Episode 173: Talking to Your (Alternate) Self [Ted Chiang's "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom"]

Very Bad Wizards

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2019

⏱️ 100 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

David and Tamler dive back into the Ted Chiang well and explore the fascinating world described in "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom." What if you could interact with alternate versions of yourself - versions that made different choices, had different jobs, or different partners? Would you get jealous of your other selves if they were more successful? Would you want them to be unhappy so you could feel better about your own choices and path? If your alternate self was in a good relationship with a woman, would you try to track down the version of that woman in this world? If you made an immoral choice but your other self made the moral one, what does that say about your character? And what does it say about free will and responsibility?

So many questions, such an interesting story - turns out we need to dedicate another segment next time to conclude the discussion. Hope you enjoy it! If you haven't bought Exhalation (Ted Chiang's new collection) We can't recommend it highly enough. This is the last story in that collection.

Plus – we select the topic finalists for our beloved Patreon listener-selected episode. Will Denial of Death make the cut again?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Very bad wizards is a podcast with a philosopher, my dad, and a psychologist, Dave Pizarro,
0:05.9	having an informal discussion about issues and signs and ethics.
0:09.3	Please note that the discussion contains bad words that I'm out of allow to say,
0:13.6	and knowing my dad some very inappropriate jokes.
0:17.0	This is a newspaper, right? It's 90% bullshit, but it's entertaining.
0:23.0	That's why I read it because it entertains me. You won't let me read it.
0:26.9	So you entertain me with your bullshit. Tell me a story right now. Go.
0:57.9	They think things are false and with no more brains than you have.
1:01.3	They do our attention. Tell my dad.
1:08.4	Anybody can have a brain.
1:12.4	You're a very bad man.
1:14.8	I'm a very good man. Just a very bad wizard.
1:19.6	Welcome to very bad wizards. I'm Tamler Summers from the University of Houston.
1:23.6	Dave, I'm on my prism right now and I'm talking to an alternate version of you
1:28.4	who decided not to do this podcast seven years ago. Anything you want me to ask him?
1:34.5	And I borrow some money.
1:39.1	The alternate version of David, yeah, ask him what he's doing with all the
1:43.1	bounce of a free time that he's spent with his daughter.
1:47.3	Yeah, he's very close with his daughter. He saw her raised.
1:53.6	He also has an endowed chair and Stanford.
1:58.4	Yeah, ask him what his age index is.
2:02.0	He, I told him yours and he, he feels bad. He doesn't want to.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.