THUNK: Recent Episodes
THUNK
What walks on 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs at noon, & 3 legs at night? A very peculiar dog! ...wait, was that not the answer? Why is it that puzzles are so different from real-life problems?
Could certain FORMS of media, the details of how their textual CONTENT is instantiated, reliably affect the MEANING of the messages they convey? Put another way: is PowerPoint making us stupid?
Sometimes, it feels like the best way forward on a project is to throw everything out & start over from scratch, but Joel Spolsky is adamant that this is a terrible idea, & there’s decent evidence that he’s right.
Charles Peirce's ideas were revolutionary, kicking off an entire philosophical movement now called "pragmatism," but one might argue that his ideas bear little resemblance to the path pragmatism ultimately took...he certainly thought as much. https://youtu.be/aWrEPmoox_I
YouTubers HATE him! This ONE WEIRD TRICK has sensationalist media creators ~THINKING DEEPLY~ about the systemic pressures of a RACE TO THE BOTTOM FOR ATTENTION!!! CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!!!!!11!!
Research suggests that authentic dissent frequently leads a group to better decisions than a contrarian simply playing “Devil’s Advocate.” The question is: why should it matter if someone really disagrees, or is just faking it?
Are descriptors like "good" and "evil" pointing at real, objective features of the world? Surprisingly, despite the weirdness of moral facts, most philosophers would say "yes.” Why? Well...morality might not be the only thing in those crosshairs…😬
Futurists often suggest that technology grows exponentially more powerful over time, but there may be good reasons to doubt this notion, & very good reasons not to wait around for the future tech they promise is imminent.
We normally think of our beliefs as being held up by a structure of supporting evidence & justification, ultimately based in some fundamental, irrefutable, "given" facts, but Wilfred Sellars thinks "givens" are a myth.
Many think the specific nature of a technology depends on the humans wielding it, but that tech ultimately serves humanity’s interests. Philosopher John McDermott challenges this view with a simple question: whose interests does tech serve? https://youtu.be/riVrcxRs0YM
We judge our laws by a yardstick of formal equality - so long as there’s no discrimination in how laws are applied, we pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. Legal philosopher Martha Fineman thinks we should apply a different yardstick: the immutable nature of human fragility. https://youtu.be/IopKrghhcPs
In order to understand this text (as you are doing) you must understand the individual words that make it up...but the overall meaning isn't contained in the words themselves. It's almost like you have to consider the whole & its parts simultaneously. Curious. https://youtu.be/8VhZ76TdMvU
“Programming” in the sense of “developing algorithmic instructions” isn’t just for computers - all rigorously-defined human systems are “programmed” after a fashion. But what is it that programmers (instruction-writers, legislators, chefs) are doing, exactly? https://youtu.be/TmXsNV3r6DI
It's hard to imagine two subreddits more different than IAmVerySmart & Change My View, & the difference is clear: intellectual arrogance/humility. But what is that, exactly? https://youtu.be/WohsIy61-4k
Engineering disasters often highlight how bad decisions can wreak havoc, but Dr. Richard Cook's model of complex systems & how they fail paints a different picture.
A lot of sci-fi skirts around substantive questions of politics – is this a coincidence, or is there something about the genre that encourages it?
Individual humans are demonstrably irrational, & no amount of training or debiasing has been shown to make a dent in that irrationality, which leads us to ask: if I can’t think rationally on my own, why do I think at all?
Sometimes, getting an expert to tell you what they really think is like pulling teeth – if it’s their job to give advice about their field, why are they often cagey about it? In a word: rhetoric.
Deliberate ignorance of subjects that seem “useless” is a common & self-fulfilling attitude, but for postmodern philosophers Deleuze & Guattari, it’s not just misguided, it’s missing the point of thinking.
We expect a certain amount of bullsht in our politics, but little fibs have given way to bewildering, unbelievable fictions. Thankfully, some recent philosophers have insights as to why all bullsht isn’t created equal.
"I can't measure it, so it must not be important." And then: disaster. (Also a disaster: I can't pronounce McNamara.)
We experience our emotions as instantaneous reactions to the world around us, but what if fear, happiness, & anxiety aren’t the result of dedicated, hardwired circuits in our brains? The Theory of Constructed Emotion suggests an alternate explanation.
https://youtu.be/AZrqJiHg38M
If you're currently worrying about everything that could possibly go wrong: welcome to the club! Thankfully, engineers have been fretting about catastrophe for a long time, & have a useful tool to do it productively: FMEA.
