Epistik

Pause. Think aloud. Repeat. Epistemology + Ethics = Epistik "Whoever questions you openly with genuine reason is loyal to you." Thank you for listening! Email: contact.epistik@gmail.com Twitter: @prefixiffus

Episode 18, feat. Alexander Siegenfeld

TIMESTAMPS 2:35 Natural Scientists vs. Social Scientists in Complexity Science 8:29 Alex’ paper about elections 27:00 Professor Friston’s work in relation to Complexity Science 36:13 Can data be to weak to be useful? 40:35 Complexity Science in relation to philosophy and empiricism vs. rationality 46:29 What is the hardest thing in your work? 55:38 Successful people in academia 1:02:00 Circles & Loops 1:05:00 Measuring success 1:10:30 Are religions circular? 1:17:09 Language compression and emotion transfer devices 1:21:00 Meta-talk 1:24:29 Why is it hard to talk about ”deep things”? 1:28:22 The nature of learning 1:31:30 Memory 1:36:50 A subagent in our embodied cognition that is ”higher” than us? 1:49:11 What advice do you have for younger students? Intrested in CS? Award-winning intro to Complexity Science by Alex: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/complexity/2020/6105872/ Mentioned resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions (Note from Alex: It seems less original now than at the time it was written) The Master and His Emmissary by Iain McGilchrist Another book recommended by Alex: I and Thou by Martin Buber (he recommends the translation by Smith) The review article in Nature Physics: https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.11489 Regarding proxies to internal goals, I’d recommend the following Medium article: https://adamahm.medium.com/data-linkage-visualization-for-assisting-policy-makers-d4ba40715693x Give Epistik a follow and fill the following form: https://forms.gle/MSZwUEFm1kzMTuia6

07-29
01:52:17

Episode 17, feat. Karl Friston

TIMESTAMPS: 6:15 Is the reduction of uncertainty in the Free Energy Principle more compareable with Occam’s razor or simple deterministic laws? 18:03 Tautologies and compression of information. 30:00 Free will 37:48 Where does the first prior probability distribution come from? Do you believe in revelation? 49:20 How can we describe parameters of epistemic foraging in terms of the Free Energy Principle and Philosophy? 1:04:15 Practical applications of Friston’s work in relation to policy-making in the corporate world and the public sector. 1:16:10 Should people aspiring to work in Public Admin study maths? Links to Prof. Friston’s previous pertinent appearances: TOE Podcast: https://youtu.be/2v7LBABwZKA (good for getting an elementary understanding of the Free Energy Principle and it's applications) Lex Fridman Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwzuibY5kUs&t=688s (a fun conversation) Dartmouth's CCN Workshop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1hEc6vay_k (good for stats-people) ML Streettalk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkR24ieh5Ow (good for ML-people) Serious Science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW0JnjgCO3o&t=520s (about a slightly separate area: Embodied Cognition) Give Epistik a follow! Suggest ideas here: https://forms.gle/MSZwUEFm1kzMTuia6

07-14
01:19:18

Episode 16, feat. Jacob Lagerros

TIMESTAMPS: 23:39 Subagents in our heads. 35:00 What can we learn from how we perceive people we encounter on the street? 42:26 The Game of Life in relation to RL and MDPs. 58:35 Summarizing question

07-01
01:11:36

Episode 15, feat. Kiran Garimella

TIMESTAMPS  13:00 Computer scientist vs social scientists 17:50 Is quantification effective? 24:00 Why did you choose to work with CSS? 49:00 NLP & Marketing 54:10 NLP vs regression 57:20 What kind of variable would you like to maximize? Dr. Garimella’s website and GitHub: https://users.ics.aalto.fi/kiran/   https://github.com/gvrkiran Sorry for bad audio from my side.

06-19
01:05:39

Episode 14, feat. Davood Gozli

TIMESTAMPS 2:00 How do you choose which books to read? 4:00 Random decision-making 8:00 The potential of a emotion transfer device 18:30 The leap of faith 25:27 Who are the genuine atheists? 28:00 Links between dualism vs non-dualism and idealism vs materialism 35:58 Infinite vs finite games in the evolution of religions 39:50 Objectivity in contrast to the personification of God 43:00 Virtue ethics and tautologies 46:10 Turning infinite into finite games – from the micro-level to the macro-level 49:21 What percentage of the world population do you think that people would accept and abide by a coherent and somewhat fair axiomatic system? 50:43 Is there any variable that you can pinpoint and say that you want to maximize or minimize in life? 1:00:55 When do you think that Hegelian dialectical logic is better than using statistical inference in psychology? 1:05:57 The impact of instantaneous emotions 1:10:00 ”Chicken and egg”-problems, tautologies, and circular systems 1:14:40 What social science subject would you recommend for engineers or scientists? Professor Gozli’s… YT-channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6XWPTuBcXjkPoeP_MGCjug Website: dgozli.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/dgozli

06-07
01:16:37

Episode 13, feat. Devdeepta Bose

4:26 What did you learn from Prof. Collin Camerer 10:10 Neuroeconomics vs Metabolomics 14:07 Defining wellbeing 15:30 A proxy for wellbeing 20:00 The theory of reflexivity and the delta between money and value 25:33 Hedonic recalibration/calibration 28:08 Can our projection of wellbeing be 100% epistemically correct? 31:35 Is computational power or lack of information the primarily limiting factor in deriving a path to wellbeing? 46:15 Do we have a tendency to turn infinite games into finite games? 57:50 Simple stats vs sophisticated maths 1:17:20 Can one force oneself to like any smell? 1:19:25 “When we have to cooperate but don’t have the same purpose of goals, we make transactions.” Dr. Bose's website: https://sites.google.com/view/devdeeptabose

