Bonus-wag: Ted (Chiang) Talks

Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma

Treefort Media & Touchy Feely Films

Society & Culture, History, Science

4.9 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2023

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

☸️🙃⚛️ Paul, Stephen and fiction writer Ted Chiang discuss the pros and cons of our fallible memories and the human technological interface. Is that fight with your partner about “who said what” an essential part of developing a human relationship, or is none of that even the point? Is adopting a pact of truth and reconciliation the path forward in relationships as it is in some countries’ politics? Ted discusses the question of self-identity; are we defined by our memories and shared experiences, and how is the “self” affected by changing technology? Does Chiang believe in an immaterial soul or are we only a collection of atoms? And why do many believe materialism implies nihilism when we can make meaning with our own guiding morals? All this and more on existentialist thought, karma, AI, and moral philosophy! What else could you want? Dig in Waggers! Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. Ted Chiang is a fiction writer whose works have won him four Hugo, four Nebula, and four Locus awards. He has been featured in The Best American Short Stories and has authored two collections, Exhalation and Stories of Your Life and Others. The title story from Stories was adapted into the feature film Arrival. Chiang is also a frequent non-fiction contributor to the New Yorker Magazine, most recently on topics related to computer technology, and artificial intelligence. ☸️🙃⚛️ ========= BONUS Chin-Word of the Week: OMPHALOS ========= New eps of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊) Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YOUTUBE x CHINWAG Playlists ▶️ YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Full episodes playlist: https://bit.ly/chinwagYT Animated shorts: https://bit.ly/chinwaganimations Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're going to be. Hello and I'm Stephen Asma.
0:25.0	And as promised, Chin Waggers, here's a little extra bonus wag for your listening enjoyment.
0:31.0	Bonus. Bonus. Bonus.
0:34.0	See on the other side, waggers. Hello everybody it's Paul Giamotti speaking. Stephen Asmas I live and breathe.
0:48.0	How are you sir? I'm doing well. Are you familiar with NPR's throughline
0:52.0	podcast Steve? Yeah it's throughline podcast, Steve?
0:53.3	Yeah, it's an excellent podcast and I've been listening to it for a while.
0:56.3	Yeah, you're a listener.
0:57.3	Yeah.
0:58.3	I love this show.
0:59.2	Every week they go back in time to understand the present because you can't fully understand the moment we're living
1:04.7	and without knowing where we've been, right?
1:06.6	Very true.
1:07.6	And on every episode of NPR's throughline, the host take a story from the news and go back to where
1:12.1	it started. They seek to answer one
1:13.9	important question, how did we get here? It's interesting stuff. They have some
1:17.8	amazing topics I think our audience will find intriguing. There was a
1:20.7	recent one about the scientist who tried to stop the aging
1:23.7	process because he deemed old age to be a disease that he could cure. So it gets
1:28.8	into all kinds of weird stuff.
1:30.8	Wow. Eternal youth, our fear of aging, our fear of death, it traces he feelings back thousands of years.
1:36.5	It's remarkable discussion.
	...

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