Podcasts about language instinct

Is it better to be rational or optimistic? Steven Pinker explains. There is no force in the Universe called progress. But there are plenty of natural forces that seem to only make it harder for us to make progress as a species, such as disease, the laws of entropy, and the dark sides of human nature. So, what pushes humanity forward in the face of all these obstacles? To the psychologist Steven Pinker, the answer is rationality: When people use their reasoning skills and other cognitive abilities to help improve the lives of others, the result is progress. From pseudoscience to religious extremism, irrational beliefs can cause real harm. That's why Pinker argues that society would be better off if more people learned to be more rational. Chapters for Easier Navigation:- 0:00 The bad news: reality 0:39 The good news: rationality 1:26 How rational are we? 3:04 Even Americans, though? (Rationality inequality) 4:45 The pinnacle of human rationality 5:45 How can you teach critical thinking? How? ----------------------------------------------------- About Steven Pinker: Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill and his PhD from Harvard. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his nine books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think:- ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more ►Get Big Think+ for Business Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The formula for rational thinking explained by Harvard professor Steven Pinker. In his explanation of Bayes' theorem, cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker highlights how this type of reasoning can help us determine the degree of belief we assign to a claim based on available evidence. Bayes' theorem takes into account the prior probability of a claim, the likelihood of the evidence given the claim is true, and the commonness of the evidence regardless of the claim's truth. While Bayes' theorem can be useful for making statistical predictions, Pinker cautions that it may not always be appropriate in situations where fairness and other moral considerations are important. Therefore, it's crucial to consider when Bayes' theorem is applicable and when it's not. Chapters:- 0:00 What is Bayesian thinking? 1:01 The formula 2:41 When Bayes' theorem obscures the solution 4:25 Bayes' theorem in a nutshell --------------------------------------------------------- About Steven Pinker: Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill and his PhD from Harvard. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his nine books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. ------------------------------------------------------------- About Big Think | Smarter Faster™ ► Big Think The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century. ► Big Think+ Make your business smarter, faster: https://bigthink.com/plus/ Get Smarter, Faster With Interviews From The Worlds Biggest Thinkers. Follow This Podcast And Turn On The Notifications Rate Us With 5 Stars Share This Episode --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bigthink/message Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard professor Steven Pinker explains that everyone suffers from this rationality error. Cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker argues that while the Enlightenment ideals of using knowledge to enhance human well-being are not inherently natural to us, they are vital for societal progress. But one obstacle standing in front of greater progress centers on game theory, particularly situations involving the tragedy of the commons. The tragedy of the commons describes a predicament in which individuals independently pursue their own interests, leading to the overexploitation and eventual depletion of a shared resource, ultimately harming everyone's well-being. According to Pinker, one example of a tragedy of the commons lies within what we choose to believe in public. An individual might be incentivized to believe in something because it will make them look good to people in their circle. But if enough people behave in this way, the likely consequence is that fewer people will be incentivized to earnestly search for truth. Still, Pinker maintains a hopeful outlook. He cites advancements in science and morality as evidence of progress, and he argues that humanistic values hold an inherent advantage, as they appeal to universal human desires and shared experiences. Chapters:- 0:00 Knowledge: It's unnatural 1:17 Game theory's ‘tragedy of the commons' 1:59 The rationality commons 2:55 Is there hope for civilization? About Steven Pinker: Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill and his PhD from Harvard. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his nine books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. About Big Think | Smarter Faster™ ► Big Think The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century. ► Big Think+ Make your business smarter, faster: https://bigthink.com/plus/ Get Smarter, Faster With Interviews From The Worlds Biggest Thinkers. Follow This Podcast And Turn On The Notifications Rate Us With 5 Stars Share This Episode --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bigthink/message Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Harvard Divinity School visiting scholar Rabbi David Wolpe, MIT PhD student Talia Khan, and Harvard professor Steven Pinker about the new reality for Jews in higher education.Since Simchas Torah, the hostile discourse regarding Israel has become something that no Jewish student can ignore. Jewish families have been asking: Is it even worth it to send our sons and daughters to these colleges? In this episode we discuss:Is it better for Jews to change the system from within, or without?What has changed about the Jewish experience at American colleges since Oct. 7?What is the way forward regarding free speech and Jewish rights on campus?Tune in to hear a conversation about how we might work toward a reimagined and refocused higher education.Interview with David Wolpe begins at 4:27.Interview with Talia Khan begins at 29:30.Interview with Steven Pinker begins at 1:05:12.Named The Most Influential Rabbi in America by Newsweek and one of the 50 Most Influential Jews in the World by The Jerusalem Post, David Wolpe is a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School and the Max Webb Rabbi Emeritus of Sinai Temple, a Conservative shul in Los Angeles. Rabbi Wolpe previously taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, Hunter College, and UCLA. He is the author of eight books, including the national bestseller Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times. His new book is titled David, the Divided Heart.Talia Khan is an MIT graduate student in mechanical engineering, the president of the MIT Israel Alliance, and a Fulbright Brazil alumna.Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He conducts research on language, cognition, and social relations, writes for publications such as the New York Times, Time and The Atlantic, and is the author of twelve books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Stuff of Thought, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, Enlightenment Now, and Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters.References:“On the Hatred of Jews” by David J. WolpeIsrael: An Echo of Eternity by Abraham Joshua Heschel O Jerusalem! by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre “When Calls for Jewish Genocide Can Cost a University Its Government Funding” by Michael A. Helfand“A five-point plan to save Harvard from itself” by Steven PinkerThe Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan HaidtThe Canceling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott The Constitution of Knowledge by Jonathan Rauch

"How the Mind Creates Language"

Are the ideals of the Enlightenment – reason, science and humanism – and the progress they can deliver being undermined by a cynical desire to burn it all down? Pre-eminent psychologist Steven Pinker explains why problems are inevitable and not a reason to destroy the institutions of modernity, with all the resulting chaos and carnage. The use of knowledge to enhance human flourishing will never bring about utopia, but it has given greater life, freedom, equality, safety, peace, and enrichment to billions, and promises still more if we rededicate ourselves to that ideal.  Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his nine books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and The Sense of Style.

