A podcast about the work of David Deutsch, Karl Popper and related matters.

Drawing on Chapter 15 "The Evolution of Culture" from "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch and then applying it to some special cases. Come and chat to me about this or anything else at https://www.getairchat.com/brett 00:00 Speech, Trade and Democracy 02:39 Is Democracy under attack? 07:05 Free Speech as Error Identification 09:14 Limits on Free Speech? 13:02 Case Study 1: North Korea 14:18 Case Study 2: Afghanistan and Iraq 17:30 Case Study 3: South Korea 19:43 Case Study 4: China 24:43 The Evolution of Culture by David Deutsch 1 29:43 Protecting liberty in Western Nations 30:30 Bringing Liberty to nations without it. 32:25 Case Study 5: Japan 35:01 Immigration: Why worry? 35:58 The Evolution of Culture by David Deutsch 2 39:01 Preserve the means of error correction at all costs

00:00 Introduction 04:16 The physics of greenhouse gases 10:46 CO2 Fertilization (the greening of Earth) 11:50 People are planet engineers 15:38 The double standard on wood 17:00 Artificial vs Natural 20:00 Climate Science predictions and fossil fuels 21:20: Thermodynamics and CO2 27:04 The geological carbon cycle 35:50 Power for People, Problems and Progress 40:50 Reaction to Joe Rogan and Elon Musk talking solar energy 52:00 The affordability of solar energy 54:00 “Renewables” vs fossil fuels 57:00 Australia as a case study 1:00:10 Wind turbines and wind factories 1:04:00 Coal Fired power stations 1:11:00 Are wind farms environmentally and economically preferable? 1:12:20 The politicisation of science classes 1:15:30 Net Zero as a special case of “Sustainability” 1:17:25 What should we do about climate change? 1:26:40 Conclusions

All about net zero

"The Pattern". Some reflections on recent events. Drawing on "A Short History of Israel" by @DavidDeutschOxf found here: https://www.daviddeutsch.org.uk/papersarticles/a-short-history-of-israel/ #DeutschsPattern Errors my own. I stand with Israel.

What is the place of "trust" in Popperian epistemology/critical rationalism? What is the role of trust in personal relationships? If trust has *no* role in Popperian epistemology then how can it possibly be of any use in social and personal relationships if trust is needed in personal relationships. Spoiler: trust is never good. Even in personal relationships. This Airchat podcast explains how.

Attempt 2

AMA here or via Twitter. Superchat welcome!

This episode is an introduction to the chapter. Although there are some readings, they are limited and I provide context by diving deep into David's more recent work on all this. Specifically we go through the connection of Chapter 10 here (published in 1997) and Chapter 5 "The Reality of Abstractions" from "The Beginning of Infinity" (published in 2011) and then also in light of David's recent speech given at his Dirac Medal award ceremony (published in 2017) - here is the timestamped link to that https://www.youtube.com/live/J7HeDX_7Heg?si=GuTfZAphaUhY-oV9&t=10101 and the text of that speech is online here: https://www.daviddeutsch.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/MathematiciansMisconception.pdf None of that is essential reading (or listening) for this episode - but it can help. As always - buy "The Fabric of Reality" and read along as I never read the entire chapter - just excerpts!

Commentary (and Explainer) This video is largely an op-ed about the "feminisation" of Western militaries and the effect of so-called "diversity, equity and inclusion" ideologies on modern defence forces. I look at what the purpose of a military is and the tension between its aims and the ways some arms of some defence forces are "marketing" themselves to their own people. Of chief concern to some has been the way the US army has chosen to attempt to recruit people into its ranks here: 1. https://youtu.be/MIYGFSONKbk?si=C8mFqnObEburxXqz 2. A recent article from Australian media about coercion of "LGBTQIA+" ideologies on cadets: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-27/adf-academy-cadets-claim-they-were-pressured-to-remove-uniforms/102780562 3. US Marine corps recruitment ad for comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9gTAjbiQEM 4. Humorous Aussie analysis of US vs Russian & Chinese army recruitment commercials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXmyWdZfdgk 5. Ex-Marine comments on US Military Matters (Jameson's Travels) - https://www.youtube.com/@UC-N44TadAniwC7v8Zj858nQ #woke #feminism #military #transition #army #philosophy "Like" my video and "subscribe" to my channel :)

