You’re Not Smarter Than a Caveman – How Did We Get So Clever? – David Deutsch
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– VIDEO NOTES
David Deutsch is a British physicist at the University of Oxford, often described as the “father of quantum computing”. He is a visiting professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation in the Clarendon Laboratory of the University of Oxford. (Wikipedia)
– TIMESTAMPS
0:00 â Are Humans More Intelligent Now Than in the Past?
09:33 â What Happened to Kickstart Exponential Growth?
11:45 â The Acceleration of Exponential Growth (continued)
22:24 â When was âThe Enlightenmentâ and How Did it Happen?
39:25 â The Defining Feature of the Enlightenment
45:32 â Our Theory of Education is Completely Wrong
59:39 â What is the Difference Between Knowledge and Belief?
01:24:19 â Does Science Explain Anything? Or Just Describe Things?
– CONNECT
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The Within Reason Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/within-reason/id1458675168
– CONTACT
Business email: contact@alexoconnor.com
——————————————
@aroemaliuged4776
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
The exponential curve with
Yes Alex
We had the same brain 100k years ago plus culture
@aroemaliuged4776
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
This is why asi is scary
4:42
@yizhizhu5154
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Evolution can happen pretty fast tho, or the selection part of it.
@marcjohler7595
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
The way David roasts Alex while talking about the hypothetical with the definition of 'bachelor' is hilarious đ
Alex seems to agree according to his reaction
@Enoughdata
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
1:09:12 so then surely he must realize his claim here must contain some element that is not true. If we're doomed to always have elements of truth, then literally what he just said claiming we don't have access to truth cannot be entirely true.
@grumblewoof4721
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Imagine if you gave all of our ancient ancestors, at a specific time like beamed them down with an instructor; an iPhone, Computer, Internet, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter etc… and ChatGPT 5…. how quickly would they invent Donald Trump ?
@SigSantilio
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Thanks, such a wonderful video
@deplant5998
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Epistemic Structural Realism.
@polychad
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
How exactly does IQ fit into his worldview? I hope he touches upon this in the interview else I'll be thoroughly disappointed.
@SamuelClemens-o6q
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
I can't help but think that the US is no longer a place that can create new Galileos.
@RonJohn63
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
I love the Encyclopaedia Britannica in Deutch's bookshelf.
EDIT: apparently, there's also a Jewish Encyclopedia; the titles were harder to read. Love that, too.
@AlistairGale
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Ask him about Gaza. Einstein may be the only Jewish physicist with decent views about Israel.
@ShameOnZionists
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Amazing
@xelazip
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Just had a farrier here to tend the horsesâ feet last week
@delatroy
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Just let him talk
@TheTarasbarabas
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Innovations implemented …nglosphere blah blah . Maybe centre of a global empire being in "anglosphere" anything to do with it? What a ..ck.
@jonjosenna5581
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
We have to rememberâŚa book is species changing technology. Ideas survive generations only changing when improved.
@ikeafanatic1749
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
We are more intelligent than our cavemen ancestors. Most European groups are more intelligent than both our neolithic or iron age ancestors.
Native Sardinians literally are just remnants of the people who started civilization. They are mostly of neolithic Anatolian farmer descent. Yes, they are more intelligent than their ancestors 12k years ago who they are almost indistinguishable from
@dogscats8141
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
I believe that all people are ferocious beasts by nature and few of them know how to control their instincts. So it would be better if this earth was inhabited by fewer idiots.
@Touko-dz7cp
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Alex is normally pretty apolitical which is fine, but I think considering the times, it is good to pay a bit of attention to who you give a platform to. David Deutch has some political views which I think Alex would like to be aware of. For example an article on his website called "A short history of Israel" is quite revealing.
It ends like this:
"On September 11, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., murdering thousands of Americans. Palestinians took to the streets to celebrate.
The world changed."
@spurriousgod
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
1:13:45 Tautologies are an example of "certain truths".
@Unvaccinatedpureblood
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
It would be nice if O Connor shuts up his stupid mouth, stops asking leading questions and lets the interviewee talk freely.
Dunning Kruger is alive and strong.
@Knightburial
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Back then people were physically stronger than us weakđ
@chrisgreen1514
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Hi Alex, if one is having a problem with understanding or accepting the reality of âmysteriousâ forces acting at a distance, I would suggest getting a few of powerful magnets and just play about with them. Pushes and pulls of magnets are as real as you can get!
@lepidoptera9337
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Deutsch has absolutely no credibility in paleo history… but doesn't mind making absolute statements about it, anyway. Behold the signs of the grifter: perfect Dunning-Kruger and narcissism scores. đ
@oajillbennett5934
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
You can have a bachelor's degree whether you're male or female.
@DanielStone-yw1rn
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
Those 88 numbers again?
@gokulgopisettiApostle
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
The entity or the program be it human, alien, extraterrestrial manufactures reality. Why are we so enthralled and limited by the fact that an "EXPERIENTIAL" REALITY FULL OF EMOTION BORN OF BIOCHEMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESSES OR ENGINEERING IS THE ONLY POSSIBLE FORM OF CONSCIOUSNESS OR ONLY FORM OF REALITY. WHY SHOULD CONSCIOUSNESS BE EXPERIENTIAL AT ALL IN A BIOCHEMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL SENSE.OR EMOTIONALLY SENSUAL. So, what is experiencing, experience, and the experiential if we are prepared to break free of biochemistry, physiology and the concomitant or consequential only Emotionally SENSUAL? 12:55
I mean how about Stephen Wolfram consciousness that is computationally Experiential? 3:52
0:20 My blasted neighborhood is not letting me do science. Can't science have some room and a chance?! 2:21
@Mr-pt5hz
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
I'm 22 minutes in and this video is uncomfortable, is he an anthropologist? He seems just as clueless as I am, and isn't citing any data(you don't need to wuote studies but you know what i mean).
@davidorth7217
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 am
I love this conversation. I love the way Duetsch thinks. A great deal of process thought in his insights about early man, language, knowledge. Even brought in Whitehead, parts anyway. I don't agree that it's mainly scientists in the last 200 years that started questioning their own beliefs and paradigms. It's very common, for instance, that a good craftsman is thinking outside the box, but in categories unique to his problem. He should read the rest of Whitehead or go right to his student Suzanne Langer "Feeling and Form" – on art as a critical way of knowing. It's common for metamoderns to have quite a bit of process thinking going on but still think science is the epitome of knowledge about the world. Actually it's the scientific method that's important but you can apply it to poetry art music religion psychology etc.
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