Philosophy Everyday

Masud Gaziyev

Independent content on philosophy, science, and technology.

  1. Oct 5

    We May Be Building Our Own Successor | Liv Boeree on AI

    Liv Boeree is a science communicator, former professional poker player and host of the Win-Win podcast. She studied astrophysics at the University of Manchester before winning titles on both the European Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker. In recent years she has focused on game theory, AI risk and Moloch, the trap behind races to the bottom, from the Cold War nuclear arms race to today's race to build superintelligent AI. In this conversation, we ask whether AI could become humanity's successor species, and why it doesn't have to. We begin with hyperstition, Liv's word for 2026 and a term coined by the philosopher Nick Land, and why the stories we tell about AI may become self-fulfilling now that AI agents act on the words they read. From there, we explore accelerationism, what Moloch actually is, and what nuclear arms control can teach today's AI labs about safety, transparency and verification. Later, we discuss Anthony Aguirre's idea of tool AI versus building "one omniscient, omnipotent god", Nick Bostrom's Superintelligence, Iain M. Banks' Culture series, the rise of AI religion and e/acc, and what Liv calls psycho-security. We also talk about meaning in a world where AI does all the work, from Aristotle's idea of leisure to why sport might be the one AI-proof industry. Then we turn to Norma, Moloch's opposite, who brings stagnation and over-regulation instead of collapse. We finish with Liv's front-runners for the word of 2027. Liv's podcast: https://www.livboeree.com/winwinpodcast/ Instagram and other platforms: ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/philosophy.everyday⁠⁠ More from Philosophy Everyday: ⁠⁠https://www.thephilosophyeveryday.com/

  2. Sep 15

    Philosophy Was Meant to Make You Better | Robin Waterfield

    Robin Waterfield is a classicist, author, and one of the most prolific translators of ancient Greek philosophy and history into modern English, with more than thirty-five volumes of translations to his name. His work includes Plato’s Republic and Symposium, Herodotus, Marcus Aurelius, Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, Epictetus, Xenophon, Euripides, and other major Greek and Roman authors. His latest translation is Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, published in 2026, continuing a career focused on making ancient philosophy, Greek history, and classical literature accessible in readable modern English. In this conversation, we discuss Thucydides and the Melian Dialogue, including the famous line “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must,” and why Robin considers that familiar version misleading. We compare Thucydides and Herodotus, examine how the ancient Greeks understood history, and discuss Aristotle, eudaimonia, happiness, ancient Greek religion, moral philosophy, slavery, Spartan helots, leisure, education, and the origin of the word “school.” We also explore how Plato and Aristotle have been transmitted and translated over more than two thousand years, what modern translators change when working from ancient Greek texts, the surviving fragments of the Presocratics and Democritus, and Robin’s skepticism about how much we can know about the historical Socrates from Plato and Xenophon. The episode also covers Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Greek manuscripts and papyri, translation theory, Euripides, Aesop, ancient jokes, and the challenges of translating philosophy, history, prose, and poetry into modern English. Robin's website: https://robinwaterfield.com/ Instagram and other platforms: ⁠https://linktr.ee/philosophy.everyday⁠ More from Philosophy Everyday: ⁠https://www.thephilosophyeveryday.com/

