Back at it again, as we coerce you into listening to Part 2 of our four part series on Libertarianism, with Mr. Bruce Nielson (@bnielson01). In this episode we cover the Economic Issues section of Scott Alexander's (non-aggressive and principle

#64 - Libertarianism I: Intro and Moral Issues (w/ Bruce Nielson)

Mar 7th, 2024 1h 52m

Liberty! Freedom! Coercion! Taxes are theft! The State is The Enemy! Bitcoin! Crypto! Down with the central banks! Let's all return to the Gold Standard! Have you encountered such phrases in the wild? Confused, perhaps, as to why an afternoon

#63 - Recycling is the Dumps

Feb 14th, 2024 1h 6m

Close your eyes, and think of a bright and pristine, clean and immaculately run recycling center, green'r than a giant's thumb. Now think of a dirty, ugly, rotting landfill, stinking in the mid-day sun. Of these two scenarios, which, do you re

#62 (Bonus) - The Principle of Optimism (Vaden on the Theory of Anything Podcast)

Feb 1st, 2024 2h 45m

Vaden has selfishly gone on vacation with his family, leaving beloved listeners to fend for themselves in the wide world of epistemological confusion. To repair some of the damage, we're releasing an episode of The Theory of Anything Podcast fr

#61 - Debating Free Will: Frankenstein's Monster and a Filmstrip of the Universe (with Lucas Smalldon)

Jan 17th, 2024 1h 42m

While you're reading this you're having a thought. Something like "wow, I love the Increments podcast", or "those hosts are some handsome" or "I really wish people would stop talking about free will." Do you have a choice in the matter? Are you

#60 - Creativity and Computational Universality (with Bruce Nielson)

Jan 4th, 2024 1h 58m

Today we [finally] have on someone who actually knows what they're actually talking about: Mr. Bruce Nielson of the excellent Theory of Anything Podcast. We bring him on to straighten us out on the topics of creativity, machine intelligence, Tu

#59 (C&R, Chap 8) - On the Status of Science and Metaphysics (Plus reflections on the Brett Hall blog exchange)

Dec 22nd, 2023 1h 26m

Back to the C&R series baby! Feels goooooood. Need some bar-room explanations for why induction is impossible? We gotchu. Need some historical background on where your boy Isaac got his ideas? We gotchu. Need to know how to refute the irrefutab

#58 - Ask Us Anything V: How to Read and What to Read

Nov 29th, 2023 1h 40m

Alright people, we made it. Six months, a few breaks, some uncontrollable laughter, some philosophy, many unhinged takes, a little bit of diarrhea and we're here, the last Ask Us Anything. After this we're never answering another God D*** quest

#57 (Bonus) - A calm and soothing discussion of The Patriarchy

Nov 15th, 2023 1h 1m

We we're looking for a nice light topic for our patron only episode, so Vaden naturally chosen to chat about the patriarchy. I guess he didn't get into enough trouble in his personal life talking about it so he wanted to make his support and ad

#56 - Ask Us Anything IV: Certainty, Emergence, and Popperian Imperatives

Nov 1st, 2023 1h 21m

Perhaps you thought, in your infinite ignorance, that the release of the previous episode marked the end of the age of the AMA! But nay my friends, the age of the AMA has just begun! We'll answer your questions until the cows come home; until G

#55 - Is all thought problem-solving?

Oct 9th, 2023 54m 9s

Our argument at the end of last episode spilled over into discord, DMs, and world news, so we felt compelled to dedicate a full episode to addressing the question "Is all thought problem solving?" Some arguments make history, like whether atomi

#54 - Ask Us Anything III: Emotional Epistemology

Sep 18th, 2023 1h 18m

Back again with AUA #3 - we're getting there people! Only, uhh, seven questions to go? Incremental progress baby. Plus, we see a good old Vaden and Ben fight in this one! Thank God, because things were getting a little stale with Vaden hammerin

#53 - Ask Us Anything II: Disagreements and Decisions

Aug 14th, 2023 1h 34m

Ask us anything? Ask us everything! Back at it again with AUA Part 2/N. We wax poetic and wane dramatic on a number of subjects, including:- Ben's dark and despicable hidden historicist tendencies- Expounding upon (one of our many) critiques

