Alle afleveringen
300 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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Is Consciousness Ultimate?
22 oktober 2025 · 27 min
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How do different religions/traditions address consciousness, our inner mental awareness? Is consciousness ultimate, as in Eastern traditions, or created by God, as in Abrahamic traditions? If ultimate, what is the relationship between personal and cosmic consciousness?
Featuring interviews with Jay Garfield, Swami Medhananda, Franklin Perkins, Swami Sarvapriyananda, Hamza Yusuf, and Aaron Segal.
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Roger Penrose on Deep Reality and Quantum Mechanics
15 oktober 2025 · 47 min
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In the first two installments of a brand new, six-part interview series with Nobel Laureate Sir Roger Penrose, we explore his approach to the deep nature of reality. Trace the intellectual and scientific history of each of his major contributions to the fields of science and philosophy, the challenges he faced, the criticisms he received, and his overarching reflections today. Additionally, discover how Penrose thinks about physics and hear his contrarian view of the foundations of quantum mechanics.
Sir Roger Penrose is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science, and Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, an emeritus fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and an honorary fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, and University College London. Penrose has contributed significantly to the mathematical physics of general relativity and cosmology.
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Is Mathematics Eternal?
8 oktober 2025 · 44 min
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Mathematics is like nothing else. The truths of math seem to be unrelated to anything else—independent of human beings, independent of the universe. The sum of 2 + 3 = 5 cannot not be true; this means that 3 + 2 = 5 would be true even if there were never any human beings, even if there were never a universe! When then, deeply, is mathematics?
Featuring interviews with Max Tegmark, Scott Aaronson, Mark Balaguer, Silvia Jonas, Gregory Benford, and Karen Uhlenbeck.
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What is Global Philosophy of Religion?
1 oktober 2025 · 27 min
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Global Philosophy of Religion seeks diverse views and fresh ways of thinking from different religions/traditions about Ultimate Questions: God, consciousness, person/self, evil/suffering, afterlife/reincarnation, world to come. It does not avoid hard differences; it celebrates them.
Featuring interviews with Yujin Nagasawa, Swami Sarvapriyananda, Venerable Dr. Yifa, Tao Jiang, Hamza Yusuf, Aaron Segal, Oludamini Ogunnaike, and Helen De Cruz.
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Stephen Wolfram on Physics and Computation
24 september 2025 · 42 min
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Physicist and computer scientist Stephen Wolfram explores how simple rules can generate complex realities, offering a bold new vision of fundamental physics and the structure of the universe. Additionally, from the foundations of cellular automata to the discovery of surprising patterns in nature, Wolfram shows how computation reshapes our understanding of reality and revolutionizes the way we think about science.
Stephen Wolfram is a British-American computer scientist, physicist, and businessman. He is known for his work in computer algebra and theoretical physics. In 2012, he was named a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. He is the founder and CEO of the software company Wolfram Research, where he works as chief designer of Mathematica and the Wolfram Alpha answer engine.
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What Does Transhumanism Foreshadow?
17 september 2025 · 27 min
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Humanity’s future is now framed by artificial intelligence (AI) and increasing interventions in the body to enhance features and functions. This is transhumanism. Considering the stakes, and the dangers, a philosophical perspective is imperative.
Featuring interviews with Paul Griffiths, Nathan Lents, Carol Cleland, Quayshawn Spencer, Rachell Powell, S. Joshua Swamidass, Terrence Deacon, and Massimo Pigliucci.
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Can We Explore Transcendence Via Art and Mind?
10 september 2025 · 27 min
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What is the three-way relationship among mind, art, and transcendence? What is it about art that can elicit the sense of transcendence, going beyond the self, bursting the constraining bonds of semantic language? What is it about transcendence that it can be expressed by art? What in fact is transcendence, from a momentary escape from self to a full- blown mystical experience? How does the art-transcendence nexus engage the mind? We describe key terms and ideas.
