• Ted Chiang's Understand: Intelligence explosions and AI doom
    Oct 14 2024

    Yeah, it's big brain time. This week we're reading 'Understand' from Ted Chiang's 2002 collection Stories of Your Life and Others.

    what is the ceiling on human intelligence? can we jooce it up? did Chiang inspire the whole AI doomer movement? would superintelligence beings have to annihilate each other instead of cooperating? Do we buy the orthogonality thesis?

    Also: introducing David Deutsch's 'universal explainer' theory of intelligence, which gives radically different answers to all of the above. Is the dumbest guy you know really capable of making novel advances in quantum physics? The answer may surprise you.

    On abstractions and 'chunking': how important is working memory? Should we expect our high-level explanations to converge on a theory of everything? Would super-smart people really communicate in short series of grunts? Could they hack their own autonomic nervous systems or incept a linguistic killshot?

    tl;dr: gestalt gestalt gestalt gestalt gestalt gestalt. gestalt gestalt? gestalt gestalt, gestalt.

    CHAPTERS

    • (00:00:00) intro and synopsis
    • (00:05:13) Can you jooce up human intelligence
    • 00:14:53) How would super-smart people communicate?
    • (00:22:01) ’chunking’ abstractions towards a theory of everything
    • (00:39:23) behavioral priming gone WILD (Greco vs Reynolds grunt battle)
    • (00:51:23) why can’t we all just get along??
    • (00:55:40) reconciling David Deutsch’s ’universal explainer’ theory with IQ
    • (01:16:42) unresolved AI safety concerns

    SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS:

    We love to share listener feedback on the pod, so send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our bad takes or share your own or just say hello.

    NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

    My Struggle, volume 1 - Karl Ove Knausgaard

    Lolita - Nabokov

    The Moviegoer - Walker Percy

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    1 hr and 23 mins
  • Chekhov urself before u wreck-ov urself (The Little Trilogy)
    Sep 30 2024

    This week we're reading three of Anton Chekhov's most beloved short stories: The Man in the Case, Gooseberries, and About Love (The Little Trilogy, 1898).

    We get a minor assist from George Saunders and his fantastic book A Swim in the Pond in the Rain but have no shortage of stuff to discuss.

    Talking big 5 personality traits, the degree to which people oppress themselves, why Rich fell out of love with the early retirement movement, whether it's OK to be happy in a world full of suffering, and if having to settle in romantic relationships is antithetical to true love. Also: Cam takes a controversial and brave stance against home-wreckers.

    CHAPTERS

    • (00:00:00) intro
    • (00:01:54) ’The Man in the Case’ synopsis
    • 00:07:12) Are some personality types just better than others?
    • (00:12:52) Belyakov fumbles the bag with Varenka
    • (00:24:07) Is everybody trapped in a case of their own making
    • (00:34:58) Mavra and the tranquil village
    • (00:40:15) Gooseberries synopsis
    • (00:42:30) The pitfalls of the ’early retirement’ movement
    • (00:52:55) theorising on happiness
    • (01:01:57) Ivan the big fat hypocrite
    • (01:07:23) ’About Love’ synopsis
    • (01:11:44) Did Alyohin make the right decision?
    • (01:22:10) Can love by analysed rationally
    • (01:33:49) our favourite story of the trilogy
    • (01:37:59) accessibility of chekhov

    SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS:

    We wanna start reading listener feedback out on the pod, so send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our bad takes or share your own or just say hi.

    NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

    My Struggle, volume 1 - Karl Ove Knausgaard

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    1 hr and 45 mins
  • Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms: War and love
    Sep 17 2024

    Hemingway's 1929 semi-autobiographical classic tackles two big timeless themes: love and war.

    Two out of three of us can relate to the first one, but war feels pretty alien to us. How would the boys do if they were conscripted? What made WWI so uniquely dispiriting? What is it about this novel that so faithfully captures the experience of war?

    We also talk quite a bit about Hemingway's laconic characters and terse writing style. How representative is this of his broader work? What do we think of the 'iceberg method'? Why did he go with the most depressing possible ending?

    and MORE

    CHAPTERS

    • (00:00:00) first reactions and synopsis
    • (00:06:02) Hemingway’s understated style and the ’Iceberg method’
    • (00:19:10) What made WWI a uniquely dispiriting war?
    • (00:28:35) Catherine and Henry are the same person
    • (00:38:44) downer ending
    • (00:46:45) A catalogue of arbitrary and meaningless death
    • (00:57:34) Final thoughts and next book

    SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS:

    We wanna start reading listener feedback out on the pod, so send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our bad takes or share your own.

    NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

    My Struggle, volume 1 - Karl Ove Knausgaard

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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Crime and Punishment finale: is Dostoevsky...overrated??
    Aug 27 2024

    Not too much plot to cover in parts 5 and 6; mostly we're hashing out our final thoughts on the book and Dostoevsky's legacy.

    First up is the controversial epilogue. The boys are not sure how believable Rodya's redemption is. It feels kinda cheap? Dostoevsky is not very good at character development but maybe it doesn't matter. Sonya is a perfectly implausible character who exists only as a sort of a prop for Rodya. How on earth does Dosto have a reputation for writing realistic characters? Again, it prob doesn't matter.

    Svidrigailov sneaks up on us as perhaps the most interesting (or at least the most underrated) character in the book. We talk about the three incredible scenes that bring his journey to an end: kidnapping Donya, the feverish hotel dream, and the dramatic exit.

    Finally quite a bit of discussion about whether Dostoevsky is actually any good as a thinker. Rich is not sold: the critique of utilitarianism is unfair, blind deference to tradition leaves no room for progress, and God has been pretty neatly replaced by secular humanism. Benny pushes back and adds some nuance to the problem Dosto was trying to describe, and Cam talks about how he still feels the tension between nihilism and common-sense morality.

    Don't miss the surprise guest appearance from Cam's manager. Is this the week he gets busted? will he live to skive off another day?? Tune in now to find out.

    CHAPTERS

    • (00:00:00) intriguing and important discussion on different translations (do NOT skip)
    • (00:13:15) Epilogue: Raskolnikov speedruns character development
    • (00:36:03) Sonya character analysis
    • (00:42:21) how realistic are dostoevsky’s characters?
    • (00:49:24) Svidrigailov meets his twisted end
    • (01:06:46) Are dostoevsky’s philosophical ideas actually any good
    • (01:17:26) Commonsense morality, nihilism and metaethics

    SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS:

    We wanna start reading listener feedback out on the pod, so send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our bad takes or share your own.

    NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

    Candide — Voltaire

    A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway

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    1 hr and 32 mins
  • Crime and Punishment, part 2: Three extraordinary men
    Aug 13 2024

    we're just normal men. We're just innocent men!

    In parts 3 and 4 of Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1866 Crime and Punishment we get a lot more meat on Raskolnikov's 'extraordinary man' thesis.

    How does it overlap with the concept of the Übermensch in Nietzsche and Hegel? Are we too deeply steeped in Christian morality to become 'extraordinary' without destroying ourselves?

    We reconsider Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov, and Luzhin through this lens.

    Plus: cam's obligatory sibling inc*st fantasies, rich tries to give dostoyevsky writing advice, etc

    CHAPTERS

    • (00:00:00) hangry
    • (00:02:00) the Extraordinary Man thesis
    • (00:06:28) Nietzsche, hegel and the RETVRN to bronze age morality
    • (00:13:35) Can you be an extraordinary man without breaking yourself?
    • (00:23:05) Svidrigailov introduction
    • (00:29:45) What would you do if your best friend killed someone
    • (00:34:32) lil dick Luzhin
    • (00:44:30) Lazarus story (the ultimate flipperoo)
    • (00:49:00) Porfiry’s police procedural: pragmatic pressure or pure punishment?
    • (00:59:32) could this be a shorter book
    • (01:05:33) Listener mail: revisiting Hamlet’s soliloquy

    SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS:

    We wanna start reading listener feedback out on the pod, so send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our bad takes or share your own.

    NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

    Crime and Punishment - parts 5 and 6

    Candide — Voltaire

    A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway

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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Crime and Punishment, part 1: Mister Schizo and the First Trad
    Jul 30 2024

    Cracking into the first two parts of Dostoevsky's 1866 classic Crime and Punishment.

    The first surprising thing is that this is a conservative/reactionary book: it mocks the fancy new ideas of the youth, the spirit of revolution, naive utilitarianism, etc. Jordan Peterson laps this shit up. But did the moral panic over materialism hold up? Does modern society in any way compare with the turmoil of Dostoevsky's Russia, or are we at the end of history? How relevant are Dostoevsky's concerns today?

