256. Psychedelics, Consciousness, and AI | Richard Dawkins

Dr. Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist, theorist, and one of the world’s foremost atheists. In this episode, Dr. Dawkins and I discuss religion, psychedelics, consciousness, symbolism, postmodernism, and the importance of objective truth. Links: To follow Dawkins on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins Website: https://richarddawkins.com/ Read Dawkins’ articles: https://richarddawkins.com/articles To donate to the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science: https://richarddawkins.net/donate/ Show Notes: [0:00] Intro [1:30] Jordan’s rise to fame, Bill C-16, and Free Speech [5:30] Intimidation and fear of speaking out against the far left [9:10] Micro retreats [11:40] Dawkins’ paper about the organism as a model [18:30] Female sexual selection [21:10] Differences between Jordan and Dr. Dawkins' thinking [24:00] Jeffrey Gray, his work on modeling, Psychedelics, and Anxiety [30:00] Psychedelics, Symbolism, and Consciousness [41:00] Jordan’s experiences with psilocybin and yoga [45:40] Postmodernism, Lacan, Foucault, and Mikhaila’s Oxford Union debate [52:30] Jordan addresses Dawkins' assertion that despite being against postmodernist thinking he at times utilizes symbolism to speculate in a way which is similar to them. [53:50] Finding commonality between myths and symbols across cultures [55:50] False pattern recognition and revelatory thoughts [59:20] Objective truth and the scientific process [1:07:10] Unpleasant or dangerous truths [1:08:10] The metaphysical vision of the redeeming power of truth [1:10:10] Jordan and Dawkins discuss the idea that a narrative drives the process of inquiry, even in regards to objective truth [1:12:50] Humans’ ability to understand difficult concepts on a biological level [1:16:10] Question: Do you identify the religious impulse or even the religious phenomenon with the totalitarian proclivity for dogmatic certainty and the potential acceleration of aggression and atrocity as a consequence? [1:20:10] Question: To what degree do you think that consciousness operates as a fundamental mechanism of selection and shaping? [1:23:00] Artificial intelligence and the metaphysical significance of consciousness