Featuring interviews with Simone Schnall, Julio Bermudez, Judith Wolfe, Oludamini Ogunnaike, Jonathan Berger, and Anjan Chatterjee.
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Can Philosophy Discern Sex and Gender?
3 september 2025 · 27 min
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Sexual questions abound. What is “normal” sexual behavior in light of diverse sexual variations? LGBTQ+ issues? Is sex in animal models relevant for human sexuality? A philosophical perspective can provide clarity.
Featuring interviews with Nathan Lents, Joshua Swamidass, Rachell Powell, Lisa Lloyd, and Quayshawn Spencer.
Watch all of Season 27 on the Closer To Truth website now.
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Can Near-Death Experiences Affect Consciousness Theories?
27 augustus 2025 · 29 min
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Many people believe that out-of-the-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs) are real. We do not assess the evidence and arguments, pro or con. We do explore what OBEs and NDEs would mean, if real, for theories of consciousness.
This episode features interviews with Bernardo Kastrup, Etzel Cardeña, Àlex Gómez-Marín, and Liad Mudrik.
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Evolution vs. Religion: Anything New?
20 augustus 2025 · 27 min
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Two kinds of questions probe evolution vs. religion. The first explores discrepancies, even contradictions, between the science of evolution and the beliefs of religion. The second examines how religion itself evolved.
Featuring interviews with Richard Dawkins, Michael Ruse, Alexander Rosenberg, Helen De Cruz, Massimo Pigliucci, and Elliott Sober.
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Clément Vidal on Life's Biggest Questions
13 augustus 2025 · 1 uur 29 min
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Clement Vidal, philosopher of science and astrobiologist, discusses the idea of something rather than nothing, differing religious worldviews, fine tuning and metaphysics, and more.
Watch more CTT Chats here.
Dr. Clément Vidal is a philosopher with a background in logic and cognitive sciences. He is co-director of the 'Evo Devo Universe' community and founder of the 'High Energy Astrobiology' prize. To satisfy his intellectual curiosity when facing the big questions, he brings together many areas of knowledge such as cosmology, physics, astrobiology, complexity science, evolutionary theory and philosophy of science.
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How did Cognition and Emotion Evolve?
6 augustus 2025 · 27 min
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What can evolution reveal about the developmental history of thinking and feeling? How did cognition and emotion (affect) co-develop over evolutionary time? Can evolution help solve the mystery of consciousness?
Featuring interviews with Peter Godfrey-Smith, S. Joshua Swamidass, Rachell Powell, Denis Noble, Terrence Deacon, Paul E. Griffiths, Helen De Cruz, and John Dupré.
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Mark Bailey on AI: Consciousness, Dangers, and Morality
30 juli 2025 · 42 min
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Dr. Mark Bailey writes about the intersection between artificial intelligence, complexity, and national security. He is an associate professor at the National Intelligence University, where he is the Department Chair for Cyber Intelligence and Data Science, as well as the Director of the Data Science Intelligence Center.
This Chat was made possible by MindFest 2025: "Sentience, Autonomy, and the Future of Human-AI Interaction", a two-day event presented by the Center for the Future Mind.
Watch more CTT Chats here.
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What is Human Nature?
23 juli 2025 · 27 min
What is “human” nature? While human beings are animals, we believe we are special, radically different from other animals. Why? What traits are unique to humans? Are we sure? How to explore human nature from an evolutionary perspective? Lees meer
Featuring interviews with Quayshawn Spencer, Alexander Rosenberg, Massimo Pigliucci, Rachell Powell, Helen De Cruz, Paul E. Griffiths, and John Dupré.
Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls: https://shorturl.at/OnyRq
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Julia Mossbridge on AI: Is There a Soul in the Machine?
16 juli 2025 · 48 min
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How do we define a soul? Can AI become consciousness? Julia Mossbridge discusses these questions along with the main trends in parapsychology, transpersonal psychology, and ESP research over the last decade.
