Ted Chiang on Free Will, Time Travel, Many Worlds, Genetic Engineering, and Hard Science Fiction

[@geordiejones5618]

This was an awesome discussion. Ted Chiang, Jorges Borges, Italo Calvio, Denis Johnson, Cormac McCarthy, Octavia Butler and China Mieville are the writers that got me back into writing and diving deep into my own fondness for cosmic strangeness and the wonder of speculative philosophy.

[@naringrass]

philosphy is only speculative from the scientific perspective

[@geordiejones5618]

​​@@naringrassI very much disagree. Logic is inherently limited to our present understanding of the universe, which is itself limited by experimental limits. There is no philosophy that is so pure that it exists above all cultural bias and all other endeavors of discovery. Philosophy much like art and science are reflections, and clarity depends on how far we push ourselves. Besides, applied philosophy is just more interesting compared to the abstract.

[@jamesstephenbrown]

In terms of free will, all I want is for my conscious efforts to make a difference to the quality of behaviours I subsequently perform (in attaining the goals I innately want, but didn’t necessarily choose), as opposed to the behaviours I would perform were I to put no conscious effort in. This seems to me, consistent with a deterministic universe.

[@AgarwalRajan]

there should be part 2 then part 3 and then part 4 and so on.

[@savvvytyler]

Why invite Ted on if you’re going to talk for the entire hour while he listens? It’s even mentioned,…’maybe we should let Ted talk more.’

[@OMGITSVAL_YT]

exactly.

[@spiralworlds]

You could let your guest speak... just a thought!

[@Find-Your-Bliss-]

It’s a constant sadness that the guest is a second thought, and the ego of the moderator takes over and expounds and expounds… Sigh.

[@VoidData]

I enjoyed this!

[@benmain2671]

Any more ads fellas?

[@ChampagneÉulalia]

Loved this

[@Yrch16]

This could be a much better interview if you guys, mostly Steve, had left Ted talk more instead of keep explain technical stuff that the guest already knew :/

[@julianverrat-ich-nicht6130]

1:08:18 - 1:11:21 please correct me if i am wrong but did the hosts just try to hide the gravity of social/systemic injustice (along class, race and gender) by the argument of luck? this really leaves me with the feeling that they got chiangs arguments at that point massively wrong

[@caitlincalsbeek6874]

Jesus H, you guys. I'm trying to watch this video, but I'm 12 minutes in and already have had 3 or 4 ad breaks. Like... Really?

[@lionelkentler]

I hate these guys talking to themselves while on call with Ted

[@ishanvyas1990]

love the book

[@kingerz]

Borges is certainly better as TC allowed.

[@lionelkentler]

What the hell is wrong with you guys, let your guest talk!

[@seeannierun1]

How do you have luck in a deterministic universe? Is that not inherently contradictory?

[@francomay3963]

Luck only exist if you add ignorance to the mix, of course. You might be lucky if you don't know all the factors and your calculated probability was against you. But the outcome might still be certain if there was no ignorance at all

[@nialv22]

Chiang's rejection of the anti-free will interpretation of Libet and his rejection of agent-causal libertarianism seem at odds.

[@bevs9995]

I thought the free will thing tied into the genetic engineering thing. Assuming he knows who Harari is.

[@chiayeeheah8068]

Been binge watching episodes on this channel since discovering it recently but this episode is really bad...the 2 hosts invited a very interesting guest and should really have let him talk rather than talking amongst themselves...

[@matheusgutt3166]

This is a Random Text for people who prefer to think for themselves. What does free will and determinism have to do with the will of people? Does The Truth itself depends on the will of people ? The Belief that time is absolute ( if you believe that only one time it's all that exists and there is no other line of time , you must believe as well that time has an absolute beginning and itself is absolute, which means, there is no other time rather than this one that we count as time.) Is this universe the measure of all things ? Do you know all things ? The Belief that there is no possibility of a God and the rejection of all religions is for those who really can't comprehend, not the metaphysics or philosophy but the Fundamentals of Reality. Reality reveals itself in nature, nature of things (accidental beings, non-beings, has this nature, ACCIDENTAL.) thoughts itself and images itself comes and goes according to time, space, speed, potency, quality, quantity, light, environment, state of being( reason-emotion) and again according to their own-nature, Teleology. Mind and Brain are the same ? Dream and Reality ? The man was made to sit quietly and find the Truth Within. References: Aristotle, Socrates, Tao-te-ching, Holy Scriptures, Olavo De Carvalho and myself.

[@Intimatycal]

Very clueless hosts, especially the one who mentioned Borges in the context of 'world of internal inconsistency.' It's just incredible how ignorance and arrogance go hand in hand. Thank God Ted put you in your place with a very articulate and adequate answer ("Borges flashes things out just enough to evoke a universe"), which you probably didn't even grasp.

[@GaiaCarney]

Steve. Corey. My dudes. This was an astonishingly terrible ‘interview’ of the talented, erudite, intelligent author Ted Chiang! _WHY_ have him on if you’re just going to talk over him, for him, to him?! Bad form. I’m so disappointed ☹️

[@kingerz]

Ted gets to speak 5% of the time or even less I'd say.

[@ISRAELNERDS]

Arrival language is based on Hebrew ❤

[@aaronchan438]

hi

[@yazdon7301]

xi jinping?

[@zachheisen5022]

Hello friend

[@adityasharan3685]

Bing chilling

[@francomay3963]

Hej!