Ep 175: Science News 1: Population III - The First Generation of Stars in the Universe Observed?

Ep 207: Variations on a Conjecture: If you are distracted by, or simply prefer a version without, the background music - you can find that here: https://youtu.be/xSbqTTs1nl0 My preferred version is here: https://youtu.be/2IneL4VpShE as there are some helpful (though not essential) vi... by ToKCast

27 min listen

Ep 206: Sam Kuypers (Time: The First Quantum Concept Part 3 - and more).: Sam Kuypers is a theoretical physicist who specialises in the physics of time. If you have the time, Sam can take up as much of it as you like telling you about how our ideas of time have changed…over time. As Sam will reveals: times, they are not a-... by ToKCast

106 min listen

Ep 205: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 11 ”Time: The First Quantum Concept” *Part 2*: Part 2: Time is in the instant. The instant is not in time. More on the quantum theory of time and how the "spacetime" view of time, and the flow of time are false. How time relates to the "block universe" model and how the multiverse fixes the parad... by ToKCast

53 min listen

Ep 204: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 11 ”Time: The First Quantum Concept” Part 1: This is really "episode 0" but not quite because we do indeed get to some readings and unpackings of the chapter. But in the overall scheme, that forms a minor part of a longer introduction to the "common sense" understanding of time and then to some... by ToKCast

60 min listen

Ep 203: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 10 ”The Nature of Mathematics” Part 4: Some more long introductory remarks and commentary throughout readings of the closing pages of the chapter culminating in the explanation of the "punchline" conclusion of the chapter which is: "Necessary truth is the subject matter of mathematics. It... by ToKCast

77 min listen

Ep 202: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 10 ”The Nature of Mathematics” Part 3: The nature of proof and mathematics as a creative enterprise. Not all that is true can be proved as such, the high hopes of David Hilbert for placing the entirety of mathematics on a "firm foundation", the mathematical world-shattering results of Kur... by ToKCast

45 min listen

Ep 201: Progress: Conserving the means of Error Correction. Free Speech, Free Trade and Democracy.: Drawing on Chapter 15 "The Evolution of Culture" from "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch and then applying it to some special cases. Come and chat to me about this or anything else at https://www.getairchat.com/brett Timestamps: 00:00 Spee... by ToKCast

43 min listen

Ep 200: Chiara Marletto: 00:00 Introduction 08:03 Interview Begins 09:42 How Chiara found herself at the foundations of physics 15:30 How Chiara found Everett 19:13 No Special Physics is required for Observers 21:02 What is a counterfactual? How is it linked to a constructor... by ToKCast

88 min listen

Ep 199: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 10 ”The Nature of Mathematics” Part 2: The certainty of mathematics and its place in the supposed hierarchy of subjects (assumed to be above science which is itself above philosophy in turn). Some more remarks on Bayesianism and somehow ghosts and alien life. by ToKCast

50 min listen

Ep 198: Bayesianism: Everything and more one might ever want to know about the topic...that other epistemology people often talk about. The central project is to distinguish between 4 "species" of what is often called "Bayesianism" 1. Bayes' Theorem. 2. Bayesian Statist... by ToKCast

96 min listen

Ep 197: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 10 ”The Nature of Mathematics” Part 1: Introduction: This episode is an introduction to the chapter. Although there are some readings, they are limited and I provide context by diving deep into David's more recent work on all this. Specifically we go through the connection of Chapter 10 here (published... by ToKCast

85 min listen

Ep 196: The Mother Military: Commentary (and Explainer) This podcast is largely an op-ed about the "feminisation" of Western militaries and the effect of so-called "diversity, equity and inclusion" ideologies on modern defence forces. I look at what the purpose of a military is ... by ToKCast

43 min listen

Ep 195: Knowledge, Wealth and Constructors: Very brief readings from and lengthy reflections upon David Deutsch's paper "The Philosophy of Constructor Theory" published here https://link.springer.com/article/10.... and available in full here: https://www.constructortheory.org/por... #physics #... by ToKCast

35 min listen

Ep 194: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 9 ”Quantum Computers” Part 4: Shor’s Algorithm: This is a "return to regular format" episode in one respect - readings from and reflections upon "The Fabric of Reality" but also a departure from regular formatting in another respect: I teach a bunch of simple mathematics. This is for those who mig... by ToKCast

94 min listen

Ep 193: Effortless Stoicism: I recommend the version found here that contains visuals and music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlvgxEBekP4 However the same message will come through on this audio only podcast. Full Credit for all ideas to: James (Jim) Pierce Naval and Nivi a... by ToKCast

