WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.080 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are cracking 00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:09.000 open a file that is, well, it's deceptively heavy. 00:00:09.119 --> 00:00:11.119 Yeah. It looks like one thing on the surface, 00:00:11.220 --> 00:00:13.519 maybe a bit of dry philosophy, but once you actually 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:16.539 start reading, you realize we are dealing with 00:00:16.539 --> 00:00:18.660 the operating system of the modern world. That 00:00:18.660 --> 00:00:21.440 is not an exaggeration at all. We are looking 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:25.699 at a figure who essentially reset the board for 00:00:25.699 --> 00:00:29.460 how we think. Really? In the 20th and now the 00:00:29.460 --> 00:00:31.440 21st centuries? We're talking about Sir Karl 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:33.359 Popper. Yeah. And I have to be honest with you, 00:00:33.399 --> 00:00:35.020 and with everyone listening, before we really 00:00:35.020 --> 00:00:37.439 dug into the research for this, I had him filed 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:40.619 away in my brain as the meme guy. The meme guy. 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:42.320 You know the one, the little comic strip that 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:45.340 goes around about the paradox of tolerance? It 00:00:45.340 --> 00:00:47.380 pops up on my feet every single time there's 00:00:47.380 --> 00:00:49.219 a controversy about free speech or, you know, 00:00:49.219 --> 00:00:51.520 canceling someone. And the gist everyone takes 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:54.039 from it is we shouldn't tolerate intolerant people. 00:00:54.759 --> 00:00:57.859 Simple as that. Right. Which is a very catchy 00:00:57.859 --> 00:01:00.439 slogan. But as we are going to find out, it is 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:03.520 a massive, massive oversimplification of what 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:06.840 Popper actually believed. It's like summarizing, 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:09.900 I don't know, Romeo and Juliet as a story about 00:01:09.900 --> 00:01:12.659 bad dating choices. Right. Exactly. And that's 00:01:12.659 --> 00:01:14.760 our mission today. We want to go way beyond the 00:01:14.760 --> 00:01:17.340 meme. We're going to see how this guy, a cabinetmaker 00:01:17.340 --> 00:01:20.719 turned philosopher. completely dismantled the 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:23.579 idea that science is about finding truth, and 00:01:23.579 --> 00:01:26.079 then used that exact same logic to tear apart 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:28.180 totalitarianism. It is a massive scope. I mean, 00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:30.659 we're going to go from the behavior of subatomic 00:01:30.659 --> 00:01:32.780 particles all the way up to the behavior of dictators. 00:01:33.140 --> 00:01:36.239 Wow. But there is a single beautiful thread connecting 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:38.939 it all, the problem of certainty. So let's set 00:01:38.939 --> 00:01:40.670 the vibe for the listener. Because when I think 00:01:40.670 --> 00:01:42.450 of philosopher, I think of, you know, ancient 00:01:42.450 --> 00:01:45.650 Greece, togas, or maybe a dusty French salon. 00:01:45.930 --> 00:01:48.689 But Popper is different. Very, very different. 00:01:48.769 --> 00:01:51.069 You have to imagine Vienna in the 1920s. It's 00:01:51.069 --> 00:01:53.730 that period between the wars. The old Austro 00:01:53.730 --> 00:01:55.810 -Hungarian Empire has just collapsed. Chaos. 00:01:56.049 --> 00:01:59.349 Total chaos. The city is poor. It's starving 00:01:59.349 --> 00:02:02.629 in places. But it is also intellectually electric. 00:02:02.810 --> 00:02:05.129 You have these coffee houses just filled with 00:02:05.129 --> 00:02:07.810 radicals, artists, scientists. Freud is there. 00:02:08.370 --> 00:02:11.150 Wittgenstein is there. Everybody is arguing about 00:02:11.150 --> 00:02:14.750 the future. But it's not just like polite debate, 00:02:14.909 --> 00:02:18.169 is it? The world is literally burning down around 00:02:18.169 --> 00:02:20.330 them. Exactly. It's a pressure cooker. People 00:02:20.330 --> 00:02:22.330 are desperate for answers. They want to know 00:02:22.330 --> 00:02:24.830 what is going to happen next. Is the future going 00:02:24.830 --> 00:02:27.389 to be communism? Is it going to be fascism? They 00:02:27.389 --> 00:02:30.129 want a system. A prophecy. A prophecy. Exactly. 