Ep 209: Rational Decision Making

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Ep 209: Rational Decision Making

FromToKCast

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Length:

63 minutes

Released:

Jun 17, 2024

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

Riffing on Karl Popper and David Deutsch (especially). A broad overview, covering lots of the basics of "social" or "rational" choice theory, Bayesianism (again!), misconceptions, good ideas and bad. Errors my own as always.

Released:

Jun 17, 2024

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

This is a podcast largely about the work of David Deutsch and his books "The Beginning of Infinity" and "The Fabric of Reality".

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Ep 11 "Artificial Creativity" Ch 7 Part 1 by ToKCast
64 min listen
Ep 13: Ch 8 "A Window on Infinity" Part 1: Unlucky 13: The microphone failed for this one, so the backup audio has been used. It's a little sub par but still "listenable". The next one sounds better. Note to audio-only people: some visuals are in this one - so you can find that on Youtube. by ToKCast
21 min listen
Ep 9 "The Reality of Abstractions" Ch.5 Part 2: David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity" Chapter 5, Part 2 "The Reality of Abstractions". by ToKCast
53 min listen
Ep 12 "Artificial Creativity" Ch 7 Pt 2 by ToKCast
45 min listen
Ep 24: The Multiverse, Part 2: This is the first episode that includes reading from Chapter 11 of "The Beginning of Infinity" about "The Multiverse". It is less edited...and rather more conversational. Compare this to episode 23 and let me know what you prefer. I will take on board co... by ToKCast
40 min listen
Ep 19: Mr. Popper's Problems: An irregular episode barely touching upon "The Beginning of Infinity". Somewhat self-indulgently, and purely for my own fun, I take a lesser-known Popper paper - found here http://www.bretthall.org/the-nature-of-philosophical-problems.html and provide le... by ToKCast
69 min listen
Ep 38 Ch 15 "The Evolution of Culture" Part 1: This is the first 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 notion of a meme and consider under what conditions ideas replicate. As w... by ToKCast
54 min listen
Ep 27: Christian Atheists: This is a very brief and non-standard non-Beginning of Infinity podcast. It also does not mention COVID-19 at all. It is inspired in part by some remarks made by Yaron Brook. There is an important post associated with this episode which appears here: htt... by ToKCast
9 min listen
Ep 21: Ch 10, Part 2 "A Dream of Socrates": In this, the second episode covering Chapter 10 "A Dream of Socrates", we encounter Plato in dialogue with Socrates. An attempt is made to learn epistemology from Socrates by Plato. Epistemology is applied to political institutions and the concept of dyn... by ToKCast
57 min listen
Ep 15: A diversion on Free Will and Artificial Intelligence: Note that this one is not primarily about a chapter from "The Beginning of Infinity". Some remarks on Sam Harris position on "Free Will" as articulated in his book of the same name. I do mention BoI and FoR of course and borrow heavily from David's work ... by ToKCast
35 min listen
Ep: 30 Ch 12 "A Physicist's History of Bad Philosophy" Part 1: The Introduction: This is the first episode in a 3 part series about Chapter 12 of "The Beginning of Infinity". As this chapter is about Bad Philosophy, I thought an episode that sets the context - especially the contemporary context - might be timely. by ToKCast
76 min listen
Ep 18: Ch 9, Part 3: “Optimism”: In this, the final episode covering Chapter 9 Optimism, we explore optimism as applied to politics and institutions. A pessimistic view of people, as animals that sometimes cannot be reasoned with, would imply the initiation of force is required. But und... by ToKCast
47 min listen
Ep 22: The Logic of Experimental Tests: This is not a regular ToKCast (about a chapter from "The Beginning of Infinity"). Instead it will serve in part firstly as a stand alone episode about an esoteric piece of epistemology: what is the function of the experiment in the natural sciences? (As ... by ToKCast
75 min listen
Ep 20: Ch 10, Part 1 "A Dream of Socrates": In this, the first episode covering Chapter 10 "A Dream of Socrates", we explore epistemology directly. Hermes comes to Socrates in a dream (or somehow!) and uses a quite "Socratic Method" to draw out Popperian epistemology from Socrates. Empiricism is r... by ToKCast
53 min listen
Ep 37: An intermittent introduction to Popper and Deutsch: A very brief, and personal, introduction to the philosophy of Karl Popper and David Deutsch. Note that the Youtube version of this exists in 3 parts, each of which has visuals that may help some with the explanations. by ToKCast