Dr. Julia Mossbridge is an American cognitive neuroscientist, author, and educator who works on exceptional human performance including psi effects, notably on precognition and presentiment. She is Senior Distinguished Fellow in Human Potential at the Center for the Future Mind at Florida Atlantic University, Member of the Loomis Innovation Council at the nonpartisan Stimson Center, Affiliate Professor in the Department of Biophysics and Physics at University of San Diego, and founder and board chair of the nonprofit TILT: The Institute for Love and Time.
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How do Reductionism and Emergence Dance?
9 juli 2025 · 27 min
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Two big ideas in biology: the evolution of species via mutation, fitness and natural selection; and the embryological development of individuals, from fertilized egg to whole organisms. How do these two big ideas—“Evo-Dev,” as it’s called—relate? What novel ideas emerge?
Featuring interviews with Denis Noble, Richard Dawkins, Alexander Rosenberg, Philip Kitcher, Alan C. Love, and John Dupré.
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James Hughes on AI Consciousness: Buddhism & Posthuman Futures
2 juli 2025 · 47 min
James Hughes Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and a bioethicist and sociologist who serves as the Associate Provost for Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning for the University of Massachusetts Boston. He holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago, where he also taught bioethics at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Dr. Hughes is author of Citizen Cyborg and co-editor of Surviving the Machine Age. Lees meer
Watch all of our CTT Chats here.
This Chat was made possible by MindFest 2025: "Sentience, Autonomy, and the Future of Human-AI Interaction", a two-day event presented by the Center for the Future Mind. To learn more about groundbreaking innovation in AI, neuroscience, and the study of consciousness, visit the Center for the Future Mind, view MindFest videos, and subscribe to their newsletter, visit their website.
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What are Units or Levels of Selection?
25 juni 2025 · 27 min
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While evolution is how life on earth came to be, where does the evolution occur? At what level of the hierarchy of life—from genes to individuals to groups to species—does evolution work its selection magic? Is it multilevel?
Featuring interviews with Richard Dawkins, Lisa Lloyd, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Paul Griffiths, Elliott Sober, and Samir Okasha.
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Zoltan Istvan on AI: Transhumanism and Deepfakes
18 juni 2025 · 52 min
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How will AI-generated deepfakes reshape truth, trust, and society? Can AI someday merge with human consciousness? Futurist Zoltan Istvan explores the disruptive power of synthetic media—from political deception to personal identity—and what it means for the future of ethics, law, and reality itself.
Zoltan Istvan Gyurko, professionally known as Zoltan Istvan, is an American transhumanist, journalist, entrepreneur, political candidate, and futurist.
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How Can Philosophy Probe Evolutionary Biology?
11 juni 2025 · 27 min
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Explore evolution—its scope and depth. How did life on earth come to be as it is, and how did humans come to be as we are? What are the deep principles driving evolution? What are evolution’s challenges and open questions?
Featuring interviews with Elliott Sober, Richard Dawkins, Samir Okasha, John Dupré, Denis Noble, and Michael Ruse.
Episode 1, Season 27
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Chris French on the Science of Weird Shit
4 juni 2025 · 1 uur 25 min
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Chris French discusses his latest book, The Science of Weird Shit, where he convincingly debunks ESP, communicating with the dead, and alien abduction claims, among other phenomena. All the while, however, French maintains that our belief in such phenomena is neither ridiculous nor trivial; if anything, such claims can tell us a great deal about the human mind if we pay them the attention they are due.
Chris French is Emeritus Professor and Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit in the Psychology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a Patron of Humanists UK. He is the coauthor of Anomalistic Psychology: Exploring Paranormal Belief and Experience.
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What Would Alien Life & Intelligences Mean?
28 mei 2025 · 27 min
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What could life be as we don’t know it? Three transitions in astrobiology. Non-life to life. Life to intelligent life. Intelligent life to technological civilization. For alien life, would Darwinian evolution hold? Fermi’s Paradox is profound: with at least 10 22 planets in the known universe, we find no evidence of alien life, anywhere, much less alien intelligence. Is there a great filter?
