What are the philosophical implications of virtual reality? Do we exist "physically" or "virtually" and does it matter? Is virtual reality real? How is reality different from consciousness? David Chalmers joins Vasant Dhar in episode 41 of Brave New World to talk about the big questions at the intersection of philosophy and AI that are are being driven by advances in neuroscience and virtual reality. Useful resources 1. David Chalmers at NYU, Google Scholar, Amazon and his own website. 2. Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy -- David Chalmers. 3. The Conscious Mind -- David Chalmers. 4. Douglas Hofstadter on Amazon. 5. Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain -- Patricia Churchland. 6. Anthony Zador on How our Brains Work -- Episode 35 of Brave New World. 7. White Christmas -- Episode 4 of Season 2 of Black Mirror. 8. It From Bit -- John Archibald Wheeler. 9. John Conway's Game of Life. 10. Nick Bostrom on Amazon. 11. The Simulation Hypothesis. 12. World on a Wire -- Rainer Werner Fassbinder. 13. The Matrix -- The Wachowskis. 14. The Naked Sun -- Isaac Asimov. 15. Descartes' Evil Demon. 16. What Is It Like to Be a Bat? -- Thomas Nagel. 17. Integrated Information Theory -- Giulio Tononi. 18. The Nature of Intelligence -- Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann LeCun). 19. The Turing Test. 20. The Consciousness Prior -- Yoshua Bengio.

'We need narrative theory,' says Ben Hunt, to understand the alien beings called Narratives that inhabit our Metaverse. Hunt joins Vasant Dhar in episode 40 of Brave New World to describe how Big Tech is changing the way we think -- and how we need to fight it. Useful resources: 1. Ben Hunt on Twitter, LinkedIn and Epsilon Theory, 2. Epsilon Theory, 3. Narrative and Metaverse, Pt. 1: The Living Word -- Ben Hunt. 4. Narrative and Metaverse, Pt. 2: Gain of Function -- Ben Hunt. 5. Narrative and Metaverse, Pt. 3: The Luther Protocol -- Ben Hunt. 6. Chris Bail on How to Fight Polarization -- Episode 34 of Brave New World. 7. Amusing Ourselves to Death -- Neil Postman. 8. The Selfish Gene -- Richard Dawkins. 9. Lapham's Quarterly. 10. We Refugees -- Hannah Arendt. 11. The Power of Myth -- Joseph Campbell. Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Hooking up ain't like it used to be. Marie Bergstrom joins Vasant Dhar in episode 39 of Brave New World to discuss her research on how the internet has changed the world of love -- and lust. Useful resources: 1. Marie Bergstrom on Google Scholar. 2. The New Laws of Love -- Marie Bergstrom. 3. Ruth Westheimer on Wikipedia. 4. A modern manifesto against sex positivity -- Michelle Goldberg. 5. Rethinking Sex: A Provocation -- Christine Emba. Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

These are exciting times for wine lovers. Joel Peterson, the Godfather of Zinfandel, joins Vasant Dhar in episode 38 of Brave New World to raise a toast to the innovators who continue to transform the world of wine. Useful resources: 1. Once and Future Wine and Ravenswood. 2. Zinfandel on Wikipedia. 3. The parentage of a classic wine grape, Cabernet Sauvignon -- JE Bowers and CP Meredith. 4. Historical Genetics: The Parentage of Chardonnay, Gamay, and Other Wine Grapes of Northeastern France -- J Bowers, JM Boursiquot, P This, H Johansson and C Meredith. 5. Zinfandel, Dobrièiæ, and Plavac mali: The Genetic Relationship among Three Cultivars of the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia -- E Maletiæ, I Pejiæ, J Karoglan Kontiæ, J Piljac, GS Dangl, A Vokurka, T Lacombe, N Miroševiæ and CP Meredith. 6. Whole genome amplification and microsatellite genotyping of herbarium DNA revealed the identity of an ancient grapevine cultivar -- Nenad Malenica, Silvio Simon, Višnja Besendorfer, Edi Maletić, Jasminka Karoglan Kontić and Ivan Pejić. 7. An Ideal Wine -- David Darlington. 8. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World. 9. Higher wine prices boost drinking pleasure -- Clare Baldwin. 10. Interpretations of colour composition in young red wines -- TC Somers. 11. Wine Colour and Tannin -- The Australian Wine Research Institute. 12. Law and Education in Our Modern World -- Episode 5 of Brave New World (w John Sexton).

