Topical Storm Alex & Eli
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- Gesellschaft und Kultur
Join Alex and Eli as they tackle interesting intellectual and philosophical topics with engaged excitement and commute-friendly brevity. New episodes every week with topics ranging from the study of consciousness to the economics of addiction.
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28 | Existential Risk
We take on the harrowing topic of existential risk and examine the many ways that things could go very badly for humanity. On the bright side, Nick Bostrom is always an enjoyable read.
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27 | Hyperbolic Discounting
It’s widely known that humans tend to sacrifice long term rewards for smaller, more immediate gains. We tackle a less widely disseminated model of behavior called hyperbolic discounting that implies our impulsive decisions have some very surprising characteristics.
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26 | Death and Cryonics
We’re back! Today we tackle cryonics, the movement that suggests cryo-preserving the body moments after legal death will enable humanity to one day greatly extend our lifespans.
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25 | Roko’s Basilisk
We have a wacky one for you today! Roko’s Basilisk, a thought experiment grounded in decision theory, suggests that a future AI could be incentivized to punish most of humanity for not helping bring it into existence.
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24 | All About Jazz
We take a break from heavy philosophy to discuss a fun topic: Jazz! This serves as a good introduction to the genre for any novice jazz listener or player.
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Is Possibility Impossible?: Op-Ed 05
Today we have an informal discussion about free will, possibility, and what it means to have agency. This was a fascinating conversation for us and we hope it encourages you to think critically about these topics!