Rebroadcast of Ep7 "Is AI truly intelligent? How would we know if it got there?"
David is taking his birthday week off and wanted to re-share this episode due to it's ongoing relevance. Modern AI is blowing everyone’s mind. But is it intelligent like humans, or is it just playing ...
29 Apr 202446min
Ep56 "Why do we care so much about touch?"
Why does a cold pool feel warmer the second time you dip your toes in? Why does a safecracker run his fingers over sandpaper? Why do Mediterranean cultures touch each other more than Scandinavian cult...
22 Apr 202443min
Ep55 "Could a brain plugin instantly teach you to fly a helicopter?"
Could you instantaneously learn to fly a helicopter -- not by practicing, but instead by uploading instructions directly to your brain? What would society do if children no longer had to go to school?...
15 Apr 202434min
Ep54 "Where do you end and others begin?"
From the brain’s point of view, what is the self? How do 30 trillion cells come to feel like a single entity? Does the "self" of a blind person include the tip of her walking stick? How flexible is ou...
8 Apr 202437min
Ep 53 " Can societies fight better? "
Presumably we're not going to solve the problem of conflict between groups of people -- but what would better conflict look like? And what does that have to do with brains, the spread of homo sapiens,...
1 Apr 20241h 4min
Ep 52 "What is lucid dreaming?" (Sleeping & Dreaming Part 3)
Can you become conscious inside a dream? Can a researcher convey information to a dreamer, and can the dreamer find some way to answer back? Does 10 seconds inside a dream equal 10 seconds in real lif...
25 Mars 20241h 2min
Ep 51 "Why do brains dream?"
Why do brains dream, and why are dreams so bizarre? Why doesn't your clock work in your dreams? And even though you spend much of your working day looking at your cell phone and computer – why do they...
18 Mars 202452min
Ep50 "Why do we spend 1/3 of our lives asleep?" (Sleeping & Dreaming Part 1)
Why do we spend 1/3 of our lives in the strange doppelganger state of sleep? Can we die from a lack of sleep? How long is it possible to keep yourself awake (and why does the Guinness Book of World Re...
11 Mars 20241h 15min
