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Sean Carroll Episode Decoding Material (Patreon)

Published:
2024-01-17 02:01:00
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

The next Decoding episode target is Sean Carroll and Matt has suggested a solo episode he did on AI.

Sean Carroll was Matt's suggestion partly because Sean might serve as a 'good' version of a modern secular guru. I (Chris( have not listened to much of his stuff so will be coming at the content quite fresh.

Any comments, recommendations, and suggestions for other content welcomed.

Files

Mindscape 258 | Solo: AI Thinks Different

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll Blog post with audio player, show notes, and transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/11/27/258-solo-ai-thinks-different/ The Artificial Intelligence landscape is changing with remarkable speed these days, and the capability of Large Language Models in particular has led to speculation (and hope, and fear) that we could be on the verge of achieving Artificial General Intelligence. I don't think so. Or at least, while what is being achieved is legitimately impressive, it's not anything like the kind of thinking that is done by human beings. LLMs do not model the world in the same way we do, nor are they driven by the same kinds of feelings and motivations. It is therefore extremely misleading to throw around words like "intelligence" and "values" without thinking carefully about what is meant in this new context. Mindscape Podcast playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrxfgDEc2NxY_fRExpDXr87tzRbPCaA5x Sean Carroll channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/seancarroll #podcast #ideas #science #philosophy #culture

Comments

YellowDreams

Awesome! Sean is great. Look forward to hearing how Chris can find issue with him somehow!

Ryan Goss

I really enjoyed this episode of Sean's and have sent it to some of my friends who are a little too caught up in the AI craze. Curious what Chris and Matt's disagreements (if any) will be.

SonicScrewWriter

Just discovered Sean Carroll today! The synchronicity on this pod is fire brahhhh 🔥💥

scottymfg

Make sure you diss him a bit so you can bait him into coming on for a right to reply

Saladus

I've been listening to Sean Carroll more recently, and I was actually in the process of signing up for his patreon while watching the DTG reflections video just as Sean Carroll was suggested! I look forward to hearing what the boys think of him.

Robert Andrews

Very much looking forward to this. Sean Carroll is, in my opinion, always very down-to-Earth even as he is quite wide-ranging in his interests. He's someone who, from my experience, always flags up limitations on how much he is qualified to speak on a topic and from what I remember of this AI discussion he clearly points out that some of what he is saying is really only his impression. Nevertheless he made great points about how the specific AI he is talking about models language and not the world, and therefore should only really be seen as language-modellers and not saying something that goes beyond human intelligence (yet!). *POSSIBLE SPOILER* I once looked through some of his back catalogue to see if he had addressed Eric Weinstein's Geometric Unity, given that Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist, and it turns out he did respond to a couple of people in various AMAs asking him to comment. His only comments were "I would like to tell you, but I have no idea what Geometric Unity is. LOL! *POSSIBLE SPOILER*

chris barber

Very excited for this guys! Make this a long and rambling one. Requesting a 4 hour decoding.

Kit McLean

This is great news! I've been listening to Sean for years and have a couple of his (audio) books. I ended up mildly obsessed with (at the punter level) cosmology and quantum mechanics after listening to Max Tegmark on a Sam Harris podcast (2015!). Got to Brian Greene and Sean not long after. I mainly listen to his cosmology/physics/philosophical content and skipped the AI one. Better study up!

Eric Stern

Damnit, damnit. damnit, I saw the email out of the corner of my eye and thought it said Sean CONNERY! I didn't know how that was going to go but it seemed like it could be an incredible ride. Anyway I like Sean Carroll. He does plug his book a lot, that is supposedly for people like me who have a decent understanding of Algebra wherein he breaks down the math of Physics, however it left me feeling stupid (which I might very well be) and I think he probably just knows so much more than he realizes and forgets that others don't. I couldn't wrap my head around it much and so I felt disappointed. Love his podcast though.

Farah

these comments are all way too positive. I therefore can confidently conclude that Sean has a lot to hide

Erik Fast

I believe Chris will like Sean Carroll. It might not come up in this content, but Sean’s position on consciousness is very similar to Chris’s This episode might not be representative of him at peak guru. To the extent that he has galaxy-brained takes, it’s when he’s talking about emergence and the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics

Linda Sears

I look forward to this. I don’t have a physicist brain, sadly, but I still got a lot from reading Carroll’s Big Picture. I appreciated that he distinguished between what happens at the quantum level from how we think about human concepts like morality. I believe he said something to the effect that it isn’t very helpful to deal with questions of meaning by explaining them as reducible to quantum mechanics even though that is ultimately true. He referred to the subatomic particle level as microscopic and our human level as emergent or macroscopic. I also thought learning about the arrow of time and entropy was pretty cool.

Roland Weber

In his Solo episodes, Sean talks about very specific topics. One of the Gurometer dimensions is about applying an idea to everything (was that galaxy brainedness?) You won't get much data on that from a Solo episode. Maybe you can find some material where he's challenged by other people, like a panel discussion? Or a talk with a Q&A session? Here's an older debate about "God and Cosmology", for example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0qKZqPy9T8 A recent one "Is Consciousness Fundamental?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCPCyri1rXU Another older one "The Nature of Reality: A Dialogue Between a Buddhist Scholar and a Theoretical Physicist" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLbSlC0Pucw Haven't watched any of these, so I don't know how insightful they are. Alternatively, or additionally, you could listen to one of his AMA episodes (don't pick the longest ones ;-) The questions are from his Patreon supporters and cover a wide range of topics. But it's still filtered, because he picks the questions he's going to answer. One of his criteria is whether he thinks he can answer something interesting.

Ymirsdreams

I just wanted to add that Sean sounds a lot to my ear like the actor James Woods, who played Hades in the Disney movie Hercules. It's fun to listen to him imagining Hades talking about AI, OOO, Possible Worlds theory, etc.

Aaron Holder

I am really looking forward to this episode as well. I have been listening to SC for a couple of years and think he’s great. I don’t get a sense that he’s a guru, which, if he was going to pose as such would be most noticeable in his monologues and AMAs. I re-listened to the AI episode and was impressed, again, by the cautious and carefully worded arguments he made. If he is a guru, I wish more were like him.

Linda Sears

I’m glad he referred to the fact that our embodied nature is key to our intelligence rather than dismissing it as a regretful hinderance. It is worrisome that large language models seem intelligent so people use them as if they have more understanding than they do.

Thomas Steckbeck

I've really enjoyed listening to Sean Carroll and am excited to hear your take on him. One thing that he did not address in the source material for his decoding that I am hoping you do is, if I knew that he wouldn't burn himself on the skillet does that make me an AI? Food for thought. Looking forward to this episode!