Increments

By Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani

What's Increments about?

Vaden Masrani, a senior research scientist in machine learning, and Ben Chugg, a PhD student in statistics at CMU, get into trouble arguing about everything except machine learning and statistics. Coherence is somewhere on the horizon.

Bribes, suggestions, love-mail and hate-mail all welcome at [email protected].

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Increments episodes:

05.09.2024
#67 - Libertarianism III: Social Issues (w/ Bruce Nielson)
Have you ever wanted to be more rich? Have you considered just working a bit harder? Welcome to part III of our libertarian series, where we discuss Part B: Social Issues of Scott Alexander's Anti-Libertarian FAQ, which critiques the libertarian...
04.18.2024
#66 - Sex Research, Addiction, and Financial Domination (w/ Aella)
What do you get when you mix nerds and sex research? A deep dive into the world of fetish statistics, men's calibration about women's sexual preferences, and the crazy underground world of financial domination. Stay tuned as Aella walks the...
03.28.2024
#65 - Libertarianism II: Economic Issues (w/ Bruce Nielson)
Back at it again, as we coerce you into listening to Part 2 of our four part series on Libertarianism, with Mr. Bruce Nielson (@bnielson01). In this episode we cover the Economic Issues section of Scott Alexander's (non-aggressive and principled)...
03.07.2024
#64 - Libertarianism I: Intro and Moral Issues (w/ Bruce Nielson)
Liberty! Freedom! Coercion! Taxes are theft! The State is The Enemy! Bitcoin! Crypto! Down with the central banks! Let's all return to the Gold Standard! Have you encountered such phrases in the wild? Confused, perhaps, as to why an afternoon...
02.14.2024
#63 - Recycling is the Dumps
Close your eyes, and think of a bright and pristine, clean and immaculately run recycling center, green'r than a giant's thumb. Now think of a dirty, ugly, rotting landfill, stinking in the mid-day sun. Of these two scenarios, which,...
02.01.2024
#62 (Bonus) - The Principle of Optimism (Vaden on the Theory of Anything Podcast)
Vaden has selfishly gone on vacation with his family, leaving beloved listeners to fend for themselves in the wide world of epistemological confusion. To repair some of the damage, we're releasing an episode of The Theory of Anything Podcast from...
01.17.2024
#61 - Debating Free Will: Frankenstein's Monster and a Filmstrip of the Universe (with Lucas Smalldon)
While you're reading this you're having a thought. Something like "wow, I love the Increments podcast", or "those hosts are some handsome" or "I really wish people would stop talking about free will." Do you have a choice in the...
01.04.2024
#60 - Creativity and Computational Universality (with Bruce Nielson)
Today we [finally] have on someone who actually knows what they're actually talking about: Mr. Bruce Nielson of the excellent Theory of Anything Podcast. We bring him on to straighten us out on the topics of creativity, machine intelligence, Turing...
12.22.2023
#59 (C&R, Chap 8) - On the Status of Science and Metaphysics (Plus reflections on the Brett Hall blog exchange)
Back to the C&R; series baby! Feels goooooood. Need some bar-room explanations for why induction is impossible? We gotchu. Need some historical background on where your boy Isaac got his ideas? We gotchu. Need to know how to refute the...
11.29.2023
#58 - Ask Us Anything V: How to Read and What to Read
Alright people, we made it. Six months, a few breaks, some uncontrollable laughter, some philosophy, many unhinged takes, a little bit of diarrhea and we're here, the last Ask Us Anything. After this we're never answering another God D*** question....
11.15.2023
#57 (Bonus) - A calm and soothing discussion of The Patriarchy
We we're looking for a nice light topic for our patron only episode, so Vaden naturally chosen to chat about the patriarchy. I guess he didn't get into enough trouble in his personal life talking about it so he wanted...
11.01.2023
#56 - Ask Us Anything IV: Certainty, Emergence, and Popperian Imperatives
Perhaps you thought, in your infinite ignorance, that the release of the previous episode marked the end of the age of the AMA! But nay my friends, the age of the AMA has just begun! We'll answer your questions until...
10.09.2023
#55 - Is all thought problem-solving?
Our argument at the end of last episode spilled over into discord, DMs, and world news, so we felt compelled to dedicate a full episode to addressing the question "Is all thought problem solving?" Some arguments make history, like whether...
09.18.2023
#54 - Ask Us Anything III: Emotional Epistemology
Back again with AUA #3 - we're getting there people! Only, uhh, seven questions to go? Incremental progress baby. Plus, we see a good old Vaden and Ben fight in this one! Thank God, because things were getting a little...
08.14.2023
#53 - Ask Us Anything II: Disagreements and Decisions
Ask us anything? Ask us everything! Back at it again with AUA Part 2/N. We wax poetic and wane dramatic on a number of subjects, including: Ben's dark and despicable hidden historicist tendencies Expounding upon (one of our many) critiques of Bayesian...
07.10.2023
#52 - Ask Us Anything I: Computation and Creativity
