We Are Not Saved
379 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 17 ratingsWe Are Not Saved discusses religion (from a Christian/LDS perspective), politics, the end of the world, science fiction, artificial intelligence, and above all the limits of technology and progress.
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Episodes
Short Book Reviews Volume III
March 16, 2024 22:37 - 42 minutes - 49.9 MBMeganets: How Digital Forces Beyond Our Control Commandeer Our Daily Lives and Inner Realities by: David B. Auerbach The Robot’s Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin by: Keith E. Stanovich Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by: John Vaillant Persian Fire The First World Empire and the Battle for the West by: Tom Holland Submission by: Michel Houellebecq The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by: Rod Dreher Great Emergence: How ...
Short Book Reviews: Volume II
February 15, 2024 12:51 - 42 minutes - 50.7 MBThe Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World (Volume 2) by: Iain McGilchrist The World Behind the World: Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science by: Erik Hoel Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by: Beth Macy American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin Younger Next Year, 2nd Edition: Live Strong, Fit, Sexy, and Smart - Until You're 80 and Beyon...
Short Book Reviews Volume I
January 17, 2024 19:20 - 30 minutes - 36.2 MBThe Creative Act: A Way of Being by: Rick Rubin The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by: Leonard Mlodinow Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year compiled by: Allie Esiri The Monster of Florence by: Douglas Preston Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age by: Dale C. Allison Jr. As a Driven Leaf by: Milton Steinberg
Have More Kids!
December 23, 2023 22:20 - 23 minutes - 30.9 MBMy report from Natal Con 2023. Including reflections on Tommy Boy, seatbelts, and the proliferation of polycrises.
The 10 Books I Finished in November
December 10, 2023 02:38 - 49 minutes - 58.7 MBNonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by: Robert Wright Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by: Matthew Desmond Scarcity Brain: Fix Your Craving Mindset and Rewire Your Habits to Thrive with Enough by: Michael Easter Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by: Robert Pirsig Finite and Infinite Games by: James Carse Fever Pitch by: Nick Hornby Sun and Steel by: Yukio Mishima Coraline by: Neil Gaiman The Gods Never Left Us by: Erich von Däniken M...
Egregores, Group Minds, and White Magic
November 29, 2023 22:15 - 25 minutes - 35.5 MBTranscript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/egregores-group-minds-and-white-magic Is there such a thing as a group mind? If so how does it affect the thriving and surviving of groups? What do such group minds look like from a historical perspective? What about a modern perspective?
[Patheos] - The Overemphasis on Love and Tolerance
November 20, 2023 15:35 - 17 minutes - 22.8 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/11/the-overemphasis-on-love-and-tolerance/ Love is very important for Christians, but has there been too much emphasis placed on it? And has this emphasis warped it into something else? To put it more simply is perfect Christian love the same as unlimited tolerance? This post argues that it's not, and that in fact if you're looking for the ultimate Christian principle it might be "repentance".
The 10 Books I Finished in October
November 11, 2023 17:00 - 56 minutes - 66.2 MBThe Origins of Woke: Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics by: Richard Hanania How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement by: Fredrik deBoer The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World (Volume 1) by: Iain McGilchrist The Alter Ego Effect: Defeat the Enemy, Unlock Your Heroic Self, and Start Kicking Ass by: Todd Herman The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by: Jonathan Ro...
[Patheos] - The Worst Book I've Ever Read
October 31, 2023 18:52 - 12 minutes - 14.3 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/10/the-worst-book-ive-ever-read/ John Seel Jr.'s book, The New Copernicans, is the worst book I have ever read. He puts forth a dubious premise. In support of which he provides no data to back it up, nor any anecdotes which illustrate it actually occurring. To the extent there is anything backing it up, it's provided by extensive misrepresentation of other books.
Worthy of Our Sufferings
October 25, 2023 11:37 - 9 minutes - 10.8 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/10/worthy-of-our-sufferings/ Dostoevsky wrote, "There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings." What does that mean? I think he meant that whatever suffering we’re experiencing it’s suffering God felt we were capable of handling. We need to prove worthy of that trust. This has always been hard to do, and now that we have numerous ways of mitigating suffering, it's not only hard, but confusing.
Can We Eliminate Struggle? - 2023
October 21, 2023 19:34 - 24 minutes - 32.3 MBTranscript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/can-we-eliminate-struggle-2023 Humanity has struggled and suffered for so long that we might be unable to survive without them. We dream of such elimination through technology, but will that dream turn into a nightmare?
