Vaden Masrani
Co-Host of Increments
I’m currently a Ph.D student at the University of British Columbia where I focus on machine learning, probabilistic programming, bayesian inference and other topics included under the umbrella term "artificial intelligence." I'm also interested on the applied side of machine learning, and have worked on computer vision, natural language processing for biomedical applications, and particle physics in my masters and undergraduate days.
Here, however, I try to avoid all the technical mumbo-jumbo and just shoot the s*** with my good buddy, and childhood friend, Ben Chugg. Some philosopher we never talk about once said "because knowledge is an adventure of ideas", and that's our only goal with the podcast - to enjoy the adventure.
Vaden Masrani has hosted 67 Episodes.
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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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#62 (Bonus) - The Principle of Optimism (Vaden on the Theory of Anything Podcast)
January 31st, 2024 | 2 hrs 45 mins
constraints, epistemology, optimism, physics, progress
Listen to Vaden's dulcet tones on Bruce Nielson's Theory of Anything Podcast discussing the principle of optimism.
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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.
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#53 - Ask Us Anything II: Disagreements and Decisions
August 14th, 2023 | 1 hr 34 mins
ask-us-anything, bayesianism, decision-making, disagreements, probability
Ask us anything? Ask us everything! Back at it again with AUA Part 2/N. We wax poetic and wane dramatic on disagreements, decision-making, EA, and probability
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#52 - Ask Us Anything I: Computation and Creativity
July 10th, 2023 | 1 hr 13 mins
ask-us-anything, computation, creativity, universality
Our first ask us anything episode! We get through a whopping ... two questions.
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#51 - Truth, Moose, and Refrigerated Eggplant: Critiquing Chapman's Meta-Rationality
May 29th, 2023 | 1 hr 12 mins
chapman, epistemology, nebulosity, popper, rationality
We discuss David Chapman's work on nebulosity, the correspondence theory of truth, and how it relates to Karl Popper's epistemology.