A podcast that explores the unseen and surprising connections between nearly everything, with special emphasis on intelligence and the search for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) through the lens of Karl Popper's Theory of Knowledge. David Deutsch argued that Quantum Mechanics, Darwinian Evolution, Karl Popper's Theory of Knowledge, and Computational Theory (aka "The Four Strands") represent an early 'theory of everything' be it science, philosophy, computation, religion, politics, or art. So we explore everything. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/brucenielson/membership
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Sep 29, 2026 · 1:29:58
This week Bruce discusses a possible improvement to Pascal’s Wager: If believing in God makes your life legitimately better, is it better to believe on those grounds alone? And…
Sep 15, 2026 · 1:14:41
This week Bruce asks more hard questions: Is our legal system “decisionalist”? In other words, are we outcome-based rather than reasoning-based creatures? Is there something deep…
Sep 1, 2026 · 41:42
What Bruce has called the “put up or shut up principle” is the idea we should want our theories to take on the burden of explanation as must as we can. We need to "put up" an at…
Aug 18, 2026 · 1:41:44
This week Bruce takes a deep dive into Pascal’s Wager. If there is even a small chance that God exists, and believing could lead to an infinite reward while disbelief risks an…
Jul 28, 2026 · 27:20
This week we talk about meaning memes, words, concepts, and conceptual leakage. How is a meaning meme turned into a broader concept and then a theory? What is the role of…
Jul 7, 2026 · 1:27:42
Bruce returns to AGI through the lens of a critical rationalist debate about whether or not AGI is theoretically possible. Can human intelligence be replicated? Is this a physics…
Jun 16, 2026 · 1:18:21
Is so-called "self-deception" a real thing? How can one at once be aware that something is true and yet also be unaware of it? Is it even a coherent concept? Doesn't deception…
Jun 2, 2026 · 2:28:57
This week we are joined for the 4th time by physicist Sam Kuypers. From his Conjecture Institute profile: “Quantum physicist, interested in foundational questions. In his…
May 19, 2026 · 1:55:06
Ad hoc saves and immunizing stratagems are phrases Karl Popper used to describe moves humans make when we try to protect our theories from refutation. We all do this every day in…
May 9, 2026 · 1:10:26
This week we talk about doomers, specifically AI doomers. Why has it become such a popular notion, especially amongst those who consider themselves the most rational kinds of…
Apr 29, 2026 · 1:54:58
Bruce has made a controversial claim on this show: today's "CritRats" (Critical Rationalists on X) have drifted from what Popper intended. And surprisingly, some of the drift…
Apr 15, 2026 · 2:07:55
This week we were honored to interview Ray Scott Percival, a significant but also woefully under-appreciated figure in critical rationalism. Percival has been active in critical…
Mar 31, 2026 · 2:09:31
This week we had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Golding, M.D, who is a psychiatric physician. He is also heavily influenced by the philosophical ideas of David Deutsch and…
Mar 10, 2026 · 1:42:06
Bruce examines how effectively critical rationalism can ground the non-aggression principle (NAP)—the libertarian idea that, in some formulation, it is morally wrong to initiate…
Feb 24, 2026 · 2:23:40
In this video podcast, Bruce makes his boldest statement yet about probability. He dives into David Deutsch’s lecture “Physics Without Probability” —as well as our Episode 100…
Feb 10, 2026 · 40:51
This week Bruce takes a deep dive into the epistemological ideas in Jonathan Rauch’s book The Constitution of Knowledge . Rauch is a fan of Karl Popper and a former guest on this…
Feb 3, 2026 · 1:04:49
This week, Bruce looks at how much critical rationalists do—and do not—subject their proposed best theories to critical testing. Bruce wrestles with how we apply the tools of…
Jan 27, 2026 · 24:04