  3. Sep 1

    Nothing in This World Is Real | Angie Hobbs on Plato

    Angie Hobbs is Professor Emerita of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield, where she held the world's first chair of that title. She works on ancient Greek philosophy, particularly Plato, and on how it bears on contemporary questions. Alongside her academic work she has taught the Socratic method in schools and to the UK civil service, and appears regularly on radio and television. Her books include Plato and the Hero, and most recently Why Plato Matters Now, which she also narrated for audiobook. She is currently writing a book on heroes and heroism. In this conversation we discuss what Plato was reacting against, from the Sophists to the materialism of Democritus, and why he took Heraclitus and Parmenides seriously but not the atomists. We look at the problem of separating Plato from Socrates in the dialogues, and why Plato wrote in dialogue form and never in his own voice. We turn to the Republic and Thrasymachus's claim that justice is the interest of the stronger, the charge from Popper and Berlin that Plato was a totalitarian, and the fact that the Republic itself would be banned under its own censorship rules. On the Symposium we cover the competing accounts of love, Aristophanes' fable of the divided spheres, Diotima's ladder and the image of the pregnant philosopher, Alcibiades' account of trying to seduce Socrates. We also discuss the theory of forms and how much of Plato's ethics survives without it, his time with the Pythagoreans and what mathematics and musical harmony meant to him, Nietzsche's charge that Plato was a life-denier, what Christianity took from Plato and what it changed, and how much of the Plato we read is the historical one. Angie's book: https://angiehobbs.com/ Instagram and other platforms: https://linktr.ee/philosophy.everyday More from Philosophy Everyday: https://www.thephilosophyeveryday.com/

  4. Jul 14

    Does God Exist? Wrong Question | Simon Critchley

    Simon Critchley is a British philosopher, author, and the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research in New York. One of the most distinctive voices in contemporary philosophy and continental philosophy, his work spans ethics, political philosophy, psychoanalysis, literature, religion, tragedy, death, football (soccer), and the role of philosophy in everyday life. He has written more than twenty books, including The Book of Dead Philosophers, What We Think About When We Think About Soccer, Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us, Mysticism, and Heidegger Thinking: Being and Time Explained. Critchley is known for making complex philosophical ideas accessible, playful, provocative, and relevant beyond academic philosophy. In this conversation, Simon Critchley explores what mysticism actually means, why modern philosophy has become too serious, and whether mystical experience can exist outside organized religion. We discuss Christian mysticism, incarnation, religious belief, miracles, Martin Luther and the Reformation, Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity, the Übermensch, Kierkegaard, Spinoza’s pantheism, free will, determinism, and why philosophy can offer comfort without providing simple answers. We also examine football (soccer) as a modern religion filled with rituals, gods, collective ecstasy, corruption, tragedy, comedy, suffering, and hope. Finally, we discuss the fear of death, whether philosophy can teach us how to die, technological immortality and the longevity movement, David Hume, professional philosophers, Heidegger’s Being and Time, and why philosophy should remain playful, open, and connected to life. Simon's website: https://simon-critchley.com/ Instagram and other platforms: ⁠https://linktr.ee/philosophy.everyday⁠ More from Philosophy Everyday: ⁠https://www.thephilosophyeveryday.com/

  5. Jun 15

    Mind May Be Older Than the Brain | Michael Levin on Life and Intelligence

    Michael Levin is a developmental and synthetic biologist at Tufts University whose work sits at the intersection of biology, bioelectricity, artificial life, regenerative medicine, synthetic biology, computer science, cognitive science, and philosophy of mind. He is known for his research on how cells communicate, make decisions, build bodies, repair tissues, and form collective intelligence through bioelectric signals. His work on Xenobots and Anthrobots has opened new questions about living robots, synthetic life forms, biological machines, morphogenesis, basal cognition, cellular intelligence, regeneration, cancer, aging, and the nature of mind beyond the brain. In this conversation, Michael Levin and I explore whether mind and intelligence are binary or exist on a continuum, why cognition may be much older than brains, and how systems from cells to humans can pursue goals in different ways. We discuss the TAME framework, the spectrum of persuadability, cognitive light cones, bioelectricity, gap junctions, multicellular intelligence, Xenobots, Anthrobots, kinematic self-replication, neural wound healing, emergence, physicalism, mathematics, Platonic space, algorithms, bubble sort, Turing machines, evolution, human creativity, artificial intelligence, regenerative medicine, and the future of biology. This episode is for anyone interested in philosophy, consciousness, mind, intelligence, synthetic biology, developmental biology, AI, complex systems, evolution, and the deeper question of what it means for matter to become alive, intelligent, or aware. Michael's website: https://drmichaellevin.org/ Instagram and other platforms: ⁠https://linktr.ee/philosophy.everyday⁠ More from Philosophy Everyday: ⁠https://www.thephilosophyeveryday.com/

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Independent content on philosophy, science, and technology.

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