This episode originally appeared in episode 318, Feb 2019.
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Dr Michael Shermer is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and editor-in-chief of its magazine Skeptic. Shermer engages in debates on topics pertaining to pseudoscience and religion in which he emphasizes scientific skepticism.
He’s also a monthly columnist for Scientific American, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University where he teaches Skepticism 101. He is the author of Why People Believe Weird Things, Why Darwin Matters, The Science of Good and Evil, and The Moral Arc. His new book is Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality & Utopia.
Shermer is also a member of what’s become known as the intellectual dark web, alongside others such as Sam Harris, Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Jordan Peterson.
Having recently appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience and the David Rubin Show, today he appears for the first time on Future Squared.
We covered a lot of ground in this episode, including:
- People’s last words and what we can glean from them about how we live our lives
- Immortality and whether you and I might live long enough to live forever
- Tribalism, identity politics and diversity quotas in tech
This only scratches the surface of what we covered, so sit back and strap yourselves in for an enlightening conversation with the skeptic, Dr. Michael Shermer.
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Topics Discussed:
- Michael’s new book, Heavens on Earth
- Our fear of death and how people come to terms with the inevitable
- People’s last words
- The afterlife
- The technotopian quest for immortality
- The intellectual dark web
- Jordan Peterson
- The meaning of life
- Why people believe in God
- Evolutionary advantages of belief
- Morality without religion
- Tribalism and identity politics
- Diversity quotas in tech
- The shortcomings of science
- Why decision outcomes shouldn’t be equated with the quality of the decision
- Stein’s Law
- The value of counterfactuals
Show Notes:
- michaelshermer.com
- skeptic.com
- Twitter: @michaelshermer
- Shermer’s books: https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Shermer/e/B001H6MCNY/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1550116103&sr=1-1
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