00:02:30.750 --> 00:02:32.650 And in the middle of this, you have this young 00:02:32.650 --> 00:02:34.830 Karl Popper who looks at all these people claiming 00:02:34.830 --> 00:02:36.569 they have the answer. And he basically says, 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:39.219 You're all asking the wrong question. I love 00:02:39.219 --> 00:02:42.360 that. The professional buzzkill of Vienna. So 00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:44.599 we have this dossier on him, his biography, his 00:02:44.599 --> 00:02:47.020 science, his politics. Where do we even start 00:02:47.020 --> 00:02:49.120 with a guy like this? We have to start with the 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:51.300 concept that underpins absolutely everything 00:02:51.300 --> 00:02:54.800 he did. The core paradox. OK, lay it on us. It's 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:57.979 the paradox of knowledge itself. I mean, most 00:02:57.979 --> 00:03:00.460 of us, especially if we love science, we grow 00:03:00.460 --> 00:03:02.719 up with this idea that science is the ultimate 00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:05.259 truth machine. You observe something, you test 00:03:05.259 --> 00:03:08.460 it, you prove it, and now it is a fact. Capital 00:03:08.460 --> 00:03:12.120 F. Right. Trust the science. Right. That phrase 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:15.479 implies that science is a solid block of granite, 00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:18.259 that it's settled. And Popper takes a sledgehammer 00:03:18.259 --> 00:03:21.080 to that granite. He says that science can never, 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:24.080 ever prove anything is true. Okay, hold on. You're 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:25.259 going to have to walk me through this because 00:03:25.259 --> 00:03:26.919 that sounds like something a flat earther would 00:03:26.919 --> 00:03:30.000 say on a YouTube comment thread. You know, you 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.300 can't prove the earth is round. I know. It sounds 00:03:32.300 --> 00:03:34.659 counterintuitive, but stick with me. Okay, so 00:03:34.659 --> 00:03:36.960 if I drop this pen, it hits the desk. I do it 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:39.340 again, it hits the desk. If I do that a million 00:03:39.340 --> 00:03:42.819 times... Haven't I proven the theory of gravity? 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:45.139 You've proven that the pen fell a million times. 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:48.580 You have not, in a strictly logical sense, proven 00:03:48.580 --> 00:03:50.759 it will fall the million and first time. But 00:03:50.759 --> 00:03:52.879 come on, that's just being pedantic, isn't it? 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:54.539 Of course it's going to fall. The sun is going 00:03:54.539 --> 00:03:57.199 to rise tomorrow. Is it? This is the problem 00:03:57.199 --> 00:03:59.969 of induction. It goes way back to the philosopher 00:03:59.969 --> 00:04:03.129 David Hume, but Popper really weaponized it. 00:04:03.409 --> 00:04:05.409 The assumption you're making, the one we all 00:04:05.409 --> 00:04:07.710 make, is that the future will resemble the past. 00:04:07.930 --> 00:04:10.270 Yeah. But there is no logical rule that guarantees 00:04:10.270 --> 00:04:13.530 that. It's an assumption, a very useful one, 00:04:13.650 --> 00:04:15.810 but it's still just a leap of faith. Give me 00:04:15.810 --> 00:04:18.230 a real world example where that assumption fails. 00:04:18.550 --> 00:04:21.029 Something less, you know, the sun explodes. The 00:04:21.029 --> 00:04:23.810 classic one is the turkey. The turkey. Bertrand 00:04:23.810 --> 00:04:25.730 Russell's turkey. Imagine you're a turkey on 00:04:25.730 --> 00:04:28.980 a farm. Every single day at 9 a .m., a friendly 00:04:28.980 --> 00:04:31.899 human comes and gives you food. Okay. I'm a happy 00:04:31.899 --> 00:04:34.379 turkey. You're a very happy turkey. And you're 00:04:34.379 --> 00:04:37.259 a scientific turkey, so you collect data. Day 00:04:37.259 --> 00:04:39.439 after day, week after week, month after month, 00:04:39.500 --> 00:04:41.920 the data is confirmed. When the man comes at 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:45.199 9 a .m., I get food. Your theory is verified 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:47.800 hundreds of times. You have supreme confidence. 00:04:48.220 --> 00:04:50.240 I feel like I know where this is going. And then 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:52.620 it's the day before Thanksgiving. The man comes 00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:55.459 at 9 a .m., and instead of feeding you, he wrings 00:04:55.459 --> 00:04:58.829 your neck. Your theory, which had been verified 00:04:58.829 --> 00:05:02.050 hundreds of times, was catastrophically wrong. 00:05:02.250 --> 00:05:04.389 Okay, that's a good one. So the dossier also 00:05:04.389 --> 00:05:07.579 mentions swans. This feels a bit more down to 00:05:07.579 --> 00:05:09.560 earth. This is the famous white swan problem. 