We’re accustomed to using technology to remember things on our behalf…but are we losing something important in the process?
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.
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.”
“Organization” is a technology, and as with many technologies, it embodies a set of values.
Generations are used to explain everything from the state of the economy to attitudes about sexuality, but do they really explain anything?
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.
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?
Why is there something, rather than nothing?
Trying to understand something in terms of its parts is natural…but when is it justified?
Gretchen, stop trying to make Vactrains happen! It’s not going to happen!
“Worldbuilding” has become a necessity for authors of genre fiction, but sci-fi author M. John Harrison thinks it’s crippling both writers & their audiences.
The 2023 tech sector layoffs have claimed a quarter of a million jobs to date, but this hasn’t seemed to make a dent in the enthusiasm for getting more kids into STEM - what’s going on here?
Many assume that, when a game’s over, there’s nothing more to reflect on besides the fun. Positive psychology’s theory of “Flow” prompts a similar stance. But what if games and Flow are both saying more than we might suppose at first glance?
Maintenance is often ignored, minimized, or portrayed as being inferior to creative/productive work, but it’s really the most fundamental activity of life itself, & it can teach us a lot about the world.
Everyone’s heard of the infamous “Tragedy of the Commons,” but the real tragedy is that Elinor Ostrom’s work refuting it isn’t just as widely-known.
Children can be impressively ingenious when given enough time to work thru a problem, but we tend to judge their mental prowess by how quickly they figure things out - is mental speed really the best yardstick for intelligence?
Kahneman’s “Thinking, Fast and Slow” has become a popular reference in public discussions of cognition and the dangers of impulsive decision-making, but many researchers think it might be wrong, or even damaging to the field at large.
Reading nonfiction can be an enjoyable, leisurely hobby, but sometimes you just need to ASSIMILATE KNOWLEDGE.
Melvin Conway noticed a curious symmetry between the shape of organizations and the technologies they created, an observation that might be invaluable for avoiding disaster.
Machine learning algorithms are in the spotlight right now, leading some to worry about them remaking the world into something alien, but there’s another, less popular concern: what if they make it into exactly what we think it is?
Acting against our better judgment is a bit of a puzzle: if we know what’s “best,” and nothing is preventing us, why don’t we do it? Who is it that’s doing the controlling or being controlled in “self-control?”
As global warming taxes the structures supporting our towns and cities, the technical standards that define the operation of those structures will be tested…but who decides what those standards should be? Are they equal to the task?
In the new year, many will try to develop habits of keeping their homes & workspaces tidy, but maybe their longing for uncluttered space is driven more by a set of cultural biases than any sort of practical advantage.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Q is a bit of a puzzle - on the one hand, he’s an incomprehensibly intelligent being from outside time and space. On the other hand, he’s incredibly aggravating and petty. One might say that, with such phenomenal insight, he should be more objective…but what does that mean, exactly?
Apple has built their brand on a fanatical commitment to design, but their devices can be straight-up hostile when it comes to repair & maintenance. Maybe one leads to the other.
Have you ever watched in horror as someone systematically, deliberately makes every wrong decision necessary for disaster? Philosopher Leslie Howe advances a theory that may help to explain the phenomenon: it’s easy to ignore warning signs if you buy your own bullshit.
Ads are everywhere, & find their way into more places every day. Companies spend hundreds of billions of dollars shilling for their products. But theres a question we havent answered conclusively: do they work?
When you think of “being productive,” you probably imagine some variation of rise-and-grind. But Cal Newport’s theory of Deep Work suggests, if we want to maximize productivity, maybe we should try to cultivate some room for quiet, uninterrupted thinking.
We often look to intelligent individuals to provide us with insight and guidance, but if you ask science writer David Robson, intelligence isnt just the wrong barometer for good decision-making, it may lead to worse decisions!
Mechanical engineering has its own, mathematically-defined version of “less is more,” & once you know about it, you’ll see it everywhere.
