ToKCast

This is an exploration of the first 7 pages of "The Fabric of Reality". I spend much of the time talking about the significance of the book, how I missed so much even on my first few readings of it and how we find even in these first few pages not merely the seeds of aspects of David Deutsch's later work, but an entire forest of important ideas that motivate much in "The Beginning of Infinity" and...

This is the first episode in a new series devoted to an entirely new book: “The Science of Can and Can’t” by Chiara Marletto. Get the book anywhere ebooks are available (as of May, 2021) and learn more about Chiara and her work here: https://www.chiaramarletto.com ​ This book is an amazing work. It presents for the lay reader an introduction to “Constructor Theory” without losing any scientific or...

In this second part I spend a large portion of our time comparing author John Horgan's work "The End of Science" to David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity". What errors does Horgan make on the way to reaching the conclusion that science is coming to an end? I also summarise cases where critics of Popper seem to turn to character assassination rather than being focussed on his ideas. We end by...

This episode is identical to episode 59 - only it contains no music. I don't think this is as good :) My preferred way to experience this is the video version version which is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpTxBkmr4LE  .  of this video (there is another published alongside this without any music -again, I don't think it is as good, but if you prefer "no music" - there is a video version wi...

My preferred way to experience this is the video version version which is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpTxBkmr4LE  .  There is another version also published alongside this without any music - I don't think it is as good, but if you prefer "no music" - there is a version without that here: https://youtu.be/Ky4vMllidvM ​   Note that episode 60 of the podcast is just "Episode 59 without th...

The beginning of "The Beginning" which is the chapter at the very end of "The Beginning of Infinity". :) Ignore what I say early on in this episode: this is episode 58, not 57. In this episode we revisit the idea that science, or knowledge broadly is coming to an "end". Even Feynman could become uncharacteristically pessimistic in this regard. Every new discovery reveals that there is more to know...

This is a podcast all about "Existential Risk". Made at the request of a Patreon, I cover the usual spectrum of ways in which people guess civilisation might end, discuss how to think about this from a rational - but critical - perspective and how to remain optimistic in the face of public intellectuals bombarding us with these claims about the coming end-times. If you would like to get early acce...

The final part of the penultimate chapter. Here we cover "The parable of Europium" and other memorable pessimists from David's formative years. Some analysis of the present concerns about climate change and the rational problem solving - and optimistic approach as contrasted to the standard pessimistic lines.

What does it mean for something to exist?

Marx, Engels and Diamond present to us a vision of people as being in some sense impotent in the grand historical scheme - subject merely to natural forces and thus able to be predicted by a kind of natural law. This reductive view of people and their place in history (and the cosmos) leads to terrible historical ideas that bleed into pessimistic political ideologies. The truth instead is not blea...

This is additional material about Chapter 6 of "The Beginning of Infinity" - but goes into some additional areas. I compare Greek Gods to Blockchain (in a sense). I think "The Jump to Universality" is a particularly poorly understood chapter. I hope this inspires many to go back and re-read that part of the book. Again. And again.

Easter Island, Incans, Llamas and Australia. Resources and knowledge, creativity and stasis. We begin to bring together the chapters that have come before as we move into the crescendo of "The Beginning of Infinity". Images (on Youtube) all used under a creative commons licence. All music composed by me.

What does the watchword of today "sustainable" really mean when taken seriously? In this episode we compare two titans of science communication: David Attenborough and Jacob Bronowski - for although they have inspired generations of scientists and those interested in science, their underlying philosophies could not have been more different. What are those philosophies and what consequences could t...

The 50th episode! This is the third part (given there was a part 0, introduction) referring to chapter 16 of "The Beginning of Infinity" with substantive readings. We get into how memes evolved in non-human animals and then how these memes, and genes at some point allowed for a jump to universality. Specifically the universality of explanatory knowledge - which is a quality of a special kind of so...

What it says in the title :) A short and sweet introduction to a particular way of thinking and knowing. This is all about fallibilism and the possibilities that being wrong opens up.

This episode is highly visual and better viewed on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlcQ4ZFKrKk  However, the substance is still there in this purely audio-only version. This is another episode not primarily about "The Beginning of Infinity" but it is deeply inspired by it. It is a discussion exploring the "resources" debate. Are resources finite or infinite? I look at the intersectio...

A ToKCast Special: Brett talks about what he's learned over the years from various academics about the question of alien life. Although I don't mention it, I draw my inspiration from an academic paper I wrote years ago as part of my Masters degree in Astronomy - it can be found here: The Rare Earth That might be a bit more sober, hard-going and not exactly entertaining. I hope this video is fun. I...

This is the second part (after a part 0, introduction) referring to chapter 16 of The Beginning of Infinity with more substantive readings. We get into imitation and compare how apes "ape" and parrots "parrot" to what humans are doing when they learn. Meme replication and lyrebirds make an appearance.

This is not a regular episode - and if you have listened to episode 44 you do NOT need to listen to this because it is simply excerpts from that episode. It is simply an extraction from that episode of the material - solely my remarks rather than any reading - about the concept of "free will". The following is the Youtube description of this episode: This is an excerpt from https://www.youtube.com...

Early on in the episode, I wrongly refer to this as "Episode 43". It's not: it's episode 44. This particular episode is largely about the concepts underpinning chapter 16 - with very little reading (I get through the first page or so). We explore creativity, choice and the associated "mysteries" (or problems of) consciousness and free will. Are these all facets of the same underlying - deeper trut...

This is the third in a 3 part series devoted to Chapter 15 of "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. All about "The Evolution of Culture", in this part we are looking at the conditions under which a dynamic society can gradually evolve and persist. Importantly we distinguish between rational and anti-rational (not merely irrational) memes.

This episode is not about "The Beginning of Infinity". It is largely a reading of an article that can be found on my website at http://www.bretthall.org/blog/an-autobiography-of-wealth The purpose of that article and this episode is to discuss the pervasive claim that the middle classes have seen a stagnation in "real wage growth". I do not go deep into economic matters but rather take a personal...

In this episode I cover more of David Deutsch's contributions to philosophy. In order these are: 1. The true function of evidence in science 2. How the quantum multiverse is a testable theory 3. All evils are due to insufficient knowledge and how morality is about "What to do next". 4. The mathematician's misconception (i.e: that mathematical proof is independent of the known laws of physics).

This is part 2 of my introduction to Popper series. Here I cover 1. The concept of "conjectures" 2. Common Sense 3. Realism 4. The bucket and the searchlight 5. Debating definitions Yes. It's only 2 episodes in, and I have violated my self-imposed 10 minute limit rule. But I think it was worth it, rather than splitting these in two. To support this podcast, visit https://www.patreon.com/BrettRHall...

This is the second in a 3 part series devoted to Chapter 15 of "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. All about "The Evolution of Culture", in this part we are looking at the causes of a static society: that rule (rather than the exception) about progress coming to a halt in human communities. We follow on from part 1 in looking at how memes get replicated and how different kinds of memes h...