Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Steven Pinker on Cancel Culture, Common Knowledge & AI

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In this episode, Steven Pinker unpacks how common knowledge shapes everything from why rational people can’t agree to disagree to why markets boom and bust. We explore the risks of falsifying expert claims, the power of social norms, and whether civilization is held together by truths—or by the fictions we all agree to share.

Key Takeaways: 

  • 00:00 Intro 

    00:58 When common knowledge is wrong

    02:37 The role of common knowledge in social coordination 

    08:48 Free will and determinism 

    14:48 Judging a book by its cover

    21:08 Government suppression and common knowledge

    30:08 The agree to disagree theorem 

    34:54 Generosity and charity in human affairs

    41:12 The role of common knowledge in religious beliefs 

    48:31 LLMs and common knowledge 

    50:39 Outro

    Additional resources: 

    📚 When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows… by Steven Pinker: ⁠https://a.co/d/bKJzohi⁠ 

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    Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

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