The logic of the ultimatum game is simple - something is better than nothing, so you ought to accept any deal where you come out ahead, no matter how unfair that deal is. Why, then, does almost everyone reject unfair deals, even if it means sacrifice?
Every generation invents its own lingo - language naturally evolves & develops over time. But quietly re-inventing terminology for stuff thats already named (relexicalization) can be a move with far-reaching political & epistemic consequences.
Many of those who are 100% convinced by Nick Bostrom’s arguments about the potential for a runaway superintelligence tend to share certain beliefs about the world - is it possible that his case hits much differently depending on one’s starting assumptions?
What walks on 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs at noon, & 3 legs at night? A very peculiar dog! …wait, was that not the answer? Why is it that puzzles are so different from real-life problems?
Could certain FORMS of media, the details of how their textual CONTENT is instantiated, reliably affect the MEANING of the messages they convey? Put another way: is PowerPoint making us stupid?
Sometimes, it feels like the best way forward on a project is to throw everything out and start over from scratch, but Joel Spolsky is adamant that this is a terrible idea, and theres decent evidence that hes right.
Charles Peirce’s ideas were revolutionary, kicking off an entire philosophical movement now called “pragmatism,” but one might argue that his ideas bear little resemblance to the path pragmatism ultimately took…he certainly thought as much.
YouTubers HATE him! This ONE WEIRD TRICK has sensationalist media creators ~THINKING DEEPLY~ about the systemic pressures of a RACE TO THE BOTTOM FOR ATTENTION!!! CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!!!!!11!!
Research suggests that authentic dissent frequently leads a group to better decisions than a contrarian simply playing Devils Advocate. The question is: why should it matter if someone really disagrees, or is just faking it?
CAD is hard, but bad modeling habits make it even harder. A theory of what makes for good CAD might make things a little easier for you.
Are descriptors like “good” and “evil” pointing at real, objective features of the world? Surprisingly, despite the weirdness of moral facts, most philosophers would say “yes.” Why? Well…morality might not be the only thing in those crosshairs…😬
Futurists often suggest that technology grows exponentially more powerful over time, but there may be good reasons to doubt this notion, & very good reasons not to wait around for the future tech they promise is imminent.
We normally think of our beliefs as being held up by a structure of supporting evidence & justification, ultimately based in some fundamental, irrefutable, “given” facts, but Wilfred Sellars thinks “givens” are a myth.
Many think the specific nature of a technology depends on the humans wielding it, but that tech ultimately serves humanitys interests. Philosopher John McDermott challenges this view with a simple question: whose interests does tech serve?
We judge our laws by a yardstick of formal equality - so long as theres no discrimination in how laws are applied, we pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. Legal philosopher Martha Fineman thinks we should apply a different yardstick: the immutable nature of human fragility.
In order to understand this text (as you are doing) you must understand the individual words that make it up…but the overall meaning isn’t contained in the words themselves. It’s almost like you have to consider the whole & its parts simultaneously. Curious.
Programming in the sense of developing algorithmic instructions isnt just for computers - all rigorously-defined human systems are programmed after a fashion. But what is it that programmers (instruction-writers, legislators, chefs) are doing, exactly?
It’s hard to imagine two subreddits more different than IAmVerySmart & Change My View, & the difference is clear: intellectual arrogance/humility. But what is that, exactly?
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
“I can’t measure it, so it must not be important.” And then: disaster.
We experience our emotions as instantaneous reactions to the world around us, but what if fear, happiness, & anxiety arent the result of dedicated, hardwired circuits in our brains? The Theory of Constructed Emotion suggests an alternate explanation.
A seven-year retrospective on viewer-selected THUNK episodes, MST3K style!
If you’re currently worrying about everything that could possibly go wrong: welcome to the club! Thankfully, engineers have been fretting about catastrophe for a long time, & have a useful tool to do it productively: FMEA.
Many struggle with the seemingly inconsistent & slippery nature of morality - do moral facts exist? What are they? How can we verify them? Pragmatists sidestep many of these issues by bailing on the whole “truth” thing and asking instead: what works?