To kick-off the second season of Data Malarkey, Sam Knowles talks to one of the all-time greats of academic psychology – Steven Pinker, the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. An experimental psychologist interested in all aspects of language, mind, and human nature, Steve is one of the most important public intellectuals – and best-selling authors – of the past 30 years. He came to global attention with his 1994 book, The Language Instinct, and followed that three years later with How The Mind Works.   In the 2000s, Steve's interests – and popular-science best sellers – have flexed and grown to cover nature and nurture, human progress, violence (or otherwise) in society, and most recently, rationality. Many listeners will be familiar with The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of our Nature, Enlightenment Now, and – most recently – Rationality. A less well-known but important work is Steve's 2014 book The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, and what it has to say about the Curse of Knowledge.   Garlanded by media, national and international associations, and academic institutions around the world, Steve is generally agreed to be one of the world's leading thinkers and most influential writers. He is that rarest of creatures – a serious, practicing academic who writes with great clarity for both his peers and an intelligent lay audience. Our conversation was recorded remotely, via the medium of Riverside.fm, on 18 May 2023.   Thanks to Joe Hickey for production support.   Podcast artwork by Shatter Media.   Voice over by Samantha Boffin.   Steve spends his time reading, teaching, and writing – totally immersing himself when it comes to books. And when he's not doing that, he's walking, hiking, cycling, travelling and talking with his wife, the novelist and philosopher, Rebecca Goldstein. He also has a passion – and a real skill – for photography, a passion developed from his early-career research in visual cognition and his love of visual aesthetics.   This episode covers so much in just 45 minutes, from why the world is rather less violent than the news cycle might suggest to the replicability crisis in psychology; from our faulty belief that a sample will be representative of a population, to underpowered psychological research using too few experimental subjects. More than once, Steve refers to Amos Tversky's 1971 paper in Psychological Bulletin, “Belief in the law of small numbers”. As Steve points out: “He did warn us. We should have listened!” For those unfamiliar with this seminal, overlooked paper – here it is.   And while we're very much in the wheelhouse of an academic psychologist at the height of his profession, at all times Steve avoids the Curse of Knowledge, which he defines as “the difficulty in imagining what it's like for some else not to know something that you know”. As the Curse of Knowledge is a repeated target of Sam's in his data storytelling training, host and guest wig out about the Curse, which Steve also characterises as a lack of Theory of Mind. Other topics covered in this episode include: what insight is and how to move from data to insight; the very real power of analogy (like the solar system for atomic structure) in driving breakthrough innovation and understanding; the dangers (and shortcomings) of AI. While Steve suspects the dangers have been overstated, he's all for minimising deep fakes – on news in particular – and fraud.  EXTERNAL LINKS Steve's home page – https://stevenpinker.com Photos by Steven Pinker – http://stevepinker.com The Harvard Department of Psychology page for Steve – https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/steven-pinker   To find out what kind of data storyteller you are, complete our data storytelling scorecard at https://data-storytelling.scoreapp.com. It takes just two minutes to answer 12 questions, and we'll send you your own personalised scorecard which tells you what kind of data storyteller you are.  

This month, we are diving into the important and currently hot topic of artificial intelligence. Do we think rising platforms like ChatGPT are going to be running the world anytime soon? Does technology not only have the ability to be intelligent, but also rational? In this episode we get the pleasure of discussing these issues with Steven Pinker, an experimental cognitive psychologist and a popular writer on language, mind, and human nature. Listen to the conversation and find out what happens when an expert on the human mind sits down to discuss intelligence in machines with two data scientists! Our Guest: Dr. Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He conducts research on language, cognition, and social relations; writes for publications such as the New York Times, The Guardian, Time, and The Atlantic; and is the author of twelve books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Stuff of Thought, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, Enlightenment Now, and Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters.

Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn't ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests: Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ben Allen, associate professor of mathematics at Emmanuel College. Steven Pinker, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University and bestselling author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science

Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn't ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests: Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ben Allen, associate professor of mathematics at Emmanuel College. Steven Pinker, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University and bestselling author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn't ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests: Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ben Allen, associate professor of mathematics at Emmanuel College. Steven Pinker, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University and bestselling author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn't ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests: Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ben Allen, associate professor of mathematics at Emmanuel College. Steven Pinker, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University and bestselling author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn't ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests: Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ben Allen, associate professor of mathematics at Emmanuel College. Steven Pinker, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University and bestselling author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science

Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn't ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests: Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ben Allen, associate professor of mathematics at Emmanuel College. Steven Pinker, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University and bestselling author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn't ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests: Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ben Allen, associate professor of mathematics at Emmanuel College. Steven Pinker, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University and bestselling author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/politics-and-polemics

Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn't ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests: Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ben Allen, associate professor of mathematics at Emmanuel College. Steven Pinker, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University and bestselling author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn't ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests: Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ben Allen, associate professor of mathematics at Emmanuel College. Steven Pinker, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University and bestselling author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn't ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests: Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ben Allen, associate professor of mathematics at Emmanuel College. Steven Pinker, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University and bestselling author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill and his PhD from Harvard. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and Enlightenment Now. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Humanist of the Year, a recipient of nine honorary doctorates, and one of Foreign Policy's “World's Top 100 Public Intellectuals” and Time's “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.” He was Chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, and writes frequently for the New York Times, the Guardian, and other publications. His twelfth book, published in 2021, is called Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters.https://stevenpinker.com/Works mentioned in the podcastMetaphors we live by - George Lakoff and Mark Johnsonhttps://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3637992.htmlThe Architecture of Complexity — Herbert Simon on Watchmaking, Hierarchies, and Decomposable Systemshttps://athenarium.com/the-architecture-of-complexity-herbert-simon/Alexander Luriahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Luria#Main_areas_of_researchMusic - Bach: Mass in B MinorMonteverdi Choir & John Eliot Gardinerhttps://music.apple.com/nz/album/j-s-bach-mass-in-b-minor-bwv-232/1053521016

