Podcast appearances and mentions of Douglas R Hofstadter

por Yaiza Santos Le leyó Santos: el 41% de los jóvenes votantes estadounidenses considera aceptable el asesinato del CEO de UnitedHealthcare. Ya escribió sobre el tema, aun sin haber salido esas encuestas. Esa acceptabilidad –compartida por otros muchos no tan jóvenes, como esa Belarra– proyecta sobre el asesino una imagen de persona consciente, racional, sensata, que en nada se parece a lo que parece ser en realidad, un perturbado más. El prestigio social, en este caso, recae en un enfermo. En el mundo de los jóvenes, observó, el psicópata se convierte en héroe. Hablando de enfermos, trató el terrible y extraño caso de los Pélicot, puro hombre muerde al perro, y opinó: puesto que el bien jurídico máximo es la vida, la pena máxima aquí no debería proceder. Tuvo que detenerse, a su pesar, en la letanía de hitos que muestran la mediocridad de la conversación española. Los premios de las cronistas parlamentarias ¡a Rufián!, las andanzas del aristócrata De Aldama, ese Bigotes vitaminado, Feijóo brindando por un acercamiento a Junts, sin recordar quién es el máximo líder de Junts, dónde está y qué relación tiene con España y con la justicia, ¡y ese delirio de una ley contra los bulos y las bulerías en redes sociales! Mire, explicó, cuando se publica algo ya tiene consecuencias, el derecho a la rectificación no ha funcionado nunca, y es solamente una tirita sobre una herida cicatrizada. Cada vez más convencido de que lo que tiene que hacer un periodista es mostrarse útil, comentó la información magra que trae Florencio Domínguez: de los 120 los atentados registrados por Europol en 2023, la mayoría fueron de nacionalistas y solamente dos, frustrados, de derechas. ¡He ahí el peligro que anuncian los apocalípticos! Celebra, por otro lado, que los apocalípticos no hayan dicho ni una palabra sobre la violación de la privacidad, ahora que han detenido a un presunto asesino gracias a Google Street View. Tus datos, chico, no sirven para nada en tus propias manos, y en las de Google, no más que tu culo para Levi’s. Concluyó, gracias a un nuevo burning paper, que el discurso igualitario encierra pura mentira –¡lo que queremos es el privilegio!– y deseó, con alegría, feliz navidad. Y fue así que Espada yiró. Bibliografía: La analogía, de Douglas R. Hofstadter y Emmanuel Sander Sobre la desigualdad, de Harry G. Frankfurt Contra el feminismo, de Teresa Giménez Barbat Burning paper: «Status and subjective well-being: A conceptual replication and extension of Anderson et al. (2012)», en Plos One, 18 de septiembre de 2024. Banda SonoraSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 6, 2024 is: ambigram • AM-buh-gram • noun An ambigram is an image of a written word or phrase that is intended or able to be oriented in either of two ways for viewing or reading. // Angel started taking calligraphy classes to learn how to create ambigrams and other fun designs that can be read both upside down and right side up. See the entry > Examples: “... when spelled out in the sand, SOS is conveniently readable as an ambigram—readable both right-side-up and upside-down.” — Wendee Wendt, Parade Magazine, 8 June 2024 Did you know? There is little ambiguity about the origins of the word ambigram—it was introduced by cognitive scientist Douglas R. Hofstadter in his 1985 book Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern, in which he wrote of the “pleasing activity of doing ambigrams, where shapes must be concocted that are poised exactly at the midpoint between two interpretations.” Since then, ambigram has been used primarily to refer to an image of a written word or phrase that either forms the same word or a different word when reflected or turned upside down. For instance, when reflected, bud turns into dub, while Malayalam reads the same both ways. And when turned upside down, swims reads the same, while wow turns into mom. Some ambigrams are natural (such as dollop), while others can be designed or created with calligraphy. Calligraphic ambigrams are quite popular and are often used as logos or tattoo designs.

#ueberdentellerrand – der PodcastNews aus der Digital-, Kreativ-, Innovations- und Konsumwelt In diesem Podcast teilen wir unser Wissen, recherchieren und diskutieren und möchten zum Nach- oder Umdenken anregen. Teaser: "Über den Tellerrand schauen heißt zu akzeptieren, dass es nie wieder einen Status Quo geben wird."Dominik und Nina sprechen dieses Mal mit Prof. Dr. Christian Stöcker, Professor für digitale Kommunikation an der HAW Hamburg, Journalist und Autor. Reliable AI, Hamburg als Medienstandort und die Zukunft des Journalismus sind nur einige der Themen, die Christian mitgebracht hat. Warum Christians heimliche Liebe immer noch der C64 ist, warum wir alle wohl Raubkopierer:innen sind und was Social Media und KI gemeinsam haben, erfahrt Ihr in einer neuen Ausgabe von #ueberdentellerrand. Links: Christian Stöcker auf LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianstoecker/ Christian Stöcker inkl. seiner Bücher auf Wikipedia:https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_St%C3%B6ckerStudiengang „Digitale Kommunikation“ an der HAW Hochschule für Angwandte Wissenschaften Hamburg:https://www.haw-hamburg.de/studium/studiengaenge-a-z/studiengaenge-detail/course/courses/show/digitale-kommunikation/ Von Christian Stöcker erwähntes Buch:„Einsicht ins Ich: Fantasien und Reflexionen über Selbst und Seele“ von Douglas R. Hofstadter und Daniel C. Dennett #ueberdentellerrand ► Website: https://www.hamburg-news.hamburg/ueberdentellerrand► Newsletter: https://www.hamburg-news.hamburg/newsletterDie Hamburg Marketing GmbH übernimmt keine Haftung für die Inhalte externer Links. Für den Inhalt der verlinkten Seiten sind ausschließlich deren Betreiber verantwortlich. Das Gesprochene gibt die Meinung der einzelnen Personen wieder und repräsentiert nicht unbedingt die Meinung der Hamburg Marketing GmbH.

About the GuestJunius Johnson is a writer, teacher, speaker, independent scholar, and musician. His work focuses on beauty, imagination, and wonder, and how these are at play in the Christian and Classical intellectual traditions. He is the executive director of Junius Johnson Academics, through which he offers innovative classes for both children and adults that aim to ignite student hearts with wonder and intellectual rigor. An avid devotee of story, he is especially drawn to fantasy, science fiction, and young adult fiction. He performs professionally on the french horn and electric bass. He holds a BA from Oral Roberts University (English Lit), an MAR from Yale Divinity School (Historical Theology), and an MA, two MPhils, and a PhD (Philosophical Theology) from Yale University. He is the author of 5 books, including The Father of Lights: A Theology of Beauty, and On Teaching Fairy Stories. An engaging speaker and teacher, he is a frequent guest contributor to blogs and podcasts on faith and culture. He is co-host of The Classical Mind podcast and is a member of The Cultivating Project.Show NotesDr. Junius Johnson joins Adrienne to discuss the art of teaching. In this episode they discuss some important mistakes that happen in classical schools and how to overcome them. Junius explores the creative ways in which teachers should approach ALL subjects and help students enter into fruitful discussions no matter what the subject. Some Ideas Discussed:The importance of helping students engage with real learning and relational connectionsThe importance of believing in studentsThe pitfalls of teaching objectivesHolding onto lesson plans looselyCreating an atmosphere of wonderHow a teacher can increase his or her own imagination! Books Discussed in This Episode Include:On Teaching Fairy Stories by Junius JohnsonThe Chronicles of NarniaJK RowlingDante's Divine ComedyThe Sword in the Stone by T.H. WhiteThrough The Looking Glass by Lewis CarrollThe Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan CooperBeowulfHamletThe Voyage of the Dawn Treador by CS LewisPaintings to inspire imaginative conversations with your students (Print them in color and let them study it with a partner and then narrate as many details as they can remember without looking at it.)Children's Games by BruegelMasque of Love by John Duncan The Plumbers by Norman RockwellDeclaration of Independence by John TrumbullThe Death of Caesar by Jean-Léon Gérôme Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake by Hiroshige and then compare it to van Gogh's Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige)Books to Build Imagination (for educators to read for self-edification in learning to wonder)Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas R. Hofstadter. This book can get really dense at times, but it uses the work of these three figures to stretch and challenge our view of reality.G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles. A delightful, accessible must-read in which Chesterton re-orients our attention to the small and everyday things.Fantastical and speculative fiction. A great place to start is The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, one of the unsung masterpieces of the 20th century.The Awakening of Miss Prim by by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera  Games mentionedSplendorLords of the WaterdeepGolf card game... can be played with regular card of buy this already made set called Play Nine. ________________________________________________________Upcoming Winter Workshop Links:Society for Classical Learning Winter Workshops, 2024 (scroll to read more about Adrienne's Narration Intensive)Snapshot Series Courses by Beautiful Teaching Master TeachersSign up for Beautiful Teaching Monthly Newsletter by visiting the website! Let us help you discover what a beautiful education should look like. Subscribe to this Podcast on your favorite podcast app!Meet our Team, Explore our Resources andTake advantage of our Services!This podcast is produced by Beautiful Teaching, LLC.Support this podcast: ★ Support this podcast ★ _________________________________________________________Credits:Sound Engineer: Andrew HelselLogo Art: Anastasiya CFMusic: Vivaldi's Concerto for 2 Violins in B flat major, RV529 : Lana Trotovsek, violin Sreten Krstic, violin with Chamber Orchestra of Slovenian Philharmonic © 2023 Beautiful Teaching LLC. All Rights Reserved

Pedro Domingos é professor emérito de Ciências da Computação na Universidade de Washington. Licenciou-se pelo Instituto Superior Técnico e doutorou-se na Universidade da Califórnia em Irvine. Recebeu em 2014 o prémio de inovação, SIGKDD, o mais prestigiado na área de ciências de dados. É autor do livro «A Revolução do Algoritmo Mestre - Como a aprendizagem automática está a mudar o mundo», publicado em 2015. -> Apoie este podcast e faça parte da comunidade de mecenas do 45 Graus em: 45grauspodcast.com -> Inscreva-se aqui nos workshops de Pensamento Crítico em Coimbra e Braga. -> Registe-se aqui para ser avisado(a) de futuras edições dos workshops. _______________ Índice (com timestamps): (04:32) INÍCIO - O que é revolucionário no Machine Learning? | As cinco famílias de modelos (as ‘cinco tribos'): conectivistas (backprop, a tecnologia por trás do ChatGPT), simbolistas, evolucionistas, bayesianos e analogistas. (27:25) Porque é que a robótica tem avançado mais lentamente? (32:10) Como funcionam os modelos conectivistas de deep learning (como o ChatGPT)? | Large language models | Transformers | Alexnet  (40:11) O que entendes por ‘Algoritmo Mestre'? | Como unificar as várias famílias de modelos para chegar à Inteligência Artificial Geral? (55:47) O que é especial no cérebro humano que nos permite generalizar melhor do que a AI? | Algoritmo que conseguiu descobrir as Leis de Kepler | Livro Leonardo da Vinci, de Walter Isaacson. | Livro Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking, de Douglas R Hofstadter (1:07:47) A IA pode tornar-se perigosa? Vem aí a  singularidade? | Yuval Harari, Elon Musk | Cientistas sérios que se preocupam com o tema.  Livro recomendado: Godel, Escher, Bach, de Douglas Hofstadter (1:32:20) O que explica um engenheiro da Google ter afirmado que o chatbot tinha consciência? _______________ Desde que foi lançado, no final do ano passado, o ChatGPT trouxe o tema da IA de novo para a discussão. Já tardava, por isso, um episódio sobre o tema. E dificilmente poderia pedir melhor convidado.  _______________ Obrigado aos mecenas do podcast: Francisco Hermenegildo, Ricardo Evangelista, Henrique Pais João Baltazar, Salvador Cunha, Abilio Silva, Tiago Leite, Carlos Martins, Galaró family, Corto Lemos, Miguel Marques, Nuno Costa, Nuno e Ana, João Ribeiro, Helder Miranda, Pedro Lima Ferreira, Cesar Carpinteiro, Luis Fernambuco, Fernando Nunes, Manuel Canelas, Tiago Gonçalves, Carlos Pires, João Domingues, Hélio Bragança da Silva, Sandra Ferreira , Paulo Encarnação , BFDC, António Mexia Santos, Luís Guido, Bruno Heleno Tomás Costa, João Saro, Daniel Correia, Rita Mateus, António Padilha, Tiago Queiroz, Carmen Camacho, João Nelas, Francisco Fonseca, Rafael Santos, Andreia Esteves, Ana Teresa Mota, ARUNE BHURALAL, Mário Lourenço, RB, Maria Pimentel, Luis, Geoffrey Marcelino, Alberto Alcalde, António Rocha Pinto, Ruben de Bragança, João Vieira dos Santos, David Teixeira Alves, Armindo Martins , Carlos Nobre, Bernardo Vidal Pimentel, António Oliveira, Paulo Barros, Nuno Brites, Lígia Violas, Tiago Sequeira, Zé da Radio, João Morais, André Gamito, Diogo Costa, Pedro Ribeiro, Bernardo Cortez Vasco Sá Pinto, David , Tiago Pires, Mafalda Pratas, Joana Margarida Alves Martins, Luis Marques, João Raimundo, Francisco Arantes, Mariana Barosa, Nuno Gonçalves, Pedro Rebelo, Miguel Palhas, Ricardo Duarte, Duarte , Tomás Félix, Vasco Lima, Francisco Vasconcelos, Telmo , José Oliveira Pratas, Jose Pedroso, João Diogo Silva, Joao Diogo, José Proença, João Crispim, João Pinho , Afonso Martins, Robertt Valente, João Barbosa, Renato Mendes, Maria Francisca Couto, Antonio Albuquerque, Ana Sousa Amorim, Francisco Santos, Lara Luís, Manuel Martins, Macaco Quitado, Paulo Ferreira, Diogo Rombo, Francisco Manuel Reis, Bruno Lamas, Daniel Almeida, Patrícia Esquível , Diogo Silva, Luis Gomes, Cesar Correia, Cristiano Tavares, Pedro Gaspar, Gil Batista Marinho, Maria Oliveira, João Pereira, Rui Vilao, João Ferreira, Wedge, José Losa, Hélder Moreira, André Abrantes, Henrique Vieira, João Farinha, Manuel Botelho da Silva, João Diamantino, Ana Rita Laureano, Pedro L, Nuno Malvar, Joel, Rui Antunes7, Tomás Saraiva, Cloé Leal de Magalhães, Joao Barbosa, paulo matos, Fábio Monteiro, Tiago Stock, Beatriz Bagulho, Pedro Bravo, Antonio Loureiro, Hugo Ramos, Inês Inocêncio, Telmo Gomes, Sérgio Nunes, Tiago Pedroso, Teresa Pimentel, Rita Noronha, miguel farracho, José Fangueiro, Zé, Margarida Correia-Neves, Bruno Pinto Vitorino, João Lopes, Joana Pereirinha, Gonçalo Baptista, Dario Rodrigues, tati lima, Pedro On The Road, Catarina Fonseca, JC Pacheco, Sofia Ferreira, Inês Ribeiro, Miguel Jacinto, Tiago Agostinho, Margarida Costa Almeida, Helena Pinheiro, Rui Martins, Fábio Videira Santos, Tomás Lucena, João Freitas, Ricardo Sousa, RJ, Francisco Seabra Guimarães, Carlos Branco, David Palhota, Carlos Castro, Alexandre Alves, Cláudia Gomes Batista, Ana Leal, Ricardo Trindade, Luís Machado, Andrzej Stuart-Thompson, Diego Goulart, Filipa Portela, Paulo Rafael, Paloma Nunes, Marta Mendonca, Teresa Painho, Duarte Cameirão, Rodrigo Silva, José Alberto Gomes, Joao Gama, Cristina Loureiro, Tiago Gama, Tiago Rodrigues, Miguel Duarte, Ana Cantanhede, Artur Castro Freire, Rui Passos Rocha, Pedro Costa Antunes, Sofia Almeida, Ricardo Andrade Guimarães, Daniel Pais, Miguel Bastos, Luís Santos _______________ Esta conversa foi editada por: Hugo Oliveira