“Humans evolved big brains to be better problem-solvers.” is a popular notion, but it has some conspicuous holes. Evolutionary biologist Joseph Henrich has an alternate hypothesis: what if we’re evolved to be culture machines?
Medical residents & interns work absurd hours in high-stress environments with little time off for comparatively low wages. When they have nothing left to give, it’s called “burnout.” We should call it what it is: abuse.
Strong Opinions, Weakly Held is a well-known mantra in tech, intended to quickly guide teams to reasonable predictions. But many have beef with SOWH - might there be a better method?
Why don’t you want your snow shovel’s handle to be long and springy? Why do you push on someone’s back to help them swing, rather than on the swing supports? Engineers & architects have an answer: load paths!
Occam’s Razor urges us not to multiply entities beyond necessity - it seems like a decent rule, but why does it work? And what should we do when it doesn’t?
Research, Experimentation, Analysis. It’s a simple rhythm, but it’s amazing how often someone will forget one of the beats & waste time instead of making progress on solving the problem.
Programmers routinely “refactor” code, clarifying its purpose & reorganizing its structure without changing how it works. What else can be refactored, I wonder?
What if…guys, are you listening? What if the subjects of scientific theories…ACTUALLY EXIST?! OOOOOOH SNAP
2 out of 10 people who read this will watch this episode. 1 in 20 subscribers will watch it. …I wonder how many subscribers who read it will watch?
Hey, are you bored being stuck inside? Wanna learn some knots?
Calling for more nuance in sociological theories seems unambiguously good, but what if - hear me out here - f@#$ it.
How many legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg? Philosophers: “Well…it depends.”
Many academic fields assume that maximizing utility is synonymous with rationality (& marvel at how bad humans are at it). But the real world very rarely allows such clean analysis - maybe we’re not so irrational after all?
People are preparing for the worst of COVID-19, & it’s certainly yet to come, but when so much is uncertain, what’s the proper amount of prepping one should do? (Hint: It involves washing your hands a bit more than usual.)
Whistles nonchalantly & gestures at episode title
You wouldn’t expect a 45-year-old book on programming to be relevant today, but Fred Brooks’s “The Mythical Man-Month” contains many lessons about project management & design that should resonate with modern coders, problem-solvers, & creators.
Many shower praise on utilitarianism as The Objectively Correct Ethical System, but is it possible they’re putting the cart before the horse? Do its uncomfortable edge cases give us cause for caution?
Scribbling on chalkboards is antiquated, pass…and perhaps the most powerful technology we’ve developed to date to discover abstract truths.
Come join the Discord server! https://discord.gg/FaHAjXn
You probably learned how to do long multiplication by hand in school. Computers used the same algorithm to multiply large numbers together, until computer scientists discovered much, much faster methods, including one published this year that’s “perfect!”
How is philosophy like fashion? …that’s not a setup for a pun, I promise.
Violent crime quadrupled in the US between 1970 & 1990, then fell the same amount. What could have caused such a dramatic trend? Economics? Culture? …Lead?
Experienced coders can sometimes tell bad code on sight, not from any aspect of its inherent functionality, but from largely aesthetic characteristics. Turns out those principles have some use in other fields.
Although they’re pretty, books are just a kind of product, same as any in your home. So why do nerds like me just lose their minds if someone deigns to mar a text or tome?
Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em, tell ‘em, then UGGGHHHhhhgghh
Engineers (like me) have a nasty reputation for positing laughably over-simplistic solutions to complex problems in other fields. Perhaps studying those fields closely might help.
The Enlightenment is often held up as a revolution to which all those who value the power of the human mind should pledge allegiance. But there’s a question many smart people fight over without realizing it: which Enlightenment?
Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) has attracted a lot of attention for its very intuitive explanation of where our gut reactions about morality come from, but grand claims about its implications might warrant a healthy dose of skepticism.
