The Theory of Anything

Bruce and Cameo talk to Bart Vanderhaegen about how his consulting company, Pactify, implements Karl Popper's epistemology in a work environment. His process involves generating new ideas at any level of the organization and then developing those ideas via error correction until they solve the problem in an optimal way.  If you are enjoying this show, please retweet us and give us a 5-Star Re...

Political polarization is dangerously on the rise. People feel uncomfortable speaking out so they seek comfortable echo chambers that reinforce their views, making them even less capable of interacting with alternative opinions.  In this episode Cameo and Bruce talk about the fictional story "Shiri's Scissor" which is about a machine learning algorithm that creates polarization. When the algo...

Karl Popper's philosophy is often heavily associated with the concept of "criticism." But most people don't react well to criticism. Why is that? Should you just give criticism whether people want to hear it or not?    Kim Scott's book "Radical Candor" answers this question with some surprising answers. In part 1 we went over the motivations for and basic framework for Scott's approach....

Karl Popper's philosophy is often summarized as "Conjecture and Refutation." It's also heavily associated with the concept of "criticism." But most people don't react well to criticism. Why is that? Should you just give criticism whether people want to hear it or not?  Kim Scott's book "Radical Candor" answers this question with some surprising answers. She argues that the most effective kind...

Bruce and Cameo are joined by Dennis Hackethal, Ella Hoeppner, and Thatchaphol Saranurak as we discuss Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). In part 3, each of the guests talks about their own theories about Artificial General Intelligence and where they are taking their research.  If you are enjoying this show, please retweet us and give us a 5-Star Review. Follow us on Twitter Link to " Ev...

This was recorded during the 24 hr. transcontinental Popperian ZOOM Meet 'n Greet of January 9th-10th, 2021 organized by OurKarlPopper.net. Bruce was asked to host a session with the subject of David Deutsch and how he brought a whole new generation to Karl Popper's philosophy. But at the last minute, we found out David Deutsch himself was attending. So we redid our plans to allow people to ask hi...

Bruce and Cameo are joined by Dennis Hackethal, Ella Hoeppner, and Thatchaphol Saranurak as we discuss Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).  In part 2, among other things, we discuss various objections people make to AGI and why they can't be correct due to the existence of universality. We also discuss what a "Universal Explainer" is and if it is possible to create a quantum "oracle machin...

In the last episode, we showed that Artificial General Intelligence was possible according to the laws of physics. This episode is part 1 of a 3-part panel discussion among computer scientists interested in AGI. Bruce and Cameo are joined by Dennis Hackethal, Ella Hoeppner, and Thatchaphol Saranurak -- all interested in both AGI and Karl Popper's epistemology and believe Popper's theories can shed...

Part 3 of our series on Computational Theory. Using the theory we've built up, we now prove that Artificial General Intelligence is possible due to what is called "The Turing Principle" which is the most profound philosophical implication of Computational Theory. Plus Cameo asks Bruce about how religious people look at these theories.  Youtube version with optional visuals Note: Due to the na...

In the last episode, we gave you the basic theory. Now we're going to show you how Computational Theory is actually used in real life. We'll discuss the various computational classes that exist and one special class in particular: NP-Complete. Using reducibility (as discussed in the previous episode) we can prove that this is a universal class of problems. This provides us evidence (but not a proo...

Computational Theory is possibly the most underrated of all scientific theories. In fact, most scientists think of it as a branch of mathematics rather than what it really is, a branch of physics. Computational Theory is the science of what the laws of physics allow you to compute. As such, it is one of David Deutsch's "4 Strands" which are the 4 most important scientific theories we have.  ...

Unlike the universally acclaimed Marvel movies, Disney has struggled to turn their Purchase of the Star Wars franchise into the powerhouse they were hoping for. Why is there such strong split opinions on these movies? What did Disney do well and what did they get wrong?    We argue that good art is hard-to-vary, so it's easy to get something wrong that detracts from the overall movie. Th...

Have you heard the old joke about how there are liar, damn liars, and then there are statisticians? In this episode, Cameo and Bruce discuss how statistics are widely used -- and misused -- in society.    Most people miss that statistics aren't really primarily used for true probabilities but instead are used as a way to mimic our lack of knowledge. Statistics, as a field, is often the s...

What's it like to leave your home, your family, and your country and go to a whole new land and culture -- possibly never to return home again? What challenges would you have to overcome? How much help would you receive? How would you blend your culture with the new one you just moved to?   What's it like to dance 2000-year-old ancient forms as a way to express your culture's ancient myths? &...

"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" asks Tony Stark.   What the heck is he talking about? And who is Deutsch?   Tony Stark is referring to David Deutsch, of course; a world-famous quantum physicist that is the father of Quantum Computational Theory and the inspiration for many of the ideas in this podcast....

The postmoderns were wrong! Knowledge can progress, despite uncertainty! What makes a good explanation vs a bad explanation? You probably intuitively recognize when an explanation is bad, but do you know why you prefer one explanation over another? Just what exactly is wrong with "because I said so" or "fairies did it"? In Episode 3 Bruce and Cameo finally solved the problem of how we can make pro...

In Episode 2 we asked the hard question "Does Science Work?" and discussed all the seemingly insurmountable problems a correct "Scientific Method" must solve.    Bruce and Cameo now discuss the proposed solution to the problem using the Theory of Knowledge (epistemology) of Karl Popper as modified and explained by David Deutsch.    This is part 3 of our 4 part series covering t...

The "Scientific Method" (as taught in schools anyhow) is actually wrong!   Bruce, Cameo, and Carey continue their discussion about the Theory of Knowledge (i.e. Epistemology) and discuss the challenges any such theory must address. To many (Postmoderns) the problems even seem insurmountable and seem to undermine all of science.     This is part 2 of our 4 part series covering t...

Bruce, Cameo, and Carey start their new podcast with a bang by offending experts everywhere and making sure that no one with a political opinion about Climate Change will want to listen to their podcast.  This is part 1 of our 4 part series covering the Theory of Knowledge of Karl Popper as interpreted by physicist David Deutsch. Bruce explains this epistemology to Cameo and Carey, who a...