17 min listen
Ep 10 "The Jump to Universality" Ch.6: David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity" - some remarks by Brett Hall on Chapter 6 "The Jump to Universality". This is a chapter in 1 part. by ToKCast
53 min listen
Ep 33 Ch 13 "Choices" Part 1. Some readings and remarks.: This is the first episode of 2 parts all about chapter 13 "Choices" from "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. Here we take a deep dive into voting systems and what this means for decision making more broadly: both as societies and individuals. L... by ToKCast
80 min listen
Ep 16: Ch 9, Part 1: "Optimism": This is the first of a 3 part series on chapter 9 of David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity". Chapter 9 is titled "Optimism" and the week this is published marks the 50th anniversary of the first steps taken by humans on the moon. If we choose to con... by ToKCast
69 min listen
Ep: 29 Ch 11 "The Multiverse" Part 5: The final part of "The Multiverse" series - and with some discussion (and a story!) of some little known material about how to test "The Multiverse" against other (so-called) interpretations of quantum theory. by ToKCast
80 min listen
Ep 14: Ch 8, Part 2: "A Window on Infinity" by ToKCast
72 min listen
Ep 25: Ch 11 "The Multiverse" Part 3: Some readings and remarks about David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity" Chapter 11 "The Multiverse". This is the 3rd episode in this series. As with some of the others, audio only listeners may miss a few visuals in this one...but they're not absolut... by ToKCast
61 min listen
Ep 26: Problems, Knowledge and Wealth: This is a non-Beginning of Infinity Podcast. While it makes some references, as always, to the work of David Deutsch, it is primarily some thoughts about finding ourselves in a given problem situation and what we need to find our way out in time. Of cour... by ToKCast
68 min listen
Ep 35 Ch 14 "Why are Flowers Beautiful?": Audio listeners, please note: This episode contains a lot more visuals than my usual podcasts. As always this can be found on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWZ4GcRd-_8 if you want the full experience. I'm referring to images and so on throug... by ToKCast
76 min listen
Ep 23: The Multiverse, Part 1: This episode is an introduction to chapter 11 from "The Beginning of Infinity". While there are no readings from the book this time around, there are readings from "The Fabric of Reality". Audio only listeners should be aware that there is a significant ... by ToKCast
62 min listen
Ep 28: Ch 11 "The Multiverse" Part 4: With apologies to audio only listeners, this one was up on Youtube for a while (and contains a few visuals) - I simply forgot to upload it to Podbean and Apple Podcasts. It is largely an analysis of common misconceptions about the multiverse and referenc... by ToKCast
99 min listen
Ep 17: Ch 9, Part 2: "Optimism": In part 2 on Optimism, we explore the implications of David Deutsch's philosophy for individuals and institutiuons. Given people are the agents that create knowledge - the solutions to problems - what moral stance should we take with respect to them? How... by ToKCast
37 min listen
Ep 34 Ch 13 “Choices” Part 2. Some readings and remarks.: This is some reading and reflections upon chapter 13 of "The Beginning of Infinity". In this second part we consider criteria for democracy and democratic institutions. I take a deep dive into Popper's own writings on the topic to supplement the material... by ToKCast
48 min listen
Ep 36: The Borders of Ideas: This is some commentary upon a recent debate Douglas Murray was engaged in - which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3sSnmq9uKU It is, broadly speaking, an excellent encounter, modulo - as Douglas rightly observes - the tendency for his... by ToKCast
32 min listen
Ep: 31 Ch 12 "A Physicist's History of Bad Philosophy" Part 2: Some readings and remarks.: This is the second episode in a 3 part series about chapter 12 of "The Beginning of Infinity". Here we get into some of the connections between poor "interpretations" of quantum theory and relativism. by ToKCast
57 min listen
Ep 32 Ch 12 "A Physicist's History of Bad Philosophy" Part 3. Some readings and remarks: This is the third episode in a 3 part series about chapter 12 of "The Beginning of Infinity". This part is focussed in a more specific way on bad science (that being explanationless science). We also delve into the nature of personhood once more, its mor... by ToKCast
73 min listen

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Ep 209: Rational Decision Making

Ep 209: Rational Decision Making

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from ToKCast

Related podcast episodes