Is there such a thing as aesthetic obligation? Do we have duties that are explicitly aesthetic in character, or are they really just moral obligations? With great beauty comes great responsibility!
How is it even possible to appreciate art that’s “so bad, it’s good?” What is it that makes hideously awful movies like “The Room” & “Plan 9 from Outer Space” enjoyable? Susan Sontag has a one-word answer: STYLE.
What does the Heisenberg uncertainty principle have to do with a quantum apocalypse that could unmake the universe at any moment?
Asking good questions is just as important as finding answers, but we never really learn how to go about doing so. What is it that makes a question “good,” exactly?
Not every peak of a function is its highest value, but without being able to see the whole thing at once, it’s hard to know. This has some interesting implications for…well, all sorts of things!
Survey Link - https://goo.gl/forms/RZQSnxPWjh83fZ4J2
Creators are familiar with two different types of problem-solving: there’s the careful, deliberate kind…and there’s hacks.
Minimalism is a philosophy that many find appealing, but what connection does it have to wealth?
“13 Reasons Why” attributes suicide to a number of causes, but omits a crucial aspect of the story: free will.
We default to correspondence theory to explain how truth works…could that be a relic of Enlightenment values?
Philosophers aren’t just preoccupied with fundamental truths - they think a fair amount about what truth is.
Allowing for little bit of “wiggle room” might seem frivolous, but it can have massive implications.
Scientists are used to seeing infinity in their equations, but refuse to accept it as an answer to them - why?
I focus a lot on improving my critical thinking skills & knowledge of bias, but I may just be honing deadly weapons to be wielded by the mad specter that sometimes possesses me.
Influenza isn’t complex, but it uses the insane growth rate of f(x) = x! , one of the fastest-growing functions out there. The greatest benefit of the #flushot isn’t keeping you healthy, it’s retarding that combinatorial explosion enough to save lives. Get one.
“Good” medical trials are placebo-controlled, but when might it be immoral to even perform such an experiment?
Iain M. Banks’s “Culture” is a techno-utopia of hedonism, a concept much more philosophically complex than sex, drugs, and rock n roll.
Prediction markets: put your money where your mouth is. (Just don’t bet against the superforecasters.)
Systems (e.g. checklists, plans, and laws) imbue us with positively superhuman capabilities, both for good and ill.
Mutual and common knowledge: because simulating someone else simulating you is confusing…perhaps usefully so….
Challenge: Examine enough potential answers to a problem to be confident in one of them. Solution: Tiling trees!
Aristotle found a problem at the foundations of epistemology: an infinite regress of justification.
How exactly does implication work? Philosopher Paul Grice might have had a couple decent ideas.
Everyone knows you have to be a little bit crazy to be a great artist, right? …right?
Tit for Tat: the king of Prisoner’s Dilemma strategies. Its simplicity masks its depth…but it can be beaten!
Prediction is a lot like playing poker…so why do we treat it like it was a coin toss? Enter the Bayesians!
Newcomb’s Problem: it’s like “Is a hotdog a sandwich?,” but WAY nerdier, with deep implications for rationality.
Many people are worried about rogue AI’s of the future, but what about the ones that already exist?
A self-replicating 3D printer might be on the horizon, & with it, the exciting potential of Von Neumann probes!
You’ve changed a lot, but you’ve got yourself more or less figured out now, right? You and everyone else.
Rhetorical jousting has its place, but so does good faith argumentation.
Whats the harm in a little white lie? Well, if you tell enough of them, you may be able to steer an electorate.
Is a brain all you need to have a functional mind? Is the body just peripheral to cognition? Many researchers think so, but advocates of embodied cognition have different ideas.
Engineering is a highly technical field, but it makes use of exceedingly useful and straightforward ideas.
Aumanns Agreement Theorem suggests that rational folk shouldnt be able to continuously disagree…so why do we?
Is a hot dog a sandwich? Let’s examine one of the hardest problems in metaphysics to find out. Because THUNK.