Featuring interviews with Carol Cleland, Richard Dawkins, Rachell Powell, Massimo Pigliucci, and Helen De Cruz.
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Jonathan Schooler on the Psychology of Artificial Intelligence
21 mei 2025 · 23 min
Jonathan Schooler is an American psychologist and Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who researches various topics that intersect aspects of both cognitive psychology and philosophy such as: Belief in free will, meta-awareness, mindfulness, mind-Wandering, memory, creativity, and emotion. Schooler is also known for his sometimes controversial research on topics such as Anomalous Cognition and the decline effect. Lees meer
This interview was made possible by MindFest 2025: "Sentience, Autonomy, and the Future of Human-AI Interaction", a two-day event led by Dr. Susan Schneider and the Center for the Future Mind at Florida Atlantic University. To learn more about groundbreaking innovation in AI, neuroscience, and the study of consciousness, visit the Center for the Future Mind website and subscribe to their newsletter.
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Joseph Corabi: Could Superintelligent AI Defeat Itself?
16 mei 2025 · 1 uur 20 min
Can superintelligent AI destroy humanity—or will it collapse under its own philosophical doubts? Professor Joseph Corabi, Chair of Philosophy at Saint Joseph’s University, joins Robert Lawrence Kuhn at MindFest 2025 to explore the limits of artificial intelligence, consciousness, and the metaphysics of mind. Lees meer
Drawing from his presentation, "A Collapsing Superintelligent AI?", Corabi argues that future AI—however advanced—may become paralyzed by skeptical challenges that human minds navigate through evolved psychology. Could superintelligence be undone by its inability to resolve deep epistemological puzzles?
Topics discussed include:
Can AI ever be truly conscious?
Is virtual immortality through mind uploading possible?
Does transhumanism mark the future of humanity?
Can theology and Jesuit philosophy shed light on AI, soul, and afterlife?
Is there a logical justification for hell?
Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.
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Eastern Traditions: What are Ultimate Existence and Essence?
14 mei 2025 · 27 min
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How do Buddhism, Chinese traditions, and Hinduism address the ultimate essence of all things, the ground of being? What are transcendence, oneness, interconnectivity, ineffability? Compare Dao in Daoism to Brahman in Hinduism. Compare Wu in Daoism with Emptiness in Buddhism. Does God fit in?
Featuring interviews with Swami Sarvapriyananda, Swami Medhananda, Jay Garfield, Franklin Perkins, and Tao Jiang.
Explore all videos on Eastern Traditions here.
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Zorana Pringle on the Science of Creativity & Decision-Making
7 mei 2025 · 1 uur 5 min
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Anyone who has ever participated in a brainstorming session will know that most of us do not lack ideas. Yet, many people never breathe life into these ideas. To turn inspiration into real achievement, you must decide to act—and then decide to act again and again, despite obstacles, until your thoughts take shape and come to life. In Pringle's new book, The Creativity Choice: The Science of Making Decisions, she teaches readers how to bridge the gap between having the first spark of an idea and actually doing something with it.
Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Zorana studies, writes, and speaks about the creative process from having an idea to making it happen, from the first decision to engage in the creative process to its culmination in creative performance and products.
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Can Dualism Explain Consciousness?
30 april 2025 · 27 min
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Dualism claims reality has two parts, a physical and a nonphysical (mental or spiritual), both equally real. Dualism is believed by most people but rejected by most philosophers and scientists.
Featuring interviews with Yujin Nagasawa, Richard Swinburne, Jaron Lanier, Bede Rundle, and Peter Forrest.
Watch the episode on our YouTube channel here.