    We argue quite a bit about that but we're more aligned on the brilliance of Dostoevsky as psychologist, and especially the character of Rodya 'mister schiz' Raskolnikov: what causes his mind to fracture so spectacularly? What motivates him to do the deed? why does Rich kinda relate to him?

    plus a masterclass on freestyle rap. and much more

    CHAPTERS

    • (00:00:00) opening rap
    • (00:04:23) history class with professor chugg
    • (00:12:13) Part 1 summary and reactions
    • (00:23:25) what motivates Rodya ’ mister schizo’ Raskolnikov?
    • (00:28:50) Dosto subtweets bentham and SBF
    • (00:40:46) Part 2 summary
    • (00:52:00) Parallels between Raskolnikov and Marmeladov
    • (00:56:08) Rodya’s amorality
    • (01:05:02) Arguing whether we live in tumultuous times comparable to Dosto’s era
    • (01:14:05) Moral panic over materialism
    • (01:21:45) Rodya’s altruism

    SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS:

    We wanna start reading listener feedback out on the pod, so send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our bad takes or share your own.

    NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

    Crime and Punishment - parts 3 and 4, then parts 5 and 6

    Candide, by Voltaire

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    1 hr and 27 mins
  • Susanna Clarke's Piranesi: Gaslight gatekeep girlboss
    Jul 17 2024

    The beauty of this book is immeasurable, and its kindness is infinite.

    We all love Susanna Clarke's 2012 metaphysical thriller, which feels like a mashup of Borges/C.S. Lewis/Gone Girl.

    Venture deeper into the labyrinth with us:

    Piranesi as amateur scientist: On indigenous knowledge, the dangers of naïve empiricism, achieving dominion over nature, and whether the Other kind of had a point.

    Metaphysics of the House: Are abstractions real, revisiting Plato's world of perfect forms, and whether the world is fundamentally Good.

    Identity and mental illness: The illusion of stable personhood over time, repressed memories as trauma response, and how a person with dementia or psychosis can maintain a consistent internal worldview.

    CHAPTERS

    • (00:00:00) meet the Beloved Child of the House
    • (00:09:55) Piranesi as amateur scientist
    • (00:19:48) metaphysics of the House and Plato’s theory of forms
    • (00:38:13) C.S. Lewis allusions
    • (00:41:21) The BIG REVEAL (spoilers)
    • (00:46:30) The illusion of stable personhood
    • (00:55:02) Internal consistency of dementia or psychosis patients
    • (01:02:30) Piranesi’s escape and reintegration
    • (01:09:11) Is the world (or the House) fundamentally Good?

    SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS:

    We wanna start reading listener feedback out on the pod, so send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our bad takes or share your own.

    NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

    Crime and Punishment - Dostoyevsky (reading in three parts over six weeks)

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    1 hr and 26 mins
  • The Tragedy of Hamlet: The O.G. annoying theatre kid
    Jul 9 2024

    holy shit this was hard. Our first attempt at shakespeare and it was a doozy!

    Rich struggled through the original text and only had the vaguest idea what was going on. Cam watched every single movie adaptation and studied for two weeks but still got casually mogged by his girlfriend.

    By the time we got done with the discussion we were all actually hyped to read more shakespeare so something must have gone right.

    Covering such topics as:

    The impenetrability of Shakespearean english, whether it's better to read modern translations or the original text, our favourite lines and soliloquies, shitting on the Freudian reading, connections to David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, and Hamlet as the archetypal annoying theatre kid.

    CHAPTERS

    • (00:00:00) intro
    • (00:03:53) ye olde Shakesperean english vs modern translations
    • (00:14:52) Cam’s film corner segment
    • (00:18:07) Hamlet’s pathological indecisiveness
    • (00:23:27) To be, or not to be?
    • (00:25:34) shitting on the Freudian/oedipal reading
    • (00:32:12) Ophelia and Gertrude’s motivations
    • (00:34:06) protestant heaven loophole
    • (00:42:15) favourite lines and famous quotes
    • (00:45:05) Influence on DFW and other theatre kids
    • (00:48:12) There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so
    • (00:51:44) we rescue the freudian/oedipal reading!
    • (00:53:08) what does the clusterfuck of an ending signify
    • (00:58:07) will we engage with W. Shakespeare again in future
    • (01:03:37) Terrence Howard penis size analysis

    SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS:

    THE ADDRESS I SAID IN THE RECORDING IS WRONG! it has since been changed to douevenlit@gmail.com

    NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

    Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

    Crime and Punishment - Dostoyevsky

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    1 hr and 10 mins