Power structures: Hobbes thought we’d murder each other w/o ‘em, but there’s a great game-theoretic reason, too!
I will never understand why people X. Oh really? Lets turn that dial up to 11 and see what happens.
Gettier problems, radical skepticism, the closure principle - knowledge is one hell of a rabbit hole. Let’s take a look at some fun epistemology!
Bayesian statistics - what are they? Do I want them? What do they have to do with epistemology, rationality, and prediction? Is it possible theyre happening inside me RIGHT NOW?
Coping with the knowledge of our own mortality is often tricky – what if we just tried a different angle? #YOLO
Boredom isn’t just murderously frustrating, it’s a psychological trait with surprisingly far-reaching effects.
Predicting the future is hard. Weirdly enough, you can sometimes do better with less information!
Critical thinking is well and good, but it only really helps if you’re willing & able to change your mind!
There’s much ado about “consciousness,” but what even is it? What’s the big deal? How hard could it be? @_@ (At least as hard as FOCUSING THE CAMERA GAH)
All work & no play make Jack not only dull, but also evolutionarily disadvantaged…
What makes me “me?” How can I still be me, even though I change over time? Is Starfleet taking applications yet?
Is discovery the work of genius, or an inevitable social process? The data suggest neither; maybe its chance!
Teleology: explaining things via their intended purpose. Turns out we’ve a tendency to use it everywhere.
Networking is an essential part of career advancement in business today, but should it be?
Un/satisfying gif albums are scratching a very human itch. Where does it come from, and does it mean anything?
The Antikythera Mechanism: ancient mechanical astrological calendar, & reminder of the fragility of knowledge.
Why are so many smart people interested in finding alien intelligence…and where should we look for them?
The so-called “War on Science” isn’t about hostility, it’s a simple case of forgetting how science is different.
HI THERE, QUILLETTE READERS! Holly seems to have used my video (without my permission) to explain the Motte-and-Bailey fallacy, in an article defending some half-baked TERF ideology. I invite you to think critically about why it’s so important for TERFs that the legal protections afforded to women are never extended to trans women, why TERFs (at best) insist on separate-but-equal treatment, and why it’s so important for them to deny a tiny minority of people the right to live as they choose.
Skepticism is an essential tool for rational thought, but knowing when & how to use it is hard…I think???
In the constant struggle between memes, the punching of Nazis barely scratches the surface of the conflict.
Quantum physics is weird as hell, but this entanglement experiment using stars is simply beautiful.
Donald Trump’s election is another victory for a worldwide trend of populism…what is it & why is it happening?
Even if the mind is totally entailed by the physics of the brain, we’ve got a long way to go to understand it.
Some say that transparency is the ideological future of journalism, but our brains might not be up to the task.
Scientists excel at finding patterns, but statistical significance isn’t always enough to create policy.
NOTE: My description of parsing up-arrow notation is incorrect; please see my correction here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN-MpWNsXw0
Think you may get into some arguments during the holidays? Steven Toulmin & Reddit can help.
The most recent presidential election has spawned mass protests, & not just because many are dissatisfied with the results - the process itself is being called into question.
Some believe that voting a certain way this election is right/wrong. Let’s look at some ethics and see why.
Dimensional analysis is awesome, but human brains are depressingly easy to distract with number-crunching.
NOTE: The purpose of this video is to explain why Rand’s ideas are mocked & rarely taken seriously, NOT why they are wrong. If you are looking for a systematic analysis of her work, please examine the SEP link below.
Problem-solving? Well I’m no Mark Watney, but if you’re looking for answers, I do have a few tricks. #potato
THUNK viewers have questions, I have answers…or at least some pretty terrible puns.
Braitenbergs Vehicles, Searles Chinese room, and Coles Virtual Minds” - some thoughts on thinking machines.
Maybe VR isn’t a specific thing, but part of a continuum of physical/virtual experience called “mixed reality.” Regardless of how you think about it, the virtual already plays a significant role in your life, and game designers (as terrible a name as that is) are the ones building your future.
