Episode Description
The very great Erik Hoel joins me for a conversation on AI, free will, emergence, creativity, neuroscience, consciousness and much more. Hope you enjoy!
For the full transcript of our conversation, click here.
Important Links:
Show Notes:
(0:00:00) Guest Introduction
(0:05:12) Innovative Structures in Fiction
(0:09:43) Gender Dynamics in Publishing
(0:13:19) Erik Hoel's Origin Story
(0:20:11) An Unorthodox Literary Trajectory
(0:30:34) Consciousness and Information Theory
(0:35:45) Science At the Edges
(0:45:07) Is There a Bull Case for Neuroscience?
(0:48:38) AI's Stunning Progress
(0:51:05) AI as an Annoying Toddler
(0:55:19) The Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Perspectives of Consciousness
(1:00:59) Understanding Free Will
(1:17:53) Closing Remarks
Books, Essays & Key People Mentioned:
- When the Map is Better than the Territory by Erik Hoel
- “How I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old” by Erik Hoel
- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
- Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
- The Revelations by Erik Hoel
- Ulysses by James Joyce
- Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
- The Novels of Italo Calvino
- The World Behind the World by Erik Hoel
- Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare
- Hamlet by Shakespeare
- King Lear by Shakespeare
- The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
- War and Peace by Tolstoy
Researchers & Thinkers
- Søren Kierkegaard
- Francis Crick
- Giulio Tononi
- Karl Friston
- Robert Sapolsky
- Judea Pearl
- Gary Marcus
- Julian Jaynes
- Francis Fukuyama
- Carl Sagan
- Boethius