Original blog post: https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools

Interview with Ayn Rand about altruism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RFlPmjUbRo

Important: Read medical disclaimer at the bottom before listening

Today I’m speaking with Nick Hudson. He is the co-founder of the South African organization PANDA—Pandemics Data and Analytics—which, as stated on their website, “provide[s] decision makers calculated data on the virus’ cost on SA livelihoods.” Nick and I cover what is known about the virus and the disastrous effects of lockdown policies on people and businesses. We explore how bad epistemology and political philosophy lead to tangible harm in society, and how we *should* treat each other during this pandemic instead. I learned a lot—some questions that seem basic, such as whether masks work or not, have deep and interesting answers that may surprise you. Enjoy.

PANDA: https://pandata.org

PANDA's Twitter: https://twitter.com/PanData19

Nick's Twitter: https://twitter.com/NickHudsonCT

Donate to PANDA: https://pandata.org/donate/

Subscribe to PANDA's newsletter: https://pandata.org/subscribe-panda-newsletter/

IMPORTANT: Medical disclaimer — Read before listening

Neither Nick Hudson nor Dennis Hackethal are trained medical professionals. The contents of this episode are for informational purposes only and do not provide a substitute for professional medical advice in any way, shape or form. Do not use information presented in this episode to make decisions about your or others' health. Speak with your doctor/medical professional instead. Reliance on any information in this episode is solely at your own risk.

Applying some of Karl Popper's and David Deutsch's ideas to analyze and evaluate Elon Musk's recent Neuralink presentation and the Q&A afterward. Throwing some of my own ideas into the mix as well. Errors mine.

If you enjoyed this episode, follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dchackethal

References

- The original presentation and Q&A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVvmgjBL74w

- The neo-Darwinian theory of the mind (written article): https://medium.com/conjecture-magazine/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind-d84c0bcc6485

- The neo-Darwinian theory of the mind (read out loud): https://soundcloud.com/dchacke/16-the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind

- David Deutsch’s interview on CBC radio: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/the-new-human-1.4696724/oxford-physicist-predicts-ai-will-be-human-in-all-but-name-1.4696754

- David Deutsch’s second interview with Sam Harris: https://samharris.org/podcasts/finding-our-way-in-the-cosmos/

- Article about fluid buildup replacing much of man’s brain: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12301-man-with-tiny-brain-shocks-doctors/

- David Deutsch, “The Beginning of Infinity,” chapters 5 (levels of emergence and abstractions), 12 (bad philosophy), 13 (Balinksi’s and Young’s no-go theorem regarding “deriving” the will of the group from the will of each individual)

- Karl Popper, “Objective Knowledge,” appendix “The Bucket and the Searchlight”

- Karl Popper, “Alle Menschen sind Philosophen,” Kapitel “Zweites Präludium: Die Zukunft ist offen” (the conversation with Konrad Lorenz)

- Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience ("Our Goal" section): https://redwood.berkeley.edu/

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepathy

Additional source

- Twitter thread by Dennis containing tweets made live during the event: https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1299500744287031296

Correction: at 15:00, I say that memories are

always based on self-replicating ideas *that have high longevity*.

That's not true. A memory could be a self-replicating idea with low

longevity but high fecundity and high copying fidelity.

Correction: I attributed the fact that there can be no consistent "will of the people" to Balinski & Young. That was a mistake. That's Arrow's theorem, discovered by Kenneth Arrow. Balinski & Young's theorem states that there can be no apportionment rules that meets quota without also causing a population paradox (cf. Deutsch, "The Beginning of Infinity," ch. 13).

A commentary on a debate between Richard Dawkins and Bret Weinstein.

The soundbites are from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYzU-DoEV6k

The interview with Weinstein I later reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm8FksjlJtM

Other references:

- The neo-Darwinian theory of the mind: https://medium.com/conjecture-magazine/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind-d84c0bcc6485

- David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity": https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359/

- Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene": https://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Gene-Anniversary-Landmark-Paperback/dp/B0722G5V92/

- David Deutsch's "What is Computation? (How) Does Nature Compute?": https://legacy.cs.indiana.edu/~dgerman/hector/deutsch.pdf

A reading of my article of the same name (https://medium.com/conjecture-magazine/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind-d84c0bcc6485?source=friends_link&sk=833a1ac51009d680ed948428dbabd460).

References:

- Dawkins, Richard. 2016. The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Apple Books.

- Deutsch, David. 2012. The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World. New York: Penguin Press.

- Hackethal, Dennis. 2020a. A Conversation with William Paley. https://gumroad.com/l/a-conversation-with-william-paley.

- Hackethal, Dennis. 2020b. “A Window on Intelligence, with Dennis Hackethal.” Do Explain with Christofer Lövgren. https://soundcloud.com/doexplain/11-a-window-on-intelligence-with-dennis-hackethal. Released March 21, 2020.

- Hackethal, Dennis. 2020c. A Window on Intelligence: The Philosophy of People, Evolution, and Software — and Its Implications. Cupertino: self-published. Amazon.