There’s a lot of talk about the ethics of autonomous vehicles…but maybe it’s not as big a deal as people are making it.
The sciences are dealing with a crisis of replication…and that’s a good thing. How might we learn from them?
This election is divisive, both in and between parties. Unfortunately, our brains don’t work too well in groups.
Occam’s Razor is an important philosophical tool, and it played a central role in the #parsimonygate kerfuffle on Twitter. Learn exactly how it works!
Is mathematics discovered or invented? Is it the language which encodes the cosmos, or an imaginary human tool? Does mathematics, in its pure abstraction, tap the inherent nature of the universe…or is it just our imagination? In the longest THUNK video yet, we dive into the metaphysics of mathematics, & the seemingly unanswerable questions therein.
Fermat’s Last Theorem: a fairy tale of dramatic mathematics.
A recent study shows spanking probably isn’t a good idea, but almost everyone has a story that says otherwise. Learn where anecdotal evidence is useful, and (perhaps more importantly), where it isn’t.
Many scientists call philosophy pointless pondering. They may not know they’re reading a very old script. Learn about the empiric & rationalist schools of medicine from ancient Greece, & how their ideologies play into thought in the modern world.
The Just World Fallacy: your brain’s irrational attempt to make sense of a world where Firefly got cancelled.
Hume saw problems using facts to justify morals. Learn about Hume’s Guillotine and where reason fits in morality!
The FBI is asking Apple to help them crack an iPhone’s encryption, but that’s not the whole story. Learn how encryption and code signing work, and how quantum computers might pose a threat to both!
Human thought has hundreds of hard-wired bugs. The Socratic Method gives us a fighting chance to overcome them.
A newly-discovered creature called “the purple sock” reveals and confirms some of the inner workings of evolution!
Most agree that prejudice is wrong, but it’s not just an ethical problem; it’s a practical one, for everyone.
CRISPR is making big waves in biology, and for good reason; the doors to genetic engineering are now wide open.
Many people think special relativity is just for astrophysics majors, but its basic assumptions are pretty easy!
Cynics assume everything sucks until proven otherwise…should we use that approach for the new Star Wars movie?
Why do anti-PC advocates claim that political correctness is pointless? Why do PC advocates argue among themselves?
Science rules, and pseudoscience drools…but which is which? Learn about Kuhn, Popper, and the demarcation problem!
Steampunk is cool, but what’s cooler is how it almost happened! Learn about Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace!
NASA fans are often asked to justify spending on space. Learn about the Overview Effect, & other good reasons.
The Copernican Principle uses the idea that we aren’t the center of the cosmos as a guideline for…everything! Learn an interesting method for estimating the remaining lifespan of just about anything!
The Problem of Evil is the single most persistent issue in theology. Learn 2 of its formulations, & 1 response.
Is logic cold & impersonal? Are rational answers boring ones? Take a detour thru the Renaissance & find out.
We rarely give the “critical” part of “critical thinking” its due. Rigor in thought is hard, but so important.
“Logic” isn’t just being reasonable; it’s a formal system of finding truth, like math. Why did nobody tell me?!
“Sherlock” features a real mnemonic technique called a memory palace. But you don’t need to be Holmes to use it!
Logical positivism ran with Hume’s analytic/synthetic distinction…turns out running with forks is a bad idea.
The Star Wars Expanded Universe recently lost its canonicity; what does that really mean? Does John Dewey know?
What do gun control and police brutality have in common? Some arguments for both contain the same logical fallacy.
Many believe locks = safety. Learn how they work, how they’re picked, and why security is more about deterrence.
There are many absurd fictional AI-gone-haywire stories, but the real potential of general AI is unsettling.
If humans evolved reason to find truth, it’s weirdly flawed. But what if it evolved for the purpose of argument?
Metaethics investigates where morals supposedly come from and how they might (or might not!) be real. Fascinating!