We debated calling this episode "An ode to Michael," because we set out to do an AMA but only get through his first two questions. But never fear, there are only 20 questions, so at this rate we should be...
05.29.2023
#51 - Truth, Moose, and Refrigerated Eggplant: Critiquing Chapman's Meta-Rationality
Vaden comes out swinging against David Chapman's work on meta-rationality. Is Chapman pointing out a fatal flaw, or has Popper solved these problems long ago? Do moose see cups? Does Ben see cups? What the f*** is a cup? We...
04.24.2023
#50 - On the Evolutionary Origins of Storytelling, Art, and Science
Fifty godd*** episodes! 'Tis been a ride full of debate, drinks, questionable arguments, Ben becoming both a dualist and a social media addict, and Vaden stalwartly not changing his mind about a single thing. To celebrate, we dive into a...
03.22.2023
#49 - AGI: Could The End Be Nigh? (With Rosie Campbell)
When big bearded men wearing fedoras begin yelling at you that the end is nigh and superintelligence is about to kill us all, what should you do? Vaden says don't panic, and Ben is simply awestruck by the ability to...
02.24.2023
#48 (C&R Chap. 18) - Utopia and Violence
You may, perchance, have noticed that the sweeping utopian movements of the past did not end well. And most of them involved an horrific amount of violence. Is this connection just chance, or is there something inherent to utopian thinking...
01.16.2023
#47 (Bonus) - Dualism, Reductionism, and Explanation Pancakes
Second holiday season bonus episode! Vaden joins Chesto on The Declaration podcast to talk about monism, dualism, the reality of abstractions, emergence, and reductionism. This convo was recorded in 2019, but much of the content is evergreen and we think...
12.19.2022
#46 (Bonus) - Arguing about probability (with Nick Anyos)
We make a guest appearance on Nick Anyos' podcast to talk about effective altruism, longtermism, and probability. Nick (very politely) pushes back on our anti-Bayesian credo, and we get deep into the weeds of probability and epistemology. You can find...
10.31.2022
#45 - Four Central Fallacies of AI Research (with Melanie Mitchell)
We were delighted to be joined by Davis Professor at the Sante Fe Insitute, Melanie Mitchell! We chat about our understanding of artificial intelligence, human intelligence, and whether it's reasonable to expect us to be able to build sophisticated human-like...
10.03.2022
#44 - Longtermism Revisited: What We Owe the Future
Like moths to a flame, we come back to longtermism once again. But it's not our fault. Will MacAskill published a new book, What We Owe the Future, and billions (trillions!) of lives are at stake if we don't review...
08.28.2022
#43 - Artificial General Intelligence and the AI Safety debate
Some people think that advanced AI is going to kill everyone. Some people don't. Who to believe? Fortunately, Ben and Vaden are here to sort out the question once and for all. No need to think for yourselves after...
07.21.2022
#42 (C&R, Chap 12+13) - Language and the Body-Mind Problem
Ben and Vaden sit down to discuss what is possibly Popper's most confusing essay ever: Language and the Body-Mind Problem: A restatement of Interactionism. Determinism, causality, language, bodies, minds, and Ferris Buhler. What's not to like! Except for the terrible...
06.20.2022
#41 - Parenting, Epistemology, and EA (w/ Lulie Tanett)
We're joined by the wonderful Lulie Tanett to talk about effective altruism, pulling spouses out of burning buildings, and why you should prefer critical rationalism to Bayesianism for your mom's sake. Buckle up! We discuss: Lulie's recent experience at EA Global...
05.30.2022
#40 - The Myth of The Framework: On the possibility of fruitful discussion
Is there any possibility of fruitful dialogue with your mildly crazy, significantly intoxicated uncle at Thanksgiving dinner? We turn to Karl Popper's essay, The Myth of the Framework, to find out. Popper argues that it's wrong to assume that fruitful...
04.28.2022
#39 - The Enigma of Reason
The most reasonable and well-reasoned discussion of reason you can be reasonably expected to hear. Today we talk about the book The Enigma of Reason by Dan Sperber and Hugo Mercier. But first, get ready for dogs, modern art, and...
03.08.2022
#38 (C&R Series, Ch. 2) - Wittgenstein vs Popper
We cover the spicy showdown between the two of the world's most headstrong philosophers: Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper. In a dingy Cambridge classroom Wittgenstein once threatened Popper with a fireplace poker. What led to the disagreement? In this...
02.16.2022
#37 - Montessori Education w/ Matt Bateman
We're joined today by Matt Bateman, one of the founders of Higher Ground Education, to discuss the Montessori method of education and how it compares to other teaching methodologies. Get ready for tiny furniture, putting on your jacket upside down,...
01.27.2022
#36 - Analyzing Effective Altruism as a Social Movement
In what is hopefully the last installment of Vaden and Ben debate Effective Altruism, we ask if EA lies on the cultishness (yes, that's a word) spectrum. We discuss: The potential pitfall of having goodness as a core value Aspects...
11.29.2021
#35 - Climate Change III: Fossil Fuels
