Why are many people so willing to believe evidence of UFOs and Aliens, and so unwilling to believe evidence for God?
Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/speculative-attempts-to-complicate
When things aren't going well, those in power will sometimes introduce some speculative chaos in the hopes that what emerges on the other side will be better. It mostly doesn't work.
Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/09/the-thickness-of-the-world/
In the book Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis there is a scene where the King is arguing with a priest about what seems to be an unreasonable demand from one of the gods. The priest says something profound, something I'm still trying to wrap my head around. This episode is an effort to do just that.
The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction by: Matthew B. Crawford
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by: Oliver Burkeman
Generations: The Real Differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future by: Jean M. Twenge
When Violence Is the Answer: Learning How to Do What It Takes When Your Life Is at Stake by: Tim Larkin
Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution by: Tucker Carlson
Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by: Gino Wickman
One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by: B. J. Novak
Animal Farm by: George Orwell
Slaughter-House Five (Graphic Novel) by: Kurt Vonnegut and Ryan North
Children of the Mind (The Ender Saga, 4) by: Orson Scott Card
Chariots of the Gods by: Erich von Däniken
Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/the-apocalypse-will-not-be-as-cool
There are many potential apocalypses, and when people imagine them they imagine that everyone will die. On the contrary most people will live, and it will be messy and miserable.
Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/08/does-technology-encourage-virtue/
Last week we looked at how technology appears to multiple our temptations, but what does it do to our better impulses. If we move from considering the Deadly Sins to the Capital Virtues does technology undermine our efforts or assist us?
Apparently even the "smart" people are finally ready to admit that we should start reducing our annual deficit. In 2017 I was unclear on what the endgame was. I'm still unclear.
Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/08/the-temptations-of-technology/
What effect does technology have on the temptations we experience? If we examine the seven deadly sins it would appear that in all cases technology makes these sins more tempting and more accessible. Why would that be?
End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration by: Peter Turchin
Minds Make Societies: How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create by: Pascal Boyer
How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by: Steven Johnson
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by: Peter Attia MD
Jump Gate Twist by: Mark L. Van Name
Send Us Your Armies (Pilgrim's Path Book 1) by: Vic Davis
Lonesome Dove by: Larry McMurtry
Science Fiction Short Stories compiled by: Guy d'Andigne
Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent by: Larry Correia
The Myth of Sisyphus by: Albert Camus
Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/08/and-there-was-silence-in-heaven/
In the Book of Revelation we read that when the seventh seal was opened there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. In this post I'm going to engage in some spurious scriptural speculation about what that might mean.
Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/is-pornography-a-supernormal-stimuli-15a?sd=pf
Supernormal stimuli are those things which encourage us to do something that was historically very useful, but in an artificial and supercharged way. Think of the way junk food hacks our appetite.
Somehow I got the two audio files mixed up. So I published my substack thinking it was my Patheos piece, so now I'm publishing that Patheos piece. I will go through and try and fix some links, but I don't think I can fix it entirely... In any case here's the Patheos Audio:
Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/07/technological-salvation/
Two groups have a narrative of human potential — a sense of humanity’s ultimate destiny: the Actively Religious and the Radical Humanists. The former our ultimate salvation will occur in partnership with the divine (e.g. God). For the latter we are destined to be saved by our own efforts. These similarities invite us to consider both as paths to salvation, albeit very different ones.
Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/tribe-by-sebastian-junger-and-the
The Siege of Sarajevo killed 20% of the population, a horror most of us can scarcely grasp, yet those who survived it look back on the siege as a period of unique happiness. Why should that be?
Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/07/chestertons-fence-and-technology/
G. K. Chesterton noted that one shouldn't remove a fence until you understand why it was there in the first place. This is a great analogy for the concept of the traditions which have been passed down to us by religion. Technology allows us to remove a lot of fences, but are we sure we understand why they were there to begin with?
Expanding on Nick Bostrom's metaphor for technological development — it's like drawing balls of various shades from an urn, and if you ever draw a pure black ball, the world ends...
Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/07/separating-the-beneficial-from-the-barbarous/
Clearly there are some traditions which should be abandoned. And just as clearly there are some which should be preserved. But what are we to do with the vast majority which fall in the middle?
There's significant evidence that traditional practices were beneficial and adaptive. But many reject traditions as relics of a barbarous past. How do we make that determination?
Religion is a very old technology, and the wisdom contains is often hard to identify. This is unlike the technology we create intentionally, where the goal is always obvious. When these two technologies come into conflict who should we decide between them. It's easy and attractive to go with the new, but by dispensing with the old we may be incurring harms that will only manifest years or decades later.
Religion is often viewed as being completely different from technology, but in actuality religion is a technology, one of the oldest forms of it in fact. It's a particularly important form of technology one that we abandon at our peril.
Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/the-ideas-of-nassim-nicholas-taleb-20d?sd=pf
For many years this was the most listened to episode of my podcast. So it seemed logical to update it, but also it's one you might have already heard.
Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/06/a-judgment-day-for-ais/
If AIs are going to act as independent agents then they should be praised for the virtues and judged for their sins just as we all are. And in fact this judgment is one of the few things that will ensure their morality.
Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/the-politics-of-the-zombie-apocalypse-e4c
Per Scott Alexander it's possible that the right optimizes for survival, while the left optimizes for thriving. If so would a society entirely optimized around thriving actually function?
Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/06/morality-for-robots-and-ais/
AI risk has been in the news a lot lately. One way to reduce that risk is to make sure that AIs are moral. But what does morality even mean when you're talking about robots and AIs?
Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/burning-man-dreamtime-and-dragons-8b8
Burning Man aspires to reinvent the culture of the Earth. I don't think it's going to, which is to say in 1,000 years I don't think that people will look back on this era as the Dawn of the Burners. But what will they think of us? That's the question we cover in this episode.