In our shortest episode ever, Bruce continues his exploration of the concept of concepts by looking at "knowledge" as a concept rather than a theory. And of course along the the…
Jan 20, 2026 · 55:05
Bruce looks at what makes sense—and doesn’t—about popular theories on knowledge promoted by CritRats (critical rationalists on X). He looks at how much these theories align, and…
Jan 13, 2026 · 59:24
A curious Twitter exchange with David Deutsch prompts Bruce to explore what Deutsch and other critical rationalists mean when they assert that randomness doesn’t truly exist.…
Jan 6, 2026 · 58:50
In this episode, Bruce explores his extended conversation with philosopher and inductivist Kieren, focusing on Kieren’s claim that Popper’s Critical Rationalism ultimately…
Dec 30, 2025 · 56:07
Here Bruce starts with Popper’s assertion that theories are 100x more valuable than concepts and compares it to Douglas Hofstadter’s ideas on creativity and consciousness. But if…
Dec 23, 2025 · 37:33
What is a concept? What is a theory? And was Karl Popper right when he said theories are “100 times more valuable” than concepts? But where do conjectures come from? We go over…
Dec 16, 2025 · 2:26:53
This week we welcome back Micah Redding of the Christian Transhumanist podcast. We had a joyful conversation touching on religion, science fiction, and teleology. We look at the…
Dec 9, 2025 · 1:21:06
aka "The Popper vs Campbell Beatdown!" At long last! The showdown you've all been waiting for! These two giants of epistemology meet in the ring and fight it out for dominance!…
Dec 2, 2025 · 39:50
Bruce compares Donald Campbell’s evolutionary epistemology and David Deutsch’s ideas on infinite knowledge growth. What is knowledge growth? Is it a rare thing limited to only…
Nov 25, 2025 · 1:01:03
In this shorter episode Bruce takes a deep dive into logical fallacies. How useful are logical fallacies? Does pointing out a logical fallacy help correct errors? Does doing so…
Nov 18, 2025 · 2:43:26
In our previous episode covering Strevens' critique of Popper, we briefly touched on why Bruce believes it it a mistake for CritRats to say they don't believe in beliefs. This…
Nov 11, 2025 · 1:51:16
This week Bruce puts Popper on trial. Specifically, through the lens of Michael Stevens’s book, The Knowledge Machine , which argues that science works because it follows the…
Oct 28, 2025 · 1:54:33
This week we interview Logan Chipkin. Logan is a writer and author of several books. Recently he co-authored and published The Sovereign Child about raising children without…
Oct 14, 2025 · 2:26:45
This week we talk to Micah Redding, the host of the Christian Transhumanist podcast. We discuss: What is the significance of a singularity? What is free will from a many worlds…
Sep 30, 2025 · 1:52:31
This week we had the absolute honor of interviewing Jonathan Rauch. Rauch is an extremely influential public intellectual (journalist and author) who is also a Popperian. His…
Sep 16, 2025 · 2:17:28
This week Bruce take a deep critical rationalist dive into Michael Strevens’s book, The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science , which is an attempt to…
Sep 2, 2025 · 1:55:30
This week we consider: Is falsification falsifiable? Was Popper a “naive falsificationist”? Why do so many people think he was? (Including at least one of his own students!) Is…
Aug 19, 2025 · 2:10:58
Starting in the 1950s, Popperian Donald Campbell developed a theory of "evolutionary epistemology" (coining that term in the process) that expanded Karl Popper’s ideas about…
Aug 6, 2025 · 1:30:41
This week Bruce takes a deep dive into anthropologist Joseph Henrich’s book: The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and…
Jul 22, 2025 · 1:12:05
Bruce first explains the difference between arguing over concepts vs arguing over words. Then Bruce examines assertions about probability and randomness in the critical…
Jul 8, 2025 · 1:30:49
What precisely is a static vs dynamic society? It is possible to take this down to the level of machine learning? Could this distinction turn into a testable theory? What are the…
Jun 24, 2025 · 1:52:20