Come experience the thrill of the shill as we discuss the somewhat-controversial natural resource called "fossil fuels". In this episode, we drill deep into opto-pessimist Vaclav Smil's excellent book Oil: A Beginner's Guide, in what is possibly our only...
11.10.2021
#34 - Climate Change II: Growth, Degrowth, Reactions, Responses
In this episode Ben convinces Vaden to become a degrowther. We plan how to live out the rest of our lives on an organic tomato farm in Canada in December, sewing our own clothes and waxing our own candles. Step...
10.25.2021
#33 (C&R Series, Ch. 3) - Instrumentalism and Essentialism
Galileo vs the church - whose side are you on? Today we discuss Chapter 3 of Conjectures and Refutations, Three Views Concerning Human Knowledge. This is a juicy one, as Popper manages to simultaneously attack both philosophers and physicists, as...
10.06.2021
#32 - Climate Change I: Initial Thought-Crimes
After the immensely positive response to our previous episode on the Weinstein brothers - thanks @robertwiblin! - we thought we would keep giving the people what they want, and what they want is a long discussion on climate change....
09.14.2021
#31 - The Fall of the Weinstein Republic
Today we take your twitter questions before doing a deep dive into the Weinstein fiasco (Bret and Eric, not Harvey.) If you haven't heard of the Weinstein's before, then we suggest you run away before we drag you down into...
08.30.2021
#30 - Let's all just have a good cry (w/ Christofer Lövgren)
Christofer Lövgren, host of the marvelous Do Explain podcast and world's most famous Swede (second perhaps only to that Alfred fellow with the peace prize), joins us on the pod to teach us how podcasting is really done. And how...
08.16.2021
#29 - Some Scattered Thoughts on Superforecasting
We're back! Apologies for the delay, but Vaden got married and Ben was summoned to be an astronaut on the next billionaire's vacation to Venus. This week we're talking about how to forecast the future (with this one simple and...
07.19.2021
#28 (C&R Series, Ch. 9) - Why is Logic Applicable to Reality?
Why do logic and mathematics work so well in the world? Why do they seem to describe reality? Why do they they enable us to design circuit boards, build airplanes, and listen remotely to handsome and charming podcast hosts who...
06.28.2021
#27 - A Conversation with Marianne
There are many overused internet keywords that could be associated with this conversation, but none of them quite seem right. So here's a poem instead: The Ogre does what ogres can, Deeds quite impossible for Man, But one prize is beyond his reach: The...
06.08.2021
#26 - Moral Philosophy Cage Match (with Dan Hageman)
In a rare turn of events, it just so happened that one or perhaps both of your charming co-hosts spewed a bit of nonsense about Derek Parfit in a previous episode, and we had to bring in a heavy hitter...
05.24.2021
#25 - Mathematical Explanation with Mark Colyvan
We often talk of explanation in the context of empirical sciences, but what about explanation in logic and mathematics? Is there such a thing? If so, what does it look like and what are the consequences? In this episode we...
05.11.2021
#24 - Popper's Three Worlds
This episode begins with a big announcement! Ben has officially become a cat person, and is now Taking Cats Seriously. Vaden follows up with some news of his own, before diving into the main subject for today's episode - Popper's...
05.03.2021
#23 - Physics, Philosophy, and Free Will with Sam Kuypers
We are joined by the great Sam Kuypers for a conversation on physics, philosophy, and free will. Vaden spends most of the episode preparing for a huge debate on free-will, and Ben spends it worried about what alternate versions of himself...
04.15.2021
#22 - Thinking Through Thought Experiments
In this episode, we discuss Peter Singer's famous drowning child thought experiment, the role of moral theories, and the role of thought experiments in moral reasoning. From our perspectives, the conversation went something like this: Ben's POV: Bravely and boldly...
03.23.2021
#21 (C&R Series, Ch.1) - The Problem of Induction
After a long digression, we finally return to the Conjectures and Refutations series. In this episode we cover Chapter 1: Science: Conjectures and Refutations. In particular, we focus on one of the trickiest Popperian concepts to wrap one's head around...
03.08.2021
#20 (HTI crossover episode) - Roundtable Longtermism Discussion
Hello and sorry for the delay! We finally got together with Fin and Luca from the excellent HearThisIdea podcast for a nice roundtable discussion on longtermism. We laughed, we cried, we tried our best to communicate across the divide. Material...
02.02.2021
#19 - Against Longtermism FAQ
Back in the ring for round two on longtermism! We (Ben somewhat drunkenly) respond to some of the criticism of episode #17 and our two essays (Ben's, Vaden's) We touch on: Ben's hate mail from his piece on cliodynamicsLongtermism as implying...
01.14.2021
#18 - Work Addiction
Bit of a personal episode this one is! Ben learns how to be a twitter warrior while Vaden has a full-on breakdown during quarantine. Who knew work addiction was actually a real thing? And that there are 12 step programs for people...