“For now, what is important is not finding the answer, but looking for it.”― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid Donald Hoffman is a cognitive scientist and author of more than 100 scientific papers and three books, including Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See (W.W. Norton, 2000). He received his BA from UCLA in Quantitative Psychology and his Ph.D. from MIT in Computational Psychology. He joined the faculty of UC Irvine in 1983, where he is now a full professor in the departments of cognitive science, computer science and philosophy. He received a Distinguished Scientific Award of the American Psychological Association for early career research into visual perception, the Rustum Roy Award of the Chopra Foundation, and the Troland Research Award of the US National Academy of Sciences. He was chosen by students at UC Irvine to receive a campus-wide teaching award, and to be included in Who's Who Among America's Teachers. Hoffman studies visual perception, visual attention and consciousness using mathematical models, computer simulations, and psychological experiments. His empirical research has led to new insights into how we perceive objects, colors and motion. His theoretical research has led to a “user interface” theory of perception, which proposes that natural selection shapes our perceptions not to report truth but simply to guide adaptive behavior; this is the subject of his TED Talk entitled “ Do we see reality as it is ?” and of an article in The Atlantic entitled “ The case against reality .” It has also led to a “ conscious realism ” theory of consciousness—which proposes a formal model of consciousness and a new solution to the mind-body problem. Rupert Spira lives in the UK and holds regular meetings and retreats in Europe and the U.S. In these meetings he explores the perennial non-dual understanding that lies at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual traditions, such as Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, Hinduism, Buddhism, mystical Christianity, Sufism and Zen, and which is also the direct, ever-present reality of our own experience. It is a contemporary, experiential approach involving silent meditation, guided meditation and conversation, and it requires no affiliation to any particular religious or spiritual tradition. All that is needed is an interest in the essential nature of experience, and in the longing for love, peace and happiness around which most of our lives revolve. Rupert is author of The Transparency of Things – Contemplating the Nature of Experience (2008); Presence, in two volumes: The Art of Peace and Happiness and The Intimacy of All Experience (2012); The Light of Pure Knowing – Thirty Meditations on the Essence of Non-Duality (2014); The Ashes of Love (2016); and Transparent Body, Luminous World – The Tantric Yoga of Sensation and Perception (2017). Forthcoming titles include The Nature of Consciousness – Essays on the Unity of Mind and Matter (2017) and The Essence of Meditation – Being Aware of Being Aware (2017). Topics: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:03:30 – What's at the Your Current Edge? 00:10:35 – Is the Mind the Right Instrument for Exploring Consciousness? 00:18:52 – Resting in the Unknown and What Is Understanding, The Ultimate Science? 00:26:44 – What Does the Ego Want? 00:37:00 – Why Does the One Let Itself Go Unconscious? 00:52:00 – What Are The Limits of Language and Thoughts to Express Consciousness? 00:56:56 – The Amplitudhedron and Beyond 01:02:00 – How Can We Perceive Outside of Spacetime? 01:16:39 – Spiritual Bypassing: Awakening and Transcending –Previous Episode with Donald Hoffman and Rupert Spira hosted by Simon Mundie: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality | Donald Hoffman & Rupert Spira

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to returning guest Moshe Koppel—a computer scientist and Talmud scholar—about Torah and its intersection with artificial intelligence.In a world in which technology puts vast libraries of Torah at our fingertips, we are tasked with thinking more deeply about what essentially human abilities we bring to the enterprise of Torah and tefillah. In this episode we discuss: What computer-based innovations are on the horizon in the realm of Torah study?Will AI ever be able to reliably answer our halachic questions?Will advances in technology drastically change the experience of Shabbos observance?Tune in to hear a conversation about how AI has the potential to make our Jewish lives richer—if we use it wisely.Interview begins at 18:21.Dr. Moshe Koppel is a computer scientist, Talmud scholar, and political activist. Moshe is a professor of computer science at Bar-Ilan University, and a prolific author of academic articles and books on Jewish thought, computer science, economics, political science, and other disciplines. He is the founding director of Kohelet, a conservative-libertarian think tank in Israel, and he advises members of the Knesset on legislative matters. Dr. Koppel is the author of three sharply thought books on Jewish thought and previously joined 18Forty to talk about Halacha as Language.References:“Funes the Memorious” by Jorge Luis BorgesThe Mind of a Mnemonist by A.R. Luria Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking by Douglas R. Hofstadter & Emmanuel SanderGödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. HofstadterMeta-Halakhah: Logic, Intuition, and the Unfolding of Jewish Law by Moshe Koppel2001: A Space OdysseyDICTA: Analytical tools for Hebrew texts“Digital Discourse and the Democratization of Jewish Learning” by Zev EleffTzidkat HaTzadik: 211 by Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin

This podcast is sustained by sales of our debut book, Meow: A Novel (For Cats). Episode 8: Tao Lin's Mandalas, Repetition Compulsion, and Hofstadter's Labyrinth Today we discuss Tao Lin's recently publicized mandala art as an extension of his literary practice. Known for its simple language, circularity, and psychedelic aloofness – biting yet airy, kaleidoscopic yet concise, concrete yet polymorphic, polarizing yet irresistible – Lin's prose and poetry embody, to some, the fullest and most elegant form of human expression; infinite yet featherlight, redolent of a master's koan. In a 2016 interview with artist Dorothy Howard, the author paraphrases Jung, calling mandalas “psychological expressions of the totality of the self.” As texts and images created by computer-controlled “neural nets” proliferate, Lin's visual art and writing stand uniquely positioned to interrogate the role of human cognition in generating meaningful and aesthetically resonant patterns. What forces inform the unique character of  Lin's work – are they something personal and uniquely human, or a bio-agnostic expression of reality's latent structures, a universal compulsion to repeat certain forms in a certain sequence? To confront this issue, we have trained a neural net to "meow" in a sequence corresponding to Tao Lin's 8x8 = 64 method of mandala generation, converting the 8th sentence of every 8 paragraphs of Godel, Escher, Bach, Douglas R. Hofstadter's seminal work on the primacy of human consciousness, to a correspondingly inflected and contextualized MEOW. The result is a provocative meditation on Tao Lin's work, the ontology of thought, and the sanctity of human reason. MEOW is the first and only literary podcast for your cat, conceived and presented in its native language. This podcast is sustained by sales of our debut book, Meow: A Novel (For Cats). To view and purchase prints of Tao Lin's Mandalas, click here. Praise for Meow: A Novel "Breathtaking... a revelation." - Stubbs, Unaltered Domestic Shorthair "Meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow. Meow? Meow." - Joan Didion Follow us on Twitter: @meowliterature and Facebook: facebook.com/themeowlibrary  

Carles Mesa charla ‘Mano a mano’ con la actriz Blanca Portillo, protagonista, junto a Luis Tosar, de la película Maixabel, dirigida por Icíar Bollaín. Después, reabrimos el concurso semanal en colaboración con el Archivo de Radio Televisión Española. Planteamos una nueva pregunta relacionada con el hallazgo, hace treinta años, de Ötzi, un ser humano que vivió hacia el 3.300 a. C. Y finalizamos el domingo estrenando el espacio ‘Las cuentas claras’ de la matemática Clara Grima. Hoy partimos del libro Gödel, Escher, Bach: un Eterno y Grácil Bucle (Tusquets Editores), escrito por Douglas R. Hofstadter. Escuchar audio

Finalizamos el domingo estrenando el espacio ‘Las cuentas claras’ de la matemática Clara Grima. Hoy partimos del libro Gödel, Escher, Bach: un Eterno y Grácil Bucle (Tusquets Editores), escrito por Douglas R. Hofstadter. Escuchar audio

Today David Maxson hosts a panel discussion on the wonders of Math and Physics with Greg and special guests David Lawrence and David Farschman! David Lawrence is a physicist investigating outer space, and David Farschman is a long-time teacher of mathematics. Tune in for awe of God, His creativity, His communication, and the mathematical words that describe the world He made and holds together--and why math and science matter for the people of God as we halt toward Zion. This Episode Features: Wonder At God's Handiwork; Lawfully Wedded Husband; Two More Davids; Mongolian Archery; The Scientific Mind Of C.S. Lewis; Christian Schools Are Bad At Science; Being Good Ain't It; God's Credit Card; Rotary Numbers; Mathematical Words In A Minor Key; and Safe To Say Everyone Here Today Is A Nerd, But You Don't Have To Be. Transcript: https://bit.ly/3udanmm-htz-70 Links: Heirloom Audio: https://heirloomaudio.com/ David Maxson's Music Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/SCNerdgm Imaginary Unit - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginary_unit Mathematical Constant e: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant) Pi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi Leonhard Euler - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Euler Goedel, Escher, Bach - Douglas R. Hofstadter: https://amzn.to/3whHbf7 Wave Equation - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_equation Miracles - C.S. Lewis: https://amzn.to/2T3oFch Orthodoxy - G.K. Chesterton: https://amzn.to/3hEyMyC Genesis 1: https://www.esv.org/Genesis+1/ Sir Isaac Newton - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton Galileo Galilei - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei Big Trouble in Little China (1986): https://amzn.to/3eZpIm4 Proverbs: https://www.esv.org/Proverbs+1/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/haltingtowardzion/support

The story is drawing to a close. Moiety and Akedah have faced a variety of dragons and have learned from each one a different aspect of the transformative ability of chaos. Akedah, the overt representation of a hero, is being reborn as he wakes up from a death-like state and Moiety the covert representation of a hero has risen from the pressurized depths of hell, bringing back an unknown treasure (the dragon's pearl) to combine the known threat -the (mechanical heart). Both heroes learn that their main antagonists are not each other, but forces their own psyches. "It turns out that an eerie type of chaos can lurk just behind a facade of order - and yet, deep inside the chaos lurks an even eerier type of order." ― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern 1979 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction for exploring mathematical relationships in creative processes. Akedah's eyes slammed open into a body filled with pain. Moiety was crying, or more accurately, weeping hysterically with snot free-flowing from her nose.  He coughed. His mouth and nose were full of cottony silkworm thread. "You came back!" As Akedah pushed through the layered wrappings of silk threads, he felt the pins and needles of blood flowing back into his small capillaries. It made him sneeze. Moiety was trying to hug him. He stiffened. For a brief moment, he considered utilizing her repentance and joy as a way to gain the upper hand in the relationship. Now that she wanted him, he could manipulate her more easily into being compliant. He would be able to use his approval or disapproval of her as endless currency to get what he wanted out of the relationship. He gave her a cold, distant look. "What is wrong?" she asked. Akedah continued in silence. She still looked like a wet cat. He remembered his half-finished book in the high mountain city and the importance that it had placed on his motivations above his actions. He considered the fact that the quality of his life would hinge not on what he accomplished but his motivations underpinning his accomplishments. All Akedah could think of was her back to him, sailing away in his boat. He wanted revenge on this woman for the way she had unfairly treated him, but he also knew from looking at his life book, that it did not matter. He would only be right in the end if he was able to forgive her. No one in all eternity, especially not the old Morning Star, would ever care if his personal grievances were resolved to his satisfaction. The thing that would give his life meaning would be his ability to overlook the insult, to despise Shame, and choose love despite spite.  Akedah again laid it down and let it go. He would be doing a lot of that. The North Wind was long gone now, a soft, warm sunset had taken her place. Akedah stood up and promptly fell back down. Moiety rushed to help him.  "You have been asleep for three days," the Leviathan informed him. "Your strength will return." But to Moiety, he said, "Do not cling to him. He has not finished the transformation. You cannot help him in this, Princess. You must allow him to gather his own strength, or his vitality will be stunted. He must generate his fortitude from within right now, or he will forever be dependent on women for succor." With considerable effort, the Viking pulled himself up to stand using a low tree branch for support, "What is that clicking sound?" Moiety listened. She could not hear anything but ocean waves and the residual breezes left behind in the jungle canopy from North Wind's impossibly long hair. Then, she noticed it, not so much as a sound but as a nagging feeling of urgency. Softly, the feeling reached her senses as an irritating sound. The muffled metronome was present and persistent, as persistent as time. It was sending out vibrations through the jungle soil like the concentric ripples on still water... Support this podcast

