David Deutsch on Optimism

[@brianjcorby]

Listening to or reading David Deutsch is like waking from a life time of sleep... wake up!!!!

[@pankajvaishnavi]

Exactly my sentiment. Deutsch's work is nothing short of world-view altering.

[@hydernoori146]

so true. I honestly wonder how can enjoy sleep.

[@rlee4516]

I know, so much of my thinking has changed since I read The Beginning of Infinity.

[@scottmcmaster4927]

That is exactly the feeling. It is as if he activates a part of the brain that has not been otherwise in use. You cannot help but feel smarter for having taken the time to listen and reflect on what he is saying.

[@EmperorsNewWardrobe]

4:03 “The principle of optimism, namely that all evils are caused by lack of knowledge”

[@buncha1499]

This guy's just playing on a different level of intelligence. Genius.

[@scottmcmaster4927]

Harvard Professor Steven Pinker wrote after reading one of Deutsch's books that it was a rare occasion wherein he believed he had encountered true genius. That is high praise indeed comming from Professor Pinker, who is widely respected for his own breadth of scholarship.

[@fightfamilybuffalo]

pinker and Epstein were buddies. David Deutsch is the smartest human alive. @@scottmcmaster4927

[@udaypsaroj]

Let's renormalize this level right away 🚀

[@Kento_nanami_the_2nd]

One of my few intellectual heroes. I could listen to him talk about optimism for days.

[@scottmcmaster4927]

His books are so very good.

[@aravindsudev2023]

Thats the best speech I have ever heard. Goosebumps!!!!

[@EmperorsNewWardrobe]

6:05 “The enemies of civilisation all necessarily have one thing in common: they are wrong. And so they fear error correction and truth, and that’s why they resist changes in their ideas, which makes them less creative and slower to innovate”

[@somethingness]

The sheer brilliance of this is hard to overstate.

[@DKonigsbach]

I watched this video because David Deutsch is one of the luminaries of quantum computation. Well, his speech had nothing to do with quantum computation. Instead, it was one of the most fascinating, instructive, and important talks I've ever heard. His insights are both brilliant and essential. This is a MUST WATCH for anyone. You will learn, you will be impressed, and you will be changed.

[@mikebueno6379]

It has to do with constructor theory i guess

[@Saskia-uz4ds]

His words are very true now too, with the Covid scandal.

[@l.w.paradis2108]

@@Saskia-uz4ds Please explain.

[@AnotherGradus]

Parts of this presentation are from similar passages in David Deutsch's wonderful _The Beginning of Infinity_ -- a nonfiction book taking on various topics like the logical positivist downfalls in the philosophy of science, dismantling post-modernism, proposing creative artificial intelligence and explaining the multiverse in simplified quantum mechanics.

[@extraterrestrial16]

very very concise and elegant or even elloquent piece there by Dr. Deutsch.. way to go Dr.!

[@jjdelc]

This was excellent!

[@jtetteroo2919]

My favourite mind.

[@davidbanks9653]

Brilliant!

[@zelalemmekonnen8030]

you can see the smile on both of the faces!

[@ChuckSilva]

Not that I would know but David is the most brilliant mind on earth...I’ve listed to everything I can get my ears on and have his amazing book (and audio book) beginning of eternity....if you haven’t be sure to check his Ted talks too....I love you David! Thanks for pimping my mind! ❤️🍻

[@hydernoori146]

the entire human struggle summarized in minutes.

[@udaypsaroj]

6:25 alternative, buckminster's quote applies.

[@novembertwentytwenty3383]

That point about Uranium was eye opening af

[@user34rL]

Everyone should read The Beginning Of Infinity

[@stegemme]

funny that, I was just thinking earlier today this should be a school text book, somewhere around age 9 or 10, just after a little bit of prep has been completed in general science. Everything you could want to say about thinking, creativity, philosophy, science and the arts is there for the talking ...

[@IWKS1]

I am 18 reading it and struggling to understand it until i watch a summary video 😂 ​@@stegemme

[@stegemme]

@@IWKS1 that's why I suggested the prep, as a class reader you'd get to discuss this with your peer group. I was being optimistic when I said 9 or 10, maybe more like 14 or 15, with the proper curricular support in place so much could be learnt from books like this. Away with dogma. Whatever else you do or don't get from the book, what matters is to think creatively, that's at its core.

[@IWKS1]

@@stegemme interesting, thank you and yeah i agree, books like this should be read in schools.

[@vimal-cliobconsulting]

​@@stegemmenah it shouldn't adapted by failing education system or else they'll force their students to memorize and score in their exams instead of students choosing if they want to go deeper reading his books by following their genuine curiosity. It'll be disaster if it becomes syllabus for marks.

[@chiradipbhattacharyya2044]

Love his reasoning

[@stanmeyer2581]

dankon, danke, thx, mercy, 謝謝, dankie, ngiyabonga, תודה, σας ευχαριστώ, gratias tibi ago, та бүхэнд баярлалаа, obrigado, ..........

[@fightfamilybuffalo]

Speed isn’t our only advantage. The good guys outnumber the bad guys by a lot too. This is why we must understand that humans create knowledge better in groups using high trust systems. Like this:

[@Hyporama]

Astonishingly perceptive.

[@Darth69906]

I just woke up

[@Darth69906]

Really........ wow

[@Darth69906]

Wow

[@zenonadrien8625]

waoo he just sum up all in 7 minutes . impressive. and i feel it true - in 7 minutes :) here is the speed:)

[@hgracern]

Thank you, v fab. Do we create tho…can we create thinking. Create a thought. Nope.

