JB

Sorry, fixed:

mp3:

https://orangebud.co.uk/BBC Radio 4 Beyond Belief – New atheism 2026-10-13.mp3

If there are any problems with the link, let me know.  Left-click: play, right-click: save-link-as/download.

Here’s a programme that was on BBC Radio 4 the other day: “New Atheism”.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0032s9x

Reg:

Environment: CNN’s scary plastics report should be tossed into the recycling bin.

This reminds me of the scare talk of last decade when people were alleging that the bread used by Subway Sandwiches™ contained the same plastics used in yoga mats.

I responded by going to my quiet space and said “OOOhm! Best Yoga mats I’ve ever t…[Read more]

Fellow Unbelievers:

Bobby Brainworm and some rotten people in the State of Denmark are repeating a version of the infamous Tuskeegee Syphillis Experiment:
Controversial vaccine trial touted by RFK Jr gets go-ahead in Guinea-Bissau
Recommended dose of hepatitis B vaccine will be withheld from thousands of newborns by Danish researchers
Melody…[Read more]

Reg, Jake, Simon, and Fellow Unbelievers:

To expect AI to practice Philosophical thought and to act ethically first requires creators and owners who do the same. For once, here’s some words from both the “Godfather” of AI and from a AI component manufacturer.

AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton: ‘We’re creating alien beings. I’m willing to be selfi…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
What do you mean by “thorough and satisfactorily.” How do you determine it is satisfactory. What makes your interpretation of human behavior better than another? Those questions involve reasoning about evidence, explanatory adequacy and competing hypotheses.

A good example is conceptions of fairness, how it evo…[Read more]

Reg:

Sorry, I meant Thomas Nagel. But while I’m thinking of it, “What is it like for Earnest Nagel to be Thomas Nagel?”
😁

Reg, Simon, and Jake:

“Mister Earnest Nagel, call your office! A bat,a bee, and a flying squirrel are waiting on the Party Line! The flying squirrel says: ‘Again?'”
📞📵📱📠😁

If the philosophy is descriptive, then the main question is whether the description is accurate, not whether the describer has personally lived the experience. You cannot fully know what it is like to be another human being either. Even a complete objective description of a bat’s physiology and behavior will likely fail to capture what being that…[Read more]

But an AI machine will never know what it’s like to be any human.  At least I know what it’s like to be one.

IDK Simon.

You can tell us what it is like to be you. How much differently you feel after someone you love dies, after your bet loses, been informed you have a horrible disease, your friend is getting married. But you can’t tell what is like to be another human any better than an lLM. If anything LLM’s are better situated to do so. They interact…[Read more]

The Oxford article is good.

Here is the one part i take exception. “They cannot, by themselves, tell us whether those answers are well founded, ethically defensible, historically informed, or rhetorically misleading.”

There are or will be millions of agents and ideally they will train children to be skeptical and acute. Yea i know that is a…[Read more]

LLMs will never be able to tell us what it’s like to be human.  The philosophy I do is all descriptive, so it means reporting on what humans do and how they think, and painting a picture that purports to be factual.  The only checking required is that the arguments are thorough, that they answer questions satisfactorily, and that they’re c…[Read more]

Reg and Simon:

Will artificial intelligence change how philosophy is conducted?

While I would never want to farm out philosophy to AI or any other intelligent being, once they have a level of intelligence equal to or exceeding humans, they can all be partners in better understanding concepts in Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Political…[Read more]

Jake:

“I have to praise you like I should” since you pay more attention to writing than Turning Point-ers* pay attention to their own Bibles.

But Turning Point-ers are too busy reading The Daily Mail’s latest…[Read more]

But can philosophers handle AI?

Jake:

Enco,

“If TPUSA comes to your town, Please, I abhor you:”

Reimagine that sentence. I implore you.

Great catch! ⚾

A little ‘Inside Baseball” from a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000:

Whenever Joel and/or the Bots are making an empassioned plea, They’ll always say: “Please, I abhor you…”

One of their many humorous tics of spe…

I don’t see any reason the facacta computer won’t surpass all philosophers in moral philosophy.

Based on query i fed Meta about William Lane Craig debate i suspect it is a fait accompli. And why not. It is just reasoning.

Enco,

“If TPUSA comes to your town, Please, I abhor you:”

Reimagine that sentence. I implore you.