#52 - Ask Us Anything I: Computation and Creativity

Jul 10th, 2023 1h 13m

We debated calling this episode "An ode to Michael," because we set out to do an AMA but only get through his first two questions. But never fear, there are only 20 questions, so at this rate we should be done the AMA by the end of 2024. Who sa

#51 - Truth, Moose, and Refrigerated Eggplant: Critiquing Chapman's Meta-Rationality

May 29th, 2023 1h 12m

Vaden comes out swinging against David Chapman's work on meta-rationality. Is Chapman pointing out a fatal flaw, or has Popper solved these problems long ago? Do moose see cups? Does Ben see cups? What the f*** is a cup? We discuss - Chapman'

#50 - On the Evolutionary Origins of Storytelling, Art, and Science

Apr 24th, 2023 2h

Fifty godd*** episodes! 'Tis been a ride full of debate, drinks, questionable arguments, Ben becoming both a dualist and a social media addict, and Vaden stalwartly not changing his mind about a single thing. To celebrate, we dive into a thesi

#49 - AGI: Could The End Be Nigh? (With Rosie Campbell)

Mar 22nd, 2023 1h 24m

When big bearded men wearing fedoras begin yelling at you that the end is nigh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA1sNLL6yg4&ab_channel=BanklessShows) and superintelligence is about to kill us all, what should you do? Vaden says don't panic, and

#48 (C&R Chap. 18) - Utopia and Violence

Feb 24th, 2023 1h

You may, perchance, have noticed that the sweeping utopian movements of the past did not end well. And most of them involved an horrific amount of violence. Is this connection just chance, or is there something inherent to utopian thinking whic

#47 (Bonus) - Dualism, Reductionism, and Explanation Pancakes

Jan 16th, 2023 1h 32m

Second holiday season bonus episode! Vaden joins Chesto on The Declaration (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-declaration-podcast/id1433998370) podcast to talk about monism, dualism, the reality of abstractions, emergence, and reduction

#46 (Bonus) - Arguing about probability (with Nick Anyos)

Dec 19th, 2022 1h 59m

We make a guest appearance on Nick Anyos' podcast to talk about effective altruism, longtermism, and probability. Nick (very politely) pushes back on our anti-Bayesian credo, and we get deep into the weeds of probability and epistemology. You

#45 - Four Central Fallacies of AI Research (with Melanie Mitchell)

Oct 31st, 2022 53m 29s

We were delighted to be joined by Davis Professor at the Sante Fe Insitute, Melanie Mitchell! We chat about our understanding of artificial intelligence, human intelligence, and whether it's reasonable to expect us to be able to build sophistic

#44 - Longtermism Revisited: What We Owe the Future

Oct 3rd, 2022 1h 2m

Like moths to a flame, we come back to longtermism once again. But it's not our fault. Will MacAskill published a new book, What We Owe the Future, and billions (trillions!) of lives are at stake if we don't review it. Sisyphus had his task and

#43 - Artificial General Intelligence and the AI Safety debate

Aug 28th, 2022 1h 7m

Some people think (https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/uMQ3cqWDPHhjtiesc/agi-ruin-a-list-of-lethalities) that advanced AI is going to kill everyone. Some people don't (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/opinion/superintelligent-artificial-intellige

#42 (C&R, Chap 12+13) - Language and the Body-Mind Problem

Jul 21st, 2022 50m 39s

Ben and Vaden sit down to discuss what is possibly Popper's most confusing essay ever: Language and the Body-Mind Problem: A restatement of Interactionism. Determinism, causality, language, bodies, minds, and Ferris Buhler. What's not to like!

#41 - Parenting, Epistemology, and EA (w/ Lulie Tanett)

Jun 20th, 2022 1h 18m

We're joined by the wonderful Lulie Tanett to talk about effective altruism, pulling spouses out of burning buildings, and why you should prefer critical rationalism to Bayesianism for your mom's sake. Buckle up! We discuss:- Lulie's recent e