The Ars Technicast

This week my guest is Sam Harris: a neuroscientist turned bestselling author turned podcasting colossus. Sam has described his job as “thinking in public.” The uniqueness of Sam’s perspective is evidenced by his ability to trigger comparable gusts of outrage from both the left and the right (generally from the extremes of each camp). Also, he made Ben Affleck really angry on Bill Maher's show this one time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The main topic today is consciousness. Adam has his own rather eclectic take on this mysterious force and presence. The final chunk of the podcast is a conversation between me and podcasting superstar Tom Merritt. In it, Tom and I discuss my interview with Adam—as well as a chunk of the novel After On.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adam and I open today’s installment discussing techniques that mad scientists like him can use thwack the brain (legally, and safely, of course), so as to increase its neuroplasticity. We then talk about the limits of medical imaging—and the lamentable fact that this technology isn’t rocketing down a Moore’s Law-like curve. In closing, we discuss some of the newer things Adam’s lab is exploring. There’s some intriguing work connected to meditation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, we’re serializing another episode of the After On Podcast here on Ars. Our guest is UCSF neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley, who runs one of the largest academic neuroscience labs on the West Coast and researches tuning games to combat neurological aliments. At the heart of today’s conversation is Adam’s take on neuroplasticity. I’ve known this term for years, and long thought I understood it. But this interview brought me a far more nuanced comprehension of it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

UC Irvine quantitative psychologist Don Hoffman presents his wildly counterintuitive theory on the nature of reality. We kick off today talking about what’s widely referred to as "the hard problem of consciousness." Don takes a highly contrarian approach to it. Next we discuss the eerie results of several hundred brain-splitting surgeries, which were performed a few decades back. We close by discussing of "panpsychism."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Don and I open this episode by discussing his take on space-time. He refutes that the notion that space itself existed at all before consciousness. Don essentially believes that if you’re alone in a room and look at a chair, that chair ceases to exist when you look away from it. Almost inevitably, we get into quantum physics. But rest assured, Don isn’t some New Age guru citing spooky physics as part of a healing crystal sales pitch. He’s a serious thinker who understands this stuff cold.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s guest is UC Irvine quantitative psychologist Don Hoffman. In today’s installment, he lays the foundation of this wildly contrarian worldview. An ardent Darwinist, Don argues that evolutionary forces will almost always favor perceptive systems that present a simplified, even dumbed-down take on reality. This is the start of a pretty wild ride, which I believe any curious mind will enjoy—even ones which fully reject Don’s perspective.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today’s installment, Tim rejects the fashionable forecast that automation will eradicate all human jobs next week. Being closer than most of us to Jeff Bezos, he knows a thing or three about operations at Amazon, which presents a fascinating case in point. Then Tim goes a bit dark. With reference to Facebook and Google, he compares the world economy to an optimizing algorithm that’s gone off the rails. Tim closes with a nuanced take on our future.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tim and I start off today talking about "The Whole Internet User’s Guide & Catalog," which he published in 1992. And yup—that’s a two at the end of that number. Jumping forward many years, Tim tells us about convening a small summit of tech honchos, which quite literally named open-source software. This launches a tour of Tim’s thoughts about platforms & tech ecosystems, and their abusers. This leads us to his very nuanced takes on Uber, AirBnB, and others—all of which surprised me on one or mor

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our guest is tech’s preeminent publisher and top prognosticator Tim O’Reilly. O’Reilly Media has published a huge share of our world’s top books for as long as I’ve been around – even as it led the charge with ebooks, digital training, and other disruptions to its ink-on-paper legacy. But Tim’s real mojo comes from being the industry’s convener-in-chief. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices