Bad Philosophy

Unless you’ve been living under a diamond the size of Manhattan recently, you’ve no doubt noticed the release of the much-hyped movie Avatar, James Cameron‘s latest bulldozer-full of eye candy. It’s got noble savages, heavy-handed environmentalism, and more stunning CGI visuals than anything George Lucas could ever hope to conjure forth. Shortly after BF newcomer [...]

Ep054 Eywa Ex Machina [ 43:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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3D, Alamo Drafthouse, aliens, Avatar, biology, consciousness, Dances with Wolves, dwarves, emergence, environmentalism, film, gnomes, hobbits, James Cameron, Joss Whedon, Jurassic Park, Kevin, Kristin, Mark Cuban, movies, Native Americans, noble savage, Pokemon, porn, racism, Samurai Pizza Cats, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, Sigourney Weaver, Smurfs, spiritualism, Star Wars, Stephen, The Core, The Matrix, unobtainium, worship

Can you believe it? Fifty episodes! FIVE OH! Well… that is if you sorta count Episode Zero, don’t count the Lost Episode, count Episode 21b as Episode 21, count Episode 42b as Episode 42, count Episodes 46 and 49 even though they’re video only and… aw, screw it, just humor us, okay? So in homage [...]

Ep050 Includes Teeth [ 43:13 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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balloon boy, blogging, Bryan M, consciousness, CPR, David, Dungeons and Dragons, Ender's Game, error reporting, Facebook, First Amendment, Freebirds, Google Wave, Homeward Bound, Hot Pockets, Hot Topic, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, John Stuart Mill, Katie, Kevin, Matt, metaphysics, Michael A, Microsoft, Milo and Otis, Monty Python, music, mustaches, MythBusters, Nightmare Before Christmas, Penny Arcade, physics, programming, radio, Saturday Night Live, Speaker for the Dead, statistics, Stephen, time, Twitter, Weekend Update, Wikipedia

Why are we here? What’s this all about? What is my purpose? What is yours? Is there even one at all? These are easy questions to ask, but answering them is a whole different story. Wolfram Alpha has one idea. We’ve got some others.

Ep035 Intellectual Hedonism [ 57:18 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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anarchy, Aristotle, Battlestar Galactica, cognition, computers, consciousness, decision theory, Douglas Adams, evolution, existentialism, happiness, hedonism, Hinduism, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, immortality, intelligence, Jediah, Josh, Kevin, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, mathematics, meta, Moore's Law, morality, nihilism, Pentium, philosophy of mind, physics, progress, purpose, rationality, reincarnation, religion, science, singularity, Star Trek, statistics, Stephen, stock market, suicide, teleology, Turing test, value, Wall-E, YouTube

Joining us for Kevin’s last live episode was Bryan Mitchell and Numero Uno Fanboy Jed Cummins. We had some audio woes (read: Bryan turned his microphone off) and video stream woes that ruined the opening bit, but through the magic of GarageBand I have made all right with the world. We talked Dollhouse, philosophy of mind, and Swine Flu, leading Kevin to do a classic rant on politics. Relish this episode, everyone, it’s special…

Ep031 Farewell to a Legend [ 42:35 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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AIDS, alcohol, anarchocapitalism, anime, autocracy, beer, Bryan, Centers for Disease Control, Congress, consciousness, Cory Doctorow, democracy, Dollhouse, education, Egypt, epidemic, ethics, Family Guy, government, health, Hobbes, human rights, idealism, identity theory, illegal immigration, influenza, Isaac Asimov, Jediah, Jon Stewart, Joss Whedon, Kevin, l33t, Little Brother, Locke, Lubbock, mainstream media, martial law, paranoia, philosophy of mind, political philosophy, pork, rape, rational anarchy, robots, sex, society, South Park, Star Trek, Stephen, swine flu, TASS, Texas Tech University, The Day After Tomorrow, The Happening, The Stand, thermodynamics, This Week in Tech, Three Laws of Robotics, Twitter, UIL, US Constitution, Vietnam, World Health Organization