We once again get together some of the smartest people we know for a discussion that gets into foundational issues, this time in the form of the classic battle between the…
Jun 10, 2025 · 3:24:46
In this round table discussion with Ivan Phillips and Sadia Naeem, we begin by discussing differing viewpoints on “third way evolution,” or a gene-centric viewpoint vs a more…
May 27, 2025 · 1:52:04
This week we are joined by fellow traveler Dan Gish to discuss LLMs and AGI. Does it really, truly make sense to think that OpenAI or DeepMind are not at least an important…
May 13, 2025 · 1:48:23
Here we discuss fidesim and critical rationalism. Fideism has many definitions, but at least how we are thinking of it, it is the idea that something like faith has validity in…
Apr 29, 2025 · 1:25:05
This week we discuss a short interview with Karl Popper from 1969 where he discusses God and religion. Specifically, he makes a case for agnosticism, asserts that all men are…
Apr 8, 2025 · 1:51:55
This week Bruce speaks about the work or Michael Levin, who is a biologist know for his work on cell cognition and collective intelligence or the idea that electrical signals…
Mar 18, 2025 · 1:57:37
How well do the collection of assertions called “3rd way evolution” stand up to criticism? Here, in our second of at least 3 episodes on this topic, Bruce considers the…
Feb 25, 2025 · 1:53:36
This week we discuss neo-Darwinism vs post-Darwinism. Neo-Darwinism meaning a gene centric view of evolution, which is also called the great synthesis since it unifies natural…
Feb 4, 2025 · 1:25:51
This time we discuss Nassim Nicholas Taleb's article "IQ is Largely a Pseudoscientific Swindle" -- a title whose compliment is that he's claiming IQ is a bit scientifically…
Jan 14, 2025 · 2:16:27
Bruce takes a deep dive into Stephen Wolfram’s ideas regarding computational universality, which may go further than the Church-Turing-Deutsch thesis in that Wolfram’s theories…
Dec 23, 2024 · 2:27:25
Our Christmas gift to you this year is episode 100: an interview with The Man (TM) himself! Bruce stumbles over himself fan-boying as he asks all his burning (but geeky)…
Dec 16, 2024 · 1:31:31
AKA "David Deutsch DESTORYS the Simulation Hypothesis" Bruce take a deep dive into solipsism in the form of the brain in a vat thought experiment, Nick Bostrom’s simulation…
Dec 3, 2024 · 1:58:05
This week we discuss the chapter “Why are Flowers Beautiful?” from the book Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch. Through our discussion we consider: Does relativism make any…
Nov 12, 2024 · 1:31:41
We take a deep dive into Karl Popper’s philosophical ideas about music that he outlines in four chapters in this intellectual autobiography Unended Quest: “Music,” Speculations…
Oct 29, 2024 · 1:28:33
Here we interview AI researcher Kenneth Stanley, who makes the case that in complex systems, pursing specific objectives can actually be counterproductive. Instead, whether in…
Oct 15, 2024 · 2:48:50
This time we invited some of the coolest and smartest people we know to have a freewheeling discussion on morality loosely centered on Jonathan Haidt's “rider and the elephant”…
Oct 1, 2024 · 1:01:44
This episode we interview Professor of Philosophy Stephen Hicks. In his excellent books Explaining Postmodernism and Nietzsche and the Nazis it becomes clear that the history of…
Sep 17, 2024 · 2:07:05
Can philosophical theories be refuted? What is a bad explanation? Can all theories be made more empirical? In search of an answer to these questions, Bruce takes a deep dive into…
Sep 3, 2024 · 1:55:50
Continuing from episode 91, we continue our deep dive into Popper's Conjectures and Refutations Chapter 8 where Popper explains how to use his epistemology on philosophical…
Aug 20, 2024 · 1:45:46
Forgive the clickbait title. The episode should probably actually be called "The (Lack of) Problem of Induction" because we primarily cover Popper's refutation of induction in…
Jul 30, 2024 · 2:55:47
Today our guest Ivan Phillips methodically explains what Bayesianism is and is not. Along the way we discuss the validity of critiques made by critical rationalists of the…
Jul 9, 2024 · 1:26:19
