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

Evolution by natural selection is one of the rare scientific theories that resonates within the wider culture as much as it does within science. But as much as people know about evolution, we also fin...

8 Aug 20221h 17min

Welcome to the August 2022 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...

1 Aug 20223h 6min

The idea of an "interest rate" might seem mundane and practical, in comparison to our usual topics around here, but there is a profound philosophical idea lurking in the background: if you lend me mon...

25 Juli 20221h 19min

Recent years have seen a revolution in the study of exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than the Sun (or don't orbit stars at all). After a few tentative detections in the 1990s, dedicated inst...

18 Juli 20221h 15min

We describe the world using language — we can't help it. And we all know that ordinary language is an imperfect way of communicating rigorous scientific statements, but sometimes it's the best we can ...

11 Juli 20221h 24min

Welcome to the July 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). I take the large number of questi...

4 Juli 20223h 26min

The United States is suffering from an epidemic of tragic gun violence. While a political debate rages around the topic of gun control, it remains important to understand the causes and possible remed...

27 Juni 20221h 15min

All of us construct models of the world, and update them on the basis of evidence brought to us by our senses. Scientists try to be more rigorous about it, but we all do it. It's natural that this pro...

20 Juni 20221h 9min