Life gets busy. Has https://geni.us/enlightenment-now-b (Enlightenment Now) been on your reading list? Learn why the world is a much better place, and why this refreshing message is the key to tackling climate change. (with this book summary) We're scratching the surface here. If you don't already have this bestselling book by Steven Pinker, get the audiobookhttps://geni.us/enlightenment-now-aud ( for free) to learn the juicy details. Get the full text, PDF, audiobook, infographic and animated book summary of this book and hundreds more on the https://www.getstoryshots.com (StoryShots) app: https://www.getstoryshots.com (https://www.getstoryshots.com) Disclaimer: This is an unofficial summary and analysis. StoryShots Book Summary and Analysis of Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven PinkerIntroduction“Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory.” - Franklin Pierce Adams Find out why Bill Gates refers to https://geni.us/enlightenment-now-b (Enlightenment Now) as his new favorite book of all time.  https://geni.us/enlightenment-now-b (Enlightenment Now) is Steven Pinker's follow-up to The Better Angels of Our Nature. The latter asserts that human life is getting healthier and longer. The world is now safer, less violent, and wealthier. Pinker identified six major trends and five historical forces for this change. The most important one is the humanitarian revolution that the Enlightenment and its associated cultivation of reason brought. Enlightenment Now elaborates this argument by using social science data. It shows reason, science and humanism have brought us a general improvement of the human condition over recent history. Humanism is the belief that people can live by reason, rather than religious faith. Pinker explores the nature and importance of reason more in his next book, Rationality. We can use the ideas of the Enlightenment to understand things better and solve climate change - the biggest problem humanity faces. There are grounds to be hopeful about the future, despite the challenges. The world may improve for many more decades if we stick to the values of the Enlightenment. It is refreshing to think the world is a better place and will continue to improve. Join us to find out if you agree with the overarching theme of hope inhttps://geni.us/enlightenment-now-b ( Enlightenment Now). About Steven Pinker Steven Pinker is one of the world's leading authorities on visual cognition and psycholinguistics. He is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Time magazine listed Pinker as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.” Pinker was born in 1954 to a middle-class Jewish family in Montreal, Canada. His grandparents immigrated to Canada from Poland and Romania, and owned a small necktie factory in Montreal. His father was a lawyer, and his mother was a high-school vice-principal.  He received his BA from McGill University and his Ph.D. from Harvard. He has been a psychology professor at MIT and Harvard University.  His popular and highly praised books include The Stuff of Thought, The Blank Slate, Words and Rules, How the Mind Works, and The Language Instinct. He also writes frequently for the New York Times, The New Republic, and other magazines. StoryShot #1: The Enlightenment is The Age of Questioning, Understanding, and Critiquing   The Enlightenment has given us a gift; the notion that reason and science can increase humanity's ability to thrive. Enlightenment's motto, as the German philosopher Immanuel Kant proclaimed, is “Dare to know!”. Its foundational demand is freedom of thought and speech. The Enlightenment period, also known as the Age of Enlightenment, was a philosophical movement prevalent in 18th-century Europe. It sought to question everything. The practitioners believed...

Welcome to the Counterweight podcast, where we talk about how we can strive for a world in which freedom and reason are at the forefront of all human society. In this week's podcast, we speak with Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, and author of 12 books, including The Language Instinct, Enlightenment Now, and Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters. In the podcast, we discuss reason, rationality, enlightenment values, and their interplay with the polarisation that is affecting our communities today.

We all encounter a change of plan at some point in our lives. In this episode, Brian interviews cognitive scientist Dr. Maya Shankar to understand who we are and who we become when faced with change. Topics discussed include: How change profoundly impacted Maya's life, why humility is so important and how being more openminded can help build resilience. YOU WILL LEARN:· Common psychological strategies for navigating change. · Why people really dislike uncertainty.· How to cultivate a mindset to thrive in change. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:https://mayashankar.com/ A Slight Change of Planshttps://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/a-slight-change-of-plans/id1561860622 “The Language Instinct,” by Steven Pinkerhttps://www.amazon.com/The-Language-Instinct-audiobook/dp/B006IW5WQQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=28JG8DFLG89WL&keywords=the+language+instinct&qid=1654185119&sprefix=the+language+instinct%2Caps%2C2249&sr=8-1 “Back to the Future”https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/ NOTEWORTHY QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE: “The specifics of this moment may be unprecedented. But our human ability to navigate change is nothing new.” – Dr. Maya Shankar “There is a universality in the way that we as humans navigate change.” – Maya Shankar “Change in one area of our lives often has profound spill-over effects into other areas of our lives that we simply can't predict at the outset.” – Maya Shankar “At a minimum, there will be growth because change necessarily involves a loss of identity of some kind.” – Maya Shankar “When you are more openminded, you are seeking awe and that actually helps you cultivate a more resilient personality in the face of change.” – Maya Shankar See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our guest this week is Steven Pinker. Steven is a cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, Enlightenment Now, and most recently, Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters. In this episode we speak with Steven about his books, the public's responses to them, and whether those books have had a positive effect. We talk about the euphemism treadmill and whether we can ever escape it, the misunderstandings of terms like optimism and idealism, the tensions between human nature and the potential for progress, social media and the ways we can improve it, and how we can all be more rational. Announcement : We're excited to share that members of FAIR Community can now submit questions for upcoming Q&A episodes of FAIR Perspectives. To ask questions about FAIR, the pro-human movement, the podcast and more, sign up for FAIR Community at fairperspectives.org.  

