SpaceTimeMind is a podcast by Pete Mandik (William Paterson University; Philosophy and Psychology) who talks with his guests about philosophy, science, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Richard Brown takes a one-episode hiatus while Pete Mandik heads down to Texas to talk to philosopher Ken Williford. Pete and Ken discuss whether (1) it’s desirable for humans to transform themselves into something alien, (2) whether we or our brains are already alien to us, and (3) whether an “acquaintance relation” view of consciousness is consistent with physicalism.
After two physics episodes in a row Richard Brown and Pete "Macho Bluff" Mandik dial the way-back machine to the Golden Era of Dinosaur Travel and kick out some old-school philosophy of mind jams. In part 1 ("Time Shuffling") they sort some stuff out about temporal counterpart theory and so-called “real identity.” In part 2 (“Finger Sausages”) they tackle the transparency of conscious experience and phenomenal acquaintance. In part 3 (“A Brain Made out of Paper”) they discuss the extended mind hypothesis and it’s connection to panpsychism and meditation (with a mild de-rail on journal refereeing best/worst practices).
(Audio for this episode is drawn from the video chat viewable here: @YouTube.)
We just had a very large and satisfying video dump that you should go check out. Not to spoil too many surprises, but do check out Richard's new glasses!
Philosophy of mind and philosophy of science by professors Richard Brown and Pete Mandik. Part 1: Fourdimensionalism, eternalism, mereology, and hoaks Part 2: Finger sausages, Aristotle's illusion, transparency, and acquaintance Part 3: Panpsychism
Philosophy of mind and philosophy of science by professors Richard Brown and Pete Mandik Part 1: Cotard's delusion, Capgras delusion, and the Koro delusion. Also, fading qualia and dancing qualia. Part 2: Super Mario, functionalism, and change blindness. Part 3: Biologism
Physicist Sean Carroll joins philosophers Richard Brown and Pete Mandik on the SpaceTimeMind podcast to discuss, for example: anti-intellectual academics; intelligent design and fine tuning; entropy, decoherence, and the arrow of time, baby Benjamin-Button universes; Boltzmann brains; lambda cold dark matter; many worlds; disappearing worlds; interacting worlds. And much much more!
(Audio for this episode is drawn from the video chat viewable here: @YouTube.)
Measure for Measure: Quantum Physics and Reality - panel discussion including David Albert, Sean Carroll, Sheldon Goldstein, Ruediger Schack, and moderator Brian Greene @YouTube
Philosophers of mind and science Richard Brown and Pete Mandik burn the book of the world while orbiting a decaying black hole with Maxwell’s demon, a reversible cellular automaton, and can of whoop-ass worms. Will they survive? Will one of them successfully execute the argumentative equivalent of the Five-Point-Palm Exploding-Heart-Technique against the other? And how would you even know?
(Audio for this episode is drawn from the video chat viewable here: @YouTube.)
Does all of reality exceed what we believe about it? Even the reality of fun? How about the reality of pain? Eric Linus Kaplan is an author (Does Santa Exist?), a TV writer (Big Bang Theory, Futurama), and an all-around philosophical dude (Buddhist monk, UC Berkeley philosophy doctoral student). Eric joins philosophy professors Richard Brown and Pete Mandik, co-hosts of the SpaceTimeMind podcast, for a discussion of ontology, clowns, parties, tattoos, dentists, and experimental philosophy.
(Audio for this episode is drawn from the last part of the video chat viewable here: @YouTube.)
Philosophers Richard Brown and Pete Mandik continue their discussion from the SpaceTimeMind podcast’s Episode 11 on Scientism. Here they focus on naturalistic versions of truth and reality. Can evolution by natural selection ground our ability to represent truths that transcend usefulness? If it can’t, what can?
(Audio for this episode is drawn from the last part of the video chat viewable here: @YouTube.)