[Patheos] - Tragedies, Truths, and Technologies
October 17, 2023 16:34 - 8 minutes - 13.3 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/10/tragedies-truths-and-technologies/ Historically we didn't worry about wars in far away places because we weren't aware of them. Now we're aware of them, but with the rise of AI we're going to have a similar difficulty acquiring accurate information. This is going to complicate our ability to intervene righteously.
The 12 Books I Finished in September
October 12, 2023 18:31 - 39 minutes - 49.4 MBAddiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas by: Natasha Dow Schüll The Evolutionary Limits of Liberalism: Democratic Problems, Market Solutions and the Ethics of Preference Satisfaction by: Filipe Nobre Faria A Language Older Than Words by: Derrick Jensen WTF?!: An Economic Tour of the Weird by: Peter T. Leeson Blowback (Second Edition): The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by: Chalmers Johnson The Sun Is a Compass: A 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds by: Caroli...
Would You Wager on Pascal's Mugging?
October 10, 2023 15:04 - 12 minutes - 17.7 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/10/would-you-wager-on-pascals-mugging/ Imagine that someone walks up to you and demands all your money. If you fail to comply they threaten to kill all the inhabitants of some far off planet. How would you react? And is this similar to Pascal's Wager?
Betting on the Future
October 03, 2023 22:21 - 19 minutes - 24 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/10/betting-on-the-future/ There are three obvious paths forward: religion, atheism and transhumanism. But each of these paths must be chosen. There's also a fourth path, that of apathy. Which should we choose?
AI Risk Might Be More Subtle Than We Expect - 2023
September 29, 2023 01:38 - 19 minutes - 23.5 MBTranscript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/ai-risk-might-be-more-subtle-than Depressed people are more prone to addiction. If social media engagement looks a lot like addiction, does that mean algorithms for increasing engagement also increase depression?
The Greatest Three Nephites Story Ever Told
September 26, 2023 11:31 - 9 minutes - 12.6 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/09/the-greatest-three-nephites-story-ever-told/ It is believed that, during his mortal ministry, Jesus granted immortality to three of His American apostles. Known as the Three Nephites they now wander the Earth until His return, doing good. This has lead to many stories of miraculous assistance. This is the greatest of all those stories.
[Patheos] - Faith, UFOs, the Supernatural, and Transistor Radios
September 19, 2023 16:02 - 12 minutes - 15.4 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/09/faith-ufos-the-supernatural-and-transistor-radios/ Why are many people so willing to believe evidence of UFOs and Aliens, and so unwilling to believe evidence for God?
Speculative Attempts to Complicate Throughout History - 2023
September 16, 2023 00:58 - 29 minutes - 35.7 MBTranscript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/speculative-attempts-to-complicate When things aren't going well, those in power will sometimes introduce some speculative chaos in the hopes that what emerges on the other side will be better. It mostly doesn't work.
The Thickness of Faith
September 12, 2023 00:59 - 13 minutes - 17.4 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/09/the-thickness-of-the-world/ In the book Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis there is a scene where the King is arguing with a priest about what seems to be an unreasonable demand from one of the gods. The priest says something profound, something I'm still trying to wrap my head around. This episode is an effort to do just that.
The 11 Books I Finished in August
September 09, 2023 22:17 - 46 minutes - 54.1 MBThe World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction by: Matthew B. Crawford Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by: Oliver Burkeman Generations: The Real Differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future by: Jean M. Twenge When Violence Is the Answer: Learning How to Do What It Takes When Your Life Is at Stake by: Tim Larkin Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America t...
The Apocalypse Will Not Be as Cool or as Deadly as You Hope - 2023
September 02, 2023 22:07 - 26 minutes - 32.1 MBTranscript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/the-apocalypse-will-not-be-as-cool There are many potential apocalypses, and when people imagine them they imagine that everyone will die. On the contrary most people will live, and it will be messy and miserable.
Does Technology Encourage Virtue?
August 30, 2023 02:42 - 13 minutes - 16.7 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/08/does-technology-encourage-virtue/ Last week we looked at how technology appears to multiple our temptations, but what does it do to our better impulses. If we move from considering the Deadly Sins to the Capital Virtues does technology undermine our efforts or assist us?
The Nation Debt in Three Lists of Six Items - 2023
August 23, 2023 15:28 - 26 minutes - 31.8 MBApparently even the "smart" people are finally ready to admit that we should start reducing our annual deficit. In 2017 I was unclear on what the endgame was. I'm still unclear.
The Temptations of Technology
August 23, 2023 00:54 - 11 minutes - 13.9 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/08/the-temptations-of-technology/ What effect does technology have on the temptations we experience? If we examine the seven deadly sins it would appear that in all cases technology makes these sins more tempting and more accessible. Why would that be?