What's Increments about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Increments episodes:

#67 - Libertarianism III: Social Issues (w/ Bruce Nielson)

#66 - Sex Research, Addiction, and Financial Domination (w/ Aella)

#65 - Libertarianism II: Economic Issues (w/ Bruce Nielson)

#64 - Libertarianism I: Intro and Moral Issues (w/ Bruce Nielson)

#63 - Recycling is the Dumps

#62 (Bonus) - The Principle of Optimism (Vaden on the Theory of Anything Podcast)

#61 - Debating Free Will: Frankenstein's Monster and a Filmstrip of the Universe (with Lucas Smalldon)

#60 - Creativity and Computational Universality (with Bruce Nielson)

#59 (C&R, Chap 8) - On the Status of Science and Metaphysics (Plus reflections on the Brett Hall blog exchange)

#58 - Ask Us Anything V: How to Read and What to Read

#57 (Bonus) - A calm and soothing discussion of The Patriarchy

#56 - Ask Us Anything IV: Certainty, Emergence, and Popperian Imperatives

#55 - Is all thought problem-solving?

#54 - Ask Us Anything III: Emotional Epistemology

#53 - Ask Us Anything II: Disagreements and Decisions

#52 - Ask Us Anything I: Computation and Creativity

#51 - Truth, Moose, and Refrigerated Eggplant: Critiquing Chapman's Meta-Rationality

#50 - On the Evolutionary Origins of Storytelling, Art, and Science

#49 - AGI: Could The End Be Nigh? (With Rosie Campbell)

#48 (C&R Chap. 18) - Utopia and Violence

#47 (Bonus) - Dualism, Reductionism, and Explanation Pancakes

#46 (Bonus) - Arguing about probability (with Nick Anyos)

#45 - Four Central Fallacies of AI Research (with Melanie Mitchell)

#44 - Longtermism Revisited: What We Owe the Future

#43 - Artificial General Intelligence and the AI Safety debate

#42 (C&R, Chap 12+13) - Language and the Body-Mind Problem

#41 - Parenting, Epistemology, and EA (w/ Lulie Tanett)

#40 - The Myth of The Framework: On the possibility of fruitful discussion

#39 - The Enigma of Reason

#38 (C&R Series, Ch. 2) - Wittgenstein vs Popper

#37 - Montessori Education w/ Matt Bateman

#36 - Analyzing Effective Altruism as a Social Movement

#35 - Climate Change III: Fossil Fuels

#34 - Climate Change II: Growth, Degrowth, Reactions, Responses

#33 (C&R Series, Ch. 3) - Instrumentalism and Essentialism

#32 - Climate Change I: Initial Thought-Crimes

#31 - The Fall of the Weinstein Republic

#30 - Let's all just have a good cry (w/ Christofer Lövgren)

#29 - Some Scattered Thoughts on Superforecasting

#28 (C&R Series, Ch. 9) - Why is Logic Applicable to Reality?

#27 - A Conversation with Marianne

#26 - Moral Philosophy Cage Match (with Dan Hageman)

#25 - Mathematical Explanation with Mark Colyvan

#24 - Popper's Three Worlds

#23 - Physics, Philosophy, and Free Will with Sam Kuypers

#22 - Thinking Through Thought Experiments

#21 (C&R Series, Ch.1) - The Problem of Induction

#20 (HTI crossover episode) - Roundtable Longtermism Discussion

#19 - Against Longtermism FAQ

#18 - Work Addiction

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