Truth Unrestricted

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Excerpt - There is a popular lie being told to us: that compassion and logic are incompatible. It is usually said that being logical (or "too logical") means that you're not being compassionate or compassionate enough. The corollary to that is often not said out loud but is carried on those same shoulders: in order to be compassionate you must abandon all logic.

Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Kruger_effect

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Do we (as humans) have a predilection for things that are unknowable? Do we lose some interest in a thing once we find out how it works? Is it "fascinating" when its workings are mysterious and is it "mundane" when its workings are well known to us?
As we learn about something, it loses its mystique. As we come to see new things that we don't know about they again have a sense of mystery about them in our minds. Could it be that this sense of mystery can become like a fantasy that we don't want to lose by learning more about a thing?
In the other direction: if we know something to be true, but then slowly remove from our knowledge facts about how they work do they regain that sense of mystery?
When we know how something works, its appearance in our minds is limited to just that: the way it works. If we don't know how something works its appearance in our minds is not limited to anything but our imagination. If we know less about a thing it can take on a new and more fantastical existence in our minds.
Ignorance doesn't have to be a lack of knowledge. It can be an embrace of the wrong knowledge. A substitution of objective reality with highly detailed fantasy. In this way, you can have the best of both worlds. You can be extremely knowledgeable (even if it is about fiction) and still have anything be possible.

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Episode 10 - Technology and Current Benevolent Overlords
The state of our current social media technology. 
What is Artificial Intelligence? A computer that mimics the pattern recognition features of a human. Early types of this attempted to do this by rote. 
What is a machine learning computer? A machine that takes AI to another level. It is capable of writing its own code based on patterns that it sees in large sets of data. The datasets usually stretch across entire platforms of information. Imagine all interactions on Facebook or all interactions on Twitter. 
Machine learning AI is given goals to put eyeballs on screens and increase "engagement". This is called the "attention economy".
What are the purposes of these machines? Why does anyone build them?
These technologies are learning more every year about how to influence us. Is this healthy?
What are Current Benevolent Overlords? Our current social media technologies (and the resulting invasion of privacy that comes with them) are being used to distort the electorate and sell more shoes. There is a bigger danger that these technologies could be used for far worse invasions of privacy. They could be used by the CBOs to learn potentially embarrassing personal details about important individuals. They could be used to do the same to silence any single dissenting voice about any topic.


Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_learning
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_versus_Garry_Kasparov
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaZero
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaFold
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquisition_of_Twitter_by_Elon_Musk

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Intuition is the ability of the brain to recognize processes and patterns without consciously studying them.
It is a very powerful tool but cannot be relied upon. It is the source of many false conclusions.
We commonly mistake intuition for instinct. Both are happening outside our conscious perception.
Instinct is the collection of decisions granted by genetics that are meant to guide self-aware creatures to better survivability. These decisions generally lead to: more food, more protection, more babies. Everything else is intuition.
Putting on an aggressive front to intimidate other people is a product of instinct. Having a knack for picking stocks on the stock market is not an instinct, it is intuition.
Common sense is the collection of common thoughts, concepts or ideas that are assumed to be held by two or more parties who are all part of a conversation.
We need common sense to make our social lives bearable. Try having a conversation without the collection of assumptions we usually use and it would sound like the EULA of everything on the internet.
Common sense is a consistent source of miscommunication in our lives and should not be used for logical arguments. If "it's common sense" is the answer this really means that the person giving the answer does not want to bother properly forming the answer or logical argument. They are, instead, hoping the listener understands on their own.
Almost everything the layperson knows about physics comes to them by way of "intuition" and "common sense". Everyone knows that they must plug in the coffee maker to make it work. This is "common sense". 

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Some of the questions that are answered in this episode:
How did we change from a world without Covid to a world with Covid?
What was that experience like from the perspective of an epidemiologist?
How well is our vaccine coverage (both in North America and worldwide)?
What is the future of covid in our world?
How do mRNA vaccines work?
Why are some covid variants more prevalent than others?
How did the covid pandemic interact with other epidemiological concerns? Which other diseases became a bigger problem because of covid?
Why don't we just hurry up and infect everyone with covid to get it over with as quickly as possible?
What is "Long Covid"?

Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19
https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2020/12/16/coronavirus-expert-mark-denison-shares-covid-19-research-and-insights/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_S._Graham
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._Crowe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles

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Episode 7 - Virtue Signaling and Tribalism
What is virtue signalling? The overt or conscious effort to portray a property that we know will be seen positively by our audience. In this context, our "audience" is anyone we are speaking to. We signal our virtues to signal our conformity to the beliefs of others and encourage them to trust us. 
Virtue signalling is very often seen as something people on the left do. It is definitely something everyone does (not just people on the left).
Virtue signalling is often used as a perjorative. 
Political Correctness happens when we try very, very hard to signal our virtues.
Being surrounded by people who casually hold a different set of beliefs can cause a set of new normal virtues for yourself. They might be adopted for the time you are with those people.
What is Tribalism? The adoption of a set of beliefs that are collectively held by people you wish to be identified with. This definition is best understood in the modern context in which we can select our own tribes (rather than have our tribe chosen for us by our geography). 
How does virtue signalling relate to Tribalism? We are social creatures and we are strongly influenced by our need to conform to the collection of beliefs held by people whose trust we want. The best way to earn and keep that trust is to continually display for those people our virtues. In essence, we are teaching everyone around us about what sorts of decisions we would make about the things that are important to them (virtues). 
Callback to Episode 2 - Trust, conformity and Social Expectation. All 3 of those (and their interlocking aspects) are heavily active in maintaining tribal lines.
Political tribes usually form around the loudest voices. The political climate is not merely a single line (but it's hard to see that in a social climate that pulls everyone to two corners).
Tribalism and virtue signalling surround us. They are everpresent in our thoughts and they influence many of our decisions. You will not be able to properly make decisions absent their effects without realizing this.

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Episode 6 - Power and Freedom
Disclaimer: Jeff's sound quality is lower this week. It won't be for future podcasts.
What is power? The ability to influence the decisions of others.
What is freedom? The ability to make a decision for yourself absent of influence from others. Also the condition of having a large number of available choices.
Two social forces that oppose each other.
Power vs Freedom: Why don't I list this as "Security vs Freedom" as the classical view?
Do we want *anyone* to have power? Would such a society really achieve maximum individual freedom?
Without giving anyone power we wouldn't be able to accomplish larger goals (cooperation)
We would also be in danger from opposing groups that were able to give up some power to cooperate as larger groups
Do we want *anyone* to have freedom?
Do leaders of groups that have a large amount of individual freedom benefit by having greater power? If so, is this a paradox? People with high degrees of freedom tend to have a larger number of choices and a greater ability to affect the world and therefore being the leader of such a group might make one a more powerful leader.
The strange word "autocracy"

Fact Check: At 15:42 of this podcast I incorrectly list the year of the publication of Einstein's "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (special relativity) as 1898. The actual year of its publication was 1905. Sue me.

Link to things mentioned in the podcast:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jong-un
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/autocracy

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Defining conspiracy. Information kept in a "bubble". The information must be something that would affect (or support an agenda that runs counter to the interests of) people outside the bubble.
Perfect conspiracies vs imperfect conspiracies.
How do conspiracies succeed/fail? The two rules: info inside must have a force keeping it inside, people outside must not be trying to look inside (or just be ineffective at looking inside).
Common examples of things that don't we don't call conspiracies but function just like them (football huddles, government cabinet meetings, corporations).
The problem with single event observations (9/11 is not a repeatable event).
Conspiracy thinking is encouraged by the rich/poor gap and amplified by the internet
The rich are engaged in a conspiracy, just not the conspiracy they are being accused of engaging in.
The special case of Robert Anton Wilson and the Illuminati.

Links to things mentioned in the episode
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM_price_fixing_scandal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Brien_(Nineteen_Eighty-Four)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson

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Episode 4 - Politics and Science
If you hear anything in this podcast that you would like to comment about, please send it to [email protected]

The scientific model: data/observation -> theory/explanation -> hypothesis/prediction -> test/new observation/data

Theories are not guesses but explanations of collections of observations. Good theories explain a large number of observations and are contradicted by very few (preferably none).

Science is about making observations, then finding explanations and conclusions based on those observations

Politics versus Politicking: Do we see one as bad and the other as benign?

Politics is the reverse of science, find the conclusion you want, then work to point out things that justify or manufacture those conclusions

Can science and politics co-exist?

Fact check: @18:48 of this episode I mention that a 14 year old Finnish girl was protested by people in Alberta. This was inaccurate. In fact it was a 16 year old Swedish girl who was protested.

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Episode 3 - Bullying
Define bullying. Is it simply social intimidation or is there more to it? Is it a tactic for upward social traction?
Why aren't bullies ever alone? Why do they seem to be at the top of their respective social hierachies?
Bullying is very common. Is it natural?
The comparison of bullying to lightning (it will always be there, just don't be the one bullied)
The critical question: bullying is always seen as a negative thing, is it ever a positive thing?
Bullies must be opposed
Relevant research on the topic: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26160858/