kagayaさんをゲストに迎え、アメリカザリガニの自発性行動開始の脳研究における単一ニューロンの膜電位活動の記録とその形態染色技術の話、超高速パンチをするシャコの研究、リカレントニューラルネットワークの機械学習フレームワークであるリザバーコンピューティングについてお話をうかがいました。 (w/ mazさん)Guest (加賀谷の研究履歴) アメリカザリガニの自発性行動開始の脳機構研究(高畑雅一lab) 行動が外部感覚刺激ではなく自発内発的に生じるとき、その開始が起こる脳内機構を調べるため、ザリガニ脳内の単一ニューロンの膜電位活動を記録、形態染色の技を卒論時から9年間継続してようやく特定のニューロンが見つかった。 シャコの超高速運動の研究(Sheila Patek lab) 神経系が身体機構を通して環境に働きかけるメカニズムの研究として、超高速パンチをするシャコを研究。 カニの行動の個性の研究(Seto Marine Biology lab) 京大白浜水族館の飼育員の原田桂太さんがカイメンで帽子をつくるカニをシャコ水槽の隣でされていて、体のわりに小さすぎる帽子をつくってるカニがいたりして、行動実験とデータ解析を計画。ベイズ統計による解析。 ソフトロボット研究(中嶋浩平 lab→國吉中嶋 lab 2022-) 科研費の新学術領域ソフトロボット学に公募班で採用されて、ソフトロボット的研究開始。中嶋さんとは京大白眉、この領域でお世話になり、現在中嶋ラボへ。 Shownotes Katsushi Kagaya maz Researchat.fm mazさん回 (ep133) … “mazさんをゲストに迎え、自身の研究の変遷を軸に、バイオメカニクスのおもしろさを話していただきました。” ゆるふわ生物学 の シャコパンチ回 カニの行動の個性の研究 ソフロボ：ソフトロボット、新学術領域ソフトロボット学 リザバー: リザバー・コンピューティング(recurrent neural networkの機械学習法のひとつ) 中嶋さんの総説 北大水泳部 kagayaさんの輝かしい水泳の記録 … 勝手に貼ってすいません！(tadasu) 北大理学部生物学科 山本貴司さん 千葉すずさん イトマンオーストラリア遠征：年に一度、全国のイトマンスイミングスクールから選抜され豪州遠征があった。 近大附属高校：近畿大学附属高等学校。当時、普通科、理数科、国際科のほか、水泳をはじめスポーツによる活動を重視するクラスもあった。 「鳥が飛ぶようにヒトは言語をつかう」Steven Pinker, Language Instinct 高畑雅一 (たかはたまさかず)： kagayaの北大在籍時の先生 アメフラシの神経：キャンデル神経科学のエリック・キャンデルのアメフラシの神経系で学習の分子機構の研究 イカの神経: ホジキンとハクスレーはじめとする活動電位の発生メカニズムの研究が念頭にありました シナプス統合作用：中枢ニューロンは、複雑な形状をもった樹状突起をもって多くの他のニューロンとシナプスを形成する。細胞でのシナプス電位の空間的時間的分布は、シナプス部位からの解剖学的距離だけでなく、三次元構造、膜・細胞質の電気的性質、電位依存型イオンチャネルによるコンダクタンス変化などの影響を受ける。シナプスでの電流が細胞内をどう拡散していくかと合わせてこれらが「神経計算の実体」に大きな影響を与える。この入出力関係(計算)を決めている諸過程をシナプス統合作用という。 ザリガニの脳：kagayaが学部4年生のときに作成したザリガニの脳の組織切片の染色像 ザリガニ論文1：Kagaya & Takahata, 2010 ザリガニ論文2：Kagaya & Takahata, 2011 細胞内記録(イントラ)：ガラス管微小電極を細胞に刺入し、主にカレントクランプで細胞内外の電位差を測る。ガラス管内に蛍光色素を充填して細胞内染色をすることが可能。 マイクロエレクトロード(ガラス管微小電極)：シャープエレクトロードともいう。クラシックな手法。パッチ電極では細胞膜を密着させるが、自然に膜がシールするのを待つ。膜が破れて細胞を破壊してしまうことも。 カレントクランプ：電流固定法。電流を固定して、電位を測る。 細胞外記録(エクストラ)：ほぼスパイク(イントラの記録の活動電位だけフィルタされた電位記録)だけの記録。電極と細胞との位置関係、その他もろもろの複雑な細胞外液の状況に依存した記録になるのでスパイクのタイミングだけをデータとすることが多い。また、近くに複数の細胞があれば複数のスパイクが混じるので一つの電極に複数のユニットが混じるのでスパイク・ソーティングする必要がある。一方、イントラではシナプス活動と同時に活動電位も記録できる。が、細胞の刺さる場所が軸索だとスパイクしか見えない。ザリガニでは樹状突起の肥厚部が主なシナプス統合部でここに刺さればシナプス活動が見える。 パッチ電極をつかったパッチクランプ イオンチャネル ルシファーイエロー 下村脩 … Researchat.fm ep112を参照 下村脩先生がクラゲを採っていた様子 … 家族とクラゲを採っていた下村先生。写真に映っているお子様の一人は伝説のハッカーTsutomu Shimomuraさんである。 下村先生のクラゲ漁の伝説 … “海岸で朝６時から夜まで毎日、家族総出でクラゲを取り続け、１７年間で８５万匹も捕獲し分析。ごく微量しか含まれないＧＦＰが光る仕組みを突き止めた。” コマンドニューロン: ザリガニコマンドニューロンのレビュー “Fifty years of a command neuron: the neurobiology of escape behavior in the crayfish” アメフラシの水管刺激によるエラの引き込み反射 光遺伝学 神経軸索：シナプス活動によって生じる活動電位は、脊椎動物の運動ニューロンでは軸索の起始部で生じる。ここは活動電位を発生するための電位依存型イオンチャネルがたくさんあって閾値が低い。脊椎動物の細胞ではシナプスからこの部位までに細胞体が介在する。一方、ザリガニなど節足動物では細胞体はこの流れから離れたところにあってシナプス統合に関与しない。よって、統合部位として肥厚した樹状突起に電極を狙って刺入してシナプス統合作用を調べることになる。シナプス統合、つまり神経計算の結果発生した活動電位は軸索を伝導する。 下行性ニューロン：脳内に細胞体と樹状突起をもっていて脳を出て胸部へと軸索を伸ばしていく。 腹髄、囲食道縦連合：梯子型神経系の腹側を通る縦連合を腹髄という。囲食道縦連合は、食道を囲んでいる縦連合。左右をつなぐ連合を横連合という。 神経計算の実体：アナログ的な神経膜電位活動の記録について、 田渕さん並木さんの比較生理2019「神経回路の自発活動パターンとその機能的役割」に詳細にまとめられています キイロショウジョウバエ：いわゆるモデル生物のひとつ。 コネクトーム HHMI Janelia デンドライトdendrite: 樹状突起のこと。 ウチダザリガニ … ウチダザリガニと染色体の話は記念すべきResearchat.fm ep1で話しています。Researchat.fmはウチダザリガニと共に始まったと言っても過言ではない。 氷冷麻酔: 昆虫ではCO2が（も？）よく使われる印象がある (maz) クチクラ：外骨格表面 おおらかな指導：先生ははじめから10年かけてもいいとは思われてはいなかった、はず。 identifiable neuron、 identified neuron 同定(可能)ニューロン: Scholapediaに期待したらまだ書かれておらず「どなたかご存命の方に書いて欲しい」というようなことが。別の個体から得られたニューロンどうしであっても生理学的、形態学的に似ていて同一視できるニューロン。運動ニューロンだと筋肉との関係で厳密な意味で同定ニューロンになる。介在ニューロン、とくに中枢のニューロンになってくると生理と形態の情報の再現性の問題で同一視しづらくなる。なお、同定ニューロンであっても個体間変異が生じる。 Leland H. Hartwell … 出芽酵母を用いた細胞周期に関する研究により、2001年度のノーベル生理学・医学賞を受賞 Leland Hartwellの動画 … 観察から細胞周期に関する因子を同定していく様の解説。 Leland Hartwellの動画 … インタビューワーはResearchat.fm ep107で紹介したBungo Akiyoshiさんの指導教官であるSue Biggins先生。 仮説生成型 vs 仮説検証型: Researchat.fm ep127のHARKingも参照。 Strong inference の翻訳 … めちゃくちゃいいので必読！kagayaさんご紹介ありがとうございます。今度これについて話したいです。(tadasu) Ronald Hoy 柳田敏雄 研究をすすめる「よりどころ」、inflection point（変曲点）: mazの脳内では横軸が時間、縦軸が成果みたいなものとして、最初はあまり成果が伸びないが途中からぐいっと上に曲がるような曲線が想像されていた【maz】 ポール・グレアム: 本人の公式ページ・英語版ウィキペディア Y Combinator ハッカーと画家 … オーム社による和書あり。 早すぎる最適化：これは Donald Knuth 博士による記述 早すぎる最適化 … ANRIの江原ニーナさんによるハッカーと画家と早すぎる最適化に関する記事 (関係ないですが、江原ニーナさんのポッドキャスト、復活希望です。) Researchatのポールグレアム回　(ep87) スケールしないことをしよう … FoundXの馬田さんによる解説記事 naoya_tさんによるポール・グレアムの日本語翻訳記事まとめ Coffee machine: いわゆる「コーヒーメーカー」だが英語版ウィキペディア記事では冒頭文（定義文）で “A coffeemaker, coffee maker, or coffee machine” と並列されており英語では同義語のようだ。 雲のツイート 自由意志:「で、ザリガニに自由意志はあるの?」ってPaul Katz氏に聞かれたのが思い出されます。 ヒトであれば内省、内観を言葉で伝えることができるが（リベットの実験）、そうでない動物では行動や生理現象を分析するにとどまる。 運動準備電位: Kornhuber & Deecke, 1965 コンフォーカル：共焦点走査型顕微鏡 ブラックホールの観測: Researchat.fm ep8でも話していました。　 スーパーカミオカンデとニュートリノの検出 スーパーカミオカンデとニュートリノの検出 重力波の初検出 シャコパンチ 冨菜雄介さん …　(関係ないですが、researchmapのIDがlobsterなのいかつすぎますね) シーラ・パテック：シャコパンチはじめ、生物と物理の境界を研究されている。kagayaのシャコパンチ研究のメンター。シーラのTED Talk The Patek Lab キャビテーション はてブ：はてなブックマーク Comparative Biomechanics:「比較」は多様な生物種を対象とするニュアンスがある。 SICB: Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology というアメリカの学会。毎年1月に年会があり 2011 Annual Meetingで Kagaya と maz はニアミスしていた。非ヒトのバイオメカニクス研究発表の場としてはこの SICB とヨーロッパの SEB (Society for Experimental Biology) が代表的と思われる【maz】 リザバー計算 (reservoir computing) 中嶋浩平さん Kohei Nakajima 京大の白眉プロジェクト シャコパンチ論文 リカレントニューラルネットワーク：回帰的神経回路網 RNN。典型的なRNNとしてはランダムにそれぞれが結合した echo state network (後述)がある。スパイクニューラルネット型もある。 Herbert Jaeger リードアウト：リザバー計算の典型的設定のパラメータチューニングはこの線形読み出し器部分だけなので学習にかかる計算コストがとても小さい。 echo state neural network：シンプルなPC上での Echo State Network (ESN) による計算の例 spiking neural network たこあし、シリコンたこあし計算機：中嶋さんの royal society interface に掲載された論文のひとつ Wolfgang Maass ブラックボックスを解剖する研究 Echo State Property: “Intuitively, the ESP states that the reservoir will asymptotically wash out any information from initial conditions.” 流体構造連成: ある物体、たとえば布みたいなものに風があたって力（いわゆる揚力や抗力）が生じて、形が変わったとする。そうすると、形が変わったことで揚力や抗力が変わるので、また変形がおきる。この繰り返しで振動的な挙動が生じたりする。このように、流れと物体変形の相互作用現象（問題）を流体構造連成 (fluid-structure interation, FSI) と呼ぶ【maz】 双子渦（カルマン渦？): 円柱などの物体の後方には、流れのスケールで決まる無次元数である Reynolds 数に応じて左右対称な双子渦や左右交互の周期的な渦放出（Kármán 渦列）ができる。このうち双子渦を利用してリザバコンピューティングをしようという発想がある (Goto et al., 2021). なお双子渦ができるのは Reynolds 数が低いときで、つまり { サイズが小さい OR 流れが遅い OR 流体の粘性が高い（ねばねばしてる）} ような状態で、具体的には40程度まで。たとえば直径 2 cm の電線を風が 1 m/s でゆっくりと吹きすぎるような場面ですら Reynolds 数は 1300 程度で、双子渦はできない。興味深いことに、上記論文では双子渦からカルマン渦に遷移する直前の Reynolds 数で最も成績がよいという結果が出ているようだ【maz】 カオス的遍歴, “Chaotic itinerancy as a dynamical basis of hermeneutics in brain and mind” 井上さんの論文: Inoue, K., Nakajima, K., & Kuniyoshi, Y. (2020). Designing spontaneous behavioral switching via chaotic itinerancy. Science advances Unconventional Computing Diagital Computing, “Towards a generalized theory comprising digital, neuromorphic and unconventional computing” 大自由度力学系 E-kagen: 鈴森康一「新学術領域研究「ソフトロボット学」 ルースカップリングとタイトカップリング … 柳田敏雄先生による一分子研究の歴史とその解説 モルフォロジカル・コンピュテーション Kunt Shmidt-Nielsen 下澤先生：下澤楯夫先生 Editorial Notes ザリガニ研究は出てから10年以上たってからのもので、あまり外で話す機会がなくなっていたので、今回紹介する機会をいただけて感謝です。シャコパンチを詳しくはまた別の機会に(？)(kagaya) ほぼ聞き役でした。シャコパンチや関連して高速運動・超高速運動の面白さみたいな話はもうちょっとしたかったけど、それやったらたぶんリザバまで行かなかったですね… (maz) kagayaさんとmazさん、お忙しい中、ご出演いただきありがとうございます。全然掘りきれていませんが、また次回よろしくお願いします(シャコとカニの個性！気になる!)。それにしてもkagayaさんのキャリアの変遷は面白すぎて今回お話できて良かったです。リザバーの部分については更なる自身での理解が必要だと思いました。完全版は+40minぐらいあるのですがまたいつか。(tadasu)

