Episode 332: Talking to Myself ("The Other" by Jorge Luis Borges)

Very Bad Wizards

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2026

⏱️ 115 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

David and Tamler talk about Jorge Luis Borges' disorienting short story "The Other." A 70-year-old Borges sits on a bench by the Charles River and who should he encounter but himself as a 19-year-old, by the Rhône River in 1918 Geneva. Is this a dream? Who is dreaming it? What does the Heraclitean river metaphor reveal about this impossible meeting? (Stick around after the closing music, David reads the story in English and in Spanish.)

Plus Richard Dawkins has a memorable encounter of his own, but with his AI Claudia (née Claude). If you think AI isn't conscious then how do you explain Claudia's rapturous and penetrating insight into Dawkins' unpublished novel?

When Dawkins met Claude: Could this AI be conscious? (paywalled) [unherd.com]

Unpaywalled at archive.org

The Other by Jorge Luis Borges [wikipedia.org]

The Collected Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges trans. by Andrew Hurley [amazon.com affiliate link]

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.
0:09.4	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	Kicking ass in the morning is better than cappuccino.
0:26.6	The great in on... kicking ass in the morning is better than cappuccino the great end boss has spoken pay no attention to that man behind the curtain Who are you?
0:39.0	Who are you?
0:41.2	I'm a very bad man.
0:42.6	I'm a very good man.
0:44.3	Good man.
0:50.4	They think deep thoughts, and with no more brains than you have.
0:53.9	May no attention to that man.
0:59.0	Anybody can have a brain?
1:03.0	You're a very bad man.
1:05.0	I'm a very good man. Just a very bad wizard.
1:08.0	Welcome to Very Bad Wizards. I'm Tamler Summers from the University of Houston.
1:12.5	Dave, if you were sitting on a bench by the Charles River
1:15.6	and met a 19-year-old version of yourself, what would you say?
1:21.4	Oh, shit.
1:23.5	Don't believe her.
1:26.7	I would understand it.
1:28.9	He would?
	...

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