ToKCast
215 episodes - English - Latest episode: 13 days ago - ★★★★★ - 84 ratingsThis is a podcast largely about the work of David Deutsch and his books ”The Beginning of Infinity” and ”The Fabric of Reality”.
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Episodes
Ep 64 Ch 18 "The Beginning" Part 3
May 11, 2021 14:45 - 50 minutes - 94.9 MBThe Penultimate “The Beginning of Infinity” episode. Herein we contrast pessimism with optimism - what the conditions are for providing succour to either philosophy and who some of the leaders are. While science writers such as John Horgan, author of “The End of Science” may provide something of an introduction to the ways in which people can conclude “the end is night”, philosophers like Nick Bostrom and Verner Vinge take things further providing academic papers on “the singularity” and “th...
Ep 63: "The Fabric of Reality" episode 1
May 07, 2021 03:35 - 1 hour - 113 MBThis is an exploration of the first 7 pages of "The Fabric of Reality". I spend much of the time talking about the significance of the book, how I missed so much even on my first few readings of it and how we find even in these first few pages not merely the seeds of aspects of David Deutsch's later work, but an entire forest of important ideas that motivate much in "The Beginning of Infinity" and his other philosophical work such as "The Logic of Experimental Tests": https://pdf.sciencedire...
Ep 62: "The Science of Can and Can't" episode 1.
May 05, 2021 16:53 - 1 hour - 116 MBThis is the first episode in a new series devoted to an entirely new book: “The Science of Can and Can’t” by Chiara Marletto. Get the book anywhere ebooks are available (as of May, 2021) and learn more about Chiara and her work here: https://www.chiaramarletto.com This book is an amazing work. It presents for the lay reader an introduction to “Constructor Theory” without losing any scientific or philosophical rigour. In this first episode, I explain the motivation for Constructor Theory as...
Ep 61 Ch 18 "The Beginning" Part 2
May 03, 2021 10:09 - 30 minutes - 56.5 MBIn this second part I spend a large portion of our time comparing author John Horgan's work "The End of Science" to David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity". What errors does Horgan make on the way to reaching the conclusion that science is coming to an end? I also summarise cases where critics of Popper seem to turn to character assassination rather than being focussed on his ideas. We end by considering reasons why - particularly in fundamental physics - science is not at an end given o...
Ep 60: The Nexus (No music version).
April 23, 2021 05:58 - 1 hour - 113 MBThis episode is identical to episode 59 - only it contains no music. I don't think this is as good :) My preferred way to experience this is the video version version which is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpTxBkmr4LE . of this video (there is another published alongside this without any music -again, I don't think it is as good, but if you prefer "no music" - there is a video version without that also here: https://youtu.be/Ky4vMllidvM In either case this episode seeks to answe...
Ep 59: The Nexus
April 23, 2021 05:48 - 1 hour - 114 MBMy preferred way to experience this is the video version version which is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpTxBkmr4LE . There is another version also published alongside this without any music - I don't think it is as good, but if you prefer "no music" - there is a version without that here: https://youtu.be/Ky4vMllidvM Note that episode 60 of the podcast is just "Episode 59 without the music" as well. In either case this episode seeks to answer the question "What is a person?...
Ep 58 Ch 18 "The Beginning" Part 1
April 17, 2021 07:46 - 55 minutes - 104 MBThe beginning of "The Beginning" which is the chapter at the very end of "The Beginning of Infinity". :) Ignore what I say early on in this episode: this is episode 58, not 57. In this episode we revisit the idea that science, or knowledge broadly is coming to an "end". Even Feynman could become uncharacteristically pessimistic in this regard. Every new discovery reveals that there is more to know. Popper himself thought that as we increased our knowledge we would learn how much more ignoran...
Ep 57 "Existential Risk".
April 04, 2021 06:57 - 50 minutes - 93.8 MBThis is a podcast all about "Existential Risk". Made at the request of a Patreon, I cover the usual spectrum of ways in which people guess civilisation might end, discuss how to think about this from a rational - but critical - perspective and how to remain optimistic in the face of public intellectuals bombarding us with these claims about the coming end-times. If you would like to get early access to podcasts like this, consider becoming a Patreon either at https://www.patreon.com/tokcas...
Ep 56: Ch 17 "Unsustainable" Part 4
April 04, 2021 00:02 - 1 hour - 124 MBThe final part of the penultimate chapter. Here we cover "The parable of Europium" and other memorable pessimists from David's formative years. Some analysis of the present concerns about climate change and the rational problem solving - and optimistic approach as contrasted to the standard pessimistic lines.
