Hi! We’re two IB graduates from Hong Kong. “The Uncommon Senses” Podcast revolves around the Theory of Knowledge(TOK), where we reflect on how we know what we claim to know. We believe that the critical thinking skills we gained from our TOK course have become increasingly vital in the 21st century, and therefore we would like to continue our TOK explorations here!

Primarily, we aim to help the current IBDP students learn more about TOK based on our own experiences and research. Hopefully, we can also reach out to other people who’s interested in our philosophical, psychological and social discussions to see the world beyond our so-called common senses, and reconsider: to what extent are our common senses ‘common’?

By the way, for our cReDEntiALs:

Telia: 45/45 in IB, grade A in TOK :)

Joshua: 30/30 in TOK :)

Timestamps for Episode #4:

0:00 opening

3:10 ultimate reality: butterfly net - monkey business illusion

5:12 ultimate reality: experiences - gorilla in lung scan, Death and the Maiden

15:01 ultimate reality: cultural interpretation - cows & dogs

28:42 Schrodinger’s cat

38:17 the simulation hypothesis

Resources:

  1. Determining reality

Monkey Business Illusion:

https://youtu.be/IGQmdoK_ZfY

Lung scan gorilla:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/02/11/171409656/why-even-radiologists-can-miss-a-gorilla-hiding-in-plain-sight

Zimbabwe Shona culture:

https://www.marintheatre.org/productions/the-convert/convert-shona-culture

Hinduism and cows:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/sanctity-of-the-cow

  1. Physics

Schrodinger’s cat TED-Ed:

https://youtu.be/UjaAxUO6-Uw

Schrodinger’s cat article:

https://studentsxstudents.com/understanding-quantum-superposition-through-the-schr%C3%B6dingers-cat-thought-experiment-d0cea6e13063

Heisenburg’s uncertainty principle TED-Ed:

https://youtu.be/TQKELOE9eY4

  1. Simulation and VR

Vox article: Are we living in a computer simulation? (good read!):

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/10/18275618/simulation-hypothesis-matrix-rizwan-virk