Cognitive Engineering

Historians often refer to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment period in England and 1960s pop music as golden ages. These are seen as periods of great advancement in the arts and scientific discovery. But how do you get one?

In this week’s podcast, we discuss golden ages. How do you foster a golden age, what are the required conditions and can we predict one in advance? We explore the history of golden ages, put forward a model for determining a golden age lifecycle and finally, make predictions about where you are likely to find a future golden age.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• Perseus Digital Library: Hesiod, Works and Days
• Wikipedia: Golden age (metaphor)
• List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 1960
• List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 1970
• List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2010
• List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2020

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Do high budgets for films and television series lead to high-quality productions? Or does spending too much money actually make the end product worse?

In this week’s podcast, we discuss big budgets. We use Amazon’s Rings of Power series to question whether a large budget is a necessary condition for success in film and television. We discuss the economic theory of resource scarcity, hubristic planning, white elephants, the Mythical Man-Month, and the Swedish warship Vasa. We widen the lens of the conversation to ask how large budgets affect decision-making and even draw an analogy between large film budgets and military spending. Finally, we share some of our favourite high and low-budget films.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• Big-budget films are getting worse — and we can prove it
• Why movies cost so much to make (Investopedia)
• Movies Decoded: The complex relationship between budgets, box office and ratings
• The Mythical Man-Month

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

What are the ingredients of a good conversation? Does it require a balance between conversational givers and takers or is it simply down to taking an interest in what your interlocutor is saying?

In this week’s podcast, we discuss conversations. We debate whether there is an optimal way to conduct a conversation and put forward a series of explanations based on our own idiosyncratic approaches. We discuss sideways conversations, the rationalist movement and share some of our most memorable conversations.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• LessWrong: Conversations
• Good conversations have lots of doorknobs
• Do conversations end when people want them to?
• Michael Parkinson interviews Meg Ryan

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

There seems to be an ever-growing list of examples that reminds us we are living through an age of nostalgia for past media. Black and white photography, vinyl records and the iPod Classic are all experiencing renewed popularity, but what can we put this down to?

In this week’s podcast, we discuss future nostalgia. What are the technologies and media we will feel nostalgic about in the future and are they simply a reflection of current limitations and imperfections? We discuss The Commitments, hauntology, 90s website revivalism, artificial intelligence language models, and share some of our predictions for future technology nostalgia.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• Brian Eno on technological imperfections
• Steam: Into the Breach
• John Cage’s 4’33”
• CGI from The Mummy Returns

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

It’s a question that has left many puzzled. What, in fact, is a sandwich? Is it the classic two slices of bread, Earl of Sandwich creation? Or is it simply anything in a similar arrangement?

In this week’s podcast, we discuss sandwiches. Tom harks back to his Swedish heritage by posing the question, is an open-sandwich a sandwich? From here we discuss logical positivism, neural networks and Quine’s seminal work ‘Two Dogmas of Empiricism’. Finally, we share some of our favourite sandwich creations and experiences.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• Logical Empiricism
• Two Dogmas of Empiricism
• John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

As King Charles III was proclaimed the new monarch of the UK and the Commonwealth realms, we were left questioning if the era of deference is a thing of the past or if it does still hold some meaning today.

In this week’s podcast, we discuss deference. Do kings and queens deserve the level of deference they receive or is it an anachronism? We attempt to define the key components of deference, speculate on the differences between deference and respect, discuss the If-By-Whiskey fallacy, Robert Sapolsky’s seminal study of savanna baboons, the Household Cavalry and of course, the Queen’s funeral.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• The origins of deference: When do people prefer lower status?
• Prospect: How deference is smothering the conversation Britain needs
• The London School of Economics and Political Science: Representing (Ir) Reverence: what The Crown can tell us about our relationship with the monarchy today

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

What makes certain types of crime cool and are there any rules? Why is it that the arts and media glorify different forms of criminality over others?

In this week’s podcast, we delve into the world of cool criminals. We discuss the difference between pirates and privateers, the Byronic hero, the mafia, Baader Meinhof and Narco ballads. Nick presents his theory on how to make crimes cool and we speculate on the origins of coolness itself. Finally, we share some of our favourite crimes and criminals.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• Lance Gooden wants to make privateering great again
• Too Great a Cruelty: ARCHAEOLOGY's Top Ten Vicious Pirate Acts
• Baader-Meinhof: The glamorous and beguiling face of militant violence

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

As Britain enters a new era with the passing of the Queen, we revisit a previous podcast on the past, tradition and nostalgia. We even make mention of the new King.

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Do you prefer Rembrandt or Rothko? The Vatican or The Shard? A Georgian terrace or a 1960s housing estate? Ever wondered why we stopped building beautiful old buildings and how architectural modernism came to dominate our skylines?

This week we discuss the theory of the Tartarian civilization. It claims that our most ornate buildings are the work of a lost civilization called the Tartarian Empire and attempts to explain the rise of architectural modernism. We set out the theories for and against modernism, deconstruct survivorship bias and new urbanism and discuss a famously anti-modernist town designed by Prince Charles. Nick presents a taxonomy of theories that may explain divergent tastes in architecture and we share our own architectural predilections.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

• Whither Tartaria?
• Poundbury
• Celebration, Florida
• Richard H. Driehaus Architecture Competition
• Londoners grow fond of the Shard yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/ar…rs-grow-fond-shard

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Do you remember the Suez Crisis, Soviet Union, using a phone box, smoking on planes or 9/11?

In this week’s podcast, we discuss the historical present. When does our historical frame of reference start and when does it end? We look at why young people seem to overgeneralise from their experience and whether knowledge and values are generation-specific. We discuss the Beloit College Mindset Lists, the British sitcom Are you Being Served?, and Mini-discs, before finally testing our own subjective timeline from a list of historical events.

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Square-rimmed glasses, skinny jeans and 1940s clothing are all subject to aesthetic considerations. Are these driven by the whims of fashion or are they part of a deeper and more obscure notion of ‘good’ taste?

In this week’s podcast, we discuss taste. Are there objective elements to taste or is it purely subjective? We discuss the case of John Lewis, Hipsters, Donald Trump, and the Russian aristocracy. We explore the barber pole model for fashion and ask if there is a difference between social status and taste-making ability. Finally, we rank our own taste.

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]