Many struggle with the seemingly inconsistent & slippery nature of morality - do moral facts exist? What are they? How can we verify them? Pragmatists sidestep many of these issues by bailing on the whole "truth" thing and asking instead: what works?
"Humans evolved big brains to be better problem-solvers." is a popular notion, but it has some conspicuous holes. Evolutionary biologist Joseph Henrich has an alternate hypothesis: what if we're evolved to be culture machines?
Medical residents & interns work absurd hours in high-stress environments with little time off for comparatively low wages. When they have nothing left to give, it's called "burnout." We should call it what it is: abuse.
“Strong Opinions, Weakly Held” is a well-known mantra in tech, intended to quickly guide teams to reasonable predictions. But many have beef with SOWH - might there be a better method?
Why is your door's latch right next to the handle? Why do you push on someone's back to help them swing, rather than on the swing's chains? Engineers & architects have an answer: load paths!
Occam's Razor urges us not to multiply entities beyond necessity - it seems like a decent rule, but why does it work? And what should we do when it doesn't?
Research, Experimentation, Analysis. It's a simple rhythm, but it's amazing how often someone will forget one of the beats & waste time instead of making progress on solving the problem.
Programmers routinely "refactor" code, clarifying its purpose & reorganizing its structure without changing how it works. What else can be refactored, I wonder?
-Links for the Curious-
http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~wgg/Abstracts/gristhesis.pdf http://www.laputan.org/pub/papers/opdyke-thesis.pdf http://wiki.c2.com/?WhatIsRefactoring http://wiki.c2.com/?DocumentRefactoring http://wiki.c2.com/?RefactorMercilessly https://proxy.c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiRefactoringSummary http://wiki.c2.com/?CircularRefactoring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-CTkbHnpNQ https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2012/05/31/the-art-of-refactored-perception/
What if...guys, are you listening? What if the subjects of scientific theories...ACTUALLY EXIST?! OOOOOOH SNAP
2 out of 10 people who read this will watch this episode. 1 in 20 subscribers will watch it. ...I wonder how many subscribers who read it will watch?
Calling for more nuance in sociological theories seems unambiguously good, but what if - hear me out here - f@#$ it.
How many legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg? Philosophers: "Well...it depends."
Many academic fields assume that maximizing utility is synonymous with rationality (& marvel at how bad humans are at it). But the real world very rarely allows such clean analysis - maybe we're not so irrational after all?
People are preparing for the worst of COVID-19, & it's certainly yet to come, but when so much is uncertain, what's the proper amount of prepping one should do? (Hint: It involves washing your hands a bit more than usual.)
You wouldn't expect a 45-year-old book on programming to be relevant today, but Fred Brooks's "The Mythical Man-Month" contains many lessons about project management & design that should resonate with modern coders, problem-solvers, & creators.
Many shower praise on utilitarianism as The Objectively Correct Ethical System, but is it possible they're putting the cart before the horse? Do its uncomfortable edge cases give us cause for caution?
Scribbling on chalkboards is antiquated, passé...and perhaps the most powerful technology we've developed to date to discover abstract truths.
Come join the Discord server! https://discord.gg/FaHAjXn
Logic, argumentation, explanation - we constantly use justification as a means of verifying that our beliefs & decisions are rational...but what if rationality doesn’t actually work like that?
You probably learned how to do long multiplication by hand in school. Computers used the same algorithm to multiply large numbers together, until computer scientists discovered much, much faster methods, including one published this year that's "perfect!"
Violent crime quadrupled in the US between 1970 & 1990, then fell the same amount. What could have caused such a dramatic trend? Economics? Culture? ...Lead?
Although they're pretty, books are just a kind of product, same as any in your home. So why do nerds like me just lose their minds if someone deigns to mar a text or tome?
Engineers (like me) have a nasty reputation for positing laughably over-simplistic solutions to complex problems in other fields. Perhaps studying those fields closely might help.
The Enlightenment is often held up as a revolution to which all those who value the power of the human mind should pledge allegiance. But there's a question many smart people fight over without realizing it: which Enlightenment?
Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) has attracted a lot of attention for its very intuitive explanation of where our gut reactions about morality come from, but grand claims about its implications might warrant a healthy dose of skepticism.
Is there such a thing as aesthetic obligation? Do we have duties that are explicitly aesthetic in character, or are they really just moral obligations? With great beauty comes great responsibility!
How is it even possible to appreciate art that's "so bad, it's good?" What is it that makes hideously awful movies like "The Room" & "Plan 9 from Outer Space" enjoyable? Susan Sontag has a one-word answer: STYLE.
Asking good questions is just as important as finding answers, but we never really learn how to go about doing so. What is it that makes a question "good," exactly?
Not every peak of a function is its highest value, but without being able to see the whole thing at once, it's hard to know. This has some interesting implications for...well, all sorts of things!
Creators are familiar with two different types of problem-solving: there's the careful, deliberate kind...and there's hacks.
Minimalism is a philosophy that many find appealing, but what connection does it have to wealth?
"13 Reasons Why" attributes suicide to a number of causes, but omits a crucial aspect of the story: free will.
We default to correspondence theory to explain how truth works...could that be a relic of Enlightenment values?
Philosophers aren't just preoccupied with fundamental truths - they think a fair amount about what truth is.
Allowing for little bit of "wiggle room" might seem frivolous, but it can have massive implications.
Scientists are used to seeing infinity in their equations, but refuse to accept it as an answer to them - why?
I focus a lot on improving my critical thinking skills & knowledge of bias in the service of rationality, but I may just be honing deadly weapons to be wielded by the mad specter that sometimes possesses me.
Influenza isn't complex, but it uses the insane growth of f(x) = x! , one of the fastest-growing functions out there, to spread. The greatest benefit of the #flushot isn't keeping you healthy, it's retarding that combinatorial explosion enough to save lives. Get one.
"Good" medical trials are placebo-controlled, but when might it be immoral to even perform such an experiment?
Iain M. Banks's "Culture" is a techno-utopia built on hedonism, a concept much more philosophically complex than sex, drugs, & rock n roll.
Prediction markets: put your money where your mouth is. (Just don't bet against the superforecasters.)
Systems (e.g. checklists, plans, & laws) imbue us with positively superhuman capabilities, both for good & ill.
Mutual & common knowledge: because simulating someone else simulating you is confusing...perhaps usefully so....
Challenge: Examine enough potential solutions to a problem to be confident in one. Answer: Tiling trees!
How exactly does implication work? Philosopher Paul Grice might have had a couple decent ideas.
Everyone knows you have to be a little bit crazy to be a great artist, right? ...right?
Tit for Tat: the king of Prisoner's Dilemma strategies. Its simplicity masks its depth...but it can be beaten!
Prediction is a lot like playing poker...so why do we treat it like it was a coin toss? Enter the Bayesians!
Newcomb's Problem: it's like "Is a hotdog a sandwich?," but WAY nerdier, with deep implications for rationality.
Many people are worried about rogue AI's of the future, but what about the ones that already exist?
A self-replicating 3D printer might be on the horizon, & with it, the exciting potential of Von Neumann probes!
What’s the harm in a little white lie? Well, if you tell enough of them, you may be able to steer an electorate.
Is a brain all you need to have a functional mind? Is the body just peripheral to cognition? Many researchers think so, but advocates of embodied cognition have different ideas.
Engineering is a highly technical field, but it makes use of exceedingly useful & straightforward ideas.
Aumann’s Agreement Theorem suggests that rational folk shouldn’t be able to continuously disagree...so why do we?
Is a hot dog a sandwich? Let's examine one of the hardest problems in metaphysics to find out. Because THUNK.
Power structures: Hobbes thought we’d murder each other w/o ’em, but there’s a great game-theoretic reason for having them, too!
“I will never understand why people X.” Oh really? Let’s turn that dial up to 11 and see what happens.
Coping with the knowledge of our own mortality is often tricky - what if we just tried a different angle? #YOLO
Boredom isn't just murderously frustrating, it's a psychological trait with surprisingly far-reaching effects.
Predicting the future is hard. Weirdly enough, you can sometimes do better with less information!
Critical thinking is well and good, but it only really helps if you’re willing & able to change your mind!
There's much ado about "consciousness," but what even is it? What's the big deal? How hard could it be? @_@
What makes me "me?" How can I still be me, even though I change over time? Is Starfleet taking applications yet?
