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Join members of the completed “Gödel, Escher, Bach” reading group in reading through David Deutsch’s “The Beginning of Infinity.” Share the pleasure of reading a challenging, thought-provoking book boosted by your friendly peers’ additional eyes, hearts, minds, and life experiences.
“It hardly seems worth saying…that the chutzpah of this guy is almost beyond belief, and that any book with these sorts of ambitions is necessarily, in some overall sense, a failure, or a fraud, or a joke, or madness. But Deutsch…is so smart, and so strange, and so creative, and so inexhaustibly curious, and so vividly intellectually alive, that it is a distinct privilege, notwithstanding everything, to spend time in his head. He writes as if what he is giving us amounts to a tight, grand, cumulative system of ideas — something of almost mathematical rigor — but the reader will do much better to approach this book with the assurance that nothing like that actually turns out to be the case. I like to think of it as more akin to great, wide, learned, meandering conversation…never dull, often startling and fantastic and beautiful, often at odds with itself, sometimes distasteful, sometimes unintentionally hilarious, sometimes (even, maybe, secondarily) true.” –David Albert
What can a renowned quantum physicist and the “father of quantum computing” possibly have to say about science, art, moral values, the history of civilization, artificial intelligence, the earth’s biosphere, and political theory? Find out together as we read David Deutsch’s “The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World.”
This series has 15 episodes, starting January 9th and running every 2 weeks, at 5pm BST.
Dates: January 9th, January 30th, February 20th, March 13th, April 3rd, April 24th, May 15th, June 5th, June 26th, July 17th, August 7th, August 28th, September 18th, October 9th, October 30th
Depending on availability, the host might release tickets for each individual salon, too.
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| # | Date | Episode |
| 1 | Jan 9th | Introduction, Chapter 1: The Reach of Explanations What is “The Beginning of Infinity” about? What kinds of explanations have universal reach? What were the decisive factors in the rapid progress achieved after the scientific revolution and Enlightenment? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss the Introduction and Chapter 1 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 2 | Jan 30th | Chapter 2: Closer to Reality, Chapter 3: The Spark Are observations about the world around us direct, or theory-laden? Can creativity and fun continue indefinitely? How knowledge-friendly is the physical world? Are all problems soluble? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 3 | Feb 20th | Chapter 4: Creation What can evolution by biological adaptation teach us about the creation of knowledge? What’s wrong with Lamarckism? How is reach important to both biological evolution and explanations? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss Chapter 4 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 4 | Mar 13th | Chapter 5: The Reality of Abstractions How are reductionism and holism mistaken about the universe? To what extent are explanations hierarchical? Do abstract entities play a role in causing physical phenomena? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss Chapter 5 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 5 | Apr 3rd | Chapter 6: The Jump to Universality, Chapter 7: Artificial Creativity When do incremental improvements in systems of knowledge or technology lead to the jump to universality? Can the jump to universality only happen in digital systems? What is the unsolved philosophical problem at the heart of artificial intelligence? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 6 | Apr 24th | Chapter 8: A Window on Infinity What is the internal structure of a multiverse? What can calculus, Cantor’s theory, and Hilbert’s “Infinity Hotel” teach us about infinity? Will humanity always be at the beginning of unlimited progress? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss Chapter 8 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 7 | May 15th | Chapter 9: Optimism What is the fundamental force behind sustained periods of enlightenment? What is wealth? How do we learn not to fool ourselves? What are blind optimism and blind pessimism? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss Chapter 9 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 8 | Jun 5th | Chapter 10: A Dream of Socrates Why didn’t the “Golden Age of Athens” become a beginning of infinity? How do we solve the Socratic problem? How do historians of science converge upon the truth? How do theories survive? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss Chapter 10 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 9 | Jun 26th | Chapter 11: The Multiverse Are we living in a multiverse? How do we know? Are objects fungible? What is quantum interference? Are laws of physics consistent across the multiverse? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss Chapter 11 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 10 | Jul 17th | Chapter 12: A Physicist’s History of Bad Philosophy What is bad philosophy? Should we accept Niels Bohr’s Copenhagen interpretation? What is lost when we separate predictions from interpretations in scientific theory? What’s up with Wittgenstein and the logical positivists? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss Chapter 12 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 11 | Aug 7th | Chapter 13: Choices, Chapter 14: Why are Flowers Beautiful? What kinds of political institutions meet Popper’s criterion? What are the no-go theorems of mathematicians Michael Balinski and Peyton Young, and economist Kenneth Arrow? Are elegant aesthetics a heuristic guide to truth? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss Chapter 13 and Chapter 14 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 12 | Aug 28th | Chapter 15: The Evolution of Culture How do memes survive and propagate? How are the evolution of memes and genes related? Does the non-existence of the hobgoblin serve to make the meme a better replicator, unconstrained by any genuine, grounded menace? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss Chapter 15 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 13 | Sep 18th | Chapter 16: The Evolution of Creativity Is creativity evolutionarily advantageous? Is creativity a force for faithful preservation or for the creation of new knowledge? In which kinds of societies? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss Chapter 16 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 14 | Oct 9th | Chapter 17: Unsustainable Are static societies doomed to failure? Where did Karl Marx, Friederich Engels, and Jared Diamond go wrong in their “ultimate explanations?” How does Jacob Broniwski’s “The Ascent of Man” relate the the beginning of infinity? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss Chapter 17 of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch. |
| 15 | Oct 30th | Chapter 18: The Beginning How can we shed the parochialism of the past? What singularities have humans achieved in the history of our species? What have we learned from David Deutsch’s “The Beginning of Infinity?” What should we read next? Find out answers to these questions and more as we discuss the last chapter of “The Beginning of Infinity,” by David Deutsch, Chapter 18. |
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