“This wise old whiskery fish swims up to three young fish and goes, 'Morning, boys, how's the water?' and swims away; and the three young fish watch him swim away and look at each other and go, 'What the fuck is water?' and swim away.” In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and Nat discuss Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. This is a huge novel taking time in a fictitious 2010 characterized by a non-conventional timeline and a lack of a plot. Despite it’s challenging structure and the fact of being a fiction, it has a lot of philosophical nuggets about particularly on the activeness vs passiveness way of living. We cover a wide range of topics, including: Hitting goals and sense of satisfaction Letting life happen to you while watching TV Accurate visions of the world in 2020 Best porno-like book titles How Nat & Neil broke and got back together 1-on-1 sports and their secondary effect on us And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, another book that critics how media and TV are ruining our lives, and The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey, another book that shows how tennis is not just about hitting balls with a racket. Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more. Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show Kindle (link Amazon) [8:06] iPad [9:10] Netflix [17:50] The Office [18:36] BoJack Horseman [19:50] Cup & Leaf [40:44] A Crash Course in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cryptocurrency (crypto episode) [42:57] AA - Alcoholics Anonymous [50:30] Ad Blocker [1:05:56] The Trouble With Facebook by Sam Harris [1:06:25] Snapchat [1:07:26] Skype [1:09:10] Mushroom Coffee [1:14:50] University of Arizona [1:18:39] The College Dropout by Kanye West [1:32:20] (album episode) The Matrix [1:33:07] Primer [1:33:14] Books mentioned Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter [2:25] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Ulysses by James Joyce [7:16] Finnegans Wake by James Joyce [7:17] The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus [37:59] (book episode) Cleveland is King by Brendan Bowers [38:20] The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz [45:12] Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb [46:37] (book episode) Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault  [46:47] (book episode) 12 Rules for Life by Dr. Jordan Peterson [46:55] (book episode) Strange Loops [47:07] (book episode) Mastery by Robert Greene [47:10] (book episode) Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman [47:16] (book episode) The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey [52:05] (book episode) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell [58:55] Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand [1:15:19] (book episode) Elegant Complexity by Greg Carlisle [1:15:50] Hamlet by William Shakespeare [1:22:44] People mentioned David Foster Wallace Quentin Tarantino [18:10] Michael Schur [18:58] B.J. Novak [19:36] Kyrie Irving [38:15] LeBron James [38:50] Taylor Pearson [42:57] Trump [1:04:20] Sam Harris [1:06:25] Mattan Griffel [1:19:26] David Perell [1:28:23] James Joyce [1:30:00] Martin Scorsese [1:32:00] Kanye West [1:32:20] (College Dropout episode) Joe Rogan [1:35:41] Show Topics 0:00 – Spoiler Alert: it’s a fiction book, there will be spoilers. However, this is not a normal book. There is not much of a plot, so to say. This is probably a book intended to be re-read. It’s self referential, once you reach the end it intends you to go back to the beginning. 2:50 – The book doesn’t follow the timeline of events. If you are confused, congrats! That’s the point of the book :). The “missing” year is where most of the action takes. 3:35 – “Fiction is about what it’s like to be a f**cking human being”, David Foster Wallace. The central plot of our lives is just a narrative fallacy. The book gives a sense that it’s like life, in a weird way. Life is extremely complex, but we try to give it a narrative with sequential events. The characters don’t suffer a major transformation. The book ends right before all the crazy stuff is going to happen, but nothing happens yet. 6:26 – DFW intended the book to be an active work of fiction as opposed to just something you  seat back and read. There are more than 350 endnotes with essential information to the plot, so you can’t skip them. It’s highly suggested to read it on a Kindle because of them. 9:45 – There are no dates to anchor yourself on. The 10 years where the story takes place, they stop using numbers for the years, but a company’s name that sponsors or subsides that year (“subsidized time”). 11:23 – One of the central characters (that is barely referenced btw) created a movie that is so entertaining that people would watch it till they die. This movie is called “Infinite Jest”. Again, the book is chaotic and focus on the characters details rather than a story. Some parts start getting boring (eg. a kids tennis play) but you don’t want to skip them because something important is said in a couple of sentences. Random passages are really beautiful essays. 13:29 – It’s such a weird book to even talk about. It seems we are talking about a dream that we had. Supernatural characters (a ghost, a guy that levitates) may confuse you and make you doubt about your comprehension. 15:12 – Each chapter is made up of many subchapters, that can have from one sentence to 30 pages. Usually, the point of view is changed for any new subchapter, like into a different character who might be in a different place or even year or day. Sometimes you don’t know what day or character you’re getting drop in to until you’re a couple of pages into it, so it’s moving around a lot. 17:05 – What would the book like if it was written knowing Google exists? What would a movie about Infinite Jest be like? Tarantino could direct this movie. Michael Schur, co-producer and actor of The Office TV series owns the movie rights to Infinite Jest. There are many reference to the book and the author in The Office. Other TV show, BoJack Horseman, seems to be loosely based on this book. Addiction component in the book, and addiction issues that the author had. Psychological addiction to marijuana. 21:52 – Broader context of the main characters. There are basically three or four groups that have their own separate stories and those main groups intersect throughout the novel. There is the tennis academy. A particular family with 3 brothers, Hal, Orin and Mario. The addiction home next to the tennis academy. And the groups of terrorists together with those who are fighting them. The book is hilarious at many times, including laughing out loud funny and horrible tragic things at the same time. There are some absurd parts of the book, that are also very funny because of the way they are written. 26:04 – Weird plots. The wheelchair terrorists that want to kill Americans with a movie. The undercovered anti-terrorist agent that dresses like a woman. The male character enamored with “her”. Kid with his forehead stuck in a glass. The way Jim commits suicide sticking his head in a microwave. Hal tricking the psycho therapists having a major breakthrough. The list of people dying watching the film at one guy’s house. Death by passivity. Examples of characters that stuck between an easy passive life and the will of doing something bigger. 36:12 – Beautiful nonfiction parts. Discussion of kids hitting their goals: “one is that you attain the goal and realize the shocking realization that attaining the goal does not complete or redeem you, does not make everything for your life “OK ” as you are, in the culture, educated to assume it will do this, the goal. And then you face this fact that what you had thought would have the meaning does not have the meaning when you get it, and you are impaled by shock.” “It is more invigorating to want than to have”. Kyrie Irving, the basketball player, pissed off after winning everything with the Cavaliers. Finding new hills to climb instead of contenting of reaching the top. Happiness comes from the climb, not much from the achievement. Boredom aversion. Losing the impetus to perform after hitting your goals. Veterans missing the war. “If you’re worried you can feel safe, and if you feel safe you should be worried”. Books with porno titles. 47:34 – Infinite Jest is the fictional version of Amusing Ourselves to Death. Heavy critic on TV. Avoiding letting life happen to you, instead of an active life. Effects of the addiction phase, and breaking through it. Cleanse from addiction hero journey. Self improvement and infinite games found in 1-on-1 sports like tennis, box, or martial arts. Yes, you’re fighting against another player, but mainly the fight is against your brain. 53:53 – Transcending own limits. The opponent is yourself. Most characters are fighting an internal battle throughout the novel. Relationship between DFW and his editor. All typos were intentional. First and third person narrators through the book, and the relation to typos. 1:00:53 – The author sees irony almost like a safety valve that people use to avoid feeling real things. Mario, one of the characters, says (or thinks) “there is some rule that real stuff can only get mentioned if everybody rolls their eyes or laughs in a way that isn't happy.” Laughing to avoid deep conversations. In the book, the author takes serious things and wraps them in absurd and funny incidents to make them tolerable or digestible. 1:05:06 – Predictions of the internet. Advertising invading every surface and communication. Snapchat filters. The rise and fall of video calls: “the amazing things about phones is that you can be paying half attention while assuming the other person is giving you their full attention”. The problem of video calls. 1:12:48 – We broke. No, we haven’t, but we missed the opportunity. 1:15:01 – The support of the reading companion. Getting through the first pages of the book. To read or not to read Infinite Jest. Is it worth it? Signaling. Perceptions about the book, what they liked and what not. Nat: “it’s one of the most incredible books I’ve read that I never ever want to read again”. Neil compares this type of difficult to read books with beers. Endurance and feeling of accomplishment. 1:28:23 – The Infinite Jest Reader’s Club. Writers that want to prove how smart writers they are. Fashion designers showing off. Impressing your peers and justifying your professional existence. Kindle reading time estimation. DFW use of psychotropics. Worsts things of the book. 1:40:26 – Stay tuned if you want to listen to a more spoilered version of this book. Find us on Twitter @TheRealNeilS and @nateliason and let us know your version about what happened in the book. Leave a review and share it with your friends if you like the show. Join the email list at Made You Think Podcast, which is the best way to stay up to date on future episodes and things that are going on with the show. Check out ways to support the show at madeyouthinkpodcast.com/support.

"Palavras hão de ser como estrelas." Padre Antônio Vieira Rascunhadas, pensadas, escritas, faladas; a palavra é a principal ferramenta de comunicação nas sociedades. A palavra que comunica, que ensina, que aprende, que cala. A palavra que fere, que cura, tergiversa, indaga. Para nós, apaixonados por livros, ela é o caminho que vai dar no lado de dentro da nossa alma. Palavras se esparramam em verbos e frases em cada página, em busca de um travessão que lhes permita ou de um ponto que lhes cale. Através delas nascem e morrem destinos, e quando uma história acaba, lá está ela pronta para dar início a outra. A palavra acerta o alvo mesmo quando se distrai. Por isso, o Podcast Tem Gente não poderia deixar de prestar uma homenagem àquela que ilustra nosso avesso, e o tema de hoje é Palavra. Temos a honra de receber como convidada a ilustríssima Bia Karam, professora de literatura que transforma a sala de aula em um grande livro aberto, em que cada aluno é convidado a escrever um capítulo da própria narrativa. Bia é mestre, doutora em Letras e boa de papo, daqueles que a gente não quer que acabe. Para ouvir essa deliciosa conversa, basta clicar aqui! Livros recomendados: A Doença, o Sofrimento e a Morte entram num Bar, de Ricardo Araújo Pereira (Ed. Tinta da China) A Menina Sem Palavra (conto), do Livro Contos do Nascer da Terra, de Mia Couto (Ed. Companhia das Letras) O menino que escrevia versos (conto), do livro O fio das missangas, de Mia Couto (Ed. Companhia das Letras) Mania de explicação, de Adriana Falcão (Ed. Salamandra) Dicionário de palavras ao vento, de Adriana Falcão (Ed. Salamandra) Mas será o Benedito, de Mário Prata (Ed. Globo) Gödel, Escher, Bach: Laços Eternos, de Douglas R. Hofstadter (Ed. Gradiva) O primeiro camarada que ficou no caminho (conto), do livro Aldeia Nova, de Manuel da Fonseca (Editorial Caminho) A história bizarra da literatura brasileira, de Marcel Verrumo (Ed. Planeta) Filmes recomendados: Uma noite de 12 anos (Uruguai, 2018) dirigido por Álvaro Brechner O carteiro e o poeta (Itália, 1994), dirigido por Massimo Troisi e Michael Radford Nossos enormes agradecimentos aos que ajudaram a tornar este podcast possível: Edição: Rafa Monteiro Produção Musical: Felipe Mercandelli Trilha Sonora: Produtora Paralelo Catering e Locação: Milena Magalhães Agradecimentos: Teresa Pereira --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tem-gente-podcast/message

