Marx, 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 themselve...
Mar 26, 2021•32 min•Ep. 55
This 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.
Mar 17, 2021•27 min•Ep. 54
Easter 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.
Mar 08, 2021•49 min•Ep. 53
What 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 Britis...
Feb 05, 2021•37 min•Ep. 52
The 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".
Jan 17, 2021•57 min•Ep. 51
What 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.
Jan 13, 2021•12 min•Ep. 50
This 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 chan...
Jan 13, 2021•32 min•Ep. 49
A 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....
Jan 07, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 48
This 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.
Jan 07, 2021•40 min•Ep. 47
This 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 at a r...
Dec 25, 2020•27 min•Ep. 46
Early 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 on ...
Dec 25, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 45
This 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.
Dec 24, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 44
This 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....
Dec 10, 2020•34 min•Ep. 43
In 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).
Dec 04, 2020•13 min•Ep. 42
This 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 episode. Thank you ...
Nov 20, 2020•12 min•Ep. 41
This 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.
Nov 19, 2020•52 min•Ep. 40
This 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).
Nov 14, 2020•54 min•Ep. 39
A 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.
Nov 13, 2020•17 min•Ep. 38
This 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"!)....
Oct 21, 2020•32 min•Ep. 36
Audio 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 discussion of...
Oct 20, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 35
This 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 can be...
Oct 18, 2020•48 min•Ep. 34
This 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 civilis...
Oct 09, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 33
This 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.
Sep 30, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 32
This 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.
Aug 06, 2020•57 min•Ep. 31
This 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.
Aug 06, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 30
The 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.
Jul 02, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 29
With 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.
May 15, 2020•2 hr 39 min•Ep. 28
This 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.
Apr 25, 2020•9 min•Ep. 27
This 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. And so...
Apr 17, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 26
Some 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 :)
Mar 03, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 25