[@z0uLess]

The reason why the hippocampus dominates human experience is exactly that -- speed. We will still be slaves to our emotions, no matter how you try to think your way around it. This speaker is a preacher like all the others, and he preaches to a crowd of believers which enables him to play a role of the preacher confidently feeling that the things that he speaks about is meaningfully products of individual willful thought.

[@cristianm7097]

Who are the good guys ? Self-appointed ?

[@AltumNovo]

One's who use criticism, argument and error correction instead of force and dogma.

[@stegemme]

try The Open Society and its Enemies, Karl Popper

[@EmperorsNewWardrobe]

@@AltumNovoexactly

[@zenonadrien8625]

actually we should gather people in those comments lines - and make a group of reflexion - discussion. too bad it is staying only here in comments on youtube. feel like we dont use the potential

[@aidanhall6679]

Genius

[@stoyanfurdzhev]

Tell David Deutsch that I haven a message for him.

[@adziuaoeu]

And it's physical limitations that we are to confront. The second law of thermodynamics. It's not entirely cringe.

[@AlexandrBorschchev]

I understand nothing. Wow.

[@bowwowchickawowow]

Just keep repeating this stuff. It's all intuitive but it got beaten out of a few people.

[@nratter]

An argument for the fantastic world that AI might help us to create

[@admirallightningbolt]

Time to go take some Speed

[@FrankTYoung]

"All evils are caused by lack of knowledge." 🤯

[@TawhidurRahmanShobhon]

Am I the only one having a very hard time try to understand professor Deutsch is saying?

[@Mornys]

+Tawhidur Rahman What do you mean? His pronunciation or what he's actually saying. I can hear him just fine with headphones. Or maybe you're just lacking the context.

[@HenkPoley]

He brings together various difficult concepts and sort of runs through those. So yeah, it is difficult to follow. Don't feel ashamed to hit the pause button and think for a while, wether what he just said makes any sense.

[@andywilliams8540]

+Henk Poley read the beginning of infinity. His amazing book. And a game changer. He walks you thought all this. Breathtaking stuff.

[@stegemme]

read his books, The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity. Before you know it you' ll be looking up the Constructor Theory websites, maybe even find yourself reading the theory papers, available free as pdf ...

[@AlexandrBorschchev]

Yes, glad I'm not the only one. I'm completely baffled by his articulation, it's as if he understands so much about something that he's completely undebatable. If anyone does understand this, I refuse to believe it.

[@j0hannes5]

an inability to update your worldview doesn't make you significantly slower if you employ openminded people, who make up for your lack of creativity.

[@z0uLess]

he refers to speed, but time creates sociological structures of inequality as well. there are no good guys and bad guys. we are all in this together.

[@AlexlikesRamen]

He didn't say buy ethereum I was close to click dislike

[@opensocietyenjoyer]

why would he say that?

[@mikebueno6379]

Rees is schooled.

[@AliAlfadhel-l6b]

let him cook

[@kraxmalism]

well, we live in a planet where Steve Jobs and Ilon Musk are more popular and appreciated than this guy. may be that is the main problem of this planet.

[@vimal-cliobconsulting]

Elon* and by the way, do you realise he admires Elon and Steve? And he's getting recognition now. There's nothing wrong with Elon and Steve getting recognition. They've contributed a lot to society as well and one of the few human beings who pushed the humanity towards progress.

[@jesuschrist7037]

WHAT THE JESUS?? I DIDN"T GET ANYTHING

[@HitomiAyumu]

Try watching it again.

[@AlexandrBorschchev]

I didn't get anything either. I didn't understand a single point and all I could think of is how does one articulate like this and become so unreadable. I don't know what he's trying to say here, he's completely on another level of understanding and I will never get that.

[@TheFlamingChips]

@@AlexandrBorschchev you will get it. It is surprisingly simple. Keep listening, or try reading his book. It's essentially: a society who strives to improve and change, learning from their errors, can solve any problem. Older societies failed with things like famines, plagues and being conquered. But our current civilisation is still going strong. But there will be problems for us, climate change, a meteorite, terrorists etc. So our goal is to keep improving and finding problems. The opposite to this is a society that stays the same, never improves. Every single society in history that applied this died out. He calls this progress the beginning of Infinity, because it can eventually lead to anything, like flying cars and living on different planets etc. So basically, humans aren't simply just "a piece of scum on a typical planet, in a typical solar system, in a typical galaxy" like Hawking's said. We also have this special ability to create knowledge, solve problems etc. So in early human history, we thought we was the center of the universe. Then science showed we're not really special. And now we're back around to realising we are special in the universe. Watch the video again.

[@ASUUCWatertown]

Carry on, you're fine the way you are.

[@z0uLess]

David Deutsch must hate chaos theory...

[@pankajvaishnavi]

why?

[@z0uLess]

Pankaj because it seems like he believes in the newtonian dream, where everything can be calculated if given enough data.

[@pankajvaishnavi]

+z0uLess Clearly you do not know what you are talking about. Chaos theory is just plain non-linear dynamics. It is classical (Newtonian) physics

[@z0uLess]

Pankaj prove it

[@pankajvaishnavi]

+z0uLess I have a PhD in the subject. Can do a lot more than "prove it". But I think just a short browse through wikipedia will suffice for you.