111 | Nick Bostrom on Anthropic Selection and Living in a Simulation

111 | Nick Bostrom on Anthropic Selection and Living in a Simulation

Human civilization is only a few thousand years old (depending on how we count). So if civilization will ultimately last for millions of years, it could be considered surprising that we've found ourselves so early in history. Should we therefore predict that human civilization will probably disappear within a few thousand years? This "Doomsday Argument" shares a family resemblance to ideas used by many professional cosmologists to judge whether a model of the universe is natural or not. Philosopher Nick Bostrom is the world's expert on these kinds of anthropic arguments. We talk through them, leading to the biggest doozy of them all: the idea that our perceived reality might be a computer simulation being run by enormously more powerful beings.

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Nick Bostrom received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the London School of Economics. He also has bachelor's degrees in philosophy, mathematics, logic, and artificial intelligence from the University of Gothenburg, an M.A. in philosophy and physics from the University of Stockholm, and an M.Sc. in computational neuroscience from King's College London. He is currently a Professor of Applied Ethics at the University of Oxford, Director of the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute, and Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology. He is the author of Anthropic Bias: Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy and Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies.


Episoder(419)

Ask Me Anything | July 2024

Ask Me Anything | July 2024

Welcome to the July 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreo...

8 Jul 20243h 21min

281 | Samir Okasha on the Philosophy of Agency and Evolution

281 | Samir Okasha on the Philosophy of Agency and Evolution

Just like with physics, in biology it is perfectly possible to do most respectable work without thinking much about philosophy, but there are unmistakably foundational questions where philosophy becom...

1 Jul 20241h 11min

280 | François Chollet on Deep Learning and the Meaning of Intelligence

280 | François Chollet on Deep Learning and the Meaning of Intelligence

Which is more intelligent, ChatGPT or a 3-year old? Of course this depends on what we mean by "intelligence." A modern LLM is certainly able to answer all sorts of questions that require knowledge far...

24 Jun 20241h 41min

279 | Ellen Langer on Mindfulness and the Body

279 | Ellen Langer on Mindfulness and the Body

For those of us who are not dualists, the mind arises from our physical bodies -- mostly the brain, but the rest of the body has a role to play. And yet it remains tempting to treat the mind as a thin...

17 Jun 20241h 11min

278 | Kieran Healy on the Technology of Ranking People

278 | Kieran Healy on the Technology of Ranking People

We claim to love all of our children, friends, and students equally. But perhaps deep down you assign a ranking to them, from favorite to not-so-favorite. Ranking and quantifying people is an irresist...

10 Jun 20241h 15min

AMA | June 2024

AMA | June 2024

Welcome to the June 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreo...

3 Jun 20243h 58min

277 | Cumrun Vafa on the Universe According to String Theory

277 | Cumrun Vafa on the Universe According to String Theory

String theory, the current leading candidate for a theory of quantum gravity as well as other particles and forces, doesn't connect directly to the world we see. It's possible that there is a large la...

27 Mai 20241h 22min

276 | Gavin Schmidt on Measuring, Predicting, and Protecting Our Climate

276 | Gavin Schmidt on Measuring, Predicting, and Protecting Our Climate

The Earth's climate keeps changing, largely due to the effects of human activity, and we haven't been doing enough to slow things down. Indeed, over the past year, global temperatures have been higher...

20 Mai 20241h 19min

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