“A Martian scientist with no understanding of visual perception could understand the rainbow, or lightning, or clouds as physical phenomena,  though he would never be able to understand the human concepts of rainbow, lighting, or cloud, or the place these things occupy in our phenomenal world.” In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and Nat critically discuss the article What Is It Like to Be a Bat? by Thomas Nagel. This is the most famous piece on the mind-body problem. In it Nagel explores the mind-body issue, freedom, knowledge, meaning and value of human life. This article was penned down at an era where physicalism and materialism were prevalent, the idea that you can reduce all aspects of the mind to simply firings in the brain. However, Nagel was unpersuaded that physicalism of materialism gives an all-encompassing account of human experience. “Without consciousness the mind-body problem would be much less interesting with consciousness it seems hopeless.” We cover a wide range of topics, including The mind-body consciousness problem Creating an objective interpretations of reality. Learning skills to overcome reporters biases Consciousness in animals Artificial intelligence (AI) and hacking of consciousness And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of What Is It Like to Be a Bat? by Thomas Nagel! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our book episodes on consciousness like Godel Escher Bach by Douglas Hofstadter, Sapiens by Yuval Harari, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett, and The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch. Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more. Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show The Beginning of Infinity on Wikipedia [04:52] (book episode) Pod Save America Podcast [19:20] HARO Help A Reporter Out [22:14] Fox News [23:30] CNBC [23:30] Turing Test [30:53] Chinese Room [31:13] Chess [32:00] Go game [32:40] Watson AI [39:53] Joe Rogan interviews Elon Musk [47:34] The Man in the High Castle Television TV series [54:08] Hardcore History ep 62 – Supernova in the East I [54:42] Books mentioned What it is to be like a bat? By Thomas Nagel Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter [00:39] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Way of Zen by Alan Watts [01:02] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) Homo Deus by Yuval Harari [01:06] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett [1:11] (book episode) The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch [01:16] (book episode) The Riddle of the Gun by Sam Harris [16:53] (article episode) How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff [24:30] The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson [36:08] (Neil’s notes) Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [56:40] (Nat’s notes) (book episode part 1 & part 2) Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday [23:01] The Man in the High Castle Novel by Philip K. Dick [54:08] Plato's Republic [20:10] People mentioned David Deutsch [05:25] (Infinity episode) Daniel Dennett [08:25] (Darwin’s episode) Bobby McMullen – Blind Bike Rider [09:44] Donald Trump [12:23] Charles Darwin [30:15] Pepper the Poochon [33:40] Sam Harris [37:19] (Guns episode) Yuval Noah Harari [37:19] Douglas Hofstadter [43:36] Nick Bostrom [43:53] Karl Marx [46:02] Elon Musk [47:34] (on this podcast) Hiroo Onoda [55:17] Show Topics 01:00 – Consciousness. The article is about the theory of mind and consciousness, looking into the mind-body problem. Aspects of the mind can be linked to how the brain responds. 01:58 – Challenge to physicalism rather than refute reductionism. Reductionism and physicalism cannot be fully understood; thus, making these two theories flawed. “Every reductionist has his favorite analogy for modern science. It is most unlikely that any of these unrelated examples of successful reduction will shed light on the relation of mind to brain”. Nagel seems not to refute reductionism but rather exposing a big whole in it and saying you can't take reductionism seriously until you fill this hole. 03:43 – Mind-body consciousness problem. Without consciousness the mind-body problem would be much less interesting with consciousness it seems hopeless. “It seems unlikely that any physical theory of mind can be contemplated until more thought has been given to the general problem of subjective and objective”. 05:27 – All problems are soluble given enough intelligence in time. 06:08 – Subjective filter for any information. Physicalism and reductionism create an objective interpretation of reality. Physicalism and reductionism in some ways rely on creating an objective interpretation of reality. All the thoughts human beings have are grounded from the subjective view of the world. 08:00 – Humans cannot understand a “what it is like aspect” because they are not in that very situation. A bat was used to demonstrate this concept. Human beings cannot comprehend how a bat moves and survives by echo-location thus this highlights human cannot understand subjective experience from human data. 09:04 – Humans can learn to echo-locate. An excellent example is Bobby McMullen, who is a blind mountain biker; he uses echolocation and his senses to mountain bike. 10:14 – However, according to Nagel, even if a human could echo-locate, that is still not equivalent to how bats echo-locate. 10:35 – Subjective interpretation of reality cannot be stepped out. This means something outside of one’s understanding cannot be fully grasped or comprehended. This concept applies to understand to someone who is totally different from you. You can never know exactly what they went through or understand what they do why they do some things; it is easy to judge someone thinking they are making irrational actions without viewing their actions from the subjective experience. 12:12 – How would look post-Trump era discussions. Urban Democrats have different interests and value systems than rural Republicans. Where to draw the line for life? Understanding pro-life people. Pro-gunners point of view. Having a gun in Texas is a must. 18:28 – Divided political sphere. Humans choose a side that will agree with their preconceived opinions. 19:58 – Decentralization makes it really hard to create a cohesive story and narrative for a population. 20:20 – Gell-Mann amnesia effect. Phenomenon where one will believe about something they know not about because it has been reported. Journalists are almost never trained to actually understand what they are reporting on, not confirming the authenticity of their sources and misunderstanding statistics. 24:00 – Learning how to read research articles is an important skill these days as we can't rely on media anymore. Famous bad reporters interpretations. Bacon is bad for you as smoking. Coconut oil is bad because saturated fats. 26:26 – Hanlon's Razor. Applying that to even news reporters, they are not doing it necessarily maliciously, they are doing it for one of two reasons- it works, people click on it and read it; the second thing is a lot of these sites are effectively content firms. This circles up to what Nagel is saying about subjective character of experience which we cannot step outside of and not understanding what it is like to be someone else. 28:20 – Test for consciousness. Mirror test for animal self awareness. 30:38 – AI discussion. What means a computer is conscious? Turing test is not enough. Reaching intelligence by brute force. Computers that don't want to play chess. 33:33 – Consciousness in animals. Every animal has a level of consciousness and awareness in the same fundamental way a human does. Dogs dreaming. 35:30 – The self is not necessarily an actual thing. Nagel is trying to keep the sense of self and the potential challenge to him is this thing you are trying to hold on to the mind, the sense of self is an illusion; there is not really anything special for what we think about this consciousness. 37:47 – Challenging reductionism. Nagel is challenging reductionism by pushing for a more helpful theory of mind that says it’s all mental- making it hard to comprehend any one’s mind. 38:43 – Subjective phenomena cannot be explained. Questions that arise with a conscious AI: can you unplug it? Can you reset it? Is it a slave? Riding horses and animals that work for humans. 40:26 – Artificial intelligence (AI) and consciousness. That will just reach a point where it is so competent that it is indistinguishable from interacting with another human. 43:05 – AI scare. An AI is sufficiently intelligent to be a threat to us all, it is sufficiently intelligent to know it shouldn't let us know it exists. AI that optimizes for paperclips can destroy the world. 43:38 – Use of the term is. E = mc2. Knowing that something is true without necessarily understanding why it is true. Consciousness and intelligence exist within its closed system. 50:10 – Knowledge is a justified true belief, based on theoretical understanding. “You can know that something is something without understanding what it means for it to be that thing.” 53:41 – Tangent. Japanese soldiers fighting after the war was over. 57:47 – Subscribe to Patreon to get our book notes, highlights, bonus material and support us without the need of ads. Sign up before october to participate to the next live hangout! Also, recommend us books (even via Instagram), and participate of our private community. Find us on Twitter @Neil Soni (@TheRealNeilS) and @Nat Eliason (@nateliason). Leave us a review on iTunes to get possible guests on the show. You can just write “Love this podcast! Neil and Nat are super fun.”. Check our supporters at madeyouthink.com/support. We are drinking delicious Lapsang Souchong tea from Cup & Leaf. If you want some tangent fuel, try the Mushroom Lemonade  Coffee and Chai Latte from Four Sigmatic. Perfect Keto Nut Butter is amazing. Try it frozen for an incredible texture. Check Kettle & Fire Mushroom-Chicken blend, now available on their site. Use our Amazon affiliate link to support the show effortlessly. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com.

Dom DeLuise, celebrity fat man (and five of clubs), has been implicated in the following unseemly acts in my mind’s eye: He has hocked a fat globule of spittle (nine of clubs) on Albert Einstein’s thick white mane (three of diamonds) and delivered a devastating karate kick (five of spades) to the groin of Pope Benedict XVI (six of diamonds). Michael Jackson (king of hearts) has engaged in behavior bizarre even for him. He has defecated (two of clubs) on a salmon burger (king of clubs) and captured his flatulence (queen of clubs) in a balloon (six of spades). Rhea Perlman, diminutive Cheers bartendress (and queen of spades), has been caught cavorting with the seven-foot-seven Sudanese basketball star Manute Bol (seven of clubs) in a highly explicit (and in this case, anatomically improbable) two-digit act of congress (three of clubs). In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and Nat discuss Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer. It is a fun book episode about how Joshua Foer came from nowhere to win the US memory championship with the challenge and coaching of Ed Cook. In the book Josh shows how to train our brain memory “muscle” and remember everything. We cover a wide range of topics, including: Why and how poetry, religion, and epics are interconnected because of memory Mnemonic techniques to remember numbers, names, cards, everything How to hack our brain to “live longer” Incredible memory stats How to impress your crush and make your dates memorable And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our fun episodes on Emergency by Neil Strauss, a book for preppers, as well as our recent episode on How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff, a short an easy book that shows how media can be manipulated. Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more. Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show How to win the U.S. memory championship [3:12] The Google Effect [8:40] Playstation [15:09] Twitter [19:35] LinkedIn [19:35] Pearl Harbor [21:35] 9/11 [21:36] Anki [26:34] Lindy Effect [29:10] Nat's book notes and Brain [48:49] Evernote [53:00] World Memory Records [59:17] Memrise [1:01:11] Ed Cook on Tim Ferriss Podcast [1:02:11] Duolingo [1:02:58] CMU [1:04:22] Fight Through the Suck – Justin Mares [1:07:28] 10000 Hour Rule on Google [1:12:15] The World Memory Championships [1:17:03] Joshua Foer TED talk [1:17:32] 21 (film) [1:18:04] Books mentioned Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand [1:50] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Homo Deus by Yuval Harari [1:52] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [1:52] (Nat’s notes) (book episode part 1 & part 2) Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter [2:21] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Emergency [2:32] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman [6:11] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Torah [11:00] The Quran [11:00] The Tower – Hotel Concierge [31:16] (article episode) Essays by Montaigne [47:27] 12 Rules for Life by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson [50:15] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) Way of Zen by Alan Watts [50:16] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb [50:17] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson [50:18] (Neil’s notes) The 4 Hour Chef by Tim Ferriss [1:02:34] Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell [1:03:48] Peak by Anders Ericsson [1:03:56] Remember, Remember by Ed Cooke [1:15:52] The Memory Book by Harry Lorayne [1:16:32] People mentioned Joshua Foer Albert Einstein Ed Cook [3:40] Homer [5:36] Plato [5:50] Simba [16:13] Mufasa [16:33] Adil Majid [17:55] (Crypto episode) Sigmund Freud [18:20] Pepper the Poochon [23:06] Montaigne [47:12] Tiago Forte [51:46] Cicero [53:56] Frank Sinatra [56:26] David Beckham [56:32] Superman [56:37] Alex Mullan memory grandmaster [59:43] Tim Ferriss [1:02:11] Anders Ericsson [1:03:41] Malcolm Gladwell [1:03:48] James Franco 1:18:17 Michael Serrick 1:18:24 Show Topics 3:12 – Extreme memory is not innate, comes from training. Until books became affordable, there were no easy means to record and keep information. We had to use our brains and information was passed down orally. There is no need of crazy photographic memory or some innate ability, but just training the "muscle". 7:50 – How many phone numbers do you remember? If you don't have to struggle to remember it, you'll not remember it. For efficiency your body doesn't want to do anything more than needed. Poetry and religion and epics are connected to memory training. 11:20 – The story of how Josh learnt the techniques of extreme memory. First technique: remembering names. Associating name sounds with a vivid image. Remembering not westernized names. What names can you remember with these images? Nailing down in front of a Playstation. A lion's son being chased by an gnat. A wizard dealing cards to Freud. When introducing someone to your friends, name your friends a lot so the new comer can remember their names. 19:04 – Practicing these techniques on Twitter or LinkedIn. Challenges in the competition. Remembering participants' attributes in a fake dinner, cards, string of numbers, and a poem. 20:33 – Second technique. Chunking. Remembering in chunks is easier than in smaller bits. In reduces the pieces of information. Example: string of 12 numbers chunked into the two big surprise attacks on American soil. Combining large chunks numbers into bigger images. Keeping the order of numbers by keeping a path to your memory palace. 25:41 – The time you need to dedicate each day is pretty small compared to its ROI. Remembering cards by associating 3 of each each time. These tactics were used for a long long time, even thousands of years ago. The importance of context. A big part of why this works is because we are good at remembering things in context but not when it's random information. Chessmasters examples. 31:03 – Increased perceived longevity. Nuances and quantity of experiences increases perceptual time. Life seems to speed up as we get older just because life gets less memorable, more repetitive. Monotony collapses time and novelty unfolds it. Downside of the idea of flow. Time experience is based on what we can remember. 37:15 – Tips to make a date memorable. Tips for planning parties. Plan 3 phases of a party, for example move the party in different rooms, different drinks, and change activities. It will feel like a longer party even if it took the same amount of time. It's kind of narrative fallacy used to our advantage. 41:05 – Memory images. Creating images for everything. Our brain prefers visual information and novelty. Collect numbers wandering in your house. The funnier, the looter, the more bizarre images, the better. Our brain takes 20% of our energy consumption. We forget dreams because our brain thinks it's junk data. 44:26 – Make images dirty and sexual. Use multiple senses too. Include smells, feelings, multi-sensory experiences. How we can remember songs even if we don't listen them for 10 years. Write your feelings and thoughts at the end of each book you read. Very useful if you are getting into speed reading or want to remember what the book was about, snippents will give you cues to remember it. Nat's book notes are efficient to remember core parts of a book. Neil's tactic to give attention to books’ concepts. 50:53 – Repetition. Nat's 3 layers strategy: pull out all important sections, bold important parts of sections, then highlight the most important part of the bolded part. Layer 4: adding a summary. 53:02 – The Method of Loci. Using memory images based on your environment. If you have to remember a speech, visualize the points you want to talk about at specific places. You can remember your speech by looking at specific parts of the auditorium or walking through the stage. Useful to remember dance movements. Advantages of the memory palace vs the Loci method. 55:59 – Remembering numbers. The PAO system: Person, Action, Object. First, associate an image to numbers going from 0 to 99. Remembering a 6 digit number can be done mixing the person of the first pair of digits, with the action of the second, and object of the third. 1:01:00 – Tangents. Memory training companies. 1:03:20 – Learning advice. How to get further the OK plateau. Experiments on memorizing. How the early University experiments on memory looked like. Reaching the peak of memory training is not about the hours put in, but the quality of those hours. During the first phase, known as the “cognitive stage,” you’re intellectualizing the task and discovering new strategies to accomplish it more proficiently. During the second “associative stage,” you’re concentrating less, making fewer major errors, and generally becoming more efficient. Finally you reach what Fitts called the “autonomous stage,” when you figure that you’ve gotten as good as you need to get at the task and you’re basically running on autopilot. You could call it the “OK plateau”, the point at which you decide you’re OK with how good you are at something, turn on autopilot, and stop improving. Breaking up the OK plateau. When you deliberately want to get better at something, you may get initially worse. Sometimes you need to go down to get at a higher point later. It's not enjoyable in the short term. You have to deliberately make yourself uncomfortable to break the plateau. Changing variables to find where the weaknesses are. The 10.000 hours rule. 1:14:18 – Other books and resources about memory training. 1:18:48 – Get the story part reading the book! If you want to listen the bonus material, get the book note we use for the show, go to our Patreon page. There you can comment about the book too after they come out. You can also join our monthly hangout. On our first hangout we have a very interesting conversation for an hour and a half. You can support the show in additional ways buying stuff on our Support page. Also, very important, tell your friends and help spread the show through word of mouth. Leave reviews on iTunes. Or leave Amazon book reviews ;)   Find us on Twitter @Neil Soni (@TheRealNeilS) and @Nat Eliason (@nateliason). If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com

