We’re accustomed to using technology to remember things on our behalf…but are we losing something important in the process?

Video: http://youtu.be/3WgdHdBxSqk

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/11/25/256.-Memory-and-the-Extended-Mind-Thesis.html

Amartya Sen’s “Rationality and Freedom” clarifies how the two concepts are intimately linked, how we can’t understand one without the other, & why voting is wholly insufficient to create a rational society.

Video: http://youtu.be/YMkzCMkyjtE

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/10/15/255.-Rationality-and-Freedom.html

There are 1.5 million non-profit organizations in the US. Effective Altruists try to direct people towards the good ones, but many don’t agree with their picks - maybe the problem is bigger than “picking a good charity.”

Video: http://youtu.be/0XjGKig1wlk

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/09/22/254.-Charity-and-Effective-Altruism.html

“Organization” is a technology, and as with many technologies, it embodies a set of values.

Video: http://youtu.be/VTcqt51Io4M

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/08/08/253.-Organizing-Systems.html

Generations are used to explain everything from the state of the economy to attitudes about sexuality, but do they really explain anything?

Video: http://youtu.be/ot5xdqdho4Y

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/06/20/252.-The-Theory-of-Generations.html

Scaremongers drive many to search frantically for something, anything that will make them feel safe, but safety isn’t a thing you can buy - it’s a feeling you have to build for yourself.

Video: http://youtu.be/ob7XTCtZn6U

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/05/13/251.-Safety-and-Risk-Management.html

Angkor Wat & the thousand stone temples surrounding it are some of the most impressive structures humanity has produced - what happened to the society that built them?

Video: http://youtu.be/mYu-BBoW9g8

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/04/15/250.-Angkor-Wat-and-Collapse.html

Why is there something, rather than nothing?

Video: http://youtu.be/-Z9qi41lrK0

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/03/06/249.-Information-Overload.html

Trying to understand something in terms of its parts is natural…but when is it justified?

Video: http://youtu.be/YHkS4upFy_4

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/02/13/248.-Reductionism.html

Gretchen, stop trying to make Vactrains happen! It’s not going to happen!

Video: http://youtu.be/dp2r1C9LDJQ

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/01/21/247.-Zombie-Sci-Fi-Technologies.html