THUNK

Engineering disasters often highlight how bad decisions can wreak havoc, but Dr. Richard Cook’s model of complex systems & how they fail paints a different picture.

Video: http://youtu.be/dPFw2ckWZyY

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2021/04/30/208.-How-Complex-Systems-Fail.html

A lot of sci-fi skirts around substantive questions of politics - is this a coincidence, or is there something about the genre that encourages it?

Video: http://youtu.be/zgzoZckSXEQ

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2021/04/16/207.-The-Anti-Politics-of-Sci-Fi.html

Individual humans are demonstrably irrational, & no amount of training or debiasing has been shown to make a dent in that irrationality, which leads us to ask: if I can’t think rationally on my own, why do I think at all?

Video: http://youtu.be/ncylgXtWaRE

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2021/03/29/206.-Social-Rationality.html

Sometimes, getting an expert to tell you what they really think is like pulling teeth - if it’s their job to give advice about their field, why are they often cagey about it? In a word: rhetoric.

Video: http://youtu.be/EcQvVI2Gk-A

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2021/03/18/205.-Expert-Advice-and-Rhetoric.html

Deliberate ignorance of subjects that seem useless is a common and self-fulfilling attitude, but for postmodern philosophers Deleuze and Guattari, its not just misguided, its missing the point of thinking.

Video: http://youtu.be/A73sx8p3PKU

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2021/02/09/204.-Ignorance-and-'A-Thousand-Plateaus'.html

We expect a certain amount of bullsht in our politics, but little fibs have given way to bewildering, unbelievable fictions. Thankfully, some recent philosophers have insights as to why all bullsht isnt created equal.

Video: http://youtu.be/9VrkFmMkzwc

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2021/01/13/203.-Bullshit-and-Truthlikeness.html