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 86 Episodes.
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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!
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#59 (C&R, Chap 8) - On the Status of Science and Metaphysics (Plus reflections on the Brett Hall blog exchange)
December 22nd, 2023 | 1 hr 26 mins
austrianism, conjectures-and-refutations, copernicus, induction, irrefutability, kant, metaphysics, prediction
Chapter 8 of conjectures and refutations! Back on the horse baby, talkin' bout Kant, induction, irrefutability, induction - all the good stuff. Oh, and also Vaden's failed blog exchange w/ Brett Hall
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#58 - Ask Us Anything V: How to Read and What to Read
November 29th, 2023 | 1 hr 40 mins
anti-rational memes, ask-us-anything, books, e-fuels, veganism
In this episode we finally conclude our AUA series. We cover subjects like "how to read and learn more effectively", "can you change your own interests", "which books/authors have influenced you the most", veganism, rational/anti-rational memes, stoicism, and e-fuels.
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#57 (Bonus) - A calm and soothing discussion of The Patriarchy
November 15th, 2023 | 1 hr 1 min
activism, feminism, progress, sexism, the patriarchy
A sneak preview into what is usually reserved for our patrons! We talk patriachy as causal explanation vs patriarchy as description. Let's get spicy
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#56 - Ask Us Anything IV: Certainty, Emergence, and Popperian Imperatives
November 1st, 2023 | 1 hr 21 mins
ask-us-anything, belief, certainty, confidence, emergence, moral imperatives
Perhaps you thought, in your infinite ignorance, that the release of the previous episode marked the end of the age of the AMA! But nay: the age of the AMA has just begun!
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#55 - Is all thought problem-solving?
October 9th, 2023 | 54 mins 9 secs
consciousness, problem-solving, thought
We return to the argument from last episode: Is all thought problem-solving? This epic showdown might catalyze the next world war, listen accordingly.
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#54 - Ask Us Anything III: Emotional Epistemology
September 18th, 2023 | 1 hr 18 mins
ask-us-anything, emotions, epistemology, problem-solving, thinking, universality
The third of infinite installments in our ask us anything series. We touch on universality, emotions, epistemology, and whether all thinking is problem solving.