The "Easy Problems" of consciousness have to do with how the brain takes in information, thinks about it, and turns it into action. The "Hard Problem," on the other hand, is the task of explaining our individual, subjective, first-person experiences of the world. What is it like to be me, rather than someone else? Everyone agrees that the Easy Problems are h ... Show More
Oct 6
331 | Solo: Fine-Tuning, God, and the Multiverse
Certain features of our universe seem unnatural to us. These include "constants of nature" such as the cosmological constant and the mass of the Higgs boson, as well as features of the initial conditions like the curvature of space and the initial entropy. But they can't truly be ... Show More
1h 54m
Sep 22
329 | Steven Pinker on Rationality and Common Knowledge
Getting along in society requires that we mostly adhere to certainly shared norms and customs. Often it's not enough that we all know what the rules are, but also that everyone else knows the rules, and that they know that we know the rules, and so on. Philosophers and game theor ... Show More
1h 16m
Mar 2025
#404 — What If Consciousness Is Fundamental?
Sam Harris speaks with his wife, Annaka Harris, about LIGHTS ON, her ten-part audio documentary exploring the perplexities of consciousness and the cosmos. They discuss the hard problem of consciousness, whether consciousness is fundamental, what split-brain patients can teach us ... Show More
2h 20m
Sep 2024
What is consciousness? PART 1 | Iain Mcgilchrist, Roger Penrose and Steve Fuller
Being consciousWe think we have this thing, consciousness, whether we share it with the entire earth or with only our species, but yet its definition has evaded the efforts of leading philosophers and neuroscientists alike for decades. Do you think you know what consciousness is? ... Show More
14m 9s
Jul 2024
#374 — Consciousness and the Physical World
Sam Harris speaks with Christof Koch about the nature of consciousness. They discuss Christof’s development as a neuroscientist, his collaboration with Francis Crick, change blindness and binocular rivalry, sleep and anesthesia, the limits of physicalism, non-locality, brains as ... Show More
42m 7s
Feb 2025
523. Why We Dream, Learn, and Adapt Faster Than Any Other Species | Dr. David Eagleman
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson sits down with neuroscientist, bestselling author, and PBS presenter Dr. David Eagleman. They discuss brain plasticity, how perception works, whether free will exists (and if it’s superordinate), how willingness to engage with higher entropy indicates sophi ... Show More
1h 30m
Jul 2024
E106 - Donald Hoffman: The Emerging Science, “We Are ONE Consciousness” - Life, Death & The Simulation
Donald Hoffman is back on Know Thyself today to explore the constraints of time and space, and how they shape our understanding of the world around us. He discusses the "headset analogy" - the idea that our senses act as a kind of cognitive filter, preventing us from directly per ... Show More
2h 20m
Jul 2020
Episode 82, ‘The Nature of Consciousness’ with Susan Blackmore (Part II - Further Analysis and Discussion)
The smell of coffee, the taste of asparagus, the warmth of a hug, and the agony of death: conscious experience makes up the fabric of our world, yet many consider it to be the most intractable mystery in philosophy and science. What is it like to undergo experience? What is the f ... Show More
41m 34s