05-24
01:25:04

Episode 12, feat. Dario Krpan

TIMESTAMPS 8:00 Hegelian dialectical logic vs. statistical inference in Psychology. 13:45 Problems with defining wellbeing. 23:30 Data gathering 31:10 Subconscious hard-limiter. 40:00 Behavioral Scientists' impact in society 53:00 Paternalism v libertarianism. Links to Professor Krpan's social media: Linkedin Twitter Google Scholar

05-10
59:55

Episode 11, feat. William Hedley Thompson

TIMESTAMPS 20:25 Comp. Neuroscience & Public Policy 31:50 Comparing brains with computers. 38:00 When should we note something down? 52:40 Does logic have to be mathematical? 1:02:10 Why is it so important for us that some other consciousness has registered our acts/experience? William's podcast: akademiskasmadad.se

04-29
01:14:40

Episode 10, feat. David Ebbevi

TIMESTAMPS 27:20 Could you explain your research project at the Stockholm School of Economics? 32:50 The balance between using computers and brains 40:00 Could we have a subconscious hard limiter that prevents us from having it ”too good”? 43:00 Do you think that doctors have a place in management consulting? 57:29 How vulnerable is Swedens healthcare?

04-16
01:01:59

Episode 9, feat. Paolo Vineis

TIMESTAMPTS: 3:56 What insights from your research has surprised you the most? 8:35 Advice to researchers when it comes to international collaboration? 17:45 Data linking  21:35 Finding the balance between finding new ideas and focusing on ongoing projects. Sorry for bad audio quality.

04-08
35:23

Episode 8, feat. Jonathan Gorard

TIMESTAMPS 0:20 Are the laws of logic a priori or a posteriori? 7:55 Ideas in applied mathematics 27:50 Why did you choose to work with automated theorem proving? 43:50 An argument for theism and deism 1:06:44 Can automated theorem proving be applied in the field of philosophy? 1:24:10 Our emotional states, wellbeing, and rationality

03-20
01:54:21

Episode 7, feat. Tomas Bokström

TIMESTAMPS 7:40 Normative ethics and public policy 14:40 The definition of wellbeing. 24:07 Social Anthropologists vs Comp. Social Scientists in Public Policy 39:30 Hedonic wellbeing vs eudaimonic wellbeing. 51:25 How can engineers get into policy?

03-10
01:11:51

Episode 6, feat. Mats Lekander

TIMESTAMPS 3:00 The definition of health 22:30 Qualitative analysis in Psychoneuroimmunology 33:45 Alternative medicine. 39:20 What are your views on the explanatory gap? 53:30 Are the faith problems that western health workers experience in the third world due to problems in allopathic medicine? Website: Epistik.wordpress.com

02-25
56:10

Episode 5, feat. Anna Herland

TIMESTAMPS: 0:27 Insights from working with Donald Ingber. 6:00 What motivates researchers? 19:00 Regulations in research 33:12 Measuring success in the public sector. 36:15 Researchers and collaboration with the wider society. 42:55 How do you define learning something new?

02-12
53:48

Episode 4, feat. Alf Månsson

TIMESTAMPS 00:10 Why did you study medicine? 3:43 How suitable does the medical program make you for research? 13:12 How has the student experience changed since you studied in med school? 21:35 Multidisciplinary vs. focused education. 27:53 Materialsim vs. Idealism in regards to the peace in Sweden. 31:37 For how long will the world be able to sustain its standard of living? 37:25 Should business grads make all the money from the work of researchers? 40:11 Philosophical incentives in research. 47:00 What are the biggest obstacles for researchers? 52:32 How should researchers collaborate with the public sector, e.g. the EU? 56:34 Limiting effects of computing power. 58:25 Where do you draw the line between when quantitative and qualitative analysis is more efficient? 1:00:00 What questions can simulations answer? 1:04:35 Potential of open access data analysis. 1:08:24 Can we unbelief something? 1:09:45 Is there some common denominator in what we are striving for? 1:14:21 What is your objective in life?

01-30
01:16:29

Episode 3, feat. Zaher El-Shami

TIMESTAMPS 6:12 Kantian ethics 20:38 Communication 33:10 Is it important for society to learn history as a school subject? 44:30 The negative form of the ”Golden rule” 1:33:00 Why do people want to have children? 1:53:15 Would you go on a vacation If you would know that you would forget about it after getting back? 2:00:00 Goal in life

01-16
02:04:51

Episode 2, feat. Jens Fust

Pre Scriptum: Audio quality improves after around 10 mins. TIMESTAMPS: 0:17 How are philosophy and psychology interlinked? 4:00 Why is it so hard for researches to resist the ”Philosopause”? 14:50 Is it more important for a model to be closer to the truth as opposed to effective? 19:50 Can we simulate how we would behave in different circumstances? 35:20 Can the feeling of making the ”right” decision correlate with any bioinformatics data? 53:40 What does it mean to learn something new? 1:00:00 Why are so many undergrads nihilists or absurdists? 1:02:15 Philosophical values across cultures. -- Email: contact.epistik@gmail.com

01-03
01:11:06

Episode 1, feat. Ario Ebrahimpur

TIMESTAMPS: 00:13 The we-feeling in Sweden 9:15 Is the role of the law to deter or cure? 10:35 Is it impossible to avoid contradictions in law? 16:35 What is the role of the government? 23:40 What would you do in an enclosed field? 37:30 Idealism in law school. 1:22:00 Is law logical? 1:35:00 Nuclear war & WW3 2:08:04 Objective in life

12-22
02:16:08

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