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    <fireside:genDate>Mon, 04 May 2026 09:07:04 -0500</fireside:genDate>
    <generator>Fireside (https://fireside.fm)</generator>
    <title>Increments - Episodes Tagged with “Moral Responsibility”</title>
    <link>https://www.incrementspodcast.com/tags/moral%20responsibility</link>
    <pubDate>Wed, 17 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
    <description>Vaden Masrani, a senior research scientist in machine learning, and Ben Chugg, a PhD student in statistics, get into trouble arguing about everything except machine learning and statistics. Coherence is somewhere on the horizon. 
Bribes, suggestions, love-mail and hate-mail all welcome at incrementspodcast@gmail.com. 
</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <itunes:type>episodic</itunes:type>
    <itunes:subtitle>Science, Philosophy, Epistemology, Mayhem</itunes:subtitle>
    <itunes:author>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</itunes:author>
    <itunes:summary>Vaden Masrani, a senior research scientist in machine learning, and Ben Chugg, a PhD student in statistics, get into trouble arguing about everything except machine learning and statistics. Coherence is somewhere on the horizon. 
Bribes, suggestions, love-mail and hate-mail all welcome at incrementspodcast@gmail.com. 
</itunes:summary>
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    <itunes:keywords>Philosophy,Science,Ethics,Progress,Knowledge,Computer Science,Conversation,Error-Correction</itunes:keywords>
    <itunes:owner>
      <itunes:name>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</itunes:name>
      <itunes:email>incrementspodcast@gmail.com</itunes:email>
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  <title>#61 - Debating Free Will: Frankenstein's Monster and a Filmstrip of the Universe (with Lucas Smalldon)</title>
  <link>https://www.incrementspodcast.com/61</link>
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  <pubDate>Wed, 17 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
  <author>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</author>
  <enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/https://chrt.fm/track/1F5B4D/aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/3229e340-4bf1-42a5-a5b7-4f508a27131c/e4357549-eb00-4824-8de7-822f7a647743.mp3" length="100168937" type="audio/mpeg"/>
  <itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType>
  <itunes:author>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</itunes:author>
  <itunes:subtitle>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. </itunes:subtitle>
  <itunes:duration>1:42:49</itunes:duration>
  <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
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  <description>&lt;p&gt;While you're reading this you're having a thought. Something like "wow, I love the Increments podcast", or "those hosts are some handsome" or "I really wish people would stop talking about free will." Do you have a choice in the matter? Are you free to choose what you're thinking in any given moment, or is it determined by your genetics, environment, and existing ideas? Is the universe determined, are we all Frankenstein's monster? How does one profitably think about that question? Today we have Lucas Smalldon on to help us think through these questions. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We reference Lucas's blog post titled &lt;a href="https://barelymorethanatweet.com/2021/01/05/reconciling-determinism-and-free-will/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;reconciling-determinism-and-free-will&lt;/a&gt;. Because it's is barely more than a tweet, we've included the entire post here as well: &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;hr&gt;

Reconciling Free Will with Determinism

&lt;p&gt;Free will and determinism seem to conflict with each other. But the apparent conflict disappears when we understand that determinism and free will simply describe the world from radically different perspectives and at fundamentally different levels. Free will makes sense only &lt;em&gt;within&lt;/em&gt; the context of the physical world, whereas determinism makes sense only from a perspective that is &lt;em&gt;outside&lt;/em&gt; the physical world. Consider the determinist statement, “The future exists and has always existed”. It seems like a contradiction in terms, but only because our language forces us to express the idea misleadingly in terms of the past and future. If we assign special meanings to the temporal words in the statement—namely, if by &lt;em&gt;the future&lt;/em&gt; we mean “objectively real events that from the perspective of our present have not yet happened”; and if by &lt;em&gt;always&lt;/em&gt; we mean “transcending time itself” rather than the usual “existing across all time”—then the contradiction resolves. Assigning these special meanings allows us to express determinism as atemporal and objective: as a description of a physical reality &lt;em&gt;of which time is an attribute.&lt;/em&gt; Conversely, free will, which is by far the more intuitive concept, is needed to explain certain kinds of events (i.e., choices) that occur &lt;em&gt;within&lt;/em&gt; time, and thus within the physical world that determinism describes from the outside. Determinism and free will are compatible. We really do make choices. It’s just that, from an atemporal determinist perspective, these choices have “always” existed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;hr&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Follow Lucas on &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/reason_wit_me?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;twitter&lt;/a&gt; or check out his &lt;a href="https://barelymorethanatweet.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;blog&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;

