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Published · transcript-backed

Steven Pinker: belief

2 Nov 2016 Conversations with Tyler Steven Pinker on Language, Reason, and the Future of Violence (Live at Mason)

“Our understanding of physics, I think, is good enough to rule out the possibility that dreams can be prophetic.”

— Steven Pinker

Source trail

Everything needed to verify it.

Speaker
Steven Pinker
Attribution
Verified speaker
Claim type
belief
Recorded
2 Nov 2016
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

Transcript context

…I appreciate the book, and quite an amazing thing that Bill Gates is recommending this book, so I have it. Do you believe that mankind has the ability to get prophetic dreams, like Joseph in the Bible? Do you believe that we can act on those prophetic dreams? I did psychiatry, so I’m interested in your answer from that perspective. No. [laughter] No. I think dreams are a kind of screen saver. It would violate much of what we know about physics for a dream to be able to prophesy the future. Our understanding of physics, I think, is good enough to rule out the possibility that dreams can be prophetic. On this side.…

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