Ep 55:Existence
March 27, 2021 07:10 - 14 minutes - 27.5 MBWhat does it mean for something to exist?
Ep 54 Ch 17 "Unsustainable" Part 3
March 26, 2021 01:56 - 31 minutes - 59.1 MBMarx, Engels and Diamond present to us a vision of people as being in some sense impotent in the grand historical scheme - subject merely to natural forces and thus able to be predicted by a kind of natural law. This reductive view of people and their place in history (and the cosmos) leads to terrible historical ideas that bleed into pessimistic political ideologies. The truth instead is not bleak. People - in the form of their creative capacity to explain the world in which they find thems...
Ep 53: Understanding Universality
March 17, 2021 13:36 - 26 minutes - 50.3 MBThis is additional material about Chapter 6 of "The Beginning of Infinity" - but goes into some additional areas. I compare Greek Gods to Blockchain (in a sense). I think "The Jump to Universality" is a particularly poorly understood chapter. I hope this inspires many to go back and re-read that part of the book. Again. And again.
Ep 52 Ch 17 "Unsustainable" Part 2
March 08, 2021 06:05 - 48 minutes - 91 MBEaster Island, Incans, Llamas and Australia. Resources and knowledge, creativity and stasis. We begin to bring together the chapters that have come before as we move into the crescendo of "The Beginning of Infinity". Images (on Youtube) all used under a creative commons licence. All music composed by me.
Ep 51 Ch 17 "Unsustainable" Part 1
February 05, 2021 08:53 - 37 minutes - 69.4 MBWhat does the watchword of today "sustainable" really mean when taken seriously? In this episode we compare two titans of science communication: David Attenborough and Jacob Bronowski - for although they have inspired generations of scientists and those interested in science, their underlying philosophies could not have been more different. What are those philosophies and what consequences could they have if they were to drive actual policy? Also - a diversion on aspects of Australian and Br...
Ep 50 Ch 16 "The Evolution of Creativity" Part 2
January 17, 2021 04:40 - 56 minutes - 106 MBThe 50th episode! This is the third part (given there was a part 0, introduction) referring to chapter 16 of "The Beginning of Infinity" with substantive readings. We get into how memes evolved in non-human animals and then how these memes, and genes at some point allowed for a jump to universality. Specifically the universality of explanatory knowledge - which is a quality of a special kind of software - that which runs on our brains, or otherwise known as "a person's mind".
Ep 49: An introduction to epistemology
January 13, 2021 02:37 - 12 minutes - 23 MBWhat it says in the title :) A short and sweet introduction to a particular way of thinking and knowing. This is all about fallibilism and the possibilities that being wrong opens up.
Ep 48: Cosmological Economics
January 13, 2021 01:20 - 31 minutes - 59 MBThis episode is highly visual and better viewed on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlcQ4ZFKrKk However, the substance is still there in this purely audio-only version. This is another episode not primarily about "The Beginning of Infinity" but it is deeply inspired by it. It is a discussion exploring the "resources" debate. Are resources finite or infinite? I look at the intersection between economics and cosmology or people and the universe. So this is all about how knowledge ...
Ep 47: Are we alone?
January 07, 2021 14:36 - 1 hour - 122 MBA ToKCast Special: Brett talks about what he's learned over the years from various academics about the question of alien life. Although I don't mention it, I draw my inspiration from an academic paper I wrote years ago as part of my Masters degree in Astronomy - it can be found here: The Rare Earth That might be a bit more sober, hard-going and not exactly entertaining. I hope this video is fun. I don't read - I simply talk. It's a somewhat different style for ToKCast.
Ep 46 "The Evolution of Creativity" Part 1
January 07, 2021 14:02 - 40 minutes - 74.7 MBThis is the second part (after a part 0, introduction) referring to chapter 16 of The Beginning of Infinity with more substantive readings. We get into imitation and compare how apes "ape" and parrots "parrot" to what humans are doing when they learn. Meme replication and lyrebirds make an appearance.
Ep 45 Free Will Exists
December 25, 2020 01:12 - 26 minutes - 49.4 MBThis is not a regular episode - and if you have listened to episode 44 you do NOT need to listen to this because it is simply excerpts from that episode. It is simply an extraction from that episode of the material - solely my remarks rather than any reading - about the concept of "free will". The following is the Youtube description of this episode: This is an excerpt from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oypz57aosnE but is focussed on my remarks about "free will". This is my best attempt a...