Sci-fi really defines our future, but when sci-fi writers eschew big questions, we still need to ask them!
Unity is strength, but sometimes it leads to mobs or worse. Learn how to fight your brain’s urge to conform!
Reason is a fantastic tool & great fun…but sometimes, it can get in the way of simple (statistical) methods.
The anti-vax movement persists despite scientific consensus - what makes it such a convincing conspiracy theory?
NOTE TO COMMENTERS: This video does not assert that, because the assumptions of science are arbitrary, a person is justified in choosing not to believe scientific theories, or that its predictions are somehow invalid. THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS VIDEO CLAIMS. This video claims that, DESPITE making assumptions which are arbitrary, SCIENCE IS STILL THE BEST METHOD TO DATE FOR ACCESSING TRUTH, BECAUSE IT IS SIGNIFICANTLY MORE SUCCESSFUL AT MAKING ACCURATE PREDICTIONS THAN OTHERS.
When the context of someone’s speech is corrupted by extremism, it gets much harder to say anything detailed.
Doot de doo, browsing the web…oooo! A THUNK video! I wonder what it’s about???
“Turn Down for What” is the party anthem of 2014, and a great backdrop for meditating on Buddhist philosophy.
What do shark attacks have to do with Star Trek: TOS and misleading news stories? Statisti-HEY COME BACK!
It seems the Christmas season comes earlier every year…and there’s actually a decent reason why: game theory!
Happy anniversary to my THUNK viewers! Let’s talk about where we came from & where we’re going!
The eight-hour workday has been a standard for centuries. Have you ever wondered why?
How do allied players in Settlers of Catan always come out ahead? I’ll trade two sheep for some social capital.
Some argue that faith or lack thereof indicates intelligence, but it’s really more indicative of culture.
Is it possible that the act of trolling, by any definition, is fundamentally corrosive to geeks?
Economists readily admit their models can’t dictate the best economic system - I wonder how so many people can?
Have you ever realized you’re acting a little like a fictional character? It’s not just you - “fiction lag” is normal & powerful!
Everybody’s had an idea for something cool, but some think that it would be beyond them to make it real. Wrong.
NOTE: I fumble a few definitions and facts in this video (perhaps appropriately) - please be sure to check out some of the links below for a better understanding than I can provide here!
You might believe that you suck at math…but it’s probably something (fun) you’ve never actually tried before.
What does life, the universe, or anything mean? The most likely answer is both daunting and emboldening at once. (Be sure to check the description for related material!)
We frequently think of “emotional” as the opposite of “rational,” but research suggests that feelings might make us think more clearly.
There’s a lot of vitriol for feminists…sometimes from other feminists. Why do cultural movements advocating acceptance and egalitarian principles breed so much infighting?
Nerds like me have an itch to learn new things, but can scratching it be harmful? When is it better to not know?
Many things are supposed to be good or bad luck, but are we gaining or losing something by playing along?
Enrico Fermi thought we should have heard from aliens by now…did they all suffer some disastrous fate? If so, how might we avoid it?
Video games generally aren’t great at representing morality as complexly as other media, but there’s surprising depth to the medium itself.
The debate about health care is a complex & important one. Maybe we shouldn’t complicate it with nont-sequiturs & rhetoric.
Big data is finding weird correlations in everything, but how would you like it running something like government?
It’s a common sentiment that philosophy is for academics & people who don’t know how to party…maybe, maybe not.
A dream of utopia might not sound so bad, but the chaos and disorder in the world might actually be a good thing.
Pascal was a brilliant guy who developed a proof of probability for the Christian faith…with a few problems. Learn why you shouldn’t jump to take Pascal’s Wager.
There’s a branch of mathematics that is intimately related to the interplay of diplomacy and warfare. Learn what game theory is and how it sways nations!
The metric system is pretty cool, but Imperial units aren’t the devil!
“Design” isn’t just something that developers and architects do, it’s part of everything you make and everything you own. Learn how to make it work for you!
