273 | Stefanos Geroulanos on the Inventi...

<p>Machine learning using neural networks has led to a remarkable leap forward in artificial intelligence, and the technological and social ramifications have been discussed at great length. To understand the origin and nature of this progress, it is useful to dig at least a litt ... Show More

<p>Welcome to the November 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Patreon supporters</a>&nbsp;(who are also the ones asking the questions). We ... Show More

<p>Science has an incredibly impressive track record of uncovering nonintuitive ideas about the universe that turn out to be surprisingly accurate. It can be tempting to think of scientific discoveries as being carefully constructed atop a rock-solid foundation. In reality, scien ... Show More

When it was founded in 1824, the Athenæum broke the mold. Unlike in other preeminent clubs, its members were chosen on the basis of their achievements rather than on their background or political affiliation. Public rather than private life dominated the agenda. The club, with it ... Show More

<p>It's often said that the past is a foreign country, where our basic assumptions about how the world is supposed to work don't apply. But what does that mean for the practice of history? Professor Greg Anderson has fascinating ideas about how to actually understand the people o ... Show More

<p>The discovery of 21,000-23,000-year-old human footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico is one of the most exciting developments in the study of the deep past in recent years. But do these footprints hold up to real scrutiny? And if they’re real, how do they change ... Show More

<p>Human sacrifice is an ugly but essential topic in understanding the Shang Dynasty, but we know very little about precisely who these people were, where they came from, and what their lives were like prior to their deaths. Dr. Christina Cheung is a bioarchaeologist specializing ... Show More

<p>Professor John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the world's best communicators on the deep human past and paleoanthropology, joins me to talk about archaic humans, genomics, and whether the concept of different human species even makes sense these days. Che ... Show More

<p>Ancient DNA is the key that's unlocking the deep history of humanity, allowing us to answer questions about our collective past that we never dreamed of addressing even 20 years ago. Eske Willerslev is a pioneer in the field of extracting, sequencing, and analyzing the preserv ... Show More

<p>Who are we really? </p><p>Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here:&nbsp;<a href="https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes</a></p><p>NYU Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah details his journey and ... Show More

<p>We're often told that Greece's Classical period lies at the root of "Western Civilization," but what was actually special about that time and place? Why did it produce so many works of literature, art, architecture, and philosophy that have survived and shaped the millennia to ... Show More

<p>On this episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan talks with English author <strong><em>Adam Nicolson</em></strong> on greek mythology, real meaning of the oceans, travel, the grand question about philosophy, that what really matters more? to understand the higher things above ... Show More