Ep 44 Ch 16 "The Evolution of Creativity" Part 0
December 25, 2020 00:23 - 1 hour - 134 MBEarly on in the episode, I wrongly refer to this as "Episode 43". It's not: it's episode 44. This particular episode is largely about the concepts underpinning chapter 16 - with very little reading (I get through the first page or so). We explore creativity, choice and the associated "mysteries" (or problems of) consciousness and free will. Are these all facets of the same underlying - deeper truth - about personhood? This is one of those episodes with a couple of references to what is going...
Ep 43 Ch 15 "The Evolution of Culture" Part 3
December 24, 2020 23:49 - 1 hour - 143 MBThis is the third in a 3 part series devoted to Chapter 15 of "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. All about "The Evolution of Culture", in this part we are looking at the conditions under which a dynamic society can gradually evolve and persist. Importantly we distinguish between rational and anti-rational (not merely irrational) memes.
Ep: 42 An autobiography of wealth
December 10, 2020 09:47 - 34 minutes - 63.9 MBThis episode is not about "The Beginning of Infinity". It is largely a reading of an article that can be found on my website at http://www.bretthall.org/blog/an-autobiography-of-wealth The purpose of that article and this episode is to discuss the pervasive claim that the middle classes have seen a stagnation in "real wage growth". I do not go deep into economic matters but rather take a personal perspective which, I would guess, is applicable to almost anyone.
Ep 41: Deutsch Discoveries: Part 2 of an introduction to the philosophy of David Deutsch
December 04, 2020 06:34 - 13 minutes - 25 MBIn this episode I cover more of David Deutsch's contributions to philosophy. In order these are: 1. The true function of evidence in science 2. How the quantum multiverse is a testable theory 3. All evils are due to insufficient knowledge and how morality is about "What to do next". 4. The mathematician's misconception (i.e: that mathematical proof is independent of the known laws of physics).
Deutsch Discoveries: Part 2 of an introduction to the philosophy of David Deutsch
December 04, 2020 06:34 - 13 minutes - 25 MBIn this episode I cover more of David Deutsch's contributions to philosophy. In order these are: 1. The true function of evidence in science 2. How the quantum multiverse is a testable theory 3. All evils are due to insufficient knowledge and how morality is about "What to do next". 4. The mathematician's misconception (i.e: that mathematical proof is independent of the known laws of physics).
Ep 40: Popper Pieces - Part 2 of an Introduction to Popper
November 20, 2020 03:48 - 12 minutes - 22.6 MBThis is part 2 of my introduction to Popper series. Here I cover 1. The concept of "conjectures" 2. Common Sense 3. Realism 4. The bucket and the searchlight 5. Debating definitions Yes. It's only 2 episodes in, and I have violated my self-imposed 10 minute limit rule. But I think it was worth it, rather than splitting these in two. To support this podcast, visit https://www.patreon.com/BrettRHall to make a monthly donation or https://www.patreon.com/tokcast to contribute per episod...
Ep 39 Ch 15 "The Evolution of Culture" Part 2
November 19, 2020 01:00 - 52 minutes - 97.6 MBThis is the second in a 3 part series devoted to Chapter 15 of "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. All about "The Evolution of Culture", in this part we are looking at the causes of a static society: that rule (rather than the exception) about progress coming to a halt in human communities. We follow on from part 1 in looking at how memes get replicated and how different kinds of memes have different effects upon their holders the the wider society.
Ep 38 Ch 15 "The Evolution of Culture" Part 1
November 14, 2020 08:07 - 53 minutes - 101 MBThis is the first in a 3 part series devoted to Chapter 15 of "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. All about "The Evolution of Culture", in this part we are looking at the notion of a meme and consider under what conditions ideas replicate. As we touch upon: this is a question of civilizational consequence as it is related to the ability of a society to break out of being "static" (one with little to no progress) and become a modern "dynamic" one (where progress is unbounded).
Ep 37: An intermittent introduction to Popper and Deutsch
November 13, 2020 10:05 - 16 minutes - 22.8 MBA very brief, and personal, introduction to the philosophy of Karl Popper and David Deutsch. Note that the Youtube version of this exists in 3 parts, each of which has visuals that may help some with the explanations.
Ep 36: The Borders of Ideas
October 21, 2020 06:38 - 32 minutes - 59.9 MBThis is some commentary upon a recent debate Douglas Murray was engaged in - which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3sSnmq9uKU It is, broadly speaking, an excellent encounter, modulo - as Douglas rightly observes - the tendency for his interlocutor to resort to insults or other ad hominem remarks. I reflect on Douglas' position (with which I largely agree) and attempt to connect his remarks to some underlying modern philosophy. (Modern, I hasten to add, not "postmodern"!).
