Episode 304: The Planes Don't Land

Very Bad Wizards

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2025

⏱️ 100 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What has four thumbs and can effortlessly glide from the a priori to the a posteriori in a single episode? These guys. In the first segment we tackle a brand new paper called “Being Exalted: an A Priori Argument for the Trinity.” That’s right, the Holy Trinity arrived at through reason alone. Then in the main segment we talk about Richard Feynman’s classic 1974 Caltech commencement address “Cargo Cult Science.” Does Feynman’s metaphor suggest that whole paradigms might be systematically misguided? Or is he just admonishing social scientists to maintain their integrity and use more rigorous methods? As you might imagine, a fight almost breaks out in this one.

Moore, H. J. (2025). Being Exalted: An A Priori Argument for the Trinity. Sophia, 1-23. [link.springer.com]

Cargo Cult Science by Richard Feynman [caltech.edu]

Interrogating the “cargo cult science” metaphor by Andrew Gelman and Megan Higgs [columbia.edu]

Transcript

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0:00.0	Very Bad Wizards is a podcast with a philosopher, my dad, and psychologist Dave Vizarro,
0:06.0	having an informal discussion about issues in science and ethics.
0:09.5	Please note that the discussion contains bad words that I'm not allowed to say,
0:13.4	and knowing my dad, some very inappropriate jokes.
0:17.2	Ooh, that's a bingo.
0:28.6	Bees! Ooh, that's a bingo. The great end boss has spoken. Pay no attention to that band behind the curtain. Who are you?
0:40.3	Who are you?
0:41.3	I'm a very bad man.
0:43.3	I'm a very good man.
0:45.3	Good man.
0:47.3	They think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have.
0:53.3	May no attention tonight, man.
1:00.0	Anybody can have a brain?
1:03.7	You're a very bad man.
1:06.4	I'm a very good man.
1:08.1	Just a very bad wizard.
1:10.4	Welcome to Very Bad Wizards.
1:12.1	I'm Tamler Summers from the University of Houston.
1:15.2	Dave, today, the latest in new AI news on the Ezra Klein show, your boy, your show.
1:24.6	Ezra Klein hosts a guest that says that the government knows that AGI, artificial general
1:30.7	intelligence, is coming and we're not ready.
1:34.2	These things are coming out every day right now, new warnings about AI.
	...

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