Kurt Gödel proved that math has an incurable flaw that will plague it, and us, forever. Learn what it is, and why it has to do with everything from your computer to your brain!
Two recently-published political science papers make one thing clear: money in politics is killing democracy. Find out how wealth has become more important than votes for representatives, and why it shouldn’t be.
It’s been half a year of amazing discussion & interesting topics. Here’s some of your comments, my favorites!
What the Bleep Do We Know? Quite a bit, actually. Including how observation alters particle interactions. Spoiler: electrons don’t actually get stage fright!
April is the start of concert season, as well as sexual assault awareness month. Find out how sex and physical intimacy should be like a good rock concert.
The question of free will has been long-debated in philosophy, but do we have an adequate answer? Is it even a real question?
It’s very easy to extrapolate large systems of thought from a few facts…and often dangerously wrong, especially for people who live in democracies. Find out why you should be wary of the Dunning-Kruger effect and its implications for how you think about complicated issues.
Plot twist: the robots didn’t put us into the Matrix…we did. Find out why Cypher might have been right, and how video games might be our future.
The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics just announced how the universe started. (It’s really blowing up.) Let me try to explain it to you.
Feynman’s first principle is: “you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” Thankfully, there’s some philosophy that can help us do precisely that. This week, I show how the human brain is primed to fool itself, how some interesting guys from ancient Greece combated that tendency, and why it matters.
Ender Wiggin might be a compelling protagonist, but he’s also problematic. This week, I investigate how Ender’s Game can make you dumb.
It’s very easy to dismiss systemic cultural bias, because it’s almost invisible if you’re not aware of it. This week, however, I argue that it exists, that it’s pervasive, and that you can and should work to combat it.
3, 2, 1, go. This week, I look at two groups who compete at insane levels of performance: Olympians and video game speedrunners.
Okay, Glass, record and edit this week’s THUNK! . …nuts. This week, I show off my cool new toy from Google and discuss the potential future relationship between humans and machines.
When this video hits 88 miles per hour…you’re going to understand some serious science. This week, I talk about how time travel works in fiction, how it might work in reality, and how it probably doesn’t work.
Have you ever wanted to learn how to CONTROL THE MINDS OF OTHERS?!? In this short how-to video, I will show you that you’re already doing it, and you’re better than you think!
So-called “geek culture” has exploded in the last decade or so. Comic book movies are making millions of dollars, nobody isn’t watching Doctor Who - the world is a very different place. This week, we look at where that change might have started, why some people aren’t happy about it, and what the future might hold.
What do robber barons in the 19th century have in common with Anakin Skywalker? More than you might think! This week, we take a look at one of the most reviled social/political philosophies through the lens of one of my most loved franchises, Star Wars.
The “Appeal to Nature” fallacy is a pretty widespread and insidious bit of flawed logic. This week, I show you how it works & how to spot it.
Pura vida! This week’s video comes to you from Costa Rica, where I give a run-down of the history of new year’s resolutions and the Chinese philosophy of Daoism.
This week, I give you an absolutely awesome last-minute gift idea, and talk a little about the future of the human race.
This week, we spare no expense as we explore some of the genuine ethical concerns with genetic engineering!
This week, it’s frickin’ cold in NY, but we’re looking at the history of intellectual property law (and its recent abuses in the tech industry), as well as open-source software!
This week, we bust out the tinfoil hats to talk about the history of privacy as a human right, and why it’s important for more than just keeping your parents from knowing what kind of dirty pictures you look at.
This week, we’re going to look at the history of science fiction, the introduction of computers into popular media, the possibility of creating a truly conscious artificial intelligence, and more hats! (Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!)
This week, we get into the “mind/body problem,” Descartes making everyone look bad with his giant brain, and what the mind actually is.
Don’t you hate internet arguments? This week, we cover how to reduce opinions to simple logical statements, how to effectively respond to those statements, and how to construct your own opinions so they’re bulletproof.
In which I detail what THUNK is to be about, and why.