Ep 35 Ch 14 "Why are Flowers Beautiful?"
October 20, 2020 23:58 - 1 hour - 142 MBAudio listeners, please note: This episode contains a lot more visuals than my usual podcasts. As always this can be found on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWZ4GcRd-_8 if you want the full experience. I'm referring to images and so on throughout, or the images are illustrating what I am saying without comment. In this chapter we counter a number of prevailing views about the arts: the purposes of art and the possibility of objective standards of beauty. This leads to a discussi...
Ep 34 Ch 13 “Choices” Part 2. Some readings and remarks.
October 18, 2020 06:45 - 47 minutes - 89.9 MBThis is some reading and reflections upon chapter 13 of "The Beginning of Infinity". In this second part we consider criteria for democracy and democratic institutions. I take a deep dive into Popper's own writings on the topic to supplement the material in David's book. There is even, what we might call, some "self help" when it comes to making choices, or making better choices, or cultivating a better approach to problem solving when no option seems viable. Popper's article on democracy ca...
Ep 33 Ch 13 "Choices" Part 1. Some readings and remarks.
October 09, 2020 06:38 - 1 hour - 150 MBThis is the first episode of 2 parts all about chapter 13 "Choices" from "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. Here we take a deep dive into voting systems and what this means for decision making more broadly: both as societies and individuals. Logic and fairness seem to come in conflict if we become reductionist and turn only to mathematics in order to make rational choices. As always the "David Deutsch" take on what might otherwise seem to be a parochial issue turns out to have civ...
Ep 32 Ch 12 "A Physicist's History of Bad Philosophy" Part 3. Some readings and remarks
September 30, 2020 14:37 - 1 hour - 136 MBThis is the third episode in a 3 part series about chapter 12 of "The Beginning of Infinity". This part is focussed in a more specific way on bad science (that being explanationless science). We also delve into the nature of personhood once more, its moral significance and the possibility of having an experience as a human animal versus a non-human animal.
Ep: 31 Ch 12 "A Physicist's History of Bad Philosophy" Part 2: Some readings and remarks.
August 06, 2020 12:21 - 57 minutes - 107 MBThis is the second episode in a 3 part series about chapter 12 of "The Beginning of Infinity". Here we get into some of the connections between poor "interpretations" of quantum theory and relativism.
Ep: 30 Ch 12 "A Physicist's History of Bad Philosophy" Part 1: The Introduction
August 06, 2020 12:15 - 1 hour - 141 MBThis is the first episode in a 3 part series about Chapter 12 of "The Beginning of Infinity". As this chapter is about Bad Philosophy, I thought an episode that sets the context - especially the contemporary context - might be timely.
Ep: 29 Ch 11 "The Multiverse" Part 5
July 02, 2020 08:48 - 1 hour - 148 MBThe final part of "The Multiverse" series - and with some discussion (and a story!) of some little known material about how to test "The Multiverse" against other (so-called) interpretations of quantum theory.
Ep 28: Ch 11 "The Multiverse" Part 4
May 15, 2020 06:45 - 1 hour - 184 MBWith apologies to audio only listeners, this one was up on Youtube for a while (and contains a few visuals) - I simply forgot to upload it to Podbean and Apple Podcasts. It is largely an analysis of common misconceptions about the multiverse and references a conversation between Sam Harris and Bret Weinstein who spoke about the multiverse during a recent conversation.
Ep 27: Christian Atheists
April 25, 2020 09:29 - 9 minutes - 12.5 MBThis is a very brief and non-standard non-Beginning of Infinity podcast. It also does not mention COVID-19 at all. It is inspired in part by some remarks made by Yaron Brook. There is an important post associated with this episode which appears here: http://www.bretthall.org/blog/mainstream-morality As with my last episode, we will return to the usual programming soon.
Ep 26: Problems, Knowledge and Wealth
April 17, 2020 08:21 - 1 hour - 93.9 MBThis is a non-Beginning of Infinity Podcast. While it makes some references, as always, to the work of David Deutsch, it is primarily some thoughts about finding ourselves in a given problem situation and what we need to find our way out in time. Of course there is some reference made to the present COVID-19 situation. A rather different episode to the usual. I hope to get back to regular programming soon. Includes also: some response to Sam Harris "Making Sense" podcast on April 16 2020. A...