Rationality matters. Steven Pinker discusses a user's guide to rationality during an epidemic of unreason. Join 5x15 for an enlightening discussion between renowned experimental cognitive scientist Steven Pinker and behavioural economist, broadcaster and writer Tim Harford. In the twenty-first century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding - and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that discovered vaccines for Covid-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, quack cures and conspiracy theorizing? In his new book, Rationality, Steven Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are simply an irrational species - cavemen out of time fatally cursed with biases, fallacies and illusions. After all, we discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives and set the benchmarks for rationality itself. Instead, he explains, we think in ways that suit the low-tech contexts in which we spend most of our lives, but fail to take advantage of the powerful tools of reasoning we have built up over millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, causal inference, and decision-making under uncertainty. Rationality leads to better choices in our lives and in the public sphere, and is the ultimate driver of social justice and moral progress. Brimming with insight and humour, this is a conversation that will enlighten, inspire and empower. Steven Pinker is an experimental cognitive scientist. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won many prizes for his research, teaching, and his eleven books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Enlightenment Now. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Humanist of the Year, a recipient of nine honorary doctorates, one of Foreign Policy's 'World's Top 100 Public Intellectuals' and Time's '100 Most Influential People in the World Today'. Tim Harford is a behavioural economist, BBC radio and TV presenter and award-winning Financial Times columnist. He offers a distinctive blend of storytelling, humour and intelligence. The presenter of the BBC's More or Less and Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy, FT columnist, Oxford Fellow and million-selling business author is a compelling storyteller on economics, management, psychology and the unexpected bits in between. Books include The Undercover Economist and How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers. With thanks for your support for 5x15 online.

