Post Wave

What are the implications of recent developments in code- and image-generating AI? What is the difference between intelligence and consciousness? What impact do these developments have on the open-source community? How will this affect developer jobs?

Test Driven Development in the Age of AI: https://youtu.be/kBIr46RNxVI

DALL.E: https://openai.com/blog/dall-e/

Outro Music by Trevor Villwock

What does it mean to exist? We explore Plato’s theory of ideas and his Republic.

Plato Republic: https://youtu.be/rVxSoiHtovM

Sophie’s World: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie%27s_World

Stephen Wolfram heat death of the universe: https://youtu.be/kuFRyOwkYuE

Universal wavefunction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_wavefunction#:~:text=The%20universal%20wave%20function%20is,times%20a%20deterministic%20wave%20equation.%22

Bohr’s atom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr

Alan Watts quote: https://youtu.be/-VzLBkmeW8E

Steven Pinker – The Better Angels of Our Nature: https://stevenpinker.com/publications/better-angels-our-nature

Iain McGilchrist episode: https://www.post-wave.com/49-divided-brain

Who were the Stoics, what did they believe about the world, and how can we apply it to life today?

References:

Marcus Aurelius - https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius/

Hunter-gatherers and happiness - https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/10/01/551018759/are-hunter-gatherers-the-happiest-humans-to-inhabit-earth

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

Music by Trevor Villwock

update: oh no! I accidentally bungled the conversion and only uploaded the last 2 minutes of this episode. Here's the full episode! (should be fixed now).

What is the self? Am I a different person than you are? How can we engender compassion in ourselves? Trevor & Eric discuss enlightenment as talked about by Ram Dass – philosopher, psychologist, luminary.

Ram Dass lecture: https://youtu.be/kjh1BAG5Pfs

Dzogchen Buddhism - https://www.shambhala.com/snowlion_articles/the-practice-of-dzogchen/

Timothy Leary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary

Terrence McKenna: https://www.post-wave.com/21-terence-mckenna

Ted Achocoso:  https://www.post-wave.com/47-analysis-dr-ted-achacoso

Alan Watts: https://www.post-wave.com/episode-10-alan-watts-this-is-it

Peterson Dillahunty debate: https://www.post-wave.com/55-religion-and-morality

Incompleteness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems

Outro Music by Trevor Villwock

How should we feel about billionaires pursuing space exploration when there's so much wrong on earth?

References:

Billionaire tax rates - https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

Culture series - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series

Lex Fridman's conversation with Neal Stephenson - https://youtu.be/xAfdSak2fs8

Sabine Hossenfelder on terraforming Mars - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb0UnogKQeo

Spinlaunch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAczd3mt3X0

Largest comet ever discovered - https://www.space.com/newfound-comet-biggest-recorded-history

World's richest people 2021 - https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/

Elon Musk helping fight world hunger - https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/11/11/1052719247/how-6-billion-from-elon-musk-could-feed-millions-on-the-brink-of-famine

We are joined by special guest Walker T. Roman to continue our discussion of abstraction, this time in the context of art and music.

References:

Walker T. Roman: https://www.walkertroman.com/

Lascaux cave paintings: https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/lascaux/

Trevor's music: https://soundcloud.com/trevor-villwock

In this episode we discuss the various forms of immortality humanity could possibly achieve and their implications for meaning and purpose in life.

References:

Sean Carroll on time - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAScJvxCy2Y

Roy (Rick & Morty) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szzVlQ653as

Simulation argument (Nick Bostrom) - https://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html

Possible evidence for a multiverse - https://www.quantamagazine.org/multiverse-proof-possibility-from-colliding-universes-20141110/

This is the first in a two-part series in which we discuss the topic of abstraction. In this episode we focus on the term as it relates to computer science, existentialism, and music.

Max MSP: https://cycling74.com/

Music by Trevor Villwock: https://soundcloud.com/trevor-villwock/lattice-for-climbing

Can we have morality without religion? Where do spiritual experiences fit into a modern scientific conception of the world? In this episode we discuss a debate between Matt Dillahunty and Jordan Peterson from 2018 on religion, morality and more.

References:

Debate - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmH7JUeVQb8

New Atheism - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Atheism

Secular Humanism - https://secularhumanism.org/what-is-secular-humanism/

The Moral Landscape - https://samharris.org/books/the-moral-landscape/

Expert systems - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_system

Godel’s Incompleteness Theorems - https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/goedel-incompleteness/

What motivates a teacher to pursue a career in software engineering? How do class roles permeate our society? We speak with teacher Eric Saldivar about his experience transitioning into a technical field. 

References:

Eric Saldivar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esaldivar1214/

JavaUnscripted: https://anchor.fm/javaunscripted 

Codesmith: https://codesmith.io/

Elon Musk work ethic: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/03/elon-musk-works-80-hour-weeks--heres-how-that-impacts--your-health.html

Doing Good Better: https://www.post-wave.com/20-doing-good-better 

AI singularity: https://www.post-wave.com/episode-7-artificial-superintelligence 

Outro music by Eric Mulhern