251 | Rosemary Braun on Uncovering Patterns in Biological Complexity
Biological organisms are paradigmatic emergent systems. That atoms of which they are made mindlessly obey the local laws of physics; even cells and organs do their individual jobs without explicitly u...
25 Sep 20231h 11min
250 | Brendan Nyhan on Navigating the Information Ecosystem
The modern world inundates us with both information and misinformation. What are the forces that conspire to make misinformation so prevalent? Can we combat the flow of misinformation, perhaps by lega...
18 Sep 202357min
249 | Peter Godfrey-Smith on Sentience and Octopus Minds
The study of cognition and sentience would be greatly abetted by the discovery of intelligent alien beings, who presumably developed independently of life here on Earth. But we do have more than one d...
11 Sep 20231h 28min
AMA | September 2023
Welcome to the September 2023 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 P...
4 Sep 20234h 3min
248 | Yejin Choi on AI and Common Sense
Over the last year, AI large-language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have demonstrated a remarkable ability to carry on human-like conversations in a variety of different concepts. But the way these LLMs ...
28 Aug 20231h 12min
247 | Samuel Bowles on Economics, Cooperation, and Inequality
Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/08/21/247-samuel-bowles-on-economics-cooperation-and-inequality/ Economics, much like thermodynamics, is a story of collect...
21 Aug 20231h 20min
246 | David Stuart on Time and Science in Maya Civilization
You might remember the somewhat bizarre worries that swept through certain circles back in 2012, based on the end of the world being predicted by the Maya calendar. The world didn't end, which is unsu...
14 Aug 20231h 9min
AMA | August 2023
Welcome to the August 2023 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 Patr...
7 Aug 20233h 38min