Ep 25: Ch 11 "The Multiverse" Part 3
March 03, 2020 00:41 - 1 hour - 113 MBSome readings and remarks about David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity" Chapter 11 "The Multiverse". This is the 3rd episode in this series. As with some of the others, audio only listeners may miss a few visuals in this one...but they're not absolutely crucial this time around. There is a way to support this endeavor on my website www.bretthall.org where you can click the donate button and contribute one time, or monthly. Thank you :)
Ep 24: The Multiverse, Part 2
February 25, 2020 15:36 - 40 minutes - 82.2 MBThis is the first episode that includes reading from Chapter 11 of "The Beginning of Infinity" about "The Multiverse". It is less edited...and rather more conversational. Compare this to episode 23 and let me know what you prefer. I will take on board comments moving forward. Thank you. As always, donations are welcome at www.brethall.org on the "donate" button.
Ep 23: The Multiverse, Part 1
February 19, 2020 07:59 - 1 hour - 117 MBThis episode is an introduction to chapter 11 from "The Beginning of Infinity". While there are no readings from the book this time around, there are readings from "The Fabric of Reality". Audio only listeners should be aware that there is a significant visual component of this episode: animations, diagrams and so forth.
Ep 22: The Logic of Experimental Tests
February 11, 2020 14:15 - 1 hour - 103 MBThis is not a regular ToKCast (about a chapter from "The Beginning of Infinity"). Instead it will serve in part firstly as a stand alone episode about an esoteric piece of epistemology: what is the function of the experiment in the natural sciences? (As explained by David Deutsch in his paper "The Logic of Experimental Tests particularly Everettian Quantum Theory"). I make many remarks - including many new remarks. The final third or so of this episode is largely devoted to a defense of Popp...
Ep 21: Ch 10, Part 2 "A Dream of Socrates"
February 01, 2020 02:51 - 56 minutes - 105 MBIn this, the second episode covering Chapter 10 "A Dream of Socrates", we encounter Plato in dialogue with Socrates. An attempt is made to learn epistemology from Socrates by Plato. Epistemology is applied to political institutions and the concept of dynamic and static societies is explored and we get our first sense of what anti-rational memes are about (though this terminology is not yet being used). In the second half I compare and contrast kinds of democracy.
Ep 20: Ch 10, Part 1 "A Dream of Socrates"
December 26, 2019 09:41 - 52 minutes - 98.3 MBIn this, the first episode covering Chapter 10 "A Dream of Socrates", we explore epistemology directly. Hermes comes to Socrates in a dream (or somehow!) and uses a quite "Socratic Method" to draw out Popperian epistemology from Socrates. Empiricism is refuted and the correct way knowledge is guest and criticized to improve it discussed.
Ep 19: Mr. Popper's Problems
December 17, 2019 11:45 - 1 hour - 94.3 MBAn irregular episode barely touching upon "The Beginning of Infinity". Somewhat self-indulgently, and purely for my own fun, I take a lesser-known Popper paper - found here http://www.bretthall.org/the-nature-of-philosophical-problems.html and provide lengthy commentary upon it with some remarks about its significance for some contemporary issues.
Ep 18: Ch 9, Part 3: “Optimism”
October 31, 2019 01:45 - 47 minutes - 88.1 MBIn this, the final episode covering Chapter 9 Optimism, we explore optimism as applied to politics and institutions. A pessimistic view of people, as animals that sometimes cannot be reasoned with, would imply the initiation of force is required. But understanding people as beings of compassion and reason means we should initiate kindness and use force only ever in response to violence. Pessimism about problems - problem avoidance is something we should not only take seriously but personally...
Ep 17: Ch 9, Part 2: "Optimism"
July 19, 2019 12:55 - 36 minutes - 68.6 MBIn part 2 on Optimism, we explore the implications of David Deutsch's philosophy for individuals and institutiuons. Given people are the agents that create knowledge - the solutions to problems - what moral stance should we take with respect to them? How will this affect our future and what threats to optimism still exist in the contemporary zeitgeist?
Ep 16: Ch 9, Part 1: "Optimism"
July 19, 2019 09:25 - 1 hour - 129 MBThis is the first of a 3 part series on chapter 9 of David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity". Chapter 9 is titled "Optimism" and the week this is published marks the 50th anniversary of the first steps taken by humans on the moon. If we choose to continue to pursue solutions in an open ended way - if we choose to embrace what might be called "Deutschian Optimism" then next it can be Mars...and after that the stars.