Very Bad Wizards

Episode 1: Brains, Robots, and Free Will (Free Will and Morality Pt. 1)



August 30th, 2012  •  1 hr 10 mins  •  Download (34.3 MB)  •  Link with Timestamp

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Dave and Tamler talk about the new wave of skepticism about free will and moral responsibility in the popular press from people like Sam Harris and Jerry Coyne, and argue that neuroscientific data adds little of substance to the case other than telling us what we already know: human beings are natural biological entities. Dave comes out as a Star Trek nerd and asks whether we're all, in the end, like Data the android. They also wonder whether a belief in free will is all that's keeping us from having sex with our dogs. Finally, Dave grills Tamler about his new book on the differences in attitudes about free will and moral responsibility across cultures.