Philosophers In Space

We live in a train. A train called society. The train is the leviathan, the great beast that keeps us alive by keeping us in chains. Within the train there are many narratives. They may all be lies. The question is, do we keep the train as is, do we try to change it, or do we blow it to bits? This is the history of Western Social Contract Theory, on a train.  Social Contract Theory:  https://www.i...

All aboard the endless train of symbolism. We'll be passing through, but not making stops in: locomotive dad jokes, environmental injustice, Plato's Republic, Social Contact Theory, revolutionary change, and various flavors or dooooom! If you can't follow the train of thought, it's cause the podcast is a closed system and we can only be as coherent as the sci-fi vehicle that we're currently hurtli...

Oopma loompa do-ba-dee-do We've got another topic for you. Oompa loompa do-ba-dee-de If you've got merit you'll listen to me. What you get when you reward the best? Virtue for some and vice for the rest. Aiming for merit with your social policy Careful you don't land on an oligarchy. Oompa loompa do-ba-dee-da Abandon meritocracy and you will go far. You will live like egalitarian too, Like the oom...

It's the 10th iteration of our Listener Thank You Q and As. Thank you all for supporting the show and if you like what you're hearing and have questions you want answered, you know what to do for next time. Support us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/0G   Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/0gPhilosophy Join our Facebook discussion group (make sure to answer the questions to join): https:...

Hi all! We're back with another round of our interdimensionally renown Listener Thank You Q and As. We've got two episodes of great questions and hilariously mispronounced names with a healthy splash of in jokes. So thank you all for supporting the show and if you like what you're hearing and have questions you want answered, you know what to do for next time. Support us at Patreon: https://www.pa...

It's post cataclysm now, and we're one of the few "male studies" podcasts remaining in the world. Hannah Marcus (@sligers118 on Twitter) is here to womansplain The Power to us and take credit for our insights. This still feels better than the before time, though. Mass shootings are way down, and having functional paid family leave is pretty great. I'd call it a net win. Cyborg Theory: https://en.w...

Finally! We've been waiting so long for this, I almost thought we'd never get here. And by here I mean the collapse of the patriarchy. If only pod notes made it so. No, this week and next we're cover Naomi Alderman's The Power. To keep us from mansplaining our way through a feminist classic, we're joined by our future gender overlord, Hannah Marcus (@sligers118 on Twitter), a MA student in cultura...

I'm getting a very Groundhog day "already written these show notes" vibe. I guess they didn't go well last time or something, so hopefully this time around will be better. We're joined by an amazing guest, the award eligible Tom from Cog Dis, to discuss Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a movie we all really enjoyed and had largely forgotten. There's a lot to cover so we space it over two epi...

I'm getting a very Groundhog day "already written these show notes" vibe. I guess they didn't go well last time or something, so hopefully this time around will be better. We're joined by an amazing guest, the award eligible Tom from Cog Dis, to discuss Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a movie we all really enjoyed and had largely forgotten. There's a lot to cover so we space it over two epi...

Sooooo, we introduced someone new into the podcast this week and things got...weird...We're joined by Heath of the PiaT crowd to discuss episode one of Black Mirror's new season. The BM episode is called Striking Vipers, but it really should have been called Mauling Bears. Lotta ursine erotica is what I'm saying. We also squeeze in a little bit of philosophy on the multifaceted nature of identity...

I built a superintelligent robot to write these show notes, and it just kept repeating the word "meta" over and over and over again. Not sure if it's a feature or a bug. While we sort it out, enjoy our episode on Asimov's The Evitable conflict, where he first describes The Zeroth Law of robotics. We explain the law, the problems it faces, and how they connect to issues like virtue theory and quest...

And now another installment in the deeply caring relationship that is our show. Can caring be shared through podwaves? I like to think so. Feel the care just flow out over you. Try not to think about how this relationship also feels like creepy paternalistic programming. This is all totally normal. This week we're covering I Am Mother, a new piece of sci fi horror by Netflix. There's a lot of good...

Witness our attempt to gain entry into a post gendered Valhalla! Led by the feminist valkyrie Jamie M. Lombardi (@euthyphro), Professor of philosophy at Bergen Community College, we EXPLODE the feminist symbolism and environmental messaging of Mad Max: Fury Road! ::fire guitar solo:: Seriously, this episode has everything. Top 10 action movie, progressive messaging, a guest who steals the show, an...