Is discovery the work of genius, or an inevitable social process? The data suggest neither; maybe it’s chance!
Teleology: explaining things via their intended purpose. Turns out we've a tendency to use it everywhere.
Networking is an essential part of career advancement in business today, but should it be?
Un/satisfying gif albums are scratching a very human itch. Where does it come from, & does it mean anything?
The Antikythera Mechanism: ancient mechanical astrological calendar, & reminder of the fragility of knowledge.
Why are so many smart people interested in finding alien intelligence...and where should we look for them?
The so-called "War on Science" isn't about hostility, it's a simple case of forgetting how science is different from other ways of knowing things.
Motte & Bailey Arguments: because defending your actual position is way harder than defending a trivial one.
Skepticism is an essential tool for rational thought, but knowing when & how to use it is hard...I think???
In the constant struggle between memes, the punching of Nazis barely scratches the surface of the conflict. (CW: Physical assault.)
Quantum physics is weird as hell, but this entanglement experiment using stars is simply beautiful.
Donald Trump's election is another victory for a worldwide trend of populism...what is it & why is it happening?
Even if the mind is totally entailed by the physics of the brain, we've got a long way to go to understand it.
Some say that transparency is the ideological future of journalism, but our brains might not be up to the task.
Scientists excel at finding patterns, but statistical significance isn't always enough to create policy.
Graham's number is...really really big. But our brains start throwing errors at much smaller quantities.
Think you may get into some arguments during the holidays? Steven Toulmin & Reddit can help.
The most recent presidential election has spawned mass protests, & not just because many are dissatisfied with the results - the process itself is being called into question.
Some believe that voting a certain way this election is right/wrong. Let's look at some ethics & see why.
Dimensional analysis is awesome, but human brains are depressingly easy to distract with number-crunching.
NOTE: The purpose of this video is to explain why Rand's ideas are mocked & rarely taken seriously, NOT why they are wrong. If you are looking for a systematic analysis of her work, please check out the link to the SEP.
Problem-solving? Well I'm no Mark Watney, but if you're looking for answers, I do have a few tricks. #potato
Braitenberg’s “Vehicles,” Searle’s Chinese room, & Cole’s “Virtual Minds" - some thoughts on thinking machines.
Maybe VR isn't a specific thing, but part of a continuum of physical/virtual experience called "mixed reality." Regardless of how you think about it, the virtual already plays a significant role in your life.
There's a lot of talk about the ethics of autonomous vehicles...but maybe it's not as big a deal as people are making it.
The sciences are dealing with a crisis of replication...and that's a good thing. How might we learn from them?
This election is divisive, both in & between parties. Unfortunately, our brains don't work too well in groups.
Occam's Razor is an important philosophical tool, & it played a central role in the #parsimonygate kerfuffle on Twitter. Learn exactly how it works!
Is mathematics discovered or invented? Is it the language which encodes the cosmos, or an imaginary human tool? Does mathematics, in its pure abstraction, tap the inherent nature of the universe?
Many scientists call philosophy pointless pondering. They may not know they're reading a very old script.
The Just World Fallacy: your brain's irrational attempt to make sense of a world where Firefly got cancelled.
Hume saw problems using facts to justify morals. Learn about Hume's Guillotine & where reason fits in morality!
The FBI is asking Apple to help them crack an iPhone's encryption, but that's not the whole story. Learn how encryption & code signing work, & how quantum computers might pose a real problem.
Human thought has hundreds of hard-wired bugs. The Socratic Method gives us a fighting chance to overcome them.
Many people think special relativity is just for astrophysics majors, but its basic assumptions are pretty easy!
Cynics assume everything sucks until proven otherwise...should we use that approach for the new Star Wars movie?
Why do anti-PC advocates claim that political correctness is pointless? Why do PC advocates argue among themselves?
Science rules, & pseudoscience drools...but which is which? Kuhn, Popper, & the demarcation problem!
Steampunk is cool, but what's cooler is how it almost happened! Learn about Charles Babbage & Ada Lovelace!
NASA fans are often asked to justify spending on space. Learn about the Overview Effect, & other good reasons.
The Copernican Principle uses the idea that we aren't the center of the cosmos as a guideline for...everything! Learn an interesting method for estimating the remaining lifespan of just about anything.