This week we discuss the book Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton (1908), perhaps the most famous defense of the Christian tradition. We contrast this with Karl Popper’s talk, “Towards…
Jun 25, 2024 · 1:25:37
Here Bruce reflects on AI researcher Kenneth Stanley’s assertion that setting specific, measurable goals may actually hinder discovery and innovation, which he writes about in…
Jun 11, 2024 · 2:06:33
Is the universal explainer hypothesis falsifiable? How does the concept of universality relate to human minds? Is anything truly beyond human comprehension? And how would you…
May 28, 2024 · 1:42:39
How do humans form 'fuzzy categories'? How does this all relate to essentialism? Is essentialism false? Or is it partially true? And how does this all relate to Critical…
May 14, 2024 · 1:49:52
This is the first of our two part series (that may or may not be released back-to-back) where Bruce delves into the work Douglas Hofstadter, specifically the book Surfaces and…
Apr 30, 2024 · 1:27:46
Here we discuss a 1992 interview with David Deutsch where he makes the case that video games are inherently educational, not addictive, and that children should not be stopped…
Apr 15, 2024 · 2:01:24
Bruce summarizes his (unique?) understanding of Karl Popper’s epistemology that (possibly?) straddles the line between orthodox and unorthodox and is Influenced both by Deutsch,…
Apr 2, 2024 · 1:53:02
In an episode that may (or may not) be his magnum opus, Bruce introduces his term for Karl Popper’s idea that you are only allowed to solve problems with your (scientific) theory…
Mar 19, 2024 · 2:14:02
Bruce sympathetically critiques David Deutsch’s concept of “easy to varyness” as a way to judge our explanations. Are our best theories about reality truly hard to vary? Bruce…
Mar 4, 2024 · 1:44:34
Bruce wraps up his epic 6 part series on knowledge and the 'two sources hypothesis' (i.e. Deutsch's theory that all 'knowledge' comes from only two sources: Biological evolution…
Feb 26, 2024 · 1:31:33
Is human creativity algorithmic? What is the difference between an Inspiration and a perspiration algorithm? Can mechanical processes ever create knowledge? What is the…
Feb 19, 2024 · 1:11:53
Do animals create knowledge? Deutsch claims they don't because all their knowledge is in their genes. Yet he admits that animals do have memes! But aren't memes, by definition,…
Feb 12, 2024 · 1:35:51
Bruce continues to consider what our best theories tell us about knowledge. Is there something special (or even physically different) about the knowledge created by nature…
Feb 5, 2024 · 1:18:00
In the previous episode, Bruce pointed out an apparent contradiction between Deutsch's criteria for knowledge as 'adapted information that causes itself to remain so' and his…
Jan 29, 2024 · 1:09:47
What is the “two sources hypothesis,” or the idea that there exist only two sources of knowledge in the known universe: Darwinian natural selection and human minds? Does a…
Jan 15, 2024 · 1:28:41
What is the “problem of open-endedness”? Bruce explores how what might sound like an esoteric machine-learning issue may actually be interwoven with our deepest theories on…
Jan 1, 2024 · 2:11:29
Here we move three arguments from social media to the podcast. 1. Given Deutsch’s universal explainer hypothesis, does it make sense to say that men commit more crimes due to…
Dec 18, 2023 · 1:51:19
Here we use Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s essay “The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority” as a springboard to discuss majority rule, moral progress, knowledge…
Dec 4, 2023 · 1:56:20
With guest Ivan Phillips, we discuss and debate subjective vs objective morality. Does the concept of objective morality ever make sense given “Hume’s guillotine”? Can humans…
Nov 20, 2023 · 2:14:47
How does ChatGPT really work? Is there a relationship between a program like ChatGPT and artificial general intelligence (AGI)? This time we review the famous paper "Sparks of…
Nov 6, 2023 · 1:33:55
This week we have criminologist Brian Boutwell on again for part 2 of our discussion on critical rationalism and social science. Does all science share the same structure? How do…
