPs and two recent albums.
We discuss “Equinosis” from the Mercurial EP (2018), “Superluminal Sound” from his Soul Science album (2016), and the title track from his Wanderlust EP (2013). We conclude by listening to “Origins” by Hedflux and Alex Delfont from Kin (2018). Opening/closing: “Music Is My Weapon” (2007). For more, see hedflux.com.
Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Support us on Patreon. Check out Mark’s new album.
Episode 209: Francis Fukuyama on Identity Politics (Part Two: Discussion)
Continuing on Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (2018).
Fukuyama recommends a “creedal national identity” as a solution for tribalism; does this work? Is this “demand for recognition” that he describes foundational for the act of making an ethical claim? For self-consciousness itself? How does ideology prejudice the sort of theorizing that Fukuyama engages in?
Listen to part one first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
End song: “Cornerstone” by Richard X. Heyman, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #61.
Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service. Visit the St. John’s College Graduate Institute: partiallyexaminedlife.com/sjcgi.
Saints & Simulators 4: #AloneInTheCyberverse
We all have a solipsistic experience nightly, when we sleep and dream. Each night we inhabit a universe which seems to us, convincingly at the time, to have a wealth of external people and places in it. But all of those people and places are created inside our brains solely for the benefit of the dreamer. In the modern world, however, we can place an additional, familiar experience of a solipsistic reality next to that of the dream: the single-player video game.
Episode 209: Guest Francis Fukuyama on Identity Politics (Part One)
Talking with the author about Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (2018).
What motivates people? Frank points to thymos, the demand for recognition, as at the root of both the “end of history” (i.e., democracy as demand for equal recognition) and our current tribalist stalemates, involving desires to be seen—in virtue of group membership—as superior. Thymos may in fact be central to self-consciousness, ethics, and the origins of political association.
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NEM#91: Rachel Taylor Brown’s Decorated Aphorisms
Portland-based singer-songwriter Rachel has released 10 albums of off-kilter, usually piano-based, lyric-heavy indie rock since the mid ’00s.
We discuss “Maker” and “God” (plus the intro “Gyre”) from Run Tiny Human (2018), “Taxidermy” from World so Sweet (2011), and “Ormolu” from Ormolu (2006), and also listen to “We’ll Have A” from Falimy (2014). For more, see racheltaylorbrown.com.
Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Support us on Patreon. Check out Mark’s new album.
Saints & Simulators 3: #WhatIsSimulation
One of the first things people discovered when modern computing became a reality is that it’s relatively easy to simulate laws of physics, representing aspects of the real world. This theoretically enables an approach to simulation that builds an entire universe from basic building blocks. A quark could be a tiny bit of fundamental matter (whatever that might be), but it could just as easily be a rule programmed into a computer—or perhaps even a coherent thought in the mind of an all-powerful intellect.
Episode 208: Epicurus on Seeking Pleasure (Part Two)
More on the ethics-related fragments of Epicurus and accounts by Martha Nussbaum and Tim O’Keefe.
What would a purely therapeutic philosophy consist of? Does philosophy as pursuit of pleasure mean that you eschew political action or other substantial goals? Mark, Wes, and Dylan try to figure out which of our desires are vain and whether society is compatible with human happiness.
Listen to part one first or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Tickets are now available for PEL Live: See partiallyexaminedlife.com/pel-live.
End song: “The Language of the Body” by Ant-Bee as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #68.
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Saints & Simulators 2: The #SimulationArgument
In the year 1999 CE, just on the cusp of a new millennium, the then Wachowski Brothers released “The Matrix,” one of the most influential, imitated, and widely discussed movies of its times. It was only four years later, in 2003 CE, that philosopher Nick Bostrom of Oxford University introduced an argument that it is not only possible we are living inside a computer simulation, it is actually significantly likely. Although it may have sounded like a high-concept science-fiction thriller, the argument drew upon well-established lines of logic and a widely held series of assumptions.
Constellary Tales #5. Robert Heinlein’s “All You Zombies” and “Predestination”
Robert Heinlein’s short story “All You Zombies” (and the later film adaptation Predestination) starts with the classic “grandfather paradox” trope and ties it in knots.
Get more Constellary Tales podcasts, and read original sf in the magazine at constellary.com.
Episode 208: Epicurus on Seeking Pleasure (Part One)
On the extant fragments of Epicurus (341–270 BCE) dealing with ethics, including his “Letter to Menoceus,” “The Principal Doctrines,” and “The Vatican Collection of Epicurean Sayings.” Plus Tim O’Keefe’s Epicureanism (2010) and Martha Nussabum’s The Therapy of Desire (1994).
How are we supposed to act once we understand nature as atoms bouncing and swerving around in the void, temporarily producing order through fortuitous collisions? Ruling out demanding gods means ethics is dictated by human nature: we avoid pain and pursue pleasure. However, we’re very bad at this, and Epicurus wants to fix all of us!
Don’t wait for part two; get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now.
Come see us live in NYC on Apr. 6. Read more at partiallyexaminedlife.com/pel-live.
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NEM#90: Sam Phillips Brings Intuition Out of Dreams
Sam has released sixteen albums of catchy, textured pop music since 1983.
We discuss “I Want to Be You” and “Tears in the Ground” from World on Sticks (2018), “How to Dream” from Fan Dance (2001), and conclude by listening to “When I’m Alone” from Push Any Button (2013). Intro: “Baby I Can’t Please You” from Martinis and Bikinis (1994). For more, visit samphillips.com.
Hear more Nakedly Examined Music. Like our Facebook page. Support us on Patreon. Check out Mark’s new album.
Saints and Simulators: Did Bostrom Prove the Existence of God?
Did Nick Bostrom, professor of philosophy at Oxford University, provide the first convincing modern proof of the probable existence of God? At first glance it seems more than unlikely. Bostrom—best known for his notorious theory that the world exists only on a giant computer—isn’t a notably religious man. What’s more, philosophers and theologians have argued for thousands of years whether God exists; whether the existence of God can be proven; and whether demonstrating proof of God’s existence is something we should even try to pursue. Despite all this, in the year 2003, when Bostrom published a new theory detailing the strong probability that God does in fact exist, nobody noticed (except David Pearce).
Phi Fic #26 The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster
Cezary Baraniecki, Laura Davis-Chanin, and Nathaniel Hanks are joined again by the irrepressible Dan Johnson and Jennifer Tejada as we explore this fascinating and prescient story!