The Problem of Evil is the single most persistent issue in theology. Learn 2 of its formulations, & 1 possible response to them!
Is logic cold & impersonal? Are rational answers boring ones? Take a detour thru the Renaissance & find out what reason is for.
We rarely give the "critical" part of "critical thinking" its due. Rigor in thought is hard, but so important.
"Logic" isn't just being reasonable; it's a formal system of finding truth, like math. Why did nobody tell me this?!
"Sherlock" features a real mnemonic technique called a memory palace. But you don't need to be Holmes to use it!
Logical positivism ran with Hume's analytic/synthetic distinction...turns out running with forks is a bad idea.
The dual process theory of human cognition might relate closely to the #blacklivesmatter campaign.
What do gun control & police brutality have in common? Some arguments for both contain the same logical errors.
Many believe locks = safety. Learn how they work, how they're picked, & why security is more about deterrence.
There are many absurd fictional AI-gone-haywire stories, but the real potential of general AI is unsettling.
If humans evolved reason to find truth, it’s weirdly flawed. But what if it evolved for the purpose of argument?
Metaethics investigates where morals supposedly come from & how they might (or might not!) be real. Fascinating!
Sci-fi really defines our future, but when sci-fi writers eschew big questions, we still need to ask them!
Unity is strength, but sometimes it leads to mobs or worse. Learn how to fight your brain’s urge to conform!
Reason is a fantastic tool & great fun…but sometimes, it can get in the way of simple (statistical) methods.
The anti-vax movement persists despite scientific consensus – what makes it such a convincing conspiracy theory?
A newly-discovered creature called "the purple sock" reveals & confirms some of the inner workings of evolution!
Some supporters of science claim it’s objective & perfectly rational, but there are some assumptions necessary…
Most agree that prejudice is wrong, but it's not just an ethical problem; it's a practical one, for everyone.
CRISPR is making big waves in biology, and for good reason; the doors to genetic engineering are now wide open.
When the context of someone’s speech is corrupted by extremism, it gets much harder to say anything detailed.
“Turn Down for What” is the party anthem of 2014, & a great backdrop for meditating on Buddhist philosophy.
What do shark attacks have to do with Star Trek: TOS and misleading news stories? Statisti-HEY COME BACK!
It seems the Christmas season comes earlier every year…and there’s actually a decent reason why: game theory!
How do allied players in Settlers of Catan always come out ahead? I’ll trade two sheep for some social capital.
Some argue that faith or lack thereof indicates intelligence, but it’s pretty clearly more indicative of culture.
Higher taxes will be better! Or maybe lower ones! Or maybe a totally different tax plan! Or maybe it’s just really really really hard to know anything about economics.
Have you ever found yourself acting in weird ways after consuming a work of fiction? Turns out it’s something our brains are wired for.
The biggest obstacle between you & having your very own whatever-it-is is just the misconception that “making” is just for factories.
Hoo boy. I had nowhere near the background I needed to do this episode justice, but I think the message is still a good one: without rigor, language & thought is messy as all hell.
It’s a common refrain: “Sorry, I’m not some sort of math-genius. I kinda suck at math & I hate it.” Actually, you probably just suck at arithmetic. Math is fun.
Usually, we think about “emotional” & “rational” as polar opposites, but is that actually true?
The “Feminist Sex Wars” are some of the most bitter & vicious arguments imaginable – why is it that movements of people who more or less agree on goals are so eager to fight amongst themselves?
Nerds like me tend to fetishize knowledge as a worthy end unto itself…but is that necessarily true?
Traditional superstition is one of the best examples of mindlessly “going thru the motions.” Many people don’t even know why these behaviors they constantly engage in are supposed to bring them good luck.
The Fermi Paradox is a famous observation about how peculiar it is that we haven’t received any broadcasts from alien species. What might it tell us about humanity’s own future?
In abstractions of the real world (like video games), it’s necessary to ignore some complexities. But do video games maybe ignore too much?
Health care is a complicated issue, regardless of the straightforward answers posed by some.
Many have a dim view of philosophy as a field of study, but considering how few people have had any exposure to its central ideas or history, that’s probably not surprising. Here, I make an argument as to why philosophy should be available in public schools.
Assassin’s Creed‘s plot revolves around an ancient battle between two secret societies – the Knights Templar, dedicated to the ideal of a utopian society, perfectly structured to maximize human happiness & productivity, & the Assassins, dedicated to…not that. Why are we rooting for the Assassins again? Well, because they have a good point.
