23: Evolution Made this Podcast: Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett Made You Think

In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and I discuss  Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett (a guy with an amazing beard). In this book Daniel remind us we are not so special as we think, but just an ordered set of material refined by evolution.
We cover a wide range of topics, including:
Evolution as an amazing and super-simple algorithm for refinement Why we are not special but just a random result of a process Bottom-up “cranes” theories vs “skyhook” theories How memes are the cultural equivalent of genes Why it’s very unlikely that we will talk with aliens one day And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett!
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If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Godel Escher Bach by Douglas Hofstadter, a book that inspired several pages of Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, as well as our episode on Denial of Death by Ernest Becker, another book that reshapes the importance of our existence.
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Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show:
Count in Binary with Your Fingers [11:22] Invisible Hand [21:08] Islam: A Religion of Violence Or Peace? [24:30] Street Food History [33:45] Kennin-ji – Oldest Temple in Kyoto [36:00] VCR [40:42] How Coffee Influenced the Course of History [43:40] Testosterone levels in the womb may determine how masculine your face is as an adult [51:47] 23andMe [53:11] Promethese [53:11] Rhonda Patrick – Found My Fitness Genetics [54:11] Perfect Keto [54:21] Fermi Paradox [1:17:01] Books mentioned:
Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennet Godel Escher Bach [0:51] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) The Denial of Death [3:20] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) The Way of Zen [7:34] (Nat’s Notes) (Neil’s Notes) The Selfish Gene [22:26] Sapiens [38:40] (Nat’s Notes) Letters from a Stoic [38:45] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Newton’s Principia [1:12:15] Rare Earth [01:16:23] Emergency [1:21:55] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene [1:27:16] The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene [1:27:16] Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson [1:27:21] Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand [1:31:29] The Sovereign Individual [1:33:29] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) The Goal [1:44:02] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) What every Body is saying by Joe Navarro [1:46:13] People mentioned:
Charles Darwin Daniel Dennett [0:32] Nassim Nicholas Taleb [0:51] (Antifragile episode) Douglas Hofstadter [0:51] Elon Musk [6:15] (on this podcast) Flatgeologists – Flat Earth Society [6:15] Pepper the Poochon [12:09] Adam Smith [21:08] Maajid Nawaz [24:30] Christopher Columbus [36:26] Lucius Annaeus Seneca [38:45] Rhonda Patrick [54:11] Nassim Nicholas Taleb [59:25] (Antifragile episode) Nicolaus Copernicus [1:08:03] Isaac Newton [1:12:15] Albert Einstein [1:12:40] Jeff Bezos [1:39:57] Show Topics 0:00 – “When you ask functional questions about anything –organism or artifact– you must remember that it has to come into its current or  final form by a process that has its own requirements, and these are exactly as amenable to functional analysis as any features of the end state.”
0:51 – Connections of Darwin’s Dangerous Idea with Godel Escher Bach book. Talebian writing style of the author. The author focuses one part of the book to refute other people’s ideas.
3:20 – Problems derived by bad wording and God directed evolution. Mind-first theories depending on a “sky hook” vs “cranes” bottom-up theories. Concept of things that can grow and organize spontaneously, without the need of an external influence. Application in markets.
10:02 – Numerals vs Quantity. Why humans prefer base-10 to count. Use of di