The 9 Books I Finished in July and the One I Didn’t
August 12, 2023 18:52 - 37 minutes - 45.6 MBEnd Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration by: Peter Turchin Minds Make Societies: How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create by: Pascal Boyer How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by: Steven Johnson Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by: Peter Attia MD Jump Gate Twist by: Mark L. Van Name Send Us Your Armies (Pilgrim's Path Book 1) by: Vic Davis Lonesome Dove by: Larry McMurtry Science Fiction Short Stories compiled...
(Patheos) - And There Was Silence in Heaven...
August 09, 2023 01:57 - 16 minutes - 19.8 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/08/and-there-was-silence-in-heaven/ In the Book of Revelation we read that when the seventh seal was opened there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. In this post I'm going to engage in some spurious scriptural speculation about what that might mean.
Is Pornography a Supernormal Stimuli? - 2023
August 02, 2023 13:35 - 21 minutes - 26.5 MBTranscript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/is-pornography-a-supernormal-stimuli-15a?sd=pf Supernormal stimuli are those things which encourage us to do something that was historically very useful, but in an artificial and supercharged way. Think of the way junk food hacks our appetite.
(Patheos) - Technological Salvation
August 02, 2023 13:29 - 14 minutes - 18.2 MBSomehow I got the two audio files mixed up. So I published my substack thinking it was my Patheos piece, so now I'm publishing that Patheos piece. I will go through and try and fix some links, but I don't think I can fix it entirely... In any case here's the Patheos Audio: Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/07/technological-salvation/ Two groups have a narrative of human potential — a sense of humanity’s ultimate destiny: the Actively Religious and the R...
Tribe by Sebastian Junger and the Strange Diseases of Progress - 2023
July 27, 2023 01:09 - 23 minutes - 28.6 MBTranscript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/tribe-by-sebastian-junger-and-the The Siege of Sarajevo killed 20% of the population, a horror most of us can scarcely grasp, yet those who survived it look back on the siege as a period of unique happiness. Why should that be?
Chesterton's Fence and Technology
July 25, 2023 01:27 - 12 minutes - 16.4 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/07/chestertons-fence-and-technology/ G. K. Chesterton noted that one shouldn't remove a fence until you understand why it was there in the first place. This is a great analogy for the concept of the traditions which have been passed down to us by religion. Technology allows us to remove a lot of fences, but are we sure we understand why they were there to begin with?
The Vulnerable World Hypothesis as Map to the Future
July 19, 2023 09:39 - 32 minutes - 38.1 MBExpanding on Nick Bostrom's metaphor for technological development — it's like drawing balls of various shades from an urn, and if you ever draw a pure black ball, the world ends...
Separating the Beneficial From the Barbarous
July 17, 2023 12:18 - 12 minutes - 16.1 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/07/separating-the-beneficial-from-the-barbarous/ Clearly there are some traditions which should be abandoned. And just as clearly there are some which should be preserved. But what are we to do with the vast majority which fall in the middle?
Traditions Separating the Important from the Inconsequential - 2023
July 13, 2023 01:07 - 36 minutes - 43.7 MBThere's significant evidence that traditional practices were beneficial and adaptive. But many reject traditions as relics of a barbarous past. How do we make that determination?
The Technology of Religion vs. The Technology of Progress
July 08, 2023 01:32 - 12 minutes - 15.1 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/07/the-technology-of-religion-vs-the-technology-of-progress/ Religion is a very old technology, and the wisdom contains is often hard to identify. This is unlike the technology we create intentionally, where the goal is always obvious. When these two technologies come into conflict who should we decide between them. It's easy and attractive to go with the new, but by dispensing with the old we may be incurring harms that ...
The 10 Books I Finished in June
July 06, 2023 02:35 - 37 minutes - 45.8 MBFeminism Against Progress by: Mary Harrington Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine by: Robert H. Lustig Categories by: Aristotle Prior Analytics by: Aristotle The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field by: Mike Michalowicz The Butcher's Masquerade: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 5 by: Matt Dinniman Xenocide (The Ender Saga, 3): by: Orson Scott Card When We Cease to Understand the World by: Benjamin Labatu...
Religion is Technology
June 30, 2023 22:36 - 11 minutes - 13.3 MBReligion is often viewed as being completely different from technology, but in actuality religion is a technology, one of the oldest forms of it in fact. It's a particularly important form of technology one that we abandon at our peril.
