How To Want Better Things

Aliens, the great filter, and whether we’d rather know we’re doomed or never find out. We’ve only been podcasting for a little over a year, so intelligent extraterrestial life might not have tuned in yet. From there we go from deep space to crime and punishment: how much of a person’s fate is luck? It all gets solved in today's episode.

For this bonus episode, the gang swaps personalities. A thank you to our very real Patreon listeners.

Part two on AI consciousness. We argue about philosophical zombies, alien moral weight and Bostrom’s galaxy of happy people. Turing test rant group, most skipable episode yet.

Is AI conscious? What about fish? Perhaps the water bottle? We argue about who counts, who might, and what happens if we get it wrong. Marcus got bit.

On the productivity hazards of knowing yourself too well

We discuss whether having children is good, bad, or just inevitable if the World Cup goes well. A budding astrophysicist explains protostars to four-year-olds.

2 seasons in and the crew remains undefeated in wasting our listeners' time. This week: mandatory statistics requirements, the case for & against extended lives (feat. modern day Genghis Khan), and why parenting courses might be a bad idea.

A reasonably coherent conversation about the multiplier effect, and the gap between what you do and what you convince others to do. The same logic applies to vegetarianism, advocacy, and seat belt diplomacy in the Balkans.

We read the worst LinkedIn posts we could find. A fish. And a chicken.

This week we start with a genuinely embarrassing British skydiving fundraisers and end up somewhere around the expected value of your vote, Dutch tax policy, and a bunk bed assassination attempt.