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Robin Hanson on the Age of AI and Large Language Models
25 april 2025 · 46 min
Innovative economist Robin Hanson discusses the age of artificial intelligence, decision making and predictive markets, astrobiology, and AI consciousness. Lees meer
Robin Hanson is an author, economist, and associate professor of economics at George Mason University and a former research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. His bestselling book, The Elephant in the Brain, is on sale now.
This interview was made possible by MindFest 2025: "Sentience, Autonomy, and the Future of Human-AI Interaction", a two-day event presented by the Center for the Future Mind.
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Terry Sejnowski on ChatGPT and the Future of AI
22 april 2025 · 1 uur 21 min
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Terry Sejnowski offers a nuanced exploration of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and what their future holds. How should we go about understanding LLMs? Do these language models truly understand what they are saying? Or is it possible that what appears to be intelligence in LLMs may be a mirror that merely reflects the intelligence of the interviewer? In this discussion of his book ChatGPT and the Future of AI, Sejnowski, a pioneer in computational approaches to understanding brain function, answers all our urgent questions about this astonishing new technology.
Terrence J. Sejnowski is Francis Crick Chair at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Distinguished Professor at the University of California at San Diego. He has published over 500 scientific papers and 12 books, including The Computational Brain with Patricia Churchland. He was instrumental in shaping the BRAIN Initiative that was announced by the White House in 2013, and he received the prestigious Gruber Prize in Neuroscience in 2022.
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What is the Philosophy of Scientific Breakthroughs?
15 april 2025 · 27 min
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To explore scientific Breakthroughs is to find theories or discoveries that challenge conventional wisdom, change patterns of thought, provide novel frameworks for research. What is the deep essence or general nature of scientific breakthroughs?
This episode features interviews with Paul Davies, David Wallace, Jim Holt, David Chalmers, and John Horgan.
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Aspects of Consciousness
9 april 2025 · 38 min
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We offer distinctive approaches to consciousness including cognitive science, phenomenology, and even the implications of aesthetics like fiction and films. We observe the richness of consciousness studies.v
This episode features interviews with Judith Wolfe, Stacie Friend, Elisabeth Schellekens, and Zorana Pringle.
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What is Extended Mind?
2 april 2025 · 27 min
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What is extended mind? How does the mind work? It’s not obvious. Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? What is extended mind? What is embodied mind?
Featuring interviews with David Chalmers, Andy Clark, and Raymond Tallis.
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Does a Fine-Tuned Universe Lead to God?
26 maart 2025 · 27 min
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We human beings sit roughly midway between atoms and galaxies, and both must be so perfectly structured for us to exist. It's called "fine tuning" and it's all so breathtakingly precise that it cries out for explanation. To some, fine-tuning leads to God. To others, there are non-supernatural explanations.
Featuring interviews with Robin Collins, Victor Stenger, Ernan McMullin, and Michio Kaku.
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Annaka Harria on Consciousness and the Cosmos
19 maart 2025 · 1 uur 33 min
In a follow-up to her seminal book, "Conscious", Annaka Harris' new audio original documentary offers beginners and experts alike a chance to unravel some of humankind’s most enduring puzzles. Where "Conscious"presents new questions about felt experience, Lights On seeks to find the answers. Lees meer
Lights On: How Understanding Consciousness Helps Us Understand the Universe is available for purchase now.
Annaka Harris is the New York Times bestselling author of "Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind" and writer and producer of the new audio documentary series, "Lights On: How Understanding Consciousness Helps Us Understand the Universe".
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Do Human Brains Have Free Will?
12 maart 2025 · 27 min
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Free will seems the simplest of notions. Why then is free will so vexing to philosophers? Here's why: no one knows how free will works! Science, seemingly, permits no "gaps" in which free will can operate.
This episode features interviews with John Searle, Rodolfo Llinas, Eran Zaidel, Roger Walsh, Mike Merzenich, Henry Stapp, Colin McGinn, and Christof Koch.
