All tagged Philosophy

All Cops Are Monsters: The Horror Of Police / Travis Linnemann

All Cops Are Monsters: The Horror Of Police / Travis Linnemann

Patrick Farnsworth
Travis Linnemann, 336

Author Travis Linnemann joins me to discuss his recently released book The Horror of Police, published by University of Minnesota Press.

A good amount of ink has been spilt on the subject of policing — its historical origins; the oppressive and repressive role police play in the day-to-day lives of various marginalized communities; how “copaganda” shapes our collective perceptions of police and police work; and the numerous radical, reformist, and reactionary movements that have risen up against, or in defense of, police across the United States and the world. While Travis Linnemann examines these various subjects and perspectives in The Horror of Police, he does so by delving into the ontological framework police operate within in by “drawing on the language and texts of horror fiction,” philosophy, and police procedurals in film and television.

Wicked Problems: Lessons From The Ruins Of Maya; Machine Learning + Ethics / David O’Hara

Wicked Problems: Lessons From The Ruins Of Maya; Machine Learning + Ethics / David O’Hara

Patrick Farnsworth
David O'Hara, 104

This is my second interview with David O'Hara, and as with the first, conversing with him is always a delight and a great pleasure. In this episode, we discussed his trip to Central America, and the recent archaeological discovery of a vast Mayan metropolis that "at its peak some 1,500 years ago, covered an area about twice the size of medieval England, with an estimated population of around five million." David describes the cutting-edge technology that is now being used to discover these, until very recently, hidden ruins of an ancient Mayan civilization, and what we can learn from these discoveries regarding our own civilization. 

We also get into the ethics of artificial intelligence and the corporate control of the development of computer technology, and the implications this has for how information is disseminated through our society. David discusses some of the underlying issues on relying on algorithms and computer learning to make big decisions for us, and how this kind of thinking leads to unintended outcomes. 

Spread Mind: Expanding Our View Of Consciousness / Riccardo Manzotti

Spread Mind: Expanding Our View Of Consciousness / Riccardo Manzotti

Patrick Farnsworth
Riccardo Manzotti, 92

Riccardo Manzotti is the author of The Spread Mind: Why Consciousness and the World Are One. Riccardo teaches Psychology of Perception at IULM University, Milan (Italy), and has specialized in AI, artificial vision, perception, and the philosophy and science of consciousness. 

The discussion you will hear in this episode deals with a few different subjects brought up in Riccardo's work, namely what the Spread Mind hypothesis is, and what its underlying premise means regarding our understanding of what the "mind" really is, and how scientific exploration into the brain and neurological functioning will not lead to any answers of where our conscious experience comes from. Riccardo's new book The Spread Mind delves deeply into this fascinating subject and radically shifts our understanding of consciousness and points to another much needed and necessary way to frame our understanding of this subject.

Downstream: Rivers Of Wonder + What Lies Beneath / David O'Hara

Downstream: Rivers Of Wonder + What Lies Beneath / David O'Hara

Patrick Farnsworth
David O'Hara, 81

Just like David O'Hara's book Downstream, this episode is about so much more than fly-fishing. David imbues the conversation with great knowledge and wisdom, and speaking with him was a great pleasure in and of itself.

The topics touched in this episode are broad: fishing the rivers of Appalachia; empathizing with other creatures; studying and observing reef ecology in Belize; enduring and recovering from a major head injury; the wonder of it all.

The UNABOMBER, Post-Tech Society + Metaphysics Of Technology / David Skrbina

The UNABOMBER, Post-Tech Society + Metaphysics Of Technology / David Skrbina

Patrick Farnsworth
David Skrbina, 73

David Skrbina is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, and is the author of the books Panpsychism In The West and The Metaphysics of Technology. David has become well-known for being the so-called "pen-pal" of Theodore Kaczynski, having communicated with Kaczynski for some time. David eventually published Kaczynski's anti-tech philosophy elaborated in his letters, essays, and his famous manifesto in the book Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore Kaczynski, published by Feral House.