Philosophy, Science, and a Bunch of Other Stuff
SpaceTimeMind is a podcast by Pete Mandik (William Paterson University; Philosophy and Psychology) who talks with his guests about philosophy, science, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
"What's expected of us," by Ted Chiang is a super short and really great piece of sci fi published in Nature that taps into themes we cover in Episode 7: The Illusion of Free Will (with Gregg Caruso) and will explore further in several upcoming episodes on time (see also our two video discussions on time to date, "What is time?" and "Brit Brogaard on the Metaphysics of Time and the Neurophilosophy of Consciousness").
Download: MP3 Audio (71MB)
Could a robot or an alien have a mind even though its physical structure may contain nothing similar to a human brain? To address this, philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel once again joins Richard Brown and Pete Mandik to finish what we started in episode 4, “Death and Logic.” Here Richard defends brain-o-centrism against Eric’s “crazy-ism” (the view that something crazy has to be right about the metaphysics of consciousness) and Pete’s pro-AI, born-again functionalism (the view that minds are multiply realizable or substrate independent). Our launch points for discussion are themes from Eric’s recent essays, “If Materialism Is True, the United States is Probably Conscious” and “The Crazyist Metaphysics of Mind."
(The music in the episode is by our band, Quiet Karate Reflex. The song in the intro is "SpaceTimeMind Theme Song" [link to music video] and in the outro is "Ontological Indeterminacy." More of Quiet Karate Reflex's music can be heard here: http://quietkaratereflex.bandcamp.com/.)
(The video chat between Richard, Pete, and Eric that this episode's audio is drawn from is viewable on YouTube. See especially the second half.)
We're getting pretty stoked here at SpaceTimeMind central, as we're just a few days away from our next episode, Episode 8: Alien and Machine Minds (with Eric Schwitzgebel). Eric is our first return guest, and the discussion in episode 8 picks up where things left off with Eric in Episode 4: Death and Logic. Things got pretty rowdy in the virtual studio - stormy even - while we were talking about massive lightning strikes creating swamp people and even entire swamp galaxies. See for yourself in this amazing video:
In horror movies, a zombie fight happens when two of the flesh-eating undead confuse each other for prey and, despite tearing each other apart, they both go to bed hungry. In philosophy, a zombie fight is exactly the same. In the latest installment of the MindChunk series, watch as Richard Brown and Pete Mandik use all their best zombie moves on one another, while neuroscientist Joe LeDoux kicks back and surveys the carnage.
The declaration of the death of philosophy du jour comes from Peter Unger in his recent book, Empty Ideas: A Critique of Analytic Philosophy. Glimpse his main ideas in this 3 Quarks Daily interview of Unger. Evident throughout is a pervasive scientism. Apropos of all this, see below the recent MindChunk from Richard and Pete, "Scientist or Philosopher?" (For the longer discussion from which this MindChunk originates, see our video "Scientism.")
Pete Mandik and Richard Brown discuss the question of whether philosophers should be scientists or scientists should be philosophers.
Download: MP3 Audio (88MB)
You have only three options: One, you listen to this episode of your own free will. Two, you listen to this episode as a matter of pure chance, with neither cause nor reason. Three, you were predetermined since the big bang to listen to this episode. One way or another, you're going to hear philosopher Gregg Caruso join Pete Mandik as they gang up on Richard Brown, who intermittently operates under the illusion that he has libertarian free will.
(The music in the episode is by our band, Quiet Karate Reflex. The song in the intro is "SpaceTimeMind Theme Song" [link to music video], the song in the mid-episode break is "Joints of Nature," and in the outro is "Ontological Indeterminacy." More of Quiet Karate Reflex's music can be heard here: http://quietkaratereflex.bandcamp.com/.)
(The video chat between Richard, Pete, and Gregg that this episode's audio is drawn from is viewable on YouTube.)
