with Julia Galef
September 20, 2015 Can rational people disagree? This episode of Rationally Speaking features guest Scott Aaronson. Scott is a professor of computer science at MIT and has written about “Aumann’s Agreement Theorem,” which is related to Bayesian probability theory and seems to imply that two people cannot rationally disagree after they’ve shared their opinions and information with … Read more
September 6, 2015 “I’m writing a book on empathy,” psychologist Paul Bloom tells people. They respond warmly, until he follows up with, “I’m against it.” On this episode of Rationally Speaking, Julia and Paul discuss what empathy is, why Paul is concerned that it’s a terrible guide to moral decision making, and what the alternatives … Read more
August 23, 2015 The traditional story about reason is that it evolved to help humans see the world more clearly and (thereby) make better decisions. But on that view, some mysteries remain: why is the human brain so biased? Why are we so much better at defending our pre-existing views than at evaluating new ideas … Read more
August 9, 2015 This episode of Rationally Speaking features philosopher Kenny Easwaran, who delves into the notorious “Newcomb’s Paradox” — the puzzle about which it was once said, “To almost everyone it is perfectly clear and obvious what should be done. The difficulty is that these people seem to divide almost evenly on the problem, with … Read more
July 26, 2015 You might expect that professional ethicists — people whose job it is to determine which behaviors are ethical and why — would behave more ethically than other people. You’d be wrong! This episode features philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel , who is well known for his work studying whether experts in ethics live up to their … Read more
July 12, 2015 For several centuries, historians have tried to answer the question: “Why is Western Europe (and later, North America) the dominant world power?” Past explanations cited culture, or “great men” who influenced the course of history. Stanford historian Prof. Ian Morris casts doubt on those explanations, instead taking a data-driven approach to the question that … Read more
June 28, 2015 A controversial field of research is “gain-of-function,” in which scientists take a virus (like a strain of flu) and attempt to make it more dangerous, for example by making it transmissible in mammals when it had previously been solely an avian flu. The motivation is to learn how viruses might mutate in … Read more
June 15, 2015 Can we pull the world’s poor out of poverty by giving them access to financial services? This episode features a conversation with economist David Roodman, formerly a fellow at the Center for Global Development and senior advisor to the Gates Foundation, currently senior advisor to the Open Philanthropy Project, and the … Read more
May 31, 2015 In this episode, economist Robin Hanson explains the signaling theory of human behavior: That our motivations for our choices, about school, shopping, medical care, and so on, evolved primarily to shape other people’s perceptions of us. In the process Robin and Julia discuss what makes a good theory: How to decide what you should … Read more
May 17, 2015 Common wisdom holds that the world is getting more violent, but is that really true? Leading skeptic Michael Shermer, professor and author of many books on science, morality and skepticism, argues to the contrary. Shermer’s thesis in his recent book, “The Moral Arc: How Science Leads Humanity Toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom,” is … Read more