Oct 30, 2023 · 51:59
Bruce Caldwell (a scholar interested in Popper and Hayek) wrote a long paper in the Journal of Economic Literature (March 1991) called 'Clarifying Popper'. In this episode, Bruce…
Oct 16, 2023 · 2:56:49
Though our guest Mark Biros is clearly immersed in critical rationalism and the worldview of Popper and Deutsch, he also has some fairly strong criticisms of some of the ideas…
Oct 2, 2023 · 1:34:04
Historian Matt Bowman discusses his new book, The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill: Alien Encounters, Civil Rights, and the New Age in America . Betty and Barney Hill were one…
Sep 18, 2023 · 1:58:43
What did David Deutsch get right and wrong in chapter 11, “Time: The First Quantum Concept,” from his first book, Fabric of Reality? Is the flow of time real or an illusion? What…
Sep 4, 2023 · 1:21:53
What did Karl Popper really mean by refutation? How are empirical theories special? How do objective criticisms differ from subjective criticisms? What is the difference between…
Aug 14, 2023 · 2:43:36
Brian Boutwell is a professor of criminal justice at the University of Mississippi who specializes in “quantitative genetics, with a focus on environmental and psychological risk…
Jul 31, 2023 · 1:15:11
Is the government hiding a secret UFO recovery program? What should the critical rationalist attitude be towards these kinds of claims? Why exactly would aliens want to hide from…
Jul 17, 2023 · 3:10:12
What did Popper say about corroboration in science? Can a theory NEVER be supported with evidence in any sense at all? Is the Popperian “war on words” justified? Are the…
Jul 3, 2023 · 1:37:08
We interview Bruce’s nephew, Brendon Nielson, who is a well-known electronic music artist under the name Dvddy. We discuss how he uses AI as a tool to create music and how this…
Jun 12, 2023 · 2:45:19
A deep dive into David Deutsch’s “principle of optimism” featuring Sam Kuypers, Vaden Masrani, Hervé Eulacia, Micah Redding, Bill Rugolsky, and Daniel Buchfink. (Plus, of course,…
May 22, 2023 · 2:02:12
Back in 2012, David Deutsch wrote an article called "Creative Blocks: How Close are we to Creating Artificial Intelligence?" This article inspired Bruce to go back to school and…
May 1, 2023 · 1:03:00
Does every one of us live forever in the multiverse? Is death a solvable problem? What is “quantum suicide”? Is quantum torment a concern? Does every fantastical thing we can…
Apr 10, 2023 · 3:01:29
Special guest, Lulie Tanett, asked me if she could come on my podcast and interview me about religion. Lulie and Peter ask me numerous religion-related questions such as: How is…
Mar 31, 2023 · 1:36:46
We continue our discussion of Dwarkesh Patel's article "Contra David Deutsch on AI" compared to Brett Hall's tweet on IQ theory . This time we concentrate on criticisms of…
Mar 13, 2023 · 2:09:50
In this episode, we continue our discussion of Dwarkesh Patel's article "Contra David Deutsch on AI" compared to Brett Hall's tweet on IQ theory . This time we concentrate on…
Feb 17, 2023 · 1:20:19
Dwarkesh Patel published an article called "Contra David Deutsch on AI" . This article was actually a defense of IQ theory against the charge (often made by fans of David…
Jan 16, 2023 · 1:17:34
In our previous episode, we asked if Karl Popper was Dogmatic. We also introduced the idea that Karl Popper wasn't convinced that dogmatism was always bad. In this episode, we…
Oct 2, 2022 · 1:03:12
There seems to be broad agreement, even among Karl Popper's own students, that he was a deeply dogmatic individual. In this episode we ask the question 'Was Karl Popper…
Sep 11, 2022 · 1:15:01
Blake Lemoine, the ex-Google engineer, claims LaMDA -- Google's language model -- is sentient. Is he right? Alan Turing is perhaps most famous for his "Turing Test" which is a…
Aug 1, 2022 · 59:08
Is Elon Musk right that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) research is like 'summoning the demon' and should be regulated? In episodes 48 and 49, we discussed how our genes…
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