Podcasts Culture Very Bad Wizards Episode 213: What Is It Like To Be a Robot Fish Man? (with Ted Chiang)

Episode 213: What Is It Like To Be a Robot Fish Man? (with Ted Chiang)

Published: May 25, 2021, 7 p.m.

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We\\u2019ve done deep dives on three of his stories, and now THE MAN HIMSELF, multi-award winning science fiction author Ted Chiang, joins us to explore the post-apocalyptic world of the video-game SOMA. You play Simon Jarrett, a man who goes for a brain scan in Toronto and wakes up a 100 years later in an underwater research facility, the last remaining hope to preserve human consciousness from extinction. Pizarro confronts his worst nightmare, a first-person experience of stepping into a transporter-style scenario. We talk about how video games can make philosophical problems come alive, what \\u201cfission-cases\\u201d tell us about personal identity (Tamler\\u2019s note: this really should count as our Parfit episode), what it\\u2019s like to be conscious without a body, the problem with thought experiments, and lots more.

Plus, a new evo-psych study on why bullshitting is adaptive \\u2013 convince people you\\u2019re smart and save energy while you do it!

Special Guest: Ted Chiang.

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