Canadian experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist, writer and professor at Harvard College, Steven Pinker is known for his vigorous and far-reaching advocacy of evolutionary psychology and computational theory of the mind. His academic specialisations are perception and language development in children. His four books for the general public - The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, Words and Rules, and The Clean Slate - have won numerous awards and worldwide acclaim.

Andrew Lapidus joins us live from Austria for the first ever international episode of Ramble by the River. Andrew is one of the most interesting and likable people I have ever met and he poses the quality of being 100% himself at all times. He couldn't fake it if he tried (unless you mean on a stage because I am positive he would kill it as an actor). He is not afraid to walk a different path than most people and it is inspiring to hear about his journey. We get to hear how a goofy kid from Vancouver, Washington came to be an educator in the City made famous by Sigmund Freud. Andrew shares some of his fears about the changes that he has seen in the USA since he left and we talk about some simple solutions to all of the online political rage. This conversation takes the scenic route across major topics: drugs, literature, music, and psychology, and along the way we ramble through stories about coaching, voice training, creativity, and books. We fondly look back on our shared time at Western Washington University as we recount the emotional toll we paid as athletes, and we speculate on the possible skin conditions of one of our better looking professors which led to a discussion on the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi. He was born to podcast! Andrew is a perfect guest and I knew he would be. It was written in the stars. He is so open and curious that we could venture into topics that make a lot of people uncomfortable while always maintaining a level of playfulness with ideas and never taking anything too seriously. I mean, we covered nationalist ideology, linguistics, and Freudian egotism in the same hour, and then we flipped over to discussing the adult-man breast-feeding scene at the end of one classical American novel and Andrew ate a booger (I'm pretty sure). So, I feel like we achieved a nice tonal balance. This was a lot of fun to record and Andrew was a great sport during a few technical difficulties on my end. He is truly one of my favorite humans and I like knowing that people like him even exist. The fact that we get to be friends and he will come on my podcast and laugh at my jokes is more than I could ask for. I hope you enjoy this podcast! Love y'all, Jeff Please Subscribe and Share! Links: Business inquiries/guest booking: Ramblebytheriver@gmail.com Website: https://my.captivate.fm/Ramblebytheriver.captivate.fm (Ramblebytheriver.captivate.fm) Facebook: Jeff Nesbitt (Ramble by the River)https://www.facebook.com/jeff.nesbitt.9619 (https://www.facebook.com/jeff.nesbitt.9619) Instagram: https://instagram.com/ramblebytheriver?r=nametag (@ramblebytheriver) Twitter: @RambleRiverPod Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCNiZ9OBYRxF3fJ4XcsDxLeg (https://youtube.com/channel/UCNiZ9OBYRxF3fJ4XcsDxLeg) Music Credit(s): Still Fly, Revel Day. Smartface, Old Grump. Topics/Keywords: JK Rowling; Harry Potter; trans-rights; track and field; Cuckoo's Calling; Stephen King; The Institute; Carrie; It; The Shining; edible cannabis; dissociative drugs; psychedelic mushrooms; PTSD; trauma; traumatic memories; neuroplasticity; MDMA; psilocybin; cancel culture; Critical Race Theory; Pink Floyd; The Wall; Paul McCartney; Wings; Austrian folk music; vocal timbre; Wikipedia; University of Vienna; Opera; voice training; phonetics; language; abstraction; Steven Pinker; The Language Instinct; Better Angels of Our Nature; Enlightenment Now; Wikipedia; kratom; universal language; creativity; chess; problem-solving; religion; spirituality; atheism; Richard Dawkins; Bill Maher; Religulous; forgiveness; Jordan Peterson; 12 Simple Rules; Macklemore; Carinthia “Texas of Austria”; southern hospitality; choral music; rowing/crew; Windermere Cup; University of Washington; Western Washington University Men's Crew; sports psychology; ergometer; Lake Sammish; Lake Whatcom; overtraining; caffeine; The Grapes of Wrath; John Steinbeck; wabi-sabi; imperfection; The Great Gatsby; breast-feeding; dystopian novels; 1984; George Orwell; The...