“It is inevitable that we face problems but no particular problem is inevitable we survive and thrive by solving each problem as it comes up, and since the human ability to transform nature is limited only by the laws of physics none of the endless stream of problems will ever constitute an impassable barrier” In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and Nat discuss The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch. It’s a playful, meandering book on explanations that transform the world, covering evolution, physics, philosophy, politics, ecology, money, memetics, epistemology, history. It ties everything to the central idea that with enough knowledge anything possible, is achievable. “Every putative physical transformation to be performed in a given time with given resources or under any other conditions is either impossible because it is forbidden by the laws of nature or achievable given the right knowledge.” We cover a wide range of topics, including: Wrapping our brains around the concepts of advanced topics like infinity Thinking of problems as a gap in our knowledge that can be solved The repeating cycle of problem > solution > new problem Tangents on Aquatic Apes, Egyptology and Sphinxes Universality of systems Optimistic vs Pessimistic view points And so much more! Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter for a similar kind of book covering a wide range of topics. Also our episode on Leverage Points by Donella Meadows for how we should approach complex systems. Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we’re running, special events, and more. Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show Lindy Effect [3:20] Multiverse Concept [5:03] Quantum Entanglement [5:05] Theory of relativity [5:13] Infinity [5:25] Cholera [8:17] Empiricism [11:38] Fallibilism [15:02] The Mediocrity Principle [18:50] Anthropocentrism [19:00] Geocentrism [19:38] Garden of Eden [20:35] Rare Earth Hypothesis [20:40] Anthropomorphism [22:20] Quantum Theory [26:22] Aquatic Apes [30:43] Darwin’s Dangerous Idea [31:32] Confirmation Bias [31:50] Universality [33:22] Roman Numerals [33:30] Hieroglyphics [35:42] Reductionism [39:50] Lady Lovelace’s Objection [42:00] Chinese Room [48:00] Turing Test [48:02] DARPA [48:15] Netflix - Eddie Murphy Shows [50:55] Chris Rock - Controversial stand up [51:25] Chris Rock - Gun Control stand up [51:50] AlphaGo [52:43] MadeYouThink Podcast - Patreon Support [54:10] Death of the Universe [56:10] DMT [59:30] Neuralink [59:47] Neural lace [59:48] Malthus [1:01:04] X Prize [1:07:50] The Jungle - Characters [1:08:35] Sphinx [1:10:17] Joe Rogan Experience Podcast - Sphinx Episode [1:10:17] Semmelweis Reflex [1:15:30] Kevin Simler - Crony Belief [1:20:25] The China Study [1:23:30] Dos Toros [1:27:05] Toms Shoes [1:28:52] Postmodernism [1:29:30] XKCD Comic - Purity of Fields [1:34:01] Books mentioned The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter [1:22] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Jungle by Upton Sinclair [3:36] (Nat’s notes) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand [3:39] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett [3:56] (book episode) The Denial of Death [8:55] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley [9:44] I Am A Strange Loop - Douglas Hofstadter [17:20] (Podcast Episode) Rare Earth by Donald Brownlee [20:25] Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [24:23] (Nat’s notes) (book episode part 1 & part 2) The Secret by Rhonda Byrne [25:56] The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle [39:40] Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb [41:55] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) Homo Deus by Yuval Harari [43:45] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson [43:50] The Jungle by Upton Sinclair [1:08:41] (Nat’s notes) Leverage Points by Donella Meadows [1:29:20] (article episode) Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault [1:30:10] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway [1:33:05] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins [1:45:40] People mentioned David Deutsch Daniel Dennett [1:45] (Darwin’s episode) Flatgeologist [3:00] Nassim Nicholas Taleb [2:50] (Antifragile episode) (Skin in the Game episode) Seneca [8:40] Matt Ridley [9:33] Nicolas Cage [13:43] Socrates [16:55] [1:09:00] Hermes [16:56] Jordan Peterson [21:29] Richard Dawkins [23:35] John Haldane [23:36] Freud [40:55] Plato [1:10:00] Dan Carlin [1:43:30] Show Topics 2:47 – In this book the author, David Deutsch, calls out some of the other authors that we have covered on the podcast before. He calls out Nassim Taleb on some of his ideas, which is something we almost hold sacred on this podcast. This book made us change the way we think about some of these things. 5:03 – Diving into advanced concepts like multiverse, quantum entanglement, relativity and infinity. You have to take your time to wrap your head around this. Our minds are not used to grasping these concepts. Explaining what’s the highest number to a kid. 7:00 – In the introduction the author says “all progress both theoretical and practical has resulted from a single human activity, the quest for what I call good explanations”. Everything is possible if it is not prohibited by the laws of physics. 8:10 – Deutsch uses the example of disease and cholera. People dying of diarrhea when they were right next to a fire and could have boiled their water. The problem was actually a problem of knowledge. A lot of problems we have today are the same and given the right amount of knowledge, can be solved. 8:55 – All other books that we have looked at, Seneca, Taleb and even the book Denial of Death. They all are predicated on the idea that we all will die. Deutsch says most likely yes we will die, but it doesn’t mean it’s not possible to solve. He isn’t saying there is one solution but there maybe solutions to each of the discrete problems - accidents, cancer etc, they are all problems waiting for the right knowledge to be able to solve them. 10:40 – Wealth as a society was another thing he called out in this book, as a species having the resources as well as the knowledge. Even if you had given cavemen the knowledge of how to build a plane, they don’t yet have the resources to get the metals out of the ground and shape the parts needed. Progress is a factor of both knowledge and wealth. 11:25 – He starts the book off in the intro with his refutation of empiricism, where we gain knowledge by experiencing things then learning from them. He makes this good distinction: “Experience is indeed essential to science but its role is different from that supposed by empiricism, it is not the source from which theories are derived its main use is to choose between theories that have already been guessed”. You really can’t learn from experience unless you have some guess about what should happen. You need to have conjecture or a hypothesis before you can actually test something. You’re trying to figure out what the truth might be. Startups “finding” insights in Big Data without an hypothesis to test. 15:00 – “Fallabilsts expect even their best and even most fundamental explanations to contain misconceptions in addition to truth and so they are predisposed to try to change them for the better.” This is like a life philosophy - anything you assume is true you should also assume part of it is wrong. Always look for ways to improve your understanding. 17:46 – Deutsch rounds out the first chapter by saying that “every problem is a signal that our knowledge is flawed or inaccurate.” Our goal as humans is to come up with better explanations which then inevitably leads to a new set of problems. That is this beginning of infinity, each problem leads to infinitely many more problems and the solutions that come with them. We are stuck with this continual loop of solve problem > discover new one > solve problem etc. The Principle of Mediocrity idea and Anti-Anthropocentrism. 23:20 – Deutsch says that humans can understand anything with enough time and knowledge. He is referencing John Haldane who said “The universe not only queerer than we suppose it is queerer than we can suppose”. Deutsch says that nothing is beyond our potential comprehension. 30:43 – Tangent. Aquatic Apes fringe theory. Go listen to Darwin’s dangerous idea episode. We don’t want the aquatic apes theory to be refuted, plus it would make a really good band name. 31:42 – Chapter 4. Form of infinities in the Universe: the process of biological evolution and knowledge growth. Ideas can be replicators same as genes can. 33:22 – Chapter 6. Universality. Some ideas are useful and functional in a contained, local sense and some make the jump to actually being universal and infinite. Roman Numerals were never really universal. It would always require more numerals to count higher and higher. Where as our Arabic system 0-9 they are just 10 symbols plus 1 rule, gives us an infinite number. Same as using an alphabet vs hieroglyphics, having a character represent a word, you will always need more characters. Asian scripts. 40:10 – Reductionism and the concept of the brain as a computer, the way we think about our brain is influenced by the technology of the day. Scaling problems. Knowledge creation for AI. Knowledge ownership. “First the brain was supposed to be like an immensely complicated set of gears and levers, then it was hydraulic pipes, then steam engines, then telephone exchanges, and now that computers are the most impressive technology brains are said to be computers. This is still no more than a metaphor and there is no more reason to expect a brain to be a computer than a steam engine” 47:55 – Tangent. Hofstadter and the DARPA Turing Test, AI joke creation and changing nature of humor through generations. Consciousness Test. 54:44 – Hotel Chapter. Understanding Infinity. Being at the beginning of infinite progress. Time subjective to our mental processing power. 1:00:11 – Optimism Chapter. All problems and evils in the world are caused by insufficient knowledge. All can be solved with enough knowledge. Evils are just situations where we haven’t solved the problem yet. There is never going to be a Garden of Eden state as you always unlock new problems. Deutsch says “We do not yet know what we have not yet discovered.” Sounds similar to the idea of blind faith, that we will just figure it out. We can be optimistic because if there is a necessity to solve something the market really impacts it, it’s a powerful corrective force. Investment and money gets put towards solving the problem. Ebola example. 1:08:33 – Multiverse Chapter. Funny dialogue between Socrates and Plato. 1:10:20 – Tangent. Sphinx theories, Egyptology and the Semmelweis reflex. Respecting and disproving Fringe Theories. Politics vs science in Medicine. 1:17:05 – Tangent. Anthropomorphising food. Now low cholesterol is tied to mortality causes. Where as previously high cholesterol was considered a huge health issue. Eating fat doesn’t make you fat, like Taleb says eating a cow doesn’t make you bovine. The cause for bull penis powder. 1:20:07 – Bad philosophies. Philosophies that prevents you from developing other philosophies. Religions, top-down theories, bad company traits. Crony beliefs. if you feel personally attacked when someone questions your belief, that shows it’s not a well reasoned idea and a bad philosophy for you – that may show you what you are believing because you want to. You often only believe things that are socially beneficial. Vegans, palm sugar, plastic activism, foreign orphanages and stupid activism. 1:29:40 – Postmodernism as bad philosophy. Problems in different types of Sciences. Explanational science. Tossing old knowledge requires an explanation. Chemical imbalance for depression. Second and third effects of drugs use. 1:39:41 – Politics Chapter. Separate essay. Beauty Chapter. There is objective universal beauty. Beauty in flowers and music. 1:45:33 – Evolution of Culture. Rational and anti-rational beliefs. Memes as a way of spreading ideas “Consider how you would be judged by other people if you went shopping in your pajamas or painted your house with blue and brown stripes - that gives a hint of the narrowness of convention that govern these objectively trivial inconsequential choices about style and the social cost of violating them. Is the same thing true of the more momentous patterns in our lives, careers, relationships, education, morality, political outlook and national identity. Consider what we expect to happen when a static society is gradually switching from anti-rational to rational memes”. Liberalism-conservatism conflict. Turning child into political statements. 1:58:15 – The Unsustainable Chapter. Easter Island culture diminished as they didn’t solve their problems. We often think things are finite when they can be solved in other ways. Pessimistic and Optimistic conceptions. “Pessimistic conception is that humans are wasters - they take precious resources and madly convert them into useless coloured pictures. This is true of static societies those statues were what my colleagues were what color televisions which is why comparing our culture with the old society of Easter Island is wrong - we are not a static society. The optimistic conception is that people are problem solvers, creators of the unsustainable solution and hence also of the next problem. In the pessimistic conception that distinctive ability of people is a disease for which sustainability is the cure - sustainability is the disease and people are the cure.” Trying to get people to work against their selfish desires isn’t going to work, so find a way to make what you want to work out for the greater good. For example with hotels and reducing washing. It’s a win-win for both the hotel and the environment. They will then encourage environmental acts like that. If it cost them money then they would not encourage that. "What lies ahead of us in any case, is in any case infinity - all we can choose is if it is an infinity of ignorance or of knowledge, wrong or right, death or life." 2:03:48 – Subscribe to Patreon to get our book notes, highlights, bonus material and more for the price of a book. Also, Nat will stop doing saying “it will make you think” once Patreon hits 10k. Participate of the private community! Leave us a review on iTunes to get possible guests on the show. You can write just a 1 sentence description of the show and how you like the tangents. Check our supporters at madeyouthink.com/support. We are drinking delicious Lapsang Souchong tea from Cup & Leaf. If you want some tangent fuel, try the Mushroom Lemonade  Coffee and Chai Latte from Four Sigmatic. Perfect Keto Nut Butter is amazing. Try it frozen for an incredible texture. Check Kettle & Fire Mushroom-Chicken blend, now available on their site. Use our Amazon affiliate link, it doesn’t costs you anything extra and helps support the show. Keep tweeting to us at @Neil Soni (@TheRealNeilS) and @Nat Eliason (@nateliason). If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com  

