Daniel Dennett: Do We Have Free Will? [Ep. 406]

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2024

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Join my mailing list https://briankeating.com/list to win a real 4 billion year old meteorite! All .edu emails in the USA 🇺🇸 will WIN! Welcome everyone to a fascinating deep dive with the late Daniel Dennett! In our interview, we tackled fascinating problems like free will, human consciousness, ethics, and the philosophy of science. He also explained why he’s sounding the alarm on AI! Shortly after our interview, Daniel sadly passed away at the age of 82. He was a renowned philosopher, thought-provoking writer, brilliant cognitive scientist, and vocal atheist. He was the co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies, the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University in Massachusetts, a member of the editorial board for The Rutherford Journal, and a co-founder of The Clergy Project. Known as one of the "Four Horsemen" of New Atheism, he was at the forefront of discussions on consciousness, free will, and the impact of Darwinian evolution on religious belief. Dennett's works, including "Breaking the Spell" and "Consciousness Explained," have provoked both admiration and controversy, challenging readers to reconsider deeply held beliefs about the mind and its relationship to the physical world. Needless to say, I was thrilled to have Dan on the show! The world has truly lost an extraordinary soul and a groundbreaking thinker. RIP Key Takeaways: 00:00:00 Intro 00:09:27 Judging a book by its cover 00:12:29 Dan's critique of Sam Harris's position on free will 00:21:43 The evolutionary advantage of music 00:29:01 Language, nonverbal communication, and artificial intelligence 00:34:33 Are brains computers? 00:46:04 Sounding the alarm on AI 00:51:38 Bioengineering and bioethics 00:57:21 Philosophy of physics 01:02:47 The evolution of academia 01:09:08 Audience questions 01:23:10 Outro — Additional resources: 📝 Get one month of Snipd Premium for free with this link: https://get.snipd.com/Cx7S/brianSnipd Snipd lets you take Smart Notes 🧠 with AI 💡 — it’s my favorite podcast player 😀 ! ➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms: ✖️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list: https://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Check out my blog: https://briankeating.com/cosmic-musings/ 🎙️ Follow my podcast: https://briankeating.com/podcast Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known. Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Everybody just a little bit of a somber note as we start the podcast something that's never happened before
0:05.9	but I have to report on the passing of today's guest Daniel Dennett
0:10.4	who I spoke to just a few weeks ago. I think this was his final interview on a
0:15.6	podcast. He passed away. Today I'm informed for this is a Friday April 19th,
0:21.2	2024 and as you hear I had such a great conversation with him. I already
0:27.0	recorded an intro both the video and an audio intro and I was just so delighted in touch by him and had so much fun with him.
0:35.0	He influenced me greatly even though I really only got to delve into his work in the
0:41.0	last few months before leading up to the interview.
0:44.8	Of course I knew about him.
0:46.1	He's a world famous intellectual and contributor to many fields of philosophy and
0:52.1	many other things. And so it's a great shock to me. I wanted to release this as a
0:57.7	you know token of my gratitude to him for this wonderful interview.
1:02.7	You'll see he just come back from a dentist appointment and you know you're talking and part of
1:08.6	he feels guilty to have spent you know an hour and a half two hours whatever it turned out to be with, you know, the final,
1:15.0	you know, weeks of his life, but on the other hand, it's a great gift and hopefully his
1:19.6	family will see this and share in the delightful conversation that we had together.
1:26.4	I view it as a great honor and privilege to have hosted him and especially now made
1:31.4	more poignant by his passing.
1:33.4	It's truly affected me and I hope the interview will be meaningful to you
1:37.4	as much as it was to me as well.
1:39.6	So with that, I'll start with the intro that we had planned before this sad announcement came a few days ago before the release of this episode and
1:49.6	And and I hope that Dan is is happy and resting in peace wherever he is. Thanks Dan.
	...

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