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Janna Levin on Cosmology: Black Holes, the Big Bang, and More
5 maart 2025 · 1 uur 14 min
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Astrophysicist and science visionary Janna Levin discusses all things cosmology: black holes, gravitational waves, the James Webb Space Telescope discoveries, early galaxies, and more.
Janna J. Levin is a theoretical cosmologist and a professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College. She researches black holes, the cosmology of extra dimensions, and gravitational waves in the shape of spacetime. In addition she is the director of sciences at Pioneer Works. Her books include Black Hole Survival Guide, Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space, and How the Universe Got Its Spots.
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Implications of Cosmology?
26 februari 2025 · 27 min
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The universe is strange and wondrous—dauntingly vast, menacingly violent, infinitely complex. The origin of the universe is equally fascinating. There are explanations, but is there a final explanation?
Featuring interviews with Alan H. Guth, Andrei Linde, George F. Smoot III, Robert Spitzer, Jill Tarter, and Douglas Vakoch.
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Philip Goff and Helen De Cruz on Finding (and Losing) Their Religion
19 februari 2025 · 1 uur 15 min
Two notable Closer To Truth contributors—and two good friends—discuss their intellectual and spiritual journeys in what seems to be opposite directions: one toward a form of Christianity and the other away from it. Lees meer
Philip Goff is a British author, idealist philosopher, and professor at Durham University whose research focuses on philosophy of mind and consciousness. Specifically, it focuses on how consciousness can be part of the scientific worldview. He is the author most recently of the book Why? The Purpose of the Universe.
Helen De Cruz is a Belgian philosopher and Danforth Chair of Philosophy at Saint Louis University who specializes in philosophy of religion, experimental philosophy, and philosophy of cognitive science. She is also an activist supporting the rights of EU citizens in the context of Brexit. Her most recent book is Wonderstruck: How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think.
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Why Explore Consciousness and Cosmos?
12 februari 2025 · 27 min
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Cosmos and consciousness seem utterly different, the former encompassing the vast universe, the latter emerging from tiny brains. Yet consciousness founds most religions, and some cosmologists speak quietly, profoundly, about consciousness.
Featuring interviews with David Chalmers, Alexander Vilenkin, David Brin, Colin McGinn, and Paul Davies.
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Nathan Lents on The Sexual Evolution
5 februari 2025 · 1 uur 30 min
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Evolutionary biologist Nathan Lents argues that many of our supposedly modern ideas about gender and human sexuality are, in fact, deeply rooted in our animal ancestors. In this Chat, Lents discusses his new book, "The Sexual Evolution: How 500 Million Years of Sex, Gender, and Mating Shape Modern Relationships", a fascinating exploration of sexual behavior throughout the animal kingdom.
Nathan H. Lents is an American scientist, author, and university professor. He has been on the faculty of John Jay College since 2006 and is currently the director of the Cell and Molecular Biology program and the former head of the honors program and the campus Macaulay Honors College program.
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The Ultimate Questions of Existence
29 januari 2025 · 27 min
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We like pushing boundaries, trying to discern existence, searching the foundations of reality, knowing all that can be known. Overly ambitious? Sophomoric? WeI don't care. We do it anyway. Here are ultimate questions.
Featuring interviews with Lawrence Krauss, John Leslie, Max Tegmark, and Paul Davies.
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Why is the Quantum So Strange?
22 januari 2025 · 27 min
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What is quantum theory and why is it so strange? To know reality, one must confront the quantum. It is how our world works at the deepest level. What's the quantum? It is bizarre, defying all common sense.
Featuring interviews with Wojciech Zurek, Nima Arkani-Hamed, Lee Smolin, and Seth Lloyd.
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Richard Swinburne on Evil, Atonement, and Evidence Against God
15 januari 2025 · 1 uur 30 min
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Robert Lawrence Kuhn sits down with philosopher Richard Swinburne to embark on a retrospective of his views and arguments over his illustrious career. In this episode, they'll explore the problem of evil, atonement, resurrection, and more.