We discuss

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Levels of explanation regarding free will &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The (in)compatibility of different levels of explanation&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Why the lack of free will does not hinge on reductionism&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Memetic arguments for the non-existence of free will &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Whether we can have moral responsibility without free will &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The universe as a filmstrip &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Whether we're all just Frankenstein's monster &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

Socials

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Help us find freedom and get exclusive bonus content by becoming a patreon subscriber &lt;a href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations &lt;a href="https://ko-fi.com/increments" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Click dem like buttons on &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;youtube&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;How much do you want to want Frankenstein's monster? Send your answer down the tubes and over to &lt;a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;incrementspodcast@gmail.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Special Guest: Lucas Smalldon.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
  <itunes:keywords>free will, determinism, moral responsibility, explanation, reductionism</itunes:keywords>
  <content:encoded>
    <![CDATA[<p>While you&#39;re reading this you&#39;re having a thought. Something like &quot;wow, I love the Increments podcast&quot;, or &quot;those hosts are some handsome&quot; or &quot;I really wish people would stop talking about free will.&quot; Do you have a choice in the matter? Are you free to choose what you&#39;re thinking in any given moment, or is it determined by your genetics, environment, and existing ideas? Is the universe determined, are we all Frankenstein&#39;s monster? How does one profitably think about that question? Today we have Lucas Smalldon on to help us think through these questions. </p>

<p>We reference Lucas&#39;s blog post titled <a href="https://barelymorethanatweet.com/2021/01/05/reconciling-determinism-and-free-will/" rel="nofollow">reconciling-determinism-and-free-will</a>. Because it&#39;s is barely more than a tweet, we&#39;ve included the entire post here as well: </p>

<hr>

<h1>Reconciling Free Will with Determinism</h1>

<p>Free will and determinism seem to conflict with each other. But the apparent conflict disappears when we understand that determinism and free will simply describe the world from radically different perspectives and at fundamentally different levels. Free will makes sense only <em>within</em> the context of the physical world, whereas determinism makes sense only from a perspective that is <em>outside</em> the physical world. Consider the determinist statement, “The future exists and has always existed”. It seems like a contradiction in terms, but only because our language forces us to express the idea misleadingly in terms of the past and future. If we assign special meanings to the temporal words in the statement—namely, if by <em>the future</em> we mean “objectively real events that from the perspective of our present have not yet happened”; and if by <em>always</em> we mean “transcending time itself” rather than the usual “existing across all time”—then the contradiction resolves. Assigning these special meanings allows us to express determinism as atemporal and objective: as a description of a physical reality <em>of which time is an attribute.</em> Conversely, free will, which is by far the more intuitive concept, is needed to explain certain kinds of events (i.e., choices) that occur <em>within</em> time, and thus within the physical world that determinism describes from the outside. Determinism and free will are compatible. We really do make choices. It’s just that, from an atemporal determinist perspective, these choices have “always” existed.</p>

<hr>

<p>Follow Lucas on <a href="https://twitter.com/reason_wit_me?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="nofollow">twitter</a> or check out his <a href="https://barelymorethanatweet.com/" rel="nofollow">blog</a>. </p>

<h1>We discuss</h1>

<ul>
<li>Levels of explanation regarding free will </li>
<li>The (in)compatibility of different levels of explanation</li>
<li>Why the lack of free will does not hinge on reductionism</li>
<li>Memetic arguments for the non-existence of free will </li>
<li>Whether we can have moral responsibility without free will </li>
<li>The universe as a filmstrip </li>
<li>Whether we&#39;re all just Frankenstein&#39;s monster </li>
</ul>

