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Very Bad Wizards

Episode 38: The Greatest Movies Ever Made about Personal Identity

Very Bad Wizards

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.83K Ratings

🗓️ 31 December 2013

⏱️ 81 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Who is the real you? What happens to your identity when your body gets cloned or reconstituted with all the same memories and character traits? Does society construct our true selves or repress them? Can we ever escape our pasts and become different people?   Dave thinks conceptual analysis and arousal measuring devices can solve all these problems but allows Tamler his dream of temporarily becoming the host of a movie podcast. They list their top 5 favorite movies about personal identity. Plus, do they have to eat still more crow--this time from Sam Harris?       

Links

Personal Identity [plato.stanford.edu]

Google Glass [youtube.com]

Tamler's Top 5

5. Fight Club
4. A Clockwork Orange
3. Infernal Affairs
2. Moon
1. A History of Violence

David's Top 5

5. Blade Runner
4. Vertigo
3. Looper 
2. Groundhog Day
1. Back to the Future

Honorable Mentions

  • Solaris (Russian version)
  • Being John Malkovich
  • Memento
  • My Fair Lady
  • All of Me
  • Zelig 
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
  • Spirited Away
  • The Prestige
  • Shutter Island
  • Unforgiven
  • Side Effects
  • Any Star Trek Movie

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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,

0:06.5

having an informal discussion about issues in science and ethics.

0:10.0

Please note that the discussion contains bad words that I'm not allowed to say, and knowing

0:14.6

my dad some very inappropriate jokes.

0:30.0

Welcome to very bad wizards, I'm Tamler Summers from the University of Houston.

0:51.6

Dave, when are you the real you?

0:54.8

When do I keep it real the most?

0:57.0

I think that I'm at the most real me, my most genuine self, when I'm scared shitless.

1:01.8

I'll give you an example.

1:02.8

I've actually been there.

1:03.8

So they're really, they're really used, shits, your pants?

1:06.0

No, no, but I've been driving, no, never.

1:09.5

I've been driving with a suspended license for some time, and the focus that that gives

1:16.6

you when you're driving is amazing.

1:19.5

And so I think that like one of the things about being who you're seeing who you really

1:23.4

are is how you act when you're afraid, because all of a sudden what's important, the priorities

1:27.3

kind of fall into focus.

1:29.0

So if you ever want to see the real me, just like why do you have a suspended license?

1:32.8

Like do we, I don't feel like this is interesting for our listeners.

1:36.6

Let's just say, let's just say I was a year in Canada and I just didn't, didn't, didn't

1:41.4

a lot of driving.

1:42.4

I didn't quite take care of the things that I ought to have before I left.

...

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