Our second recap! In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and Nat revisit the previous books and topics discussed on the podcast. We delve into the most useful lessons that we’ve learned so far. It's perfect for newer listeners to catch up with the older episodes. Listen to this episode irrigated with Malbec. We cover a wide range of topics, including: The first 20 episodes summarized in one sentence. Reviewing books, speeches, articles, and even a music album. An article that changed our view on guns. Two books with an opposite view on Capitalism. Harari’s three part saga. Which book episodes were the most listened. And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to check out all of our episodes here. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our first Recap episode. Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more. Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show Sesame Street [7:08] Blinkist [21:44] MentorBox [22:14] GE – General Electric [23:50] Aquatic Apes Hypothesis [25:03] Joe Rogan on Gender Warfare with Milo Yiannopoulos [38:20] Jordan Peterson on Joe Rogan’s Experience [38:32] Jordan Peterson on Jocko Podcast [38:59] Breaking Bad [44:58] A vegan diet in children may lead to spinal cord degeneration [46:51] Psychological Priming [47:20] Marshmallow Test [48:15] Lindy Effect [49:37] Vox [49:52] Fox News [1:07:01] Tesla [1:09:41] Prius [1:09:41] Starbucks [1:21:56] Distracted Boyfriend meme – Socialists vs. reality [1:36:26] Freakonomics [1:38:58] Genius [1:41:39] Stitcher [1:47:56] Books mentioned Antifragile by Nassim Taleb [2:46] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Letters from a Stoic by Seneca [3:30] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Mastery by Robert Greene [4:00] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell [4:18] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson [4:42] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) In Praise of Idleness [5:44] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman [7:02] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse [7:22] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Way of Zen by Alan Watts [8:23] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) Emergency [9:06] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter [10:09] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Goal [12:52] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Principles [13:50] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey [14:39] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Psychology of Human Misjudgments by Charlie Munger [15:03] Work Clean [15:35] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Denial of Death [16:55] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Influence by Robert Cialdini [17:18] (book episode) Revolt of the Masses by Ortega y Gasset [19:01] The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck [22:41] Lean Startup [23:10] Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennet [24:24] (book episode) What Every Body is Saying by Joe Navarro [28:50] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Hiroshima Diary by Michihiko Hachiya [32:59] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) 12 Rules for Life by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson [35:59] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway [42:18] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Leverage Points by Donella Meadows [49:55] (article episode) Daily Rituals by Mason Currey [54:15] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb [59:40] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb [1:01:03] The Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Taleb [1:03:14] Blink by Malcolm Gladwell [1:01:48] The Riddle of the Gun by Sam Harris [1:06:11] (article episode) Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault [1:12:20] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [1:16:42] (Nat’s notes) (book episode part 1 & part 2) Homo Deus by Yuval Harari [1:16:42] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Solitude and Leadership by William Deresiewicz [1:22:44] (speech episode) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand [1:25:22] The Book of Five Rings by  Miyamoto Musashi [1:29:58] (Nat’s notes) The Jungle by Upton Sinclair [1:32:55] (Nat’s notes) The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson [1:37:58] The College Dropout [1:41:15] (album episode) People mentioned Jordan B. Peterson [0:51] (on Twitter) (12 Rules episode) Jeff Bezos [5:40] Adil Majid [6:05] (Crypto episode) Elon Musk [12:08] (on this podcast) Flatgeologists – Flat Earth Society [12:35] Joseph Campbell [14:09] Nassim Nicholas Taleb [19:49] (Antifragile episode) (Skin in the Game episode) Tim Cook [19:50] Eric Ries [24:19] Albert Einstein [41:42 Taylor Pearson [51:21] (Crypto episode) Ayn Rand [56:07] (Atlas Shrugged episode) Eric Weinstein [1:13:31] Friedrich Nietzsche [1:14:20] Malcolm Gladwell [1:21:11] Winston Churchill [1:35:36] Show Topics 1:25 – This episode is entirely sponsored by YOU via Patreon! Follows this link to directly support us. Check out the lovely bonuses you receive by supporting the show. 2:46 – Antifragile. Barbells strategy. Learning how to take advantage of chaos in the world. 3:30 – Letters from a Stoic. Acquire a new mental model for handling stress and challenges in your life. 4:00 – Mastery. 4:18 – The Power of Myth. Why we should take religions more seriously. 4:42 – Sovereign Individual. Rethink the permanence of the nation-states and what your future might look like in a society dominated by technology. 5:44 – In Praise of Idleness. Stop working so hard and reasons you should consider working less hard. 6:05 – Crypto episode. Principles of the tech behind Bitcoin and why you should care. 07:02 – Amusing Ourselves to Death. Don't watch the news, but listen to MYT. 7:22 – Finite and Infinite Games. Look at yourself as part of parallel finite and infinite games played in the world, and recognize artificial constraints to play infinitely. 8:23 – Way of Zen. All what you know about Buddhism and meditation is wrong. 9:06 – Emergency. Steps you should take to protect yourself when the society breaks down. 10:09 – GEB. Strange loops. Patterns that hint at the meaning of intelligence and why it may create issues while trying to understand our intelligence or building AIs. 12:08 – Think Like Elon Musk. Thinking independently vs copying the routines of others. Reasoning for firsts principles. 12:52 – The Goal. Theory of constraints, bottlenecks in businesses. 13:50 – Principles. Lots of business tactics. 14:39 – The Inner Game of Tennis. Learning how to get out of your own way to perform better. 15:03 – Psychology of Human Misjudgments. Guide for better decision making and catalog of human misjudgements. 15:35 – Work Clean. Keep your desk organized to get less distracted. 16:55 – Denial of Death. Our lives are driven by our fear of our mortality. 17:18 – Influence. Classic marketing tactics to make people trust you. 18:06 – Recap #1. 19:01 – Revolt of the Masses. Interesting ideas of the stratification of society. Against rent seekers and bureaucrat layers. Reading summaries will not convert you in Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. 24:24 – Darwin’s Dangerous Idea. There's really no meaning to life if Darwin's evolutionary theories are correct. Aquatic Apes theory! Evolution makes life inherently meaningless. Superstition in animals. Should we eat humans? 28:50 – What Every Body is Saying. Textbook to decipher body language. Communicating with body language, and dating. 32:59 – Hiroshima Diary. Private diary of a doctor from Hiroshima injured in a blast. How much humans are capable of enduring without breaking. Perspective on hardship. 35:59 – 12 Rules for Life. Peterson is a quite controversial character. Gender ideas, misinterpretation, toxic masculinity. 42:18 – Merchants of Doubt. Scientists that get paid to create fake science to support destructive practices of some companies. The problem of Media communicating science. 49:55 – Leverage Points. 12 points you can intervene in a complex system to create some change, and the relative power of each of them. Which President is sitting in the Oval Office is less important than the rules, the government and context inside and outside the country. 52:26 – Support the show on Patreon and help us buy a Tangents Button. 54:15 – Daily Rituals. People doing a lot of drugs. Historically geniuses were drug nubs, drunks, and not sleeping. It's hard to evaluate instant productivity. 59:40 – Skin in the Game. Appendix to Antifragile. Comparing this book with others by Nassim Taleb. Good way to structure your own compensation. Curious notes on Taleb's personality. 1:06:11 – The Riddle of the Gun. A concise, clear, apolitical, view-changer article in favor of gun ownership. Nuances of a black-or-white issue. Micro and macro level incentives. The naive reaction of liberal people. 1:12:00 – Subscribe to the show's Patreon, and discover the secret Nat's misadventures on Facebook. 1:12:20 – Discipline and Punish. Not a BDSM-sex book. It requires discipline to go through the book, and, after it, you'll feel punished. Better to listen to our episode :). A book about post-modernism. Listen to our analogy on Nietzschism and Nazism. 1:16:42 – Harari's 3 parts saga. Sapiens part 1, part 2, and Homo Deus. Mythology and shared stories as big driving forces for human development and organization of large sets of humans. Examples: Money, Cities, Companies. 1:21:21 – Listeners Questions #1. Flow, happiness, power, future of work, personal backgrounds. Subscribe on Patreon to ask questions for the next Listeners' episode. 1:22:44 – Solitude and Leadership. Our first speech. Spend time on your own having the freedom from interruptions, to become a better thinker, doer and leader. Otherwise, amuse yourself to death or be an excellence sheep. There are so many differences between our reality and our biology that we have to construct our reality to be more in line with our biology. Think about your solitude the same way as your diet. 1:25:22 – Atlas Shrugged. The Behemoth. Compelling case for physical Conservatism. A book that will make you respect entrepreneurship. 1:29:58 – The Book of 5 Rings. Applying strategy, military tactics, and sword fighting, to life. 1:32:55 – The Jungle. A "funny" counterpart to Atlas Shrugged. Differences between Anarchism and Libertarianism. "Capitalism is the worst economic system except of all the others". 1:37:46 – The Elephant in the Brain. Secret motivations for doing things that we don't like to talk about because they are ugly and focusing on the pretty side of our actions. Evolutionary reasons to hide those motives even to ourselves. A case for not being so introspective. 1:41:15 – The College Dropout. Our first music album! Growing up poor and making it big. Poetry, well constructed, and with many levels of interpretation. even if you don't like rap, consider listening to the episode, it will make you like rap a little bit more. Kanye as a brilliant marketer. 1:45:05 – Sponsors. Sign up to Patreon to get more notes, goodies, and chat with us. Try Perfect Keto's Nut Butter. A frosting experience, great texture, great flavor, macadamia, cashew, coconut and MCT oil and sea salt. Try Four Sigmatic’s Lemonade, a jet black lemonade with activated charcoal along with chaga mushroom. Reach us on Twitter, TheRealNeilS and nateliason.  Review us iTunes. Keep telling your friends, that's the #1 way people hear about MYT. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com

In this podcast, Drew Conway (@DrewConway) from Aluvium talks about his journey to start an IoT startup. He sheds light on the opportunities in the industrial IoT space and shares some insights into the mechanism of running a data science startup in the IoT space. She shared some tactical suggestions for any future leader. This podcast is great for data science startup entrepreneurs and/or Sr. executives in IoT. Timeline: 0:28 Drew's journey from counter-terrorism to IoT startup. 9:29 Data science in the industrial space. 12:01 Entrepreneurship in the IoT start-up. 18:36 Selling data analysis to executives in the industrial space. 24:14 Automation in the industrial setting. 29:27 What is an IoT ready company? 32:40 Challenges in integrating data tools in the industrial sector. 37:27 Data science talent pool in industrial and manufacturing companies. 41:52 Challenges in IoT adoption for industrial companies. 46:31 Alluvium's interaction with industries. 50:57 Picking the right use case as an IoT start-up. 52:49 Right customers for an IoT start-up. 59:26 Words of wisdom for anyone building a IoT start-up. Drew's Recommended Listen: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter https://amzn.to/2x0uo7d Podcast Link: https://futureofdata.org/drewconway-on-fabric-of-an-iot-startup-futureofdata-podcast/ Drew's BIO: Drew Conway, CEO and founder of Alluvium, is a leading expert in the application of computational methods to social and behavioral problems at large-scale. Drew has been writing and speaking about the role of data — and the discipline of data science — in industry, government, and academia for several years. Drew has advised and consulted companies across many industries, ranging from fledgling start-ups to Fortune 100 companies, as well as academic institutions and government agencies at all levels. Drew started his career in counter-terrorism as a computational social scientist in the U.S. intelligence community. About #Podcast: #FutureOfData podcast is a conversation starter to bring leaders, influencers, and lead practitioners to discuss their journey to create the data-driven future. Want to sponsor? Email us @ info@analyticsweek.com Keywords: #FutureOfData #DataAnalytics #Leadership #Podcast #BigData #Strategy