Neuroscientist and rock star Joseph LeDoux (NYU) joins SpaceTimeMind podcast co-hosts and philosophers Richard Brown (CUNY) and Pete Mandik (WPU) to discus the neural bases of memory, emotion, and consciousness in human and non-human brains.
(The audio for this episode is drawn from this video chat: @YouTube.)
Philosopher kings Richard Brown and Pete Mandik are once again joined on the SpaceTimeMind podcast by science fiction author and essayist Roger Williams. In the first part of the episode we discuss the technological singularity as well as Williams' own singularity tale, The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. The themes of transformation continue on through to the last part of the episode, where we discuss Roger's essay, "Hannibal Lecter as Transhumanist Icon." So, slap some sim-stim 'trodes on your forehead, pour yourself a nice chianti, and kiss your precious meatspace goodbye, oh you pretty pre-post-humans. We're gonna find out what's at the bottom of the bag of infinite free ponies.
(The audio for this episode is drawn from this video chat: @YouTube.)
In this episode of the SpaceTimeMind podcast we discuss supernature, a hypothetical realm that is, in some sense, above and beyond the world accessible to the natural sciences. In part one of the episode, Richard Brown and Pete Mandik are joined by science fiction author Roger Williams. In part two, we are joined by philosopher Gregg Caruso, who you may remember from episode 7 on free will. If you notice anything strange occurring while you listen to this episode, please let us know about it at spacetimemind.com. It may have just been a coincidence. Or it may, just possibly, have been an intrusion into our world from the world of SUPERNATURE.
A 3-D object, fully present in the now, walks into a bar where the bartender is a 4-D spacetime worm. The worm asks the object “Why so tense?” Further instantiations of such high-grade philoso-physical hilarity ensue in this, the third episode of the SpaceTimeMind podcast on the topic of time. Brit Brogaard is back by popular demand, and this time a Brogaard/Brown presentist team-up gives Pete “Erstwhile Eternalist” Mandik a run for his money…forever.
We spent more on special effects for this MindChunk than on all previous MindChunks combined!
Richard Brown from ground control talks Pete Mandik through some repairs to the mothership. Along the way they find time to discuss the question of whether you can be absolutely certain that you have conscious experiences.
Hide your brains; the neurophilosophers are coming! Philosopher and neuroscientist Berit (Brit) Brogaard joins Richard Brown and Pete Mandik on the SpaceTimeMind podcast to discuss what makes some states of the mind or brain conscious and others unconscious. Is this sort of question answerable from a psychological or philosophical perspective that makes no essential reference to neuroscience? Or, instead, are neuroscientific data unavoidable in this domain? And: Can Brit go a full ten minutes without using the word “brain?"
Speaking of MindChunks, what are the metaphysical consequences of the supposition that the brain is a finite system of chunks that can each be in only a finite number of states?
Pete Mandik on Turing's argument from the finite nature of the brain.
In this episode of the SpaceTimeMind podcast, Richard Brown and Pete Mandik continue their discussion from Episode 9 ("A Journey to the Edge of Hypertime”) and consider the view that time constitutes a fourth dimension analogous to the three spatial dimensions of height, width, and depth. What’s gained and what’s lost in viewing moments other than the present as analogous to places other than here? Do we lose an ability to account for change and motion? And if a computer simulation of a brain can have consciousness when we run the program, could it have consciousness even when the program isn’t being run?
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once.” -- Ray Cummings. Quote often misattributed to Woody Allen. See also John Archibald Wheeler @WikiQuote
Richard Brown and Pete Mandik "On Whether the Higher-Order Thought Theory of Consciousness Entails Cognitive Phenomenology, or: What is it Like to Think that One Thinks that P?” @PhilPapers
You are listening to SpaceTimeMind, a podcast by two philosophy professors, Richard Brown and Pete Mandik, who talk about philosophy, science, and all sorts of other stuff. Please be advised that this podcast contains strong language and abstract ideas not suitable for all intelligent lifeforms.