26 min listen

Ep 192: Where do ideas come from?: This is a cross-post from my Substack podcast "The 3Rs: Reality, Reason, Rationality" the text of which can be found here: https://bretthall.substack.com/p/where-do-ideas-come-from?sd=pf#details This diagram is also relevant: by ToKCast

63 min listen

Ep 191: Science News 2: Dark Matter, Fusion, JWST Latest: Science news from a "critical rational" perspective. No "believing" in explanations here, no time for instrumentalism and a focus on good explanations of the evidence. Introduction (epistemology in science): 00:00 Dark Matter: 04:32 Modified Newtonia... by ToKCast

39 min listen

Ep 190: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 9 ”Quantum Computers” Part3: Here in this second-to-last episode on the discussion of Chapter 9 from the Fabric of Reality we discuss some of the key distinctions between the classical and quantum - the philosophical and scientific implications and then some of the current exper... by ToKCast

35 min listen

Ep 189: Epiphenomena: This serves as "part 2" of my "Are Consciousness and Creativity the same thing?" podcast, the Youtube version of which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrjY4fR-qMU by ToKCast

18 min listen

Ep 188: Nick Bostrom on AI on ”Talk TV” - analysis: This podcast was originally produced on Airchat: https://www.getairchat.com/bretthall/bretthall It is all about an interview that can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fv4Uz_i1iQ by ToKCast

41 min listen

Ep 187: Red Pens and Fallibilism: This podcast episode is based around two sets of chits (two "chats") found on airchat at https://www.getairchat.com/bretthall/bretthall?t=440630 The articles associated with these chits and in the latter case many links are here: https://www.bretthal... by ToKCast

24 min listen

Ep 186: Brett, Naval and more on AI & AGI: The latest on the philosophy, science and technology of AI and AGI. ChatGPT, Deep Learning, Neural Networks and Large Language Models (LLMs). What do we know? Where is it going? by ToKCast

94 min listen

Ep 185: Possibility and Actuality. Facts and Counterfactuals.: Sam Harris and Lex Fridman vs The Multiverse and Constructor Theory. Although this is a reaction video, it's just 10 minutes of Sam with the rest of the time spent me doing some analysis, dissection and "what went wrong" reflection as a vehicle for e... by ToKCast

61 min listen

Ep 184: ToKCast Digest - An Overview of Optimism: Everything that we’ve covered on ToKCast so far for those in a hurry or those wanting a refresher. It’s the synecdoche episode. 183 episodes down and David Deutsch has spoken with Naval Ravikant and Tim Ferris, and so begins another cohort of people ... by ToKCast

81 min listen

Ep 183: St George in retirement syndrome on St Patrick’s day.: What is "St George in retirement" syndrome? This and much more in another random livestream about all sorts. by ToKCast

62 min listen

Ep 182: Livestream Science News and AMA: Thursday 16 March 2023 Livestream - Patreon and Twitter Questions and Science News Articles discussed: JWST news: https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-star-soon-go-supernova-photos Volcanoes on Venus: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecar... by ToKCast

63 min listen

Ep 181: The Big Bang Livestream ToKCast: Reading a short chapter from "What's Eating the Universe?" by Paul Davies titled "The Big Bang" - and adding some exposition and commentary. Also: AMA as time permits. As always I do not monetise anything (there are no ads/I get zero income from yout... by ToKCast

77 min listen

Ep 180: Livestream: ”The Open Hand of Reason”: Defending reason and rationality via a discussion of material at https://www.ecosophia.net/blogs-and-essays/the-well-of-galabes/the-clenched-fist-of-reason/ after a question from a listener. by ToKCast

130 min listen

Ep 179: Livestream March 14, 2023: I did a livestream on Youtube and this is the audio taken from that. Questions were taken from Twitter and Youtube. The first 20 mins or so of this episode is a response to a question about Sam Harris' recent "Making Sense" podcast featuring Stuart R... by ToKCast

95 min listen

Ep 178: Its, Bits, Qubits *Part 2*: This is the second part of a two part series. Here we focus exclusively upon "It from Qubit" (2002) by David Deutsch as found here: https://www.daviddeutsch.org.uk/wp-co... I read and comment upon the paper, unpacking its significance for physics, ep... by ToKCast

51 min listen

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Ep 175: Science News 1: Population III - The First Generation of Stars in the Universe Observed?

Ep 175: Science News 1: Population III - The First Generation of Stars in the Universe Observed?

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