Semi-serious semi-novelty video about how to get arrested. Note: consult a lawyer for actual legal advice. Credit to https://twitter.com/jemjmca on Twitter for much of the material. References 1. The Streisand Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect 2. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/11/girl-arrested-lesbian-nana-comment-no-action-west-yorkshire/ 3.. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12399911/Revealed-Mother-autistic-daughter-16-dragged-home-police-saying-female-officer-lesbian-like-nana-set-SUE-force.html (No paywall) Worth watching video & analysis of the arrest: 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPZ9oBHH4z0 5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87aQnS5zimU 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmNs7Ufpvgk

This is a "return to regular format" episode in one respect - readings from and reflections upon "The Fabric of Reality" but also a departure from regular formatting in another respect: I teach a bunch of simple mathematics. This is for those who might think "quantum computation" and "quantum algorithms" will be forever beyond me. They are not! I begin with (quite literally) primary school mathematics level stuff (what's a prime number, what is the "fundamental theorem of arithmetic") and very gradually move up into algebra and some modular arithmetic and present examples using real numbers of what the *problem* is and then lead us to a place where we can glimpse the solution (which is Shor's Algorithm). I do not promise to bring the listener to a graduate quantum physics-degree-level of proficiency in quantum information theory and cryptography - but you will gain quite some insight. I refer to the following more in-depth expositions of all this and hopefully bridge the gap I think is there between "I know a little bit of maths and physics" and the kind of thing the following more "high level" videos offer (which I present in order of increasing technical difficulty) 1. The PBS Infinite Series on all this stuff is brilliant. In particular this introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12Q3Mrh03Gk and this video focussed more narrowly on Shor's algorithm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUwZZaI5u0c 2. Here is Peter Shor himself explaining the history of his work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qD9XElTpCE 3. Artur Ekert's graduate level free online course on Quantum Information Theory: https://www.youtube.com/@ArturEkert/videos in particular his lecture focussed on Shor's Algorithm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TioipZX7d5U (which, aside from "The Fabric of Reality" itself, served as the basis for this episode).

I recommend the version here *with* music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlvgxEBekP4 Full Credit for all ideas to: James (Jim) Pierce Naval and Nivi and David Deutsch With mistakes all my own See also James' website (and relevant article) here: https://www.james-pierce.com/writings/effortless-stoicism His instagram account including the original "Effortless Stoicism" video here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CuuDzL9sKOG/ His Twitter and relevant thread here: https://twitter.com/jimmpierce/status/1190810962493788160?s=20 Naval and Nivi's work on "How to get rich" where you can download their podcast from Naval's website here: https://nav.al/rich Or the Youtube version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-TZqOsVCNM See also Akira The Don's outstanding magical version along with other original music featuring Naval here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nX7x9AzwUTaGMFNVAxrLNXUJrKFotQ84Y And my new favorite Naval/Nivi/Akira song here: https://www.meaningwave.com/blogs/meaningwave/akira-the-don-naval-ravikant-ft-nivi-you-will-need-to-rent-your-time-to-get-started-single

Full Credit for all ideas to: James (Jim) Pierce Naval and Nivi and David Deutsch With mistakes all my own See also James' website (and relevant article) here: https://www.james-pierce.com/writings/effortless-stoicism His instagram account including the original "Effortless Stoicism" video here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CuuDzL9sKOG/ His Twitter and relevant thread here: https://twitter.com/jimmpierce/status/1190810962493788160?s=20 Naval and Nivi's work on "How to get rich" where you can download their podcast from Naval's website here: https://nav.al/rich Or the Youtube version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-TZqOsVCNM See also Akira The Don's outstanding magical version along with other original music featuring Naval here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nX7x9AzwUTaGMFNVAxrLNXUJrKFotQ84Y And my new favorite Naval/Nivi/Akira song here: https://www.meaningwave.com/blogs/meaningwave/akira-the-don-naval-ravikant-ft-nivi-you-will-need-to-rent-your-time-to-get-started-single