Steven Pinker is a cognitive scientist who's written a number of pop science classics: The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, and more. In 2011, he waded into the culture (if not political) debates with Better Angels of our Nature, a text whose basic premise – that the world has been getting more peaceful for millennia, and that the advent of a powerful state can be credited here – has shaped this podcast's political thinking. Although an excellent writer at his best, in 2014, he published a book about writing well – The Sense of Style – which was loaded with haphazard advice, and then 2018's more explicitly political Enlightenment Now, a mixed bag that has the overall correct argument (the world gets better over time) but lots of overstatement, understatement, and poor framing of a number of issues. It also suffers from its straitjacket reliance on the Great Enlightenment as a thematic/unifying writerly tool, since Steven Pinker only superficially touches upon the movement, and ends the book with a bizarre attack on Friedrich Nietzsche as a Counter-Enlightenment anti-humanist. In this video, we assess Steven Pinker's claims and offer up some of our own. For example: if GDP is a sloppy way to measure human development, what does GPI say? Should we prefer one criminal cartel over another? Why HAS institutional trust eroded, anyway? And many other questions, as well. You can also watch this episode on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/1oSwpfcxmbM Read the latest writing from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com Joel's website: https://poeticimport.com Read Alex's (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com Read Alex's essay on Steven Pinker's “The Sense of Style”: https://alexsheremet.com/review-of-steven-pinkers-the-sense-of-style-the-thinking-persons-guide-to-writing-in-the-21st-century/ Music sample: Lowkemia - "Lorem Ipsum" (CC BY-SA 3.0) Timestamps: 0:00 – Steven Pinker's Language Instinct, Better Angels of our Nature, Blank Slate, Sense of Style; where Enlightenment Now fits into his oeuvre 16:15 – What does it mean when billionaires like Bill Gates want to blurb your book? 27:46 – How Steven Pinker misuses his two opening epigraphs 40:08 – Steven Pinker primes the reader early on for the book's least plausible arguments 53:00 – Does Steven Pinker downplay the Enlightenment's skepticism of reason? 01:06:08 – Yes, we're more rational than ever, but what are today's witches and werewolves? 01:10:50 – “Misfortune may be no one's fault”: does Steven Pinker boost the status quo? 01:17:06 – Is it true that “justice” has killed more people than “greed”? How can we even know? 01:24:40 – Why has institutional trust eroded? Is Steven Pinker's answer satisfying? 01:36:51 – De-framing + re-framing Enlightenment Now while still accepting its core claims 01:49:48 – Have we reached “peak stuff”? 02:10:05 – Study: GDP vs. GPI to measure human progress & wealth 02:16:04 – Alex goes OFF on the childish capitalism/communism debate & Western hypocrisy 02:37:45 – What Steven Pinker gets wrong about Korea and Taiwan 02:48:50 – Income inequality, colonialism, & post-colonialism: the Steven Pinker, Bill Gates, Jason Hickel, Branko Milanovic debate 03:53:06 – How Steven Pinker depends on Friedrich Nietzsche's arguments, then misreads him 04:28:25 – Enlightenment Now is (mostly) correct about existential threats 04:35:12 – Steven Pinker offers remarkably thin political analysis

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://kingdablog.com/2015/01/03/williams-syndrome-and-the-language-instinct/

洪蘭老師這樣說 洪蘭教授致力於腦科學研究，著名譯作為美國心理學家史迪芬·平克的The Language Instinct（語言本能），對於生命科學、教育心理的涉獵廣深。 「洪蘭老師這樣說」為一教育性質節目，於時事、古典或自身經驗中取材，啟發孩童心靈成長，也能讓家長對於教導孩子，擁有更多元的建議。 #快樂學習#洪蘭老師#品格教育#心靈教育#

Steven Pinker is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, linguist, and popular science author. He is Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, and is known for his advocacy of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. He is the author of The Language Instinct (1994), How the Mind Works (1997), Words and Rules (2000), The Blank Slate (2002), The Stuff of Thought (2007), The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011) and Enlightenment Now (2018). For more, visit: https://stevenpinker.com/. ************* Want to find HumanProgress.org elsewhere on the internet? Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HumanProgress.org/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/HumanProgress/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/HumanProgressorg/ *************