00:05:09.899 --> 00:05:12.920 It's the same logic. Imagine you are a European 00:05:12.920 --> 00:05:16.040 naturalist in the 1600s. You have spent your 00:05:16.040 --> 00:05:19.000 entire life studying birds. You have traveled 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:22.040 from England to France to Germany, all over Europe. 00:05:22.120 --> 00:05:24.959 Every single swan you have ever seen, and you've 00:05:24.959 --> 00:05:27.800 seen thousands of them, is white. So I write 00:05:27.800 --> 00:05:30.699 in my notebook, all swans are white. And I feel 00:05:30.699 --> 00:05:32.560 pretty good about it. That's a scientific fact. 00:05:32.759 --> 00:05:35.300 It feels like a fact. You have thousands of data 00:05:35.300 --> 00:05:37.439 points confirming it. You have verified your 00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:39.100 theory over and over and over again. You tell 00:05:39.100 --> 00:05:41.120 all your naturalist friends. It's in the textbooks. 00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:43.699 All swans are white. But then you hop on a boat, 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:47.000 a very long and dangerous voyage, and you sail 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.620 to Australia. And I see a black swan. One. Single. 00:05:50.939 --> 00:05:53.839 Black. Swan. And in that one second, your entire 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:56.120 lifetime of proof, all those thousands of observations, 00:05:56.279 --> 00:05:58.079 all the textbooks. It's all just considerated. 00:05:58.819 --> 00:06:01.660 Incinerated. It's brutal, but it reveals the 00:06:01.660 --> 00:06:04.279 fundamental asymmetry that Popper was obsessed 00:06:04.279 --> 00:06:08.139 with. No amount of confirming instances, no number 00:06:08.139 --> 00:06:11.060 of white swans can ever prove the theory is true 00:06:11.060 --> 00:06:14.259 forever. But one black swan can prove it is false. 00:06:14.939 --> 00:06:17.600 Instantly. Exactly. You can never know for certain 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:19.779 if you're right, but you can definitely absolutely 00:06:19.779 --> 00:06:23.199 know if you're wrong. And that? For him, it is 00:06:23.199 --> 00:06:25.480 the secret weapon of science. That's everything. 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:27.560 We aren't in the business of verifying truth. 00:06:27.660 --> 00:06:29.939 We are in the business of hunting for black swans. 00:06:29.980 --> 00:06:32.740 We are in the business of falsification. Okay, 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:35.800 this brings us to what the notes call the demarcation 00:06:35.800 --> 00:06:38.639 problem. So this is how we tell the difference 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:40.779 between real science and, you know, nonsense, 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:43.269 right? Correct. In Popper's time, this was a 00:06:43.269 --> 00:06:45.930 huge, huge issue. He was looking at the intellectual 00:06:45.930 --> 00:06:49.350 landscape of Vienna in the 1920s. On one side, 00:06:49.410 --> 00:06:51.529 you had Albert Einstein, this towering figure 00:06:51.529 --> 00:06:54.470 of physics. On the other side, you had psychoanalysts, 00:06:54.470 --> 00:06:57.310 Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. And Popper noticed 00:06:57.310 --> 00:06:59.730 something weird. They were all considered scientists 00:06:59.730 --> 00:07:01.230 back then, weren't they? They were all doing 00:07:01.230 --> 00:07:03.589 science, supposedly. They were. They were all 00:07:03.589 --> 00:07:06.110 part of this new, exciting wave of knowledge. 00:07:06.529 --> 00:07:08.750 But Popper felt there was a fundamental difference 00:07:08.750 --> 00:07:11.470 in how they operated. Let's look at Einstein 00:07:11.470 --> 00:07:15.350 first. The notes mention the 1919 solar eclipse 00:07:15.350 --> 00:07:18.750 expedition. This is a crucial story. Yeah, flesh 00:07:18.750 --> 00:07:21.089 this out for me, because usually people just 00:07:21.089 --> 00:07:22.810 say Einstein was right, but it was actually a 00:07:22.810 --> 00:07:25.329 huge gamble, wasn't it? It was a massive gamble, 00:07:25.470 --> 00:07:27.790 a career -ending gamble. Einstein had this theory 00:07:27.790 --> 00:07:30.310 of general relativity. It was beautiful math, 00:07:30.449 --> 00:07:33.110 but it was just paper. And it made a very specific, 00:07:33.310 --> 00:07:37.550 very weird prediction that gravity from a massive 00:07:37.550 --> 00:07:40.569 object like the sun actually warps the fabric 00:07:40.569 --> 00:07:42.509 of space -time. Which means light should bend 00:07:42.509 --> 00:07:45.009 as it passes by. Exactly. Light passing near 00:07:45.009 --> 00:07:47.829 the sun should bend, which sounds insane. straight 00:07:47.829 --> 00:07:49.910 line. Newton said light goes straight. For 200 00:07:49.910 --> 00:07:52.350 years, that was the rule. So Einstein is basically 00:07:52.350 --> 00:07:54.490 challenging Newton. He's saying Newton was wrong. 