<h1>Socials</h1>

<ul>
<li>Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani</li>
<li>Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link</li>
<li>Help us find freedom and get exclusive bonus content by becoming a patreon subscriber <a href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations <a href="https://ko-fi.com/increments" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</li>
<li>Click dem like buttons on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" rel="nofollow">youtube</a></li>
</ul>

<p>How much do you want to want Frankenstein&#39;s monster? Send your answer down the tubes and over to <a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">incrementspodcast@gmail.com</a></p><p>Special Guest: Lucas Smalldon.</p><p><a rel="payment" href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments">Support Increments</a></p>]]>
  </content:encoded>
  <itunes:summary>
    <![CDATA[<p>While you&#39;re reading this you&#39;re having a thought. Something like &quot;wow, I love the Increments podcast&quot;, or &quot;those hosts are some handsome&quot; or &quot;I really wish people would stop talking about free will.&quot; Do you have a choice in the matter? Are you free to choose what you&#39;re thinking in any given moment, or is it determined by your genetics, environment, and existing ideas? Is the universe determined, are we all Frankenstein&#39;s monster? How does one profitably think about that question? Today we have Lucas Smalldon on to help us think through these questions. </p>

<p>We reference Lucas&#39;s blog post titled <a href="https://barelymorethanatweet.com/2021/01/05/reconciling-determinism-and-free-will/" rel="nofollow">reconciling-determinism-and-free-will</a>. Because it&#39;s is barely more than a tweet, we&#39;ve included the entire post here as well: </p>

<hr>

<h1>Reconciling Free Will with Determinism</h1>

<p>Free will and determinism seem to conflict with each other. But the apparent conflict disappears when we understand that determinism and free will simply describe the world from radically different perspectives and at fundamentally different levels. Free will makes sense only <em>within</em> the context of the physical world, whereas determinism makes sense only from a perspective that is <em>outside</em> the physical world. Consider the determinist statement, “The future exists and has always existed”. It seems like a contradiction in terms, but only because our language forces us to express the idea misleadingly in terms of the past and future. If we assign special meanings to the temporal words in the statement—namely, if by <em>the future</em> we mean “objectively real events that from the perspective of our present have not yet happened”; and if by <em>always</em> we mean “transcending time itself” rather than the usual “existing across all time”—then the contradiction resolves. Assigning these special meanings allows us to express determinism as atemporal and objective: as a description of a physical reality <em>of which time is an attribute.</em> Conversely, free will, which is by far the more intuitive concept, is needed to explain certain kinds of events (i.e., choices) that occur <em>within</em> time, and thus within the physical world that determinism describes from the outside. Determinism and free will are compatible. We really do make choices. It’s just that, from an atemporal determinist perspective, these choices have “always” existed.</p>

<hr>

<p>Follow Lucas on <a href="https://twitter.com/reason_wit_me?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="nofollow">twitter</a> or check out his <a href="https://barelymorethanatweet.com/" rel="nofollow">blog</a>. </p>

<h1>We discuss</h1>

<ul>
<li>Levels of explanation regarding free will </li>
<li>The (in)compatibility of different levels of explanation</li>
<li>Why the lack of free will does not hinge on reductionism</li>
<li>Memetic arguments for the non-existence of free will </li>
<li>Whether we can have moral responsibility without free will </li>
<li>The universe as a filmstrip </li>
<li>Whether we&#39;re all just Frankenstein&#39;s monster </li>
</ul>

<h1>Socials</h1>

<ul>
<li>Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani</li>
<li>Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link</li>
<li>Help us find freedom and get exclusive bonus content by becoming a patreon subscriber <a href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations <a href="https://ko-fi.com/increments" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</li>
<li>Click dem like buttons on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" rel="nofollow">youtube</a></li>
</ul>

<p>How much do you want to want Frankenstein&#39;s monster? Send your answer down the tubes and over to <a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">incrementspodcast@gmail.com</a></p><p>Special Guest: Lucas Smalldon.</p><p><a rel="payment" href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments">Support Increments</a></p>]]>
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