In this podcast, Drew Conway (@DrewConway) from Alluvium talks about his journey on creating a socially connected and responsible data science practice. He shared tactical steps and suggestions to help recruit the right talent, build the right culture, and nurture the relationship to create a sustained and impactful data science practice. The session is great for folks caring to create a self-sustaining and growth compliant data science practice. Timeline: 0:28 Drew's journey from counter-terrorism to IoT startup. 9:29 Data science in the industrial space. 12:01 Entrepreneurship in the IoT start-up. 18:36 Selling data analysis to executives in the industrial space. 24:14 Automation in the industrial setting. 29:27 What is an IoT ready company? 32:40 Challenges in integrating data tools in the industrial sector. 37:27 Data science talent pool in industrial and manufacturing companies. 41:52 Challenges in IoT adoption for industrial companies. 46:31 Alluvium's interaction with industries. 50:57 Picking the right use case as an IoT start-up. 52:49 Right customers for an IoT start-up. 59:26 Words of wisdom for anyone building an IoT start-up. Drew's Recommended Listen: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter https://amzn.to/2x0uo7d Podcast Link: https://futureofdata.org/drewconway-on-creating-socially-responsible-data-science-practice-futureofdata-podcast/ Drew's BIO: Drew Conway, CEO, and founder of Alluvium, is a leading expert in applying computational methods to social and behavioral problems at a large-scale. Drew has been writing and speaking about the role of data — and the discipline of data science — in industry, government, and academia for several years. Drew has advised and consulted companies across many industries, ranging from fledgling start-ups to Fortune 100 companies, as well as academic institutions and government agencies at all levels. Drew started his career in counter-terrorism as a computational social scientist in the U.S. intelligence community. About #Podcast: #FutureOfData podcast is a conversation starter to bring leaders, influencers, and lead practitioners to discuss their journey to create the data-driven future. Wanna Join? If you or any you know wants to join in, Register your interest @ http://play.analyticsweek.com/guest/ Want to sponsor? Email us @ info@analyticsweek.com Keywords: #FutureOfData #DataAnalytics #Leadership #Podcast #BigData #Strategy

"When I reached thirty I looked back on my past. The previous victories were not due to my having mastered strategy. Perhaps it was natural ability, or the order of heaven, or that other schools’ strategy was inferior. After that I studied morning and evening searching for the principle, and came to realise the Way of strategy when I was fifty." In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and Nat discuss The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. Musashi was the greatest Samurai ever, famous for winning over 60 samurai duels. In this book he uses the art of sword fighting to develop a set of principles that can guide you through your personal and professional life. Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men. We cover a wide range of topics, including: Strategy in business and in life Lots of Japanese aphorisms Giving excuses when failing The importance of mastering different skills How it’ll look like when we reach 100 podcasts And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi! The teacher cannot force learning on the student, and the student cannot learn in isolation: "The teacher is as a needle, the disciple is as thread. You must practice constantly."   If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Way of Zen by Alan Watts, a book that about Buddhism and mastering skills, as well as our episode on Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey, another book starts with a specific activity to infer global principles. Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more. Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show Kindle [0:49] Quip Toothbrush [11:58] ButcherBox [11:58] Kettle & Fire [11:58] Perfect Keto [11:58] Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee [11:58] Cup & Leaf [11:58] Uber [14:42] Black Mirror [15:16] Jocko Podcast [17:46] Virtue Signalling [42:59] Joe Rogan’s Podcast [47:08] Haidong Kumdo [49:10] Tailored Fit [53:48] ModCloth [53:48] Chess [57:11] Go [57:11] StarCraft [58:13] DOTA [58:13] Lyft [59:19] Tesla [1:00:31] Books mentioned The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi (Nat’s notes) Musashi the Novel by Eiji Yoshikawa [1:25] Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand [2:51] Homo Deus by Yuval Harari [2:51] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [2:51] (Nat’s notes) (book episode part 1 & part 2) Striking Thoughts by Bruce Lee [3:56] (Nat’s notes) Levels of the Game by John McPhee [7:11] The Inner Game of Tennis [7:33] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Principles [7:52] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Mastery by Robert Greene [8:00] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter [8:08] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Letters from a Stoic by Seneca [19:03] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Way of Zen by Alan Watts [19:39] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) Lanterns on the Levee by William Percy [25:23] Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb [26:19] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Secret by Rhonda Byrne [34:35] Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James [34:57] 12 Rules for Life by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson [35:33] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene [35:38] (Nat’s notes) Tao Te Ching by Laozi [45:27] (Nat’s notes) Finite and Infinite Games [1:08:54] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [1:12:23] People mentioned Miyamoto Musashi Rumi, Persian Poet [2:21] Bruce Lee [3:56] Lucius Annaeus Seneca [19:03] Robert Greene [36:40] Jocko Podcast [37:42] Nathan Latka [38:58] Elon Musk [1:00:06] (on this podcast) Sebastian Marshall [1:11:15] (on Nat Chat) Jocko’s book on the Tim Ferriss’ blog [1:11:28] Adil Majid [1:15:14] Show Topics 3:14 – Musashi's background and how he became the most famous samurai. In this book he writes about strategy and philosophy through the lens of sword fighting. His writing style starts with examples at micro level and unfolds them into general principles. Development of the Niten Ichi-ryū school, the style of fighting with one short and one long sword. Books that use sports or physical activities as a canvas to explain strategy, psychology, and philosophy. 9:45 – Sponsor time! Scentbird. Online subscription plan to receive at home all perfumes you want to try. Go to Scentbird, build your queue, and get 50% OFF with the coupon mentioned in the episode. They don't take much space in or bag, so very convenient to travel with. Very helpful if you want to go into subscription mode for everything in your life like Nat. 12:40 – Time period where guns were spreading but swords were still popular. 15:26 – Ground. Foundation for the other books and the most applicable to real world problems beyond sword fighting. Four personas: the gentlemen, the farmers, the artisans and the merchants. The teacher can be guidance but one has to move through the process. Symbiotic relationship between teacher and student. 19:16 – “The way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death”. Does acceptance of death make you a better warrior? "The Dojo" example applied to Marketing. There are so many marketing gurus pushing for their school as it is the only true alternative, while they are truly looking for profit. 23:12 – “This is a truth: when you sacrifice your life, you must make fullest use of your weaponry”. It is false not to do so, and to die with a weapon yet undrawn. You can't allow yourself to fail without trying everything you have at your disposal. Romanticizing failures and not learning from them. The fine line of failure and ego protection. Not going all in gives you an excuse if you fail. 26:23 – “It will seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first”. Everything is hard when you start. Having a diversity of abilities. In sports, a winning strategy is to water the opponents favorite strategy. Having a favorite weapon or skill is a weakness. Bruce Lee's fighting against his own Martial Arts school, by following his philosophy of non-philosophy. Coping other does not make sense because what works for others may not work for you. 31:39 – Water. “With water as the basis, the spirit becomes like water. Water adopts the shape of its receptacle, it is sometimes a trickle and sometimes a wild sea”. Being able to break over the rocks and not being stopped by them. Being able to work around an obstacle and being fluid. The difference of learning indoor techniques with learning into the wild. Book summaries visitor stats. 36:56 – Our private behavior and public behavior should be the same at all times. Instagram and social media push us to build a fake personality, and pretend we are a different person from what we really are. Me too stuff. White people trying to win points between minorities. 43:45 – “In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things”. Japanese aphorisms. Detaching from personal feelings to get the big picture. How Rogan can make so many podcasts. 48:15 – Fire. Here Masashi starts to get very technical on fighting. Training to the point it becomes an innate knowledge. You know when something is natural to you when you have a hard time explaining it. The best mentor is not someone far along and super successful but most of the times, just a few steps ahead from you. 55:12 – Methods to slow down enemies' attacks. Attacking first, counter attacking, and attacking at the same time. Maintain control of your position. It is bad to be led about by the enemy. Taking the initiative may have psychological advantages by not being responsive to the enemy but making him responsive to you. Acting vs reacting. Having the enemy to respond to your moves so they don't have time to develop their strategies. Staying relevant and on the news in order to push the competition to show their cards. 1:01:46 – Wind. “Crossing at a ford”. Knowing when to enter in a negotiation, in a position of strength. Having the discipline to delay to act when it's the right time. Being able to put oneself in the enemy's shoes. Criticizing other schools. 1:08:00 – Void. Conventional and unspoken knowledge. True mastery is something you cannot put into a book, it has no end. Anti dogma. 1:14:08 – Sponsors. If you want to smell lovely and have an easy solution for all your perfumes and colognes needs checkout Scentbird. Use our code to get 50% off your first month subscription. Get your mushroom coffee from Four Sigmatic. They have a new Think blend! Try also the Cordyceps blend, their Reishi blend for sleep. Nat is drinking Lapsang Souchong black tea from Cup & Leaf. It tastes like a brandy, whisky, smokey dark liquor flavor scotch. Try the Earl Grey cream one too! Kettle & Fire has mushroom-chicken bone broth available on their site now! Great flavoring. You may get up to 28% off your first ordering using our code. Nat likes to cook with their beef broth and Neil turns his quinoa in a nutritional powerhouse. Perfect Keto is perfect if you are trying to get into keto. Check out their ketones supplements and their exogenous ketones. They have a mocha flavored MCT oil powder. It’s of the best kind of fats, and you can mix it in your smoothies, have it straight in the morning, or mix it with athletic greens. Use our Amazon link to help support the show. Hit us up on Twitter (Neil, Nat). Join the mailing list to participate of the next Q&A episode and recommend us books to discuss.