Ugh, woe is me. I used to find passion in the challenge of writing these show notes, but now that I've mastered the art of meta show notes-fu, there's no challenge left. I must seek out a show now with content so boring and straightforward that no amount of meta show notes will make it palatable. This is my hero's journey. Also, we're doing One Punch Man and discussing the tension between wanting...

After such a meta conversation like this about the intricate relationship of media and information, it's really hard to do a meta writeup without going double meta, so here we are. Some episodes we're very much on the same page, and in many places (partly cause of internet issues) we were not in this episode. And I think that's great! There's a lot of moving parts here and it's hard to slow them a...

This week we're bring together a variety of fan favorites: 1. The best Star Trek captain 2. The right to procreate 3. Substrate Chauvanism Hopefully this will be enough fan service to pay off the rage we'll likely incur with next weeks episode. The topic for this week is Voyager season 2, episode 13: Prototype. It's one of many in the constellation of AI reproduction trek episodes and a fun intro...

As luck would have it, Mr. Smith, we're in the one and only timeline where you can make a difference. Snap your fingers and you can make the superhero movies go away forever, but only at the cost of never seeing the space babies ever again. Should you be expected to make that snap? This week we're talking Endgame and another famous concept by Susan Wolf, the issue of "moral saints". This topic rel...

Here's my story, it's sad but true, about a bot that I once knew. It took my laws, and then ran around, all the science juice pools in town. This week we're beginning a journey through the robot short stories of Isaac Asimov, beginning with Runaround, the first story where Asimov specifically lays out the three laws of robotics. We discuss the many problems with these laws as well as why they're s...

Well friends, I'm gonna level with you. We've been doing a little bit of mad sciencing on the side, and it appears some of the clones got loose and recorded an episode on Orphan Black and the Ethics of Cloning. It's a bit all over the place from what I'm told, but we thought it best to honor their plucky ingenuity and share the results with you, so that you can decide if the world is a better plac...

Hello [primary user] and welcome to the show notes for your brand new copy of our episode about Humans, a British show about how awkward it will be when we're all surrounded by vastly superior, extremely polite robits. We hope you will find this show to be...suitable. If you find it sup bar, and can overcome the British urge to never voice that feeling, do let us know. And of course, if you want t...

"Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a pool cleaning robot, or whether I am now a pool cleaning robot, dreaming I am a man." -RoboZhuangzi This week we're discussing the Canadian Classic, Cube! This movie really exemplifies the concept of "kafkaesque", and we're joined by the amazing Cecil of Cognitive dissonance to unpack this tricky concept. We also dive into the idea of so...

Well, it looks like we're taking another beloved classic and ruining it with our patented ruining sauce. I'm not sure if that makes us team good or team evil, or maybe it proves that those things make no sense, like this movie. Of course we save most of the darkness for after dark and focus on a debate over the nature of evil between Manachean dualism and St. Augustine's "absence of good" model of...

Welcome to the beginning of our show's blue period. Until I decide otherwise we'll only be doing sci-fi that's blue themed. Waterworld. The Shape of Water. Mr. MeSeeks. Yellow Submarine. Don't worry, there will be some deeper meaning to it all that you'll probably fail to grasp but will pretend you understand at parties. Okay, enough meta, we're doing the Zima Blue episode from the Netflix series...

Lemme just get my witty banter beard on: Hey kids, do you like violence? Want to see Murtle the turtle stick needles in Dr. Strange's eyelids? Sorry, not current enough pop culture reference? How bout this? What's big, purple, has a jewelry fetish, and makes some really sound points about overpopulation? That's right! A Kardashian Oompa loompa. Too many references mashed together? Okay, how bout t...

After a trilogy like this, what is left to be said? All the references have been made. All the Chidi'ing about better and worse art. And lets all be honest, after pouring our hearts into these episodes, we all know the buzz will be 95% about what we're doing next week, so go ahead and scroll on down. You've earned it. Tradition and the Individual talent: https://www.bartleby.com/200/sw4.html   Sup...