It's been an unusually busy week in the SpaceTimeMind virtual studio and a very brain-heavy one to boot. Today Richard and Pete rocked out with rock-n-roll neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux (of the Amygdaloids) on memory and emotion. And, oh yes, consciousness. Also, another zombie-fight broke out between the co-hosts. Thankfully, no philosophers were harmed. At least, not consciously. Anyway, check out the video below:
Professor of philosophy and neuroscientist Berit (Brit) Brogaard from the University of Miami joins Richard Brown and Pete Mandik in the virtual studio for the SpaceTimeMind podcast. In the first half we talk about the physics and metaphysics of time. In the second half we talk about the neurophilosophy of consciousness. To see the full conversation, check out the video below. Click HERE to follow the SpaceTimeMind YouTube channel.
In this installment of the MindChunk video series, Richard and Pete each relate their philosophical origin stories. (SPOILER ALERT: Richard's adamantium skeleton was installed in a secret government location and Pete was bitten by a radioactive norn.)
SpaceTimeMind co-hosts Richard Brown & Pete Mandik once co-authored a paper. It will be published soon, but due to a weirdo way of handling backlog at the journal, Philosophical Topics, (basically, time travel), the publication date will be listed as 2012. Anyway, check out "On Whether the Higher-Order Thought Theory of Consciousness Entails Cognitive Phenomenology, Or: What is it Like to Think that One Thinks that P?"
ABSTRACT.The question at the center of the recent growing literature on cognitive phenomenology is this: In consciously thinking P, is there thereby any phenomenology? In this paper we will present two arguments that “yes” answers to this question follow from the Higher Order Thought (HOT) theory of consciousness, especially the version articulated and defended by David Rosenthal. The first, the general argument, aims to show that on the HOT theory all phenomenology is cognitive. The second, the central argument, aims to show that all conscious thoughts have phenomenology.
"You've been McGurked." - - Pete Mandik, Episode 5: Transhumanism and Existentialism
"Fields are awesome." - Richard Brown, Episode 3: Consciousness explained (?) part 2: The nature of explanation
See also:
"Don't torture your norns." - Pete Mandik, Episode 5: Transhumanism and Existentialism
In Episode 5: Transhumanism and Existentialism, Richard and Pete spend a bunch of time talking about sci-fi author Roger Williams. Tonight they hit the virtual studio to talk to Roger Williams. If you aren't super-stoked about this news or are previously unaware of Williams' work, here's a mini crash-course for you:
In Pete's interview in 3AM Magazine, he lists The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect among his top 5 all-time favorite sci-fi books.
(Update: June 5, 2014. The interview went really well, we think. Check out the raw unedited action below.)
The latest installment of the excellent philosophical webcomic chaospet by Ryan Lake takes very direct and explicit inspiration from an exchange between Richard and Pete in Episode 1 of the SpaceTimeMind podcast (the exchange occurs in the second half of the episode). In the webcomic, Richard's in blue and Pete's in green. This is a pretty accurate reenactment, up to and including the last panel.
Chaospet #246: The Ultimate Skepticism http://chaospet.com/246-the-ultimate-skepticism/
What is knowledge? Knowledge is poo-poo. See below. See also: Duncan Pritchard and John Turri "The Value of Knowledge" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Download: MP3 Audio (93MB)
Vygotskian developmental psychologist Lara Beaty joins philosopher-scientists Richard Brown and Pete Mandik to tackle questions such as: Is the mind bigger than the brain? Does conceptual thought and even consciousness require the use of language or other sorts of social interaction? Which is morally preferable: making animals smarter or making humans stupider? Would it be totally cool to eat somebody who volunteered for it?
(The music in the episode is by our band, Quiet Karate Reflex. The song in the intro is "SpaceTimeMind Theme Song" [link to music video], the song in the mid-episode break is “Massage the Lizard," and in the outro is "Without Your Permission." More of Quiet Karate Reflex's music can be heard here: http://quietkaratereflex.bandcamp.com/.)
(The video chat between Richard, Pete, and Lara that this episode's audio is drawn from is viewable on YouTube.)
The indomitable and indefatigable Dr. Brown strikes once again with the best and latest in his series of completely over-the-top cinematic trailers for the SpaceTimeMind podcast. If you can watch this without getting so stoked that you need to go run a few laps, then you are truly dead inside. Grab some popcorn and enjoy.
Attention Twin Earthings and/or doppelgangers thereof. SpaceTimeMind is now touting its toots in tweetspace. The official SpaceTimeMind Twitter account is @spacetimemind99. Accept no substitutes.