Blaise Pascal was one of the most brilliant polymaths of the 17th century, contributing to an incredible number of different fields. One of his more famous combinations of these fields was his novel application of mathematics & probability to the question of theism…which has some problems.
Game theory is a branch of mathematics concerned with making the “ideal” decisions given certain conditions. The Cold War saw one of its most important applications – the prevention of World War 3.
The metric system is fantastic, but in its advocacy, some make unwarranted criticisms of the Imperial system. It’s not the train wreck many make it out to be.
“Design” isn’t just what people in black turtlenecks do for Apple, it’s an essential part of making anything.
Many mathematicians around the turn of the 20th century wanted to ground math in pure logic. Turns out that’s pretty damned hard…and as Gödel discovered, actually impossible.
The US election system is broken in significant ways, so much so that, by some measures, it’s not a democracy anymore. Which is weird, because money doesn’t seem to affect elections the way that politicians think it does.
fairvote.org/
represent.us/
What the Bleep Do We Know? is a movie loaded with ideas about the relationship between quantum physics and science…not good ideas…
Concerts are a fantastic metaphor for sex. Lots of lasers, smoke machines, stage diving…maybe I’m thinking of something else.
Free will is a favorite subject for intense debate…but what exactly does “free will” mean?
The Matrix cites many interesting discussions regarding the nature of reality & our place in it, among them the possibility of an artificial “real world.” The question arises: is there anything important differentiating artificial reality from “real” reality?
Some recent detection of polarized light in the cosmic background radiation has been strong evidence for a particular theory about the origin of the universe called “cosmic inflation theory.” That’s pretty badass.
Feynman once said: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” Two philosophers named Sextus Empiricus & Pyrrhon from ancient Greece would have probably agreed.
What is it to be “manly?” And how many people who think of themselves as “men” are like that at all?
Speedrunning is a fascinating culture of video gamers who are wholly uninterested in what the designers of the game wanted them to do, opting instead to race to the end as quickly as possible, by any means necessary.
How time travel works in fiction, how it might work in reality, and how it probably doesn't work.
Many don’t realize that language is a form of mind control, & don’t think about its power to affect others in significant ways.
It’s pretty much a done deal, geeks have won, but what defines a “geek?” Is there any difference between them & a “real geek?”
Some thoughts on Social Darwinism, a common interpretation of evolution with regards to societies, in the context of Star Wars.
Many people will object to certain products or activities by accusing them of being “unnatural.” Funny thing is, being “natural” isn’t the same thing as being “good.”
Josh went to Costa Rica, and all he got me was this lousy video about New Year’s! Well, it’s not that bad. We take a look at the common cultural practice of resolutions & how they might be interpreted thru the lens of an ancient spiritual philosophy from China.
Board games are a phenomenal gift for the holidays, & they might contain the key to a utopian future for humanity. The Hedonic Treadmill makes it impossible to simply pump constant euphoria into our brains, but perhaps we can find a way to make a “rewarding fun engine,” rather than a “happy machine.” (Also, Josh discovers that the Powerdirector software he just bought allows him to put pictures into his videos!)
Intellectual property law is an insanely complex web of protections & laws designed to protect inventors & innovators, supposedly motivating them with the promise of profit. But weirdly enough, the freely-accessible open-source movement frequently produces useful & amazing stuff. Is there something we might be missing here?
Tinfoil hats for everyone! In this episode, we investigate the origins of an explicit “Right to Privacy,” & why enforcing such a right is a good thing, even if nobody is doing anything wrong behind closed doors.
In this weirdy-colored & fedora-ed episode, I talk a little about some persistent myths about what artificial intelligences will never be able to do (including “love” or “understand paradoxes”) that are perpetuated by science fiction.
The first episode, in which I lay some ground rules & helpful guidelines for argumentation, online & elsewhere.
This is the first THUNK video I ever uploaded, in which I explain why I started the series & what I hope it will achieve. They are nice shelves.
Genetic engineering is sometimes attacked by people who don’t really understand how it works, what it promises, or how we got dog breeds. However, there are some legitimate ethical concerns about harnessing the power of genetics. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t – we absolutely should. But we should at least do so with the awareness of what it might mean.