Uncertainty – Details, episodes & analysis

Dr. Ned Block, professor of philosophy and psychology at NYU, joins me to discuss theories of consciousness, functionalism, the difference between access and phenomenal consciousness, the limitations of current Large Language Models, and how far away artificial general intelligence is from our current capacities.

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00:00 Introduction

00:22 Hard vs. easy problems of consciousness

07:39 Reductive vs. non-reductive physicalism

12:19 The Chinese nation thought experiment

19:14 Can ChatGPT fool you into thinking it's a human? The Turing test

28:31 Rules vs. patterns-based reasoning

34:16 Blockhead thought experiment

37:53 Phenomenal vs. access consciousness

44:09 What is artificial intelligence?

46:27 The limits of LLMs

49:48 Does thinking require a brain?

50:34 Narrow vs. general AI

51:57 Is AI about to surpass human intelligence?

Sam Thomas, my philosophy bestie hailing from Oxford, England, joins me to go through the results of the 2020 PhilPapers survey of professional philosophers. We offer our opinions on many major philosophical issues.

Check out the ⁠2020 PhilPapers survey⁠.

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Feel free to follow me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

EPISODE CHAPTERS

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:15 A Priori Knowledge

00:11:22 Aim of Philosophy

00:22:01 Eating Animals

00:32:50 Experience Machine

00:43:17 External World Skepticism

00:52:11 The Trolly Problem

01:06:23 God's Existence

01:29:38 Meaning of Life

01:41:37 Chinese Room

01:48:55 Immortality

02:00:20 Philosophical Progress

Dr. Thomas Rudelius, early universe cosmologist and professor of physics at Durham University, sits down with me to discuss whether cosmology indicates that the universe began to exist, what it might mean for spacetime to "emerge" from a deeper reality, and whether the fine-tuning of the laws of physics indicates design behind the universe.

Dr. Michael Huemer and I discuss ethical intuitionism, the view that there are moral truths, and that we know these truths via intellectual intuition. For more about Dr. Huemer, click here. To purchase Dr. Huemer's book, 'Ethical Intuitionism', click here.

Dr. Craig Blomberg, professor emeritus of New Testament at Denver Seminary, responds to Richard Carrier's critique of the historical argument for the resurrection of Jesus. To donate to the channel (super big pretty please please please), click here. To watch my interview with Carrier, click here. Blomberg's written debate on the resurrection, 'Resurrection: Fact or Faith?', accessible here.

Dr. Richard Carrier, author of 'On The Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt', returns to the podcast to discuss his problems with the proffered historical case for the resurrection of Jesus, focusing on William Lane Craig. To access Richard Carrier's blog, click here. To support the podcast (pretty please), click here.

James Fodor, author and YouTuber, joins me to debate the case for and against Christianity. To access James's YouTube channel, click here. To support my efforts at having interesting conversations with interesting people, click here.

Dr. Barry Loewer, professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, joins me to discuss the merits of scientific anti-realism, the view, roughly, that our best scientific theories do not attempt to capture the truth about the world. We also talk about the relationship between science and philosophy. It's good stuff. To support my efforts to explore interesting topics with interesting people, consider donating here. For a list of Dr. Loewer's publications, click here.

Dr. Afshordi is an astrophysicist at the University of Waterloo, specializing in cosmology, quantum gravity, and the physics of gravity. We discuss dark matter, dark energy, quantum gravity, the fine-tuning of the universe, and the multiverse. If you like my work and want to support me as I explore lots of cool things with lots of cool people, do please consider donatinghere. To pre-order Dr. Afshordi's book, Battle of the Big Bang, clickhere. For more on Dr. Afshordi and his research, check out his websitehere.

Dr. Randal Rauser joins me once again, this time to discuss the tradition Christian doctrine of eternal conscious torment (ECT), and his objections to this view. We also discuss issues arising for alternatives to ECT, like annihilationism and universalism, ending with three objections to the doctrine of Heaven. For more of Randal's work, check out his blog here.