Richard Granville Swinburne FBA is an English philosopher. He is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. Over the last 50 years, Swinburne has been a proponent of philosophical arguments for the existence of God.
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Robert Lawrence Kuhn on "A Landscape of Consciousness"
8 januari 2025 · 55 min
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Closer To Truth host Robert Lawrence Kuhn recently published an extensive new article titled "A Landscape of Consciousness: Toward a taxonomy of explanations and implications". The paper covers the field of consciousness studies in its entirety as well as the consequences of consciousness including artificial intelligence (AI), life after death, and virtual immortality.
Read Kuhn's article on the Closer To Truth website.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn, PhD., is the co-creator, executive producer, writer, and host of Closer To Truth, the PBS/public television series on Cosmos, Life, Mind, and Meaning that presents leading scientists, philosophers, and creative thinkers discussing the fundamental questions of existence. He recently published an extensive article—"A Landscape of Consciousness: Toward a taxonomy of explanations and implications"—covering the field of consciousness studies in its entirety.
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How is God the Creator?
25 december 2024 · 27 min
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If God exists, did God create everything? Did God create out of literally "nothing"? Suppose there was no beginning to the cosmos, just the universe going through endless cycles, what then? And what about "abstract objects" like logic and numbers, which seem to exist without any cause and no creator?
Featuring interviews with William Craig, Robert Russell, John Polkinghorne, and Brian Leftow.
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What's Real About Time?
18 december 2024 · 27 min
Support Closer To Truth this holiday season with a tax-deductible donation of any amount. Your contribution directly fuels our exploration of life's biggest questions with new contributors and differing perspectives. Give today. Lees meer
Time seems natural and absolute: the flow of moments one following another from the unknown past to the knife's edge present to the unknowable future. But this is not so. Einstein shocked the world by showing that time was "relative." What's the latest about time?
Featuring interviews with Gregory Benford, Kip Thorne, Nima Arkani-Hamed, and Lee Smolin.
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Arguments Against God?
11 december 2024 · 27 min
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All who affirm that God does exist should examine the strong attacks of those who conclude that God does not exist, and then assess the sharp counterattacks of scholarly believers. Belief in God is too important to be determined by cultural circumstances.
Featuring interviews with Susan Blackmore, Peter Atkins, Alvin Plantinga, and Steven Weinberg.
You can watch the full episode on our YouTube channel here.
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What is the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe?
4 december 2024 · 27 min
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Galaxies and clusters of galaxies, untold billions of them, adorn the cosmos. How did such large-scale structure of the universe come about?
Featuring interviews with John Richard Gott III, Abraham Loeb, George Smoot, and Saul Perlmutter.
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Solutions to the Mind-Body Problem?
27 november 2024 · 27 min
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Are human beings purely physical? Evolved at random and destined to die, extinguished forever? Or are we something more? A spirit or a soul, with existence beyond? What's the relationship between our brains and our consciousness, between the stuff in our skulls and the essence in our minds?
Featuring interviews with Ned Block, Dean Zimmerman, Colin McGinn, Charles Tart, and Henry Stapp.
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Sara Imari Walker on Physics, Emergence, and Life on Other Planets
20 november 2024 · 1 uur 23 min
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Astrobiologist and theoretical physicist Sara Imari Walker shares an intriguing new scientific theory that explains what life is and how it emerges. What is life? This is among the most difficult open problems in science, right up there with the nature of consciousness and the existence of matter. All the definitions we have fall short. None help us understand how life originates or the full range of possibilities for what life on other planets might look like.
Walker's latest book Life As No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence, is available for purchase now.
Sara Imari Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist interested in the origin of life and discovering alien life on other worlds. She is deputy director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science and a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. She is also a fellow of the Berggruen Institute and a member of the external faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. She is the recipient of the Stanley L. Miller Early-Career Award for her research on the origin of life, and her research team at ASU is internationally regarded as being among the leading labs aiming to build a fundamental theory for understanding what life is.
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