#47 (Bonus) - Dualism, Reductionism, and Explanation Pancakes

Increments

Second holiday season bonus episode! Vaden joins Chesto on The Declaration podcast to talk about monism, dualism, the reality of abstractions, emergence, and reductionism. This convo was recorded in 2019, but much of the content is evergreen and we think it still makes for interestin' listenin'. Except the sound quality, which leaves much to be desired. Thanks Blue Yeti.

We discuss:

• The mind-body problem
• Why Vaden is a filthy pluralist and Chesto is a sober, sane, rational materialist
• Reductonism vs dualism vs pluralism
• The reality of abstractions
• Why explanations are central to science
• Would you get into a Star Trek transporter?
• And, a little bit out of left field, some advice for talking about mental health

References:

• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
• Beginning of Infinity
• Chesto's instagram for your eyes and soundcloud for your ears.

Errata:

• In the Domino example from BOI the prime number was 641, not whatever number Vaden said
• The Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977, not 1972

Contact us

• Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani
• Check us out on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ
• Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link

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Photo credit: https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2019/11/07/optimization-dominoes-and-frankenstein/

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