Ben Chugg
Co-Host of Increments
I'm a PhD student in machine learning and statistics at CMU, where I work on various problems in mathematical statistics and probability theory. My background involves some math, some computer science, and a stint at a law school where I learned to pretend that I knew something about law.
Ben Chugg has hosted 92 Episodes.
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#76 (Bonus) - Is P(doom) meaningful? Debating epistemology (w/ Liron Shapira)
November 8th, 2024 | 2 hrs 50 mins
ai, bayes, belief, epistemology, induction, popper, prediction
We were invited onto Liron Shapira's "Doom debates" to discuss Bayesian versus Popperian epistemology, AI doom, and superintelligence. Unsurprisingly, we got about one third of the way through the first subject ...
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#75 - The Problem of Induction, Relitigated (w/ Tamler Sommers)
October 23rd, 2024 | 1 hr 41 mins
belief, certainty, deduction, induction, justification, logic, popper
When Very Bad Wizards meets Very Culty Popperians. Famed philosopher, podcaster, and Kant-hater Tamler Sommers joins the boys for a spirited disagreement over Popper, and whether he solved the Problem of Induction.
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#74 - Disagreeing about Belief, Probability, and Truth (w/ David Deutsch)
October 1st, 2024 | 1 hr 32 mins
belief, certainty, epistemology, mathematics, probability, statistics, truth
We talk with David Deutsch about whether the concept of belief is a useful lens on human cognition, when probability and statistics are actually useful, and whether he disagrees with Karl Popper about the truth.
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#73 - The Unfairness of Proportional Representation
September 13th, 2024 | 1 hr 25 mins
democracy, first-past-the-post, government, policies, popper, proportional-representation
We discuss Karl Popper's theory of democracy, and why the first-past-the-post voting system is better than proportional representation.
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#72 (C&R, Chap. 19: Part II) - On the (alleged) Right of a Nation to Self-Determination
August 27th, 2024 | 51 mins 18 secs
conjectures and refutations, nation-state, nationalism, optimism, popper, progress
Second half of Chapter 19 of Conjectures and Refutations. Can we make it through more than one of Popper's five theses this time? (Hint: No, no we cannot)
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#71 (C&R, Chap 19: Part I) - The History of Our Time: An Optimist's View
August 2nd, 2024 | 1 hr 12 mins
conjectures and refutations, evil, good, history, incentives, popper, progress
A dive into Chapter 19 of Conjectures and Refutations, resulting in an hour long argument between Ben and Vaden about whether people are good, bad, or you know, just signaling.
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#70 - ... and Bayes Bites Back (w/ Richard Meadows)
July 9th, 2024 | 1 hr 30 mins
bayesianism, decision-making, probability, rationality, uncertainty
Rich comes on to defend Scott Alexander against our criticisms. Are we being unfair? Are the Bayesians simply the Most Rational People (MRP) and we can't handle it?
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#69 - Contra Scott Alexander on Probability
June 20th, 2024 | 1 hr 45 mins
bayesianism, credences, frequentism, probability, scott alexander, superforecasting
Cursed to return to this subject again, we attack the big man himself on probability. What's your credence that we're correct?
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#68 - Libertarianism IV: Political Issues (w/ Bruce Nielson)
May 30th, 2024 | 1 hr 50 mins
counterfactuals, libertarianism, metaphysics, politics
In our last libertarianism episode we tackle the remaining part of Scott's FAQ: Political issues! Can government ever do anything right? How should we think about that question? Is Scott being fair to libertarians?
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#67 - Libertarianism III: Social Issues (w/ Bruce Nielson)
May 9th, 2024 | 1 hr 45 mins
just desserts, libertarianism, regulation, social mobility, taxation
Back for part III of libertarianism series, when we find out if poor people deserve to be poor!
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#66 - Sex Research, Addiction, and Financial Domination (w/ Aella)
April 18th, 2024 | 1 hr 6 mins
addiction, aella, escorting, fetishes, financial domination, findom, neo-trad, onlyfans, sex research
Aella joins the boys for a chat on fetishes, gangbangs, OnlyFans, addiction, and the crazy underground world of Financial Domination (aka 'findom').
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#65 - Libertarianism II: Economic Issues (w/ Bruce Nielson)
March 28th, 2024 | 1 hr 33 mins
coercion, coordination-problems, externalities, irrationality, libertarianism, non-aggression-principle
In our second episode on Libertarianism, we finally dive into the meat of Scott Alexander's excellent critique, and cover four major flaws with the libertarian position - externalities, coordination problems, irrational choices, and lack of information. Buckle up.
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#64 - Libertarianism I: Intro and Moral Issues (w/ Bruce Nielson)
March 6th, 2024 | 1 hr 52 mins
incrementalism, libertarianism, morality, politics
First episode in a series on libertarianism. Coercion, taxation, freedom, liberty, every annoying keyword you've ever heard! Let's have it out.
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#63 - Recycling is the Dumps
February 14th, 2024 | 1 hr 6 mins
garbage, landfills, recycling
A deep dive into the world of recycling! Is it clean, green, and everything that is right with the world? Or is it wasteful, inefficient, and one big pile of virtue signaling?
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#61 - Debating Free Will: Frankenstein's Monster and a Filmstrip of the Universe (with Lucas Smalldon)
January 17th, 2024 | 1 hr 42 mins
determinism, explanation, free will, moral responsibility, reductionism
We have Lucas Smalldon on for a good ol' fashion free will debate. In particular, we discuss his blog post "Reconciling Free Will with Determinism" and try to sort of the age old question of whether or not we have the ability to make choices.
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#60 - Creativity and Computational Universality (with Bruce Nielson)
January 3rd, 2024 | 1 hr 58 mins
chaos theory, creativity, determinism, turing-completeness, universality
Bruce Nielsen makes his first appearance on the podcast to push us on machine intelligence and creativity, computational universality, Roger Penrose, and everything in between!