Episode 46

46: A Matter of Consciousness

Published on: 17th May, 2021

A Matter of Consciousness

(00:00) Intro and T-shirts: Ghostbusters and Picard

(02:57) Joe discusses his article "Beneath the Skin of Capitalism."

(6:00) The nature of consciousness, matter, and dualism have profound implications for ethics, human rights, and how society should be organized.

(09:01) Dualism vs. materialism / physicalism. Time, space, entropy and the second law of thermodynamics. Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes.

(34:40) The brain as a receiving station. The Matrix. The simulation hypothesis.

(48:49) The materialistic view of consciousness. The hard problem of consciousness, and qualia. Philosophical zombies, and the homunculus. Why does the experience of having a brain feel like something?

(58:58) If consciousness is material, then we are nature and nature is us. The implied hierarchy of dualism, that mind and spirit are greater than the body.

(01:02:40) Ethical implications of machine consciousness. How reflecting on conscious machines will help us better understand what it means to be human.

(01:06:00) Panpsychism: Could consciousness be an elemental force like gravity?

(01:10:57) Consciousness monism, Biocentrism, and the Buddhist "ground of being."

(01:34:18) Summation and outro.

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Beneath the Skin of Capitalism, by Joe Occhipinti

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The Radio Wave Argument, by Sean Prophet

The Singularity is Near, by Ray Kurzweil

How to Create a Mind, by Ray Kurzweil

The Emotion Machine, by Marvin Minsky

Consciousness Explained, by Daniel Dennett

The idea that everything from spoons to stones is conscious is gaining academic credibility, by Olivia Goldhill