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Conversations with Tyler / episode intelligence

Philip Ball on the Interplay of Science, Society, and the Quest for Understanding

4 Sept 2024 18 published claims 2 attributable people
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Speakers in the public record

Philip BallTyler Cowen

Claim mix

belief 6evaluation 5prediction 4recommendation 2observation 1

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Every row below preserves an exact excerpt. Identified speakers are linked; unresolved voices are labeled and excluded from people counts.

Claim ledger

The useful parts, with receipts.

18 published records

02 / observation

Then, from the other direction, it’s becoming possible to grow embryos for longer and longer periods outside the womb. This isn’t done with human embryos because in just about all countries, that’s forbidden for longer than 14 days.

“Then, from the other direction, it’s becoming possible to grow embryos for longer and longer periods outside the womb. This isn’t done with human embryos because in just about all countries, that’s forbidden for longer than 14 days.”
Speaker
Philip Ball
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

03 / belief

We’ve had over 200 guests on Conversations with Tyler, and I think three of them, so far, have shown they are able to answer any question I might plausibly throw their way.

“We’ve had over 200 guests on Conversations with Tyler, and I think three of them, so far, have shown they are able to answer any question I might plausibly throw their way.”
Speaker
Tyler Cowen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

05 / belief

I think that the space looks beautiful to us from Earth, from this place of safety. It’s because it’s a place of safety that actually, I think space reminds us of how precious — or should remind us of how precious this place is, this place where we have the privilege of being able to look out onto the stars from somewhere that gives us everything we need.

“I think that the space looks beautiful to us from Earth, from this place of safety. It’s because it’s a place of safety that actually, I think space reminds us of how precious — or should remind us of how precious this place is, this place where we have the privilege of being able to look out onto the stars from somewhere that gives us everything we need.”
Speaker
Philip Ball
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

09 / evaluation

bout with AI are much more mundane things that are here and now: deep fakes, the production of misinformation, the trivial but sometimes important misuses of AI because we attribute it too much power.

“bout with AI are much more mundane things that are here and now: deep fakes, the production of misinformation, the trivial but sometimes important misuses of AI because we attribute it too much power.”
Speaker
Philip Ball
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

10 / evaluation

The more I started looking into it, the more I thought, “There’s a story here, and it’s a story that I haven’t really seen told, a story about how the cathedrals were built in connection with an emerging new view of the cosmos, a new view of how the world worked in the Middle Ages.

“The more I started looking into it, the more I thought, “There’s a story here, and it’s a story that I haven’t really seen told, a story about how the cathedrals were built in connection with an emerging new view of the cosmos, a new view of how the world worked in the Middle Ages.”
Speaker
Philip Ball
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

11 / recommendation

I think scientists need to get real, really, about the fact that they are working within a social and political context that they have to be able to work with, and to be able to — when the occasion demands it — take some control of, and not simply be pushed around by.

“I think scientists need to get real, really, about the fact that they are working within a social and political context that they have to be able to work with, and to be able to — when the occasion demands it — take some control of, and not simply be pushed around by.”
Speaker
Philip Ball
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

12 / prediction

What I argue in that book is that these narratives acquire mythic status because they satisfy some need in us to explore social anxieties in stories in a way that allows us to look at them and explore them and think about them.

“What I argue in that book is that these narratives acquire mythic status because they satisfy some need in us to explore social anxieties in stories in a way that allows us to look at them and explore them and think about them.”
Speaker
Philip Ball
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

13 / prediction

I’m not sure that we are going to see artificial wombs developed in the near future for human reproduction because I don’t think that there’s a clear need for them.

“I’m not sure that we are going to see artificial wombs developed in the near future for human reproduction because I don’t think that there’s a clear need for them.”
Speaker
Philip Ball
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

14 / evaluation

There’s a strong pressure for cognitive biases to creep in. This is something that ought to be eminently fixable because there is no reason science has to be this way, that there have to be these tremendous pressures on scientists to constantly be producing results, constantly be chasing after what sometimes seems like the diminishing pools of funding.

“There’s a strong pressure for cognitive biases to creep in. This is something that ought to be eminently fixable because there is no reason science has to be this way, that there have to be these tremendous pressures on scientists to constantly be producing results, constantly be chasing after what sometimes seems like the diminishing pools of funding.”
Speaker
Philip Ball
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

15 / evaluation

These stories that we have told traditionally about invisibility seem to have this moral conclusion that, actually, invisibility sounds like it would be a wonderful superpower, but we have to really beware of that temptation because it’s a very strong corrupting influence.

“These stories that we have told traditionally about invisibility seem to have this moral conclusion that, actually, invisibility sounds like it would be a wonderful superpower, but we have to really beware of that temptation because it’s a very strong corrupting influence.”
Speaker
Philip Ball
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

16 / evaluation

It felt to me as though that was right. It felt to me as though that is why today we can say with such confidence that climate change is real, and that we know something about the causes, and that it seems clear that they’re primarily anthropogenic because there was that very cautious, very careful checking-out of the grounds for saying that during those years.

“It felt to me as though that was right. It felt to me as though that is why today we can say with such confidence that climate change is real, and that we know something about the causes, and that it seems clear that they’re primarily anthropogenic because there was that very cautious, very careful checking-out of the grounds for saying that during those years.”
Speaker
Philip Ball
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

17 / recommendation

I would say, for anyone thinking about wanting to go into science book writing, it’s really important that you aren’t doing it so that you’re going to become rich because it’s the same for any writer, actually.

“I would say, for anyone thinking about wanting to go into science book writing, it’s really important that you aren’t doing it so that you’re going to become rich because it’s the same for any writer, actually.”
Speaker
Philip Ball
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

18 / prediction

Then it’s predicted to decrease to something more like perhaps six billion, which I think would be a fantastic thing because that is one of the big challenges that we have been facing: the growth in population, the demands that creates for food production, for energy, for economic growth generally.

“Then it’s predicted to decrease to something more like perhaps six billion, which I think would be a fantastic thing because that is one of the big challenges that we have been facing: the growth in population, the demands that creates for food production, for energy, for economic growth generally.”
Speaker
Philip Ball
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler
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