256. Psychedelics, Consciousness, and AI | Richard Dawkins

Dr. Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist, theorist, and one of the world’s foremost atheists.

In this episode, Dr. Dawkins and I discuss religion, psychedelics, consciousness, symbolism, postmodernism, and the importance of objective truth.

Links:

To follow Dawkins on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins

Website: https://richarddawkins.com/

Read Dawkins’ articles: https://richarddawkins.com/articles

To donate to the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science: https://richarddawkins.net/donate/

Show Notes:

[0:00] Intro

[1:30] Jordan’s rise to fame, Bill C-16, and Free Speech

[5:30] Intimidation and fear of speaking out against the far left

[9:10] Micro retreats

[11:40] Dawkins’ paper about the organism as a model

[18:30] Female sexual selection

[21:10] Differences between Jordan and Dr. Dawkins' thinking

[24:00] Jeffrey Gray, his work on modeling, Psychedelics, and Anxiety

[30:00] Psychedelics, Symbolism, and Consciousness

[41:00] Jordan’s experiences with psilocybin and yoga

[45:40] Postmodernism, Lacan, Foucault, and Mikhaila’s Oxford Union debate

[52:30] Jordan addresses Dawkins' assertion that despite being against postmodernist thinking he at times utilizes symbolism to speculate in a way which is similar to them.

[53:50] Finding commonality between myths and symbols across cultures

[55:50] False pattern recognition and revelatory thoughts

[59:20] Objective truth and the scientific process

[1:07:10] Unpleasant or dangerous truths

[1:08:10] The metaphysical vision of the redeeming power of truth

[1:10:10] Jordan and Dawkins discuss the idea that a narrative drives the process of inquiry, even in regards to objective truth

[1:12:50] Humans’ ability to understand difficult concepts on a biological level

[1:16:10] Question: Do you identify the religious impulse or even the religious phenomenon with the totalitarian proclivity for dogmatic certainty and the potential acceleration of aggression and atrocity as a consequence?

[1:20:10] Question: To what degree do you think that consciousness operates as a fundamental mechanism of selection and shaping?

[1:23:00] Artificial intelligence and the metaphysical significance of consciousness