- Hoeppner, Ella. 2020. “Theories of AGI.” Artificial Creativity with Dennis Hackethal. https://soundcloud.com/dchacke/15-theories-of-agi. Released July 1, 2020.

- Paley, William. 1813. Natural Theology; Or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature. United Kingdom: J. Faulder.

- Peacock, Emily. 2014. “Why do peacocks have such unusual tail feathers?” September 14, 2014. Accessed on July 19, 2020. https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa14/2014/09/14/why-do-peacocks-have-such-unusual-tail-feathers/.

- Popper, Karl. 1983. Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

- WebExhibits. n.d. “Why are peacock feathers colored? (interference).” Accessed July 19, 2020. http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/15C.html.

Today I’m speaking with Ella Hoeppner. Ella is a software engineer and independent AGI researcher. We’ve been discussing all things AGI for a while now and I wanted to have her on the podcast to present her theory of AGI and also to discuss a disagreement we’ve had about the role of replicators in any theory of AGI. Since we both spend a fair amount of time criticizing each other’s theories, you may get more out of this episode if you familiarize yourself with my neo-Darwinian theory of the mind first, which I have laid out both on Christofer Lovgren’s podcast and in my book, A Window on Intelligence (links below). That being said, it’s certainly not required, I think you’ll get a lot out of this episode either way. Ella and I also briefly touch on conventional, narrow-AI research, the role of neuroscience, and the hard problem of consciousness. I even catch myself having changed my mind on the urgency with which we should pursue whole-brain emulation in addition to explaining creativity. I’ve said in the past that there are maybe a handful of people in the world who work on AGI whose approach has not been refuted, and Ella is one of them. And so with that, Ella is going to give us a glimpse into how the mind may work.

References:

- Ella's information: https://www.ellahoeppner.com (includes posts on CTP theory), https://twitter.com/ella_hoeppner, [email protected]

- Simulated annealing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_annealing

- The "neo-Darwinian theory of the mind": https://soundcloud.com/doexplain/11-a-window-on-intelligence-with-dennis-hackethal or https://www.windowonintelligence.com/

- David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity": https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359/

- Karl Popper's "Conjectures and Refutations": https://www.amazon.com/Conjectures-Refutations-Scientific-Knowledge-Routledge/dp/0415285941/

- Karl Popper's "Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach": https://www.amazon.com/Objective-Knowledge-Evolutionary-Karl-Popper/dp/0198750242/

- Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene": https://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Gene-Anniversary-Landmark-Paperback/dp/B0722G5V92

Today I have my first guest on the podcast. His name is Logan Chipkin. Logan is a freelance writer and ghostwriter in Philadelphia, and he is an expert on what is called anarcho-capitalism, also known as voluntarism. We talk about this concept, which he describes as the recognition that all services governments provide could be provided cheaper and better by the free market, and that the government is morally illegitimate. We also cover some of the work on coercion that can be found on the *Taking Children Seriously* homepage, and we explore some of the effects coercion has on society and individuals. We relate the study of economics to the study of epistemology and, therefore, AGI, apply Popper's criterion of democracy, discuss the American government's response to the pandemic, and briefly touch on David Deutsch's Constructor Theory as well.

Logan's previous publications can be found at http://www.loganchipkin.com, and he can be found on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/ChipkinLogan.

We had some audio issues, so it sounds a bit like Logan is on speaker phone. I encourage you to ignore that as much as possible. Talking to Logan was fun and I learned a lot. Enjoy.

References:

- Logan's website: http://www.loganchipkin.com

- Logan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChipkinLogan

- The meme of the vampiric government: https://twitter.com/liberty_deity/status/1272916941536018432/photo/1

- *Taking Children Seriously* glossary: https://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/node/50

- David Deutsch's *The Beginning of Infinity*: https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359

- Constructor Theory: http://constructortheory.org/

My book "A Window on Intelligence: The Philosophy of People, Software, and Evolution – and Its Implications" is now available worldwide, anywhere you can buy books.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Window-Intelligence-Philosophy-Evolution-Implications/dp/1734696133/

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/a-window-on-intelligence/id1521189408

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-window-on-intelligence-dennis-hackethal/1136656305

It is aimed at the general reader. Learn more: https://www.windowonintelligence.com/

From the back cover:

The human mind is the single most powerful entity in the universe. Yet we have made no progress in our efforts to simulate it as artificial general intelligence. Why is that?

In this captivating book, software engineer and philosopher Dennis Hackethal explains the mistakes intelligence researchers have been making – and how to fix them. Based out of Silicon Valley, he proposes a research program for building truly intelligent software, while arguing for a fundamental unification of software engineering and reason generally. Building on the theory of evolution, epistemology, psychotherapy, and astronomy, Hackethal presents a bold new explanation of how people evolved and provides unparalleled insight into the unlimited potential of artificial general intelligence that may one day take us to the stars.

A Window on Intelligence is your field guide to the exciting world of your mind.

Order now!

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