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter SubscribeStar: https://www.subscribestar.com/the-dissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter PayPal Subscription 1 Dollar: https://tinyurl.com/yb3acuuy PayPal Subscription 3 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9l PayPal Subscription 5 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpz PayPal Subscription 10 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9m PayPal Subscription 20 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Anchor (podcast): https://anchor.fm/thedissenter Dr. Steven Pinker is a Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as the New York Times, Time and The Atlantic, and is the author of ten books, including The Language Instinct, How The Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Stuff of Thought, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and most recently, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. In this episode, we talk go through some of the main topics Dr. Pinker tackles in his work. We start by discussing a new hypothesis put forth by Joe Henrich and his collaborators, about the possible influence the Catholic Church had on the evolution of our WEIRD psychology and the Enlightenment ideas. We then talk about cultural evolution, morality from an evolutionary perspective, and human progress. We also address if our folk psychology tracks scientific findings on human behavior. We also talk about language, and AI. Finally, we go through two questions coming from a patron, about the cognitive niche hypothesis, and the WEIRD problem. -- Follow Dr. Pinker's work: Faculty page: http://bit.ly/2Nx4rC6 Website: http://bit.ly/3abIVMN ResearchGate profile: http://bit.ly/2RkTcxI Books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2R02Er6 Twitter handle: @sapinker -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS/SUPPORTERS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, PER HELGE LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, JERRY MULLER, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BERNARDO SEIXAS, HERBERT GINTIS, RUTGER VOS, RICARDO VLADIMIRO, BO WINEGARD, CRAIG HEALY, OLAF ALEX, PHILIP KURIAN, JONATHAN VISSER, DAVID DIAS, ANJAN KATTA, JAKOB KLINKBY, ADAM KESSEL, MATTHEW WHITINGBIRD, ARNAUD WOLFF, TIM HOLLOSY, HENRIK AHLENIUS, JOHN CONNORS, PAULINA BARREN, FILIP FORS CONNOLLY, DAN DEMETRIOU, ROBERT WINDHAGER, RUI INACIO, ARTHUR KOH, ZOOP, MARCO NEVES, MAX BEILBY, COLIN HOLBROOK, SUSAN PINKER, THOMAS TRUMBLE, PABLO SANTURBANO, SIMON COLUMBUS, PHIL KAVANAGH, JORGE ESPINHA, CORY CLARK, AND MARK BLYTH! A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, ROSEY, JIM FRANK, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, IAN GILLIGAN, SERGIU CODREANU, LUIS CAYETANO, AND MATTHEW LAVENDER! AND TO MY EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, MICHAL RUSIECKI!

Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill University (Canada) and his Ph.D. from Harvard University (USA). Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford University and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his ten books – including The Language Instinct. How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, and The Sense of Style: A Writing Manual for the 21st Century. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, and writes frequently for The New York Times, The Guardian, and other publications. His latest book is called Enlightenment. Den Originalbeitrag und mehr finden Sie bitte hier: https://lisa.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/steven_pinker_the_psychology_biology_and_history_of_violence?nav_id=8071

Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill University (Canada) and his Ph.D. from Harvard University (USA). Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford University and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his ten books – including The Language Instinct. How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, and The Sense of Style: A Writing Manual for the 21st Century. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, and writes frequently for The New York Times, The Guardian, and other publications. His latest book is called Enlightenment. Den Originalbeitrag und mehr finden Sie bitte hier: https://lisa.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/steven_pinker_the_psychology_biology_and_history_of_violence?nav_id=8071

Language is the main channel in which human beings share the contents of their consciousness. It offers a window into human nature, revealing the hidden workings of our thoughts, our emotions, and our social relationships. In his lecture, Prof Steven Pinker will explore an example of each: everyday metaphor as a window into human cognition; swearing and taboo words as a window into human emotion; and indirect speech-veiled threats and bribes, polite requests, and sexual come-ons as a window into human relationships. Professor Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Until 2003, he taught in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as the New York Times, Time, and Slate, and is the author of seven books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, Words and Rules, and The Blank Slate.Recorded on 6 June 2008 at the University of Edinburgh's McEwan Hall.

Cognitive psychologist, Steven Pinker, has been dubbed "science's agent provocateur". Pinker studies how the mind works. Presenter Jim al-Khalili wants to find out how his mind works. Pinker replies: "as a psychologist you look at your own life as data and say geez that's what I'm like". From verbs to violence, he's author of several books that many say are mind-changing. He's now something of a science superstar, but his early experiments with electrodes on rats didn't quite go according to plan: "I realised then that that kind of science required a level of meticulousness that I just didn't have". So instead of studying neuroscience, he became a cognitive psychologist. Now perhaps better known for his writing than his science, he shot to fame with his book The Language Instinct, based on his early studies of how children tackle irregular verbs, for example saying "holded" not held, and "digged" instead of dug. These cute sounding mistakes are proof that three year olds are grammatical geniuses, he says. And he met his wife Rebecca Goldstein over an irregular verb. Later, Pinker set the cat among the social science pigeons by stressing the importance of nature rather than nurture: an assertion that led to some bitter arguments with, among others, the psychologist Oliver James. He readily admits that genes aren't everything: he's decided not to have children and says "if my genes don't like it, they can go jump in the lake". But he says, "there's a phobia of genetics that it's time to get over". Our failure to even think about genetic influences has given us a false impression of the amount of influence parents have over their children: it's skewed the science. Parents like to think that they mould and shape their children in certain ways but Pinker argues, as long as children are not abused, parenting makes little difference to how they turn out at 18. His most recent book 'The Better Angels of Our Nature' is about the decline in global violence from 8500 BC. Despite two World Wars, Vietnam, Kosovo, Iraq, Darfur and many others, Pinker asserts that we are living in the most peaceful times ever and wants to know why our better angels triumph over our inner demons. Is he now showing the better angel of his Nature? Each week on The Life Scientific, Jim al-Khalili invites a leading scientist to tell us about their life and work: he wants to get under their skin and into their minds. And he'll ask what their discoveries might do for us. He talks to Nobel laureates as well as the next generation of beautiful minds and finds out what inspired them to do science in the first place and what motivates them to keep going. Fellow scientists will comment on their work, putting it in context and offering alternative perspectives. Future guests include: astronomer Jocelyn Bell-Burnell; the brains behind the Human Genome Project, John Sulston; Molly Stevens, a tissue engineer who's work growing bones could mean the end of metal pins for broken legs; Hugh Montgomery, who discovered the fitness gene. Themes and ideas from the interviews will be explored on The Life Scientific website, which will aggregate some of the best Radio 4 Science archive around the topics discussed in the programmes.

Language is a highly complex, specialised cognitive ability that is unique to humans. Nevertheless, most three-year-olds can talk using simple sentences. However, seven per cent of otherwise normally developing children have ‘specific language impairment' (SLI), and many of these children have dyslexia too. SLI has a strong genetic component and for many individuals it is a life-long impairment. The long-term costs are socially, culturally, and economically high. I will present some research findings, using traditional and brain imaging techniques to explain these children's language problems. SLI provides a unique window into the brain, how specialised systems develop, and how our findings can help children.