Some absolute nonsense cropped up on Twitter today. Max Tegmark, physicist and President of "The Future of Life Institute" claims to have performed the most "scientifically complete" simulation of what a nuclear war between the USA and Russia would be like. This "scientifically complete" simulation completely ignored...almost everything (like US missile defence systems...just for starters). This nonsense is in the same lineage as "AI will kill us all" or "Climate change will destroy the world". These people won't stop. Martin Rees the astronomer co-founded the "Centre for Existential Risk", Nick Bostrom is director of the "Future of Humanity" institute and Will MacAskill is chair of "The Global Priorities Institute" (and great supporter of Sam Bankman-Fried). These people are all "grifters" - claiming to know the future and willing to charge governments and corporations money to tell them how you're the problem and the cause of everything from mass extinction to the end of the world. This is me having fun with it all on Airchat. See my own Airchat channel here https://www.getairchat.com/bretthall/bretthall and get Airchat yourself here: https://www.getairchat.com and escape the nonsense.

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

Science news from a "critical rational" perspective. No "believing" in explanations here, no time for instrumentalism and a focus on good explanations of the evidence. Introduction (epistemology in science): 00:00 Dark Matter: 04:32 Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND): 08:12 Statistical confidence in physics: 15:23 Instrumentalism in modern physics: 19:00 Fusion Power 'News': 22:09 "Spinoffs" from fusion research: 24:56 Advice for investors in pure science: 28:26 James Webb Space Telescope latest: 31:59 Concluding Remarks: 37:42

Here in this second-to-last episode on the discussion of Chapter 9 from the Fabric of Reality we discuss some of the key distinctions between the classical and quantum - the philosophical and scientific implications and then some of the current experimental approaches to (and reporting on) the actual engineering of these devices.

More airchat chats. Orignal here: https://www.getairchat.com/bretthall/tokchat?t=927636

Originally from: getairchat.com/s/0vkdei1l/

This podcast was originally produced on Airchat: https://www.getairchat.com/bretthall/bretthall It is all about an interview that can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fv4Uz_i1iQ

This video/podcast episode is based around two sets of chits (two "chats") found on airchat at https://www.getairchat.com/bretthall/bretthall?t=440630 The articles associated with these chits and in the latter case many links are here: https://www.bretthall.org/blog/the-white-swan-and-red-pen and here: https://www.bretthall.org/blog/the-problem-with-fallibilism

The latest on the philosophy, science and technology of AI and AGI. ChatGPT, Deep Learning, Neural Networks and Large Language Models (LLMs). What do we know? Where is it going? See the room in full on airchat here: https://www.getairchat.com/welivetoserve/aiopenchat Get Airchat: https://www.getairchat.com/

Sam Harris and Lex Fridman vs The Multiverse and Constructor Theory. Although this is a reaction video, it's just 10 minutes of Sam & Lex with the rest of the time spent me doing some analysis, dissection and "what went wrong" reflection as a vehicle for explaining certain parts of physics and philosophy.

Everything that we’ve covered on ToKCast so far for those in a hurry or those wanting a refresher. It’s the synecdoche episode. 183 episodes down and David Deutsch has spoken with Naval Ravikant and Tim Ferris, and so begins another cohort of people - a new generation if you like - of people coming to optimism in Deutsch's sense and the infinite potential of people and explanatory knowledge. I begin with some reflections on David’s appearance on The Tim Ferris show. If you watch no other ToKCast episodes or don't have the time for complete commitment - this is the one for you.

Some reflections on knowledge and belief and some other topics.