Education empowers people, but education debt can cripple them and they families financially. Caitlin Zaloom joins Vasant Dhar in episode 37 of Brave New World to describe the depth of the problem, and what can be done about it. Useful resources: 1. Caitlin Zaloom at NYU, Google Scholar and Twitter. 2. Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost -- Caitlin Zaloom. 3. Law and Education in Our Modern World -- Episode 5 of Brave New World (w John Sexton). 4. The Future of Liberal Education -- Episode 11 of Brave New World (w Michael S Roth). 5. Uplift the Unremarkables -- Episode 2 of Brave New World (w Scott Galloway). 7. The Value of Soft Skills in the Labor Market -- David J Deming. 8. Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? -- David H Autor. 9. The Price You Pay for College -- Ron Lieber.

The brain is a complex machine, but some of us study its circuits and figure out its secrets. Anthony Zador joins Vasant Dhar in episode 35 of Brave New World to reveal what the cutting edge of neuroscience looks like. Useful resources: 1. Anthony Zador at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Google Scholar and Twitter. 2. Christof Koch on Amazon. 3. A critique of pure learning and what artificial neural networks can learn from animal brains -- Anthony Zador. 4. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence -- Hans Moravec. 5. The Nature of Intelligence -- Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann LeCun). 6. How the Mind Works -- Steven Pinker. 7. Ebbinghaus Illusion.

Social media is tearing us apart by feeding into our need for status. Can we mitigate its effects? Chris Bail joins Vasant Dhar in episode 34 of Brave New World to share his research on how social media affects us -- and how we can fight back. Useful resources 1. Chris Bail at Duke, Sanford School of Public Policy, Google Scholar, Amazon, Twitter and his own website. 2. Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing -- Chris Bail. 3. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (with Sinan Aral). 4. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (with Jonathan Haidt). 5. Helena Rosenblatt on Liberalism's Long Journey -- Episode 32 of Brave New World. 6. We Have Never Been Here Before -- Thomas L Friedman. 7. Adam Alter on Beating Our Addictions -- Episode 28 of Brave New World. 8. The Hype Machine -- Sinan Aral.

The value of a company has a lot to do with the stories it tells about itself. Aswath Damodaran joins Vasant Dhar in episode 33 of Brave New World to discuss how narratives and numbers are related. Useful Resources: 1. Aswath Damodaran on YouTube, Blogspot, Twitter, Amazon and NYU Stern. 2. Narrative and Numbers: The Value of Stories in Business -- Aswath Damodaran. 3. The Innovator's Dilemma -- Clayton M Christensen. 4. A Disruptive Cab Ride to Riches: The Uber Payoff -- Aswath Damodaran. 5. How to Miss By a Mile: An Alternative Look at Uber's Potential Market Size -- Bill Gurley. 6. Possible, Plausible and Probable: Big markets and Networking effects -- Aswath Damodaran. 7. Up, up and away! A crowd-valuation of Uber! -- Aswath Damodaran. 8. The Success Equation -- Michael J Mauboussin. 9. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction — Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 10. Philip Tetlock on the Art of Forecasting -- Episode 31 of Brave New World. 11. The Zomato IPO: A Bet on Big Markets and Platforms! -- Aswath Damodaran. 12. Reciprocal Scoring: A Method for Forecasting Unanswerable Questions — Ezra Karger, Joshua Monrad, Barb Mellers and Philip Tetlock. 13. Trafalgar Polls. 14. The Hedgehog and the Fox -- Isaiah Berlin. 15. The Big Market Delusion: Valuation and Investment Implications -- Bradford Cornell and Aswath Damodaran. 16. The Market is Huge! Revisiting the Big Market Delusion -- Aswath Damodaran.

What is liberal democracy and has it lost its way? Helena Rosenblatt joins Vasant Dhar in episode 32 of Brave New World to add a historical perspective to this modern problem in our illiberal and polarized world. Useful resources: 1. The Lost History of Liberalism -- Helena Rosenblatt. 2. Thinking with Rousseau: From Machiavelli to Schmitt -- Helena Rosenblatt. 3. Helena Rosenblatt on Amazon. 4. Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Amazon. 5. The Technology Wars -- Episode 1 of Brave New World (w Arun Sundararajan.) 6. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet -- Episode 15 of Brave New World. 7. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (w Sinan Aral). 8. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 9. Justice Antonin Scalia on American exceptionalism. 10. The Future of Liberal Education -- Episode 11 of Brave New World (w Michael S Roth).