The Ideas of Nassim Nicholas Taleb - 2023
June 28, 2023 21:05 - 22 minutes - 26.8 MBTranscript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/the-ideas-of-nassim-nicholas-taleb-20d?sd=pf For many years this was the most listened to episode of my podcast. So it seemed logical to update it, but also it's one you might have already heard.
(Patheos) - A Judgment Day for AIs
June 23, 2023 18:20 - 14 minutes - 16.6 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/06/a-judgment-day-for-ais/ If AIs are going to act as independent agents then they should be praised for the virtues and judged for their sins just as we all are. And in fact this judgment is one of the few things that will ensure their morality.
The Politics of the Zombie Apocalypse - 2023
June 21, 2023 11:35 - 25 minutes - 30.4 MBTranscript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/the-politics-of-the-zombie-apocalypse-e4c Per Scott Alexander it's possible that the right optimizes for survival, while the left optimizes for thriving. If so would a society entirely optimized around thriving actually function?
(Patheos) - Morality for Robots and AIs
June 16, 2023 16:33 - 11 minutes - 13.1 MBTranscript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/06/morality-for-robots-and-ais/ AI risk has been in the news a lot lately. One way to reduce that risk is to make sure that AIs are moral. But what does morality even mean when you're talking about robots and AIs?
Burning Man, Dreamtime and Dragons - 2023
June 14, 2023 21:33 - 23 minutes - 28.6 MBTranscript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/burning-man-dreamtime-and-dragons-8b8 Burning Man aspires to reinvent the culture of the Earth. I don't think it's going to, which is to say in 1,000 years I don't think that people will look back on this era as the Dawn of the Burners. But what will they think of us? That's the question we cover in this episode.
(Patheos) - The Divine Attributes of Artificial Intelligence
June 09, 2023 16:36 - 11 minutes - 13.5 MBArtificial Intelligence has many attributes, which previously have been qualities we've only associated with the divine. This is cross posted from my Patheos column which you can find here: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/
The 10 Books I Finished in May and One I Didn't
June 08, 2023 01:15 - 43 minutes - 50.6 MBTranscript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/the-10-books-i-finished-in-may-and I'm still figure out how to do anchor links. Also I really need to figure out how to write shorter reviews...
(Patheos) - What Has Technology to Do With Religion
June 03, 2023 23:16 - 7 minutes - 8.93 MBReligion and technology relate to each other in strange and subtle ways. Religion must, of necessity grapple with technology, but how to do that remains unclear. This is the first post of my new Patheos column. If you could subscribe that would be fantastic.
Nukes - 2023
June 01, 2023 02:14 - 25 minutes - 29.7 MBTranscript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/nukes-2023 A updating of one of my past posts. I actually changed a lot more than I thought would. Also since it's not appearing on Substack I went a little bit crazy with footnotes. Let me know what you think of how I handled them on audio.
Decisions as a Barbell (Also a Very Meta Episode)
May 25, 2023 02:33 - 17 minutes - 19.9 MBTranscript: https://wearenotsaved.com/2023/05/25/decisions-as-a-barbell-also-a-very-meta-post/ At the end of this episode I announce some significant changes to my blog, so make sure to stay till then. Before then I discuss decision making. How we need to spend most of our time perfecting our habits and thinking carefully about big decisions, but in reality we spend most of our time doing neither. Obsessed with things that don't matter...
The 8 Books I Finished in April
May 06, 2023 22:38 - 37 minutes - 43.5 MBCommand and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by: Eric Schlosser Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas—Not Less by: Alex Epstein The Paradox of Democracy: Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion by: Zac Gershberg and Sean Illing Adults in the Room: My Battle with the European and American Deep Establishment by: Yanis Varoufakis Apollo: The Race to the Moon by: Charles Murray and...
Eschatologist #28 If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear
April 30, 2023 20:24 - 6 minutes - 7.77 MBTranscript: https://wearenotsaved.com/2023/04/30/eschatologist-28-if-ye-are-prepared-ye-shall-not-fear/ I'm not a hardcore prepper, but I'm always surprised by how little preperation most people are willing to make, particularly compared to how much they're willing to panic.
The Modern Landscape of Harm
April 27, 2023 01:48 - 21 minutes - 24.5 MBTranscript: https://wearenotsaved.com/2023/04/27/the-modern-landscape-of-harm/ It is not just our ability to cause harm, but our ability to mitigate harm which has grown in an unprecedented fashion. Life has done whatever it could get away with for billions of year, but in the last few hundred humans have come along able to inflict or prevent great harms and the consciousness to decide whether and how. Recent debates have pitted maximalists from both sides. Those who believe we need to do...