Episodes

  • Why Have There Been No Great Women Philosophers of Mind?
    Jan 23 2023

    Since at least Mary Shelley, women have been brilliantly writing about minds and consciousness. But very few of them have been "philosophers of mind." I'm not really sure why, but I know it's philosophy's fault

    The intro and outro music is from Domenico Gabrielli's ricercar, performed on solo cello by Debbie Davis

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    11 mins
  • Frankenstein and AI with Eileen Hunt
    Jan 9 2023

    This episode's guest is Eileen Hunt, a professor of political theory at the University of Notre Dame and the author of Artificial Life after Frankenstein.

    Eileen and I discuss a number of topics related to AI and Frankenstein, including:

    • Mary Shelley's upbringing as the daughter of two radical thinkers
    • The political and literary influences on the novel
    • The role of parenting in the novel
    • The similarities between

    The intro and outro music is from Domenico Gabrielli's ricercar, performed on solo cello by Debbie Davis

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    49 mins
  • Ayer's Sociopaths
    Nov 7 2022

    Philosophy used to be the search for wisdom, but it's become a search for certainty. And if you send an AI on a search for certainty, you'll probably create a sociopath

    The intro and outro music is from Domenico Gabrielli's ricercar, performed on solo cello by Debbie Davis

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    10 mins
  • Sidelining Sentience
    Oct 17 2022

    If sentience means "having senses," then your floodlights that turn on when someone walks by are sentient. But if floodlights are sentient, maybe sentience isn't quite the right word.

    The intro and outro music is from Domenico Gabrielli's ricercar, performed on solo cello by Debbie Davis

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    10 mins
  • Things of Our World
    Oct 3 2022

    What kind of a weirdo collects dumb things like barbed wire?

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    11 mins
  • Oscar Wilde's Machine Slavery
    Sep 19 2022

    Slave actually means Slav. And the word robot is a Slavic word. It means slave.

    Here's the article about American slavery that I mentioned by Nell Irvin Painter: How We Think About the Term "Enlsaved" Matters

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    12 mins
  • Sudowrite, an AI Companion for Fiction Writers -- James Yu
    Sep 12 2022

    My guest today is James Yu, cofounder of Sudowrite, an AI companion for fiction writers. James and I discuss how neural networks process language, how AI can help writers, and the difficult path forward for using AI to help humans write without competing with them. Plus we imagine what it would be like if your favorite author turned out to be a robot!

    The intro and outro music is from Domenico Gabrielli's ricercar, performed on solo cello by Debbie Davis

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    48 mins
  • Hume's Billiard Balls
    Sep 5 2022

    What caused you to to believe in causes?

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    10 mins