Daniel Dennett: Why Free Will Survives in a Deterministic Universe

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

Curt Jaimungal

Physics, Philosophy, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2023

⏱️ 165 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I personally subscribe to The Economist. TOE listeners get 35% off the annual subscription. No other podcast has this! https://economist.com/TOE Daniel Dennett challenges the existence of qualia, the soul, and argues consciousness can be uploaded. They discuss pragmatism, emergence, and the AI alignment problem, weaving insights from neuroscience to philosophy.0:00 The Soul3:18 Most Important Philosophical Question12:06 Do Qualia Exist?30:28 Uploading Consciousness39:55 Thinking Differently56:20 Pragmatism1:01:06 Robert Sapolsky1:12:57 Philosophers and Scientists1:29:30 Patterns and Emergence1:36:46 Roger Penrose1:42:39 Sailing Boats1:45:40 Fictionalism1:51:12 Coming Up With Concepts1:59:55 Douglas Hofstadter2:05:30 AI Alignment Problem2:11:31 Q&ASPONSORS:- Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal- Crypto: https://tinyurl.com/cryptoTOE- PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE- TOE Merch: https://tinyurl.com/TOEmerch- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theoriesofeverythingpod- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theoriesofeverything_- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt- Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/better-left-unsaid-with-curt-jaimungal/id1521758802- Pandora: https://pdora.co/33b9lfP- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e- Subreddit r/TheoriesOfEverything: https://reddit.com/r/theoriesofeverythingRESOURCES:- I've Been Thinking (Dennett): https://amzn.to/3RVffvf- The Ego of the Mind (Dennett/Hofstadter): https://amzn.to/3RK4JGa- Determined (Sapolsky): https://amzn.to/3RWMm0P- Elbow Room (Dennett): https://amzn.to/3GT8u77- The Extended Phenotype (Dawkins): https://amzn.to/3GVyMW3- The Emperor's New Mind (Penrose): https://amzn.to/3RVmiEb- Carlo Rovelli on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_fUPbBNmBw&t=0s- Engineering, Daydreaming, Control (Dennett): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360998429_Engineering_Daydreaming_and_Control- Am I a Fictionalist? (Dennett): https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003091073-23/fictionalist-daniel-dennett- The Selfish Gene (Dawkins): https://amzn.to/3RX38hu- Consciousness Explained (Dennett): https://amzn.to/41BHPVO- Intuition Pumps (Dennett): https://amzn.to/3S6lQmZ- Darwin's Dangerous Idea (Dennett): https://amzn.to/3vi0VV2- Freedom Evolves (Dennett): https://amzn.to/3THPIqL- Elbow Room: Free Will (Dennett): https://amzn.to/3TDef0g- From Bacteria to Bach and Back (Dennett): https://amzn.to/41yKJL3- David Sloan Wilson on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3fG96gvgLU&t=0s- Donald Hoffman on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmieNQH7Q4w&t=0s- Hoffman & Joscha Bach on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhSlYfVtgww&t=0s- Hoffman & Philip Goff on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmaIBxkqcT4&t=0s- Hoffman & Vervaeke on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTpdCVsttI&t=0s- Anand Vaidya on TOE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BPLcuHnS_A&t=0s Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal features long-form, technically detailed interviews with leading researchers in physics, mathematics, consciousness, and philosophy, exploring topics at the level of active research. For academics, graduate students, and anyone seeking depth beyond popular science. FOLLOW: Substack | Spotify | YouTube | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Daniel Dennett. Your recent paper with Douglas Hofstetter, the ego of the mind, starts by asking the questions,
0:06.4	what is mind, who am I, and where is the soul? So I ask you, who are you, and where is your soul?
0:14.9	Well, I'm an agent. I'm Daniel C. Dennett, a living human being. I'm not a counterfeit human being. I'm a
0:24.8	genuine article. And the soul is a wonderful abstraction, which is a great way of thinking about a particular human body, a
0:41.7	conscious, awake human body. It's not a magical pearl of mind stuff or dualist stuff.
1:04.1	It's the organization. It's the collaborative organization of literally billions of little microagents that are the neurons and astrocytes and other cells inside my brain and body.
1:13.7	There's a nice line that my late friend, Julio Jarello, Italian philosopher of science and
1:23.1	journalists, and used as a headline when he interviewed me back, way back in the 90s, the headline was,
1:32.4	yes, we have a soul, but it's made of lots of tiny robots.
1:39.3	And that's it.
1:41.4	I have a soul.
1:42.6	It's made of lots of tiny robots, made of robots, made of robots. Motor proteins, ribosomes, and all the other millions and millions of millions of well-designed devices that are in every cell.
2:03.5	Can mere matter feel?
2:07.7	I can feel.
2:11.7	I am a person.
2:15.2	Nothing metaphysical or magical about that anymore to use an analogy that my thesis supervisor used decades and decades ago.
2:28.5	That was Gilbert Ryle.
2:31.0	He gave the example of somebody walking around Oxford and seeing all the colleges
2:36.7	and saying, yeah, but where's the university? As if the university were another building
2:42.0	like the colleges. Well, the university is the organized collection, and it's not just the items enumerated, the buildings and the libraries and the
2:56.2	grass and the trees and the people, but it's, of course, the constitution of the university,
3:03.0	the rules, the history, all to that next to university, and there's no other magic ingredient.
	...

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