You’ve heard of the book,“The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life.”  It’s the #3 most read book on Amazon and a “New York Times” bestseller. And the book, written by Mark Manson, is still skyrocketing. But ENOUGH. Mark is ready to move on. He’s been doing press for the book for over a year. And it’s pulling him back from getting to a place where his brain can look for new ideas. So I asked what he’s curious about. I wanted to know what’s next. “I’m fixated on this idea of hope and meaning right now,” Mark said. He broke it down. And revealed his opinion on why there’s so much hopelessness and meaningless now. Our conversation went deep. And we got into topics I haven’t talked about much on this podcast. And now… thanks to Mark, I have new ideas, too. Links and Resources The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson 6 Things People Should Give Fewer Fucks About by Mark Manson Check Out Mark’s website Follow Mark on Twitter + Facebook Also Mentioned Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World--And Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress by Steven Pinker The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz Republic by Plato Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast. Thanks so much for listening! If you like this episode, please subscribe to “The James Altucher Show” and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts Stitcher iHeart Radio Spotify Follow me on Social Media: Twitter Facebook Linkedin Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“In the early twenty-first century the train of progress is again pulling out of the station – and this will probably be the last train ever to leave the station called Homo sapiens. Those who miss this train will never get a second chance. The main products of the twenty-first century will be bodies, brains and minds, and the gap between those who know how to engineer bodies and brains and those who do not will be far bigger than the gap between Sapiens and Neanderthals. In the twenty-first century, those who ride the train of progress will acquire divine abilities of creation and destruction, while those left behind will face extinction.” In this episode of Made You Think, Adil, Neil and Nat discuss Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. This book can be considered a sequel of Sapiens. In Homo Deus, Harari summarizes what has been the source and reference of our specie decisions and make predictions on how data and algorithms will shift humans as the source of power in our history. “Yet in truth the lives of most people have meaning only within the network of stories they tell one another. Meaning is created when many people weave together a common network of stories. Why does a particular action – such as getting married in church, fasting on Ramadan or voting on election day – seem meaningful to me? Because my parents also think it is meaningful, as do my brothers, my neighbors, people in nearby cities and even the residents of far-off countries. And why do all these people think it is meaningful? Because their friends and neighbors also share the same view. People constantly reinforce each other’s beliefs in a self-perpetuating loop. Each round of mutual confirmation tightens the web of meaning further, until you have little choice but to believe what everyone else believes.” We cover a wide range of topics, including: Religion as a body of beliefs and shared Anticipating Trump’s election with the help of Facebook Humanism religion where humans replace Gods Brain vs Mind, Intelligence vs Consciousness Losing control over technology Challenges in medicine to make us immortal And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episodes on Sapiens Part I and Part II, a summary of Human history that will shape how you think, as another lenses through which you can look at reality. Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more. Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show Google Maps Timeline [6:19] Pinked-Taleb argument about people dying from wars [9:34] Jiro Dreams of Sushi [18:40] Estée Lauder [18:58] Altered Carbon on Netflix [23:21] Aterol [25:16] Ether [34:43] Split Brain Experiment [48:14] Sunk Cost Fallacy [1:00:40] Universal Basic Income [1:09:11] Return of the city-state [1:13:44] Crypto episode [1:20:12] Gun Control episode [1:21:37] Cortana [1:23:54] Plato’s Republic [1:24:20] Turing Test [1:28:00] Deepmind playing DOTA [1:29:48] Spire [1:30:33] Hang the DJ - Black Mirror episode where AI decides who you date and marry [1:34:27] Books mentioned Homo Deus by Yuval Harari Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [0:55] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode part 1 & part 2) The Denial of Death [20:23] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter [33:00] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Free Will by Sam Harris [40:52] Finite and Infinite Games [1:00:17] (Nat’s Notes) (Made You Think episode) The Sovereign Individual [1:09:11] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) What Every Body is saying by Joe Navarro [1:44:57] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Motivation Hacker by Nick Winter [1:44:57] People mentioned Yuval Noah Harari (official website) Karl Marx [4:30] Donald Trump [5:37] Sam Harris [40:52] (Guns episode) Plato [1:24:20] Show Topics 0:00 – Harari tries to write about the future but he knows there's no way to predict it. People in the ‘50s predicting flying cars and moon bases but nobody predicting the Internet. Communism example: it didn't take place effectively even if Marx predicted it. Narratives and stories affect how we view technology. 5:15 – It is much more acceptable to be critical about Social Networks today than it was 2 years ago. At the beginning everyone was considering only convenience. Privacy wasn't that much of an issue. 7:23 – Up until now the human agenda was: don't die, procreate, protect your tribe. The new agenda considers: how to become Gods. More power, more money, how we live forever. 8:12 – Humans collectively are concerned solving three things: Famine, Plague, War. All three seem to be controlled (until Black Swans happen) but they seem fragile. 12:58 – Modern Medicine has saved us from premature death, but haven’t extended our lives by that much. We would be able to lengthen our live spans if we can re-engineer the length of splitting cells. 16:03 – For people over 40, there's a high probability they’ll die because of heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer, and suffer cognitive decline. The challenge with cancer, a disease of aging, is that its origin is not unique, there are many reasons one can get cancer. What happens when we become immortal or live much longer than we do today. Incentives to improve, competition against technology, and appreciation of life under eternal conditions. 25:00 – Historically we manipulated environment to fit us. In the future it seems we will try to manipulate us to transcend the environment. States regulating bad drugs that threaten stability and allowing and even encouraging those that strengthen social order and productivity. Overusing medical advancements not to cope with a disability, but to surpass the norm (Viagra example), creates a race to the bottom: if you are not cheating you are in disadvantage. Legalizing steroids. 30:04 – First part: How Homo Sapiens conquered the World. You can skip this part if you have read Sapiens or listened to our episodes on it (part 1, part 2). The modern manifestation of Religion, which is Humanism, is what this book focuses on. Progression: agriculture revolution gave rise to Teism religions. The scientific revolution gave birth to Humanism religion where humans replace Gods. We look humans as the source of power. Examples of Humanism: Liberalism, Communism, Nazism. “Everything that happens in the cosmos is judged to be good or bad according to its impact on Homo sapiens” 31:46 – Critiques to Humanism. Reliance that there's something special with humans. Mind or consciousness for modern religion is the equivalent of the soul for ancient ones. Brain vs Mind. The concept of mind doesn't square with anything scientific. 35:06 – Knowing exactly how the mind works, would affect our day to day living? Do we perform conscious choices under free will or are we subject to environment and past experience? How to interpret "negative" actions like murdering or hard ones like starting a company even when we don't need to. Free will as an evolutionary result to improve survivability. 40:48 – Examples against free will. First mover concept. Regardless we have or not free will, we still are responsible for our lives. Punishment should be still used to protect society from bad not-free-will behavior. 46:34 – Deciding to do something is based on our own desires. But probably we never decided what our desires are. Concept of Intersubjective Entities. Money has value only because most of us believe we can trade with it. Life meaning exists only within the network of stories we tell one another. 51:55 – Second Part: How we measure ourselves. Physical things can be measured and interpreted unequivocally, but other concepts as school performance, change based on the yard stick we use. Intersubjective believe that living longer is better, instead of shortly and intensely. Science and religion viewed not as opposites but as complements of each other. 56:28 – Religion-Science dichotomy. Aiming to maintain social structure vs looking to acquire power to solve world problems like famine, diseases and fights. 1:01:04 – Development of Humanism. Liberalism (orthodox humanism): focus on the individual liberty. Two sprouting: Socialist Humanism (communism) which says human experience is shared among societies, and Evolutionary Humanism (Nazism) which focuses on the Sapiens supremacy. If Germany had won in WW2, we would see Nazism (Evolutionary Humanism) as a positive thing. What makes our morals true or objective. 1:07:26 – The trend towards Liberalism is a natural consequence of technological evolution. What happens when we begin this phase of transcendence? Many social developments seem to be sons of the current economic forces. Slavery ended and women gained the right to vote because it was better for the overall Economy, not because of a genuine interest of their lives. Governments give only people rights because they need them to pay taxes. Problems with UBI, incentives to become an artist or entrepreneur, and stability. Wars don't happen if there is no economical benefit. 1:13:20 – City States. City majors seem more important than State governors. Belong feelings to cities and not the country. When a Government is losing power it creates a conflict. City States would not exist as they existed in the past or as an equivalent to today's Countries. The rise of Digital Governments. 1:18:38 – Slow government is good because you don't want incompetence spreading fast. Big Companies are gaining Nations-like power. Google is much faster at predicting an epidemy than UK's Health System. The thread is Corporate regulations moving faster than Governments. Democracy looks like the worst kind of government, except all the other ones. 1:23:10 - Third Part: When humans lose control. Beyond Humanism. Individual vs Dividual: the Experiencing Self and the Narrating Self. Plato’s Rationality, Energy Spirit, Desires chariot analogy. Tech intelligence is/will be better than Human intelligence, but consciousness will be optional. Consciousness as an emergent property of processing speed. Current improvements in AI are geared to improve sales, rather than improving the solutions to our needs. Foretelling Trump’s use of Facebook in the 2016 political campaign. 1:30:33 – More and more our decisions are made by machines and data. Apps that decide for us: Uber and Diet apps examples. Letting machines monitor health parameters and suggesting habits. If we rely too much on others to make decisions for us, we lose that "muscle". The "attention helmet" makes people less patient to confusion, doubts or contradictions. 1:33:55 – Apps that shift from an Oracle service to an Agent service. Consult vs Entrust. Situations in which our trusted app would interact on our behalf: scheduling a meeting, job application, dating. 1:35:41 – Tinder on autopilot. Dieting app hooked up with a micro-needle patch that trace your blood glucose needle and prevents you from breaking a diet. 1:39:55 – Dataism, the New Religion. Data and algorithms will be the supreme force and we will trust them as the new Bible. Liberalism is completely challenged by Life Sciences. 3 points, I'm an individual, I've a single essence, myself is completely free. Science says we are just a set of bits dominated by algorithms. The tech sector seems to be unattached to the emotional consequences of the things they are arguing for. What do we care more, the objective truth data reality or the subjective experiences of individuals. 1:43:21 – Are emotions the result of data processing in the background? Moving more and more to data-based decision algorithms. Would you ask your Google Home / Alexa to move to NY? 1:50:03 – Dataism extreme form. Algorithms would own everything like corporations do today. Software eating the world. From the Data viewpoint, we can see our whole specie like a single processing system. The end goal of Data is to create the Internet of all things, a completely interconnected system of consciousness. 1:53:01 – “These three processes raise three key questions, which I hope will stick in your mind long after you have finished this book:  Are organisms really just algorithms, and is life really just data processing?  What’s more valuable – intelligence or consciousness?  What will happen to society, politics and daily life when non-conscious but highly intelligent algorithms know us better than we know ourselves?” 1:53:59 – Sponsors! Kettle & Fire delicious bone broth is excellent if you are feeling sick. You can toss it directly into the microwave. Try it with cumin and ginger, a nice spicy treat for the end of the day. Get advantage of the free shipping. Four Sigmatic mushroom elixirs and coffee. Nat's on the subscription plan, which is a great deal because you can pick different flavours and get them every 30 days. Try the new Mocha flavor, with cocoa and chaga. Subscription gives you 20% off. Perfect Keto for all your keto needs. Look out for our next keto episode. Grab their Exogenous Ketones,  their Keto Pre-Workout, their Collagen blend, and their Protein Powder. You can't get knocked out. Buy everything through Amazon as Adil using our affiliate link. Bookmark this link. Subscribe to mailing list to participate to the show as people in the next episode has done. Your feedback is instrumental to this show. Let us know of books or article ideas. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com  

Matt Lewis has been a professor of mathematics at San Jacinto College since 2009, and has just recently moved into the position of Qualitative Research Analyst, devoting himself full-time to understanding what works in our efforts to improve student success. Winner of several teaching awards, including the 2017 National ACCT Faculty Award, Matt has both studied the effectiveness of new ideas for improving student outcomes and applied them in his classes. Resources mentioned on today's episode: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas R. Hofstadter Everyday Zen: Love and Work, Charlotte Beck Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl

The beauty of open-source software lies in its efficiency. If two companies, building different solutions, work together on the parts of the projects that overlap, they accomplish more in less time. The Hyperledger Project is an open-source collaboration working to build a set of blockchain technologies that can be used in a variety of industries and embedded in the emerging internet technology stack. Brian Behlendorf is the Executive Director of the Hyperledger Project for The Linux Foundation. Brian has dedicated his career to connecting and empowering the free and open-source software community to solve difficult problems. Early in his career, Brian was a primary developer of the Apache Web server and a founding member of the Apache Software Foundation. He was also the founding CTO of CollabNet and CTO of the World Economic Forum. Today, Brian serves on the board of the Mozilla Foundation as well as the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Prior to joining Hyperledger, Brian was a managing director at Mithril Capital Management, a global technology investment firm. Brian joins us to explain the relationship between the Linux Foundation and Hyperledger, describing the venture's subscription-based business model and several of the projects being built with its open-source blockchain technology. He walks us through the benefits of Hyperledger over public blockchains, discussing the business community's preference for anonymity and the right to fork if data is misused. Listen in for Brian's insight around measuring the progress of community-building and learn how open-source software helps us go further, faster. Connect with Brian Hyperledger https://www.hyperledger.org/ Hyperledger on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7_X0WkMtkWzaVUKF-PRBNQ Hyperledger on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hyperledger Hyperledger on Twitter https://twitter.com/hyperledger Brian on Twitter https://twitter.com/brianbehlendorf Brian on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianbehlendorf/ Brian's Website http://brian.behlendorf.com/ Resources Netcraft https://www.netcraft.com/ ‘Fighting the Seed Monopoly' in The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/seed-monopoly-free-seeds-farm-monsanto-dupont The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami https://www.amazon.com/Wind-Up-Bird-Chronicle-Novel/dp/0679775439 Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter https://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567 Connect with Boost VC Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/ Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/ Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVC

Mental Model Arbitrage(MMA) is an important fuel for Moonshots here at XLabs. By building in one field with assembled structures from elsewhere we are able to make fantastic leaps. At it's heart, MMA is about getting very good at making analogies, then using those analogies to transfer knowledge and know how from one place to another. Douglas R. Hofstadter, author of Godel Esher Bach argues that "analogies are the fuel and fire of thinking". We could not agree more. In fact we have been practicing this skill intentionally for nearly a decade now and encourage you to do it as well. It is truly a mental super power.

Insektensterben - Langzeitstudie liefert alarmierende Zahlen / Fortpflanzungsmedizin - Brauchen wir ein neues Gesetz? / Antibiotika-Resistenz - Forscher entwickeln Schnell-Test / Douglas R. Hofstadter - Was den Bestseller-Autor mit Regensburg verbindet.

Check out Angular Remote Conf and React Remote Conf   01:55 - Jamis Buck Introduction Twitter GitHub Blog Medium.com: Jamis Buck 02:57 - Mazes Mazes for Programmers: Code Your Own Twisty Little Passages by Jamis Buck 3.5 Random Dungeon Generator for D&D Mazoo! 08:01 - Programing can be fun?! Play Jamis Buck: Second Wind @ Mountain West Ruby 2016 (Talk on burnout) 11:49 - Historical and Traditional vs Technical Mazes 13:51 - Jamis’ Backstory with Mazes; Algorithms Hunt-and-Kill Algorithm Wilson's Algorithm   Eller's Algorithm 21:14 - Discovering Algorithms Think Labyrinth Neo4j 28:01 - Varying Algorithms AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) 36:38 - Writing a Book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter 39:16 - Text App for Generating Mazes ASCII ChunkyPNG   Picks The Walking Dead (Sam) The Codeless Code (Coraline) Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (Jessica) Feeling sad about tragedy (Jessica) Completely Disconnect (Chuck) Being Outdoors (Chuck) Shooting Firearms (Chuck) Productive (Jamis) Kerbal Space Program (Jamis)

Check out Angular Remote Conf and React Remote Conf   01:55 - Jamis Buck Introduction Twitter GitHub Blog Medium.com: Jamis Buck 02:57 - Mazes Mazes for Programmers: Code Your Own Twisty Little Passages by Jamis Buck 3.5 Random Dungeon Generator for D&D Mazoo! 08:01 - Programing can be fun?! Play Jamis Buck: Second Wind @ Mountain West Ruby 2016 (Talk on burnout) 11:49 - Historical and Traditional vs Technical Mazes 13:51 - Jamis’ Backstory with Mazes; Algorithms Hunt-and-Kill Algorithm Wilson's Algorithm   Eller's Algorithm 21:14 - Discovering Algorithms Think Labyrinth Neo4j 28:01 - Varying Algorithms AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) 36:38 - Writing a Book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter 39:16 - Text App for Generating Mazes ASCII ChunkyPNG   Picks The Walking Dead (Sam) The Codeless Code (Coraline) Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (Jessica) Feeling sad about tragedy (Jessica) Completely Disconnect (Chuck) Being Outdoors (Chuck) Shooting Firearms (Chuck) Productive (Jamis) Kerbal Space Program (Jamis)

Check out Angular Remote Conf and React Remote Conf   01:55 - Jamis Buck Introduction Twitter GitHub Blog Medium.com: Jamis Buck 02:57 - Mazes Mazes for Programmers: Code Your Own Twisty Little Passages by Jamis Buck 3.5 Random Dungeon Generator for D&D Mazoo! 08:01 - Programing can be fun?! Play Jamis Buck: Second Wind @ Mountain West Ruby 2016 (Talk on burnout) 11:49 - Historical and Traditional vs Technical Mazes 13:51 - Jamis’ Backstory with Mazes; Algorithms Hunt-and-Kill Algorithm Wilson's Algorithm   Eller's Algorithm 21:14 - Discovering Algorithms Think Labyrinth Neo4j 28:01 - Varying Algorithms AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) 36:38 - Writing a Book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter 39:16 - Text App for Generating Mazes ASCII ChunkyPNG   Picks The Walking Dead (Sam) The Codeless Code (Coraline) Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (Jessica) Feeling sad about tragedy (Jessica) Completely Disconnect (Chuck) Being Outdoors (Chuck) Shooting Firearms (Chuck) Productive (Jamis) Kerbal Space Program (Jamis)