Very Bad Wizards24 Touko 2022

Episode 237: Glitches Ain't Shit

David and Tamler explore the many variations of simulation theory, the view that our universe is just a computer generated model created by an advanced civilization that has reached "technological maturity." What does the growing popularity of simulation theories reveal about contemporary life? Are any of the arguments for simulation theory compelling or are they just post-hoc ways of justifying what you already believe on faith? If we are living in a simulation, does that mean we can go around killing people? Would it change anything about how we should live? Rodney Ascher's (Room 237, The Nightmare) excellent documentary "A Glitch in the Matrix" gets the discussion going.

Plus the return of the VBW does conceptual analysis segment - a careful, rigorous, systematic inquiry into the concept "cringe."*

*Note: if you think the opening segment is itself cringe, that's because we're doing seventh dimensional Zoomer meta shit and you just didn't get it.

Jaksot(340)

Episode 336: The Wright Stuff

The great Robert Wright returns to the podcast to talk about his new book The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning. We debate the magnitude of AI's potential impact, the n...

30 Kesä 1h 30min

Episode 334: Let's Get Metaphysical

What are the legitimate ways to inquire about the nature of the universe? We have science, metaphysics, phenomenological inquiry, but what about mystical and meditative practices? David and Tamler tal...

16 Kesä 1h 20min

Episode 333: P-hacking the Mind

David and Tamler do another tier ranking--this time on philosophical thought experiments, so as not to further alienate our chemistry-adjacent listeners. We hit most of the big ones: Pascal's wager, P...

26 Touko 54min

Episode 332: Talking to Myself ("The Other" by Jorge Luis Borges)

David and Tamler talk about Jorge Luis Borges' disorienting short story "The Other." A 70-year-old Borges sits on a bench by the Charles River and who should he encounter but himself as a 19-year-old,...

12 Touko 1h 54min

Episode 331: Who's Your Law Daddy? (Plato's "Crito")

In another Back 2 Basics episode, David and Tamler talk about Plato's "Crito," a dialogue that takes place two days before Socrates' death by hemlock. His friend Crito wants him to escape, but Socrate...

28 Huhti 1h 31min

Episode 330: A Fact-Based Podcast (Gogol's "The Overcoat")

David and Tamler return to the strange world of Nikolai Gogol and discuss his absurdist masterpiece "The Overcoat," a story that both calls for and steadfastly resists interpretation. But first we dis...

14 Huhti 1h 16min

Episode 329: Why We Suffer

David and Tamler return to the work of Richard Shweder and colleagues, focusing this time on his foundational paper "The "Big Three" of Morality (Autonomy, Community, Divinity) and the "Big Three" Exp...

31 Maalis 1h 20min

Episode 328: Weapons Free

David and Tamler cross the border into Denis Villeneuve's taut and propulsive thriller Sicario, the story of an FBI agent who gets pulled into a task force drawn from the shadiest elements of the US g...

17 Maalis 1h 42min