00:07:54.649 --> 00:07:57.490 So the British astronomer Arthur Eddington organizes 00:07:57.490 --> 00:07:59.730 this expedition to the island of Principe off 00:07:59.730 --> 00:08:02.529 the coast of Africa to photograph the stars during 00:08:02.529 --> 00:08:05.370 a total solar eclipse. And why an eclipse? Why 00:08:05.370 --> 00:08:07.230 did it have to be an eclipse? Because that's 00:08:07.230 --> 00:08:08.910 the only time you can see the stars that are 00:08:08.910 --> 00:08:11.149 right next to the sun in the sky. Normally, the 00:08:11.149 --> 00:08:13.660 sun's glare would block them out. So the plan 00:08:13.660 --> 00:08:16.100 was, take a picture of the stars in their normal 00:08:16.100 --> 00:08:19.319 position months earlier. Then, during the eclipse, 00:08:19.579 --> 00:08:22.620 take a picture of the same stars. If Einstein 00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:25.420 was right, the stars in the eclipse photo would 00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:27.500 appear to be in slightly the wrong position. 00:08:27.819 --> 00:08:29.939 Because their light had curved around the sun 00:08:29.939 --> 00:08:32.279 on its way to the camera? Precisely. And if they 00:08:32.279 --> 00:08:34.000 were in the normal position... Then Einstein 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:37.980 is wrong. His theory is dead. Utterly dead. He 00:08:37.980 --> 00:08:41.059 literally wrote to Eddington saying... If the 00:08:41.059 --> 00:08:44.580 redshift is not there, then the theory is untenable. 00:08:45.159 --> 00:08:48.200 He gave the world a roadmap to destroy his life's 00:08:48.200 --> 00:08:51.200 work. He put his neck on the guillotine. That 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:53.960 is what Popper called a risky prediction. He 00:08:53.960 --> 00:08:56.919 dared the universe to prove him wrong. Yes. Now, 00:08:56.980 --> 00:09:00.340 compare that to what Popper saw with the psychoanalysts. 00:09:00.340 --> 00:09:03.240 He actually worked for a time in Alfred Adler's 00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:05.460 clinics for children in Vienna. He saw this firsthand. 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:07.440 And this is where that example of the drowning 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:09.139 child comes from. This really clicked for me. 00:09:09.259 --> 00:09:11.700 It's a perfect illustration of what Popper called 00:09:11.700 --> 00:09:14.559 pseudoscience. It's something that looks like 00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:17.700 science but isn't. So Popper posits two scenarios. 00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:22.120 Scenario A. A man pushes a child into a lake 00:09:22.120 --> 00:09:26.409 to drown him. Horrible. Scenario B. A man dives 00:09:26.409 --> 00:09:28.809 into a lake to save a drowning child. Heroic. 00:09:28.809 --> 00:09:32.009 Total opposites. Evil and good. But look at how 00:09:32.009 --> 00:09:34.590 Adler's theory of inferiority complexes handles 00:09:34.590 --> 00:09:37.470 them. Why did the man push the child? Adler would 00:09:37.470 --> 00:09:39.970 say something like he is suffering from a deep 00:09:39.970 --> 00:09:43.009 -seated inferiority complex. By committing this 00:09:43.009 --> 00:09:45.690 heinous crime, he is attempting to prove to himself 00:09:45.690 --> 00:09:48.149 that he has the power to dare to defy society. 00:09:48.889 --> 00:09:50.830 Makes a certain kind of sense, I guess. And the 00:09:50.830 --> 00:09:53.049 man who saved the child? Adler would say. He's 00:09:53.049 --> 00:09:55.509 also suffering from an inferiority complex. By 00:09:55.509 --> 00:09:57.629 risking his own life to save another, he is proving 00:09:57.629 --> 00:09:59.470 to himself that he has the courage to overcome 00:09:59.470 --> 00:10:03.169 his feelings of inadequacy. So, wait. The theory 00:10:03.169 --> 00:10:05.490 explains the murder and the rescue with the exact 00:10:05.490 --> 00:10:08.779 same core logic. Exactly. No matter what the 00:10:08.779 --> 00:10:11.799 man does, kill the child, save the child, ignore 00:10:11.799 --> 00:10:14.639 the child, dance a jig by the lakeside, the theory 00:10:14.639 --> 00:10:17.500 can explain it. It's infinitely flexible. It's 00:10:17.500 --> 00:10:20.240 like a net with holes so big it can't catch any 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:22.559 fish. And usually we think that's a good thing. 00:10:22.659 --> 00:10:24.899 We think, wow, your theory explains everything. 00:10:25.019 --> 00:10:27.279 It must be brilliant. And Popper screams, no. 00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:30.759 If a theory explains everything that could possibly 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:33.320 happen, then it explains nothing. It's a horoscope. 00:10:33.620 --> 00:10:36.419 You will face a challenge today. Well, yeah, 00:10:36.500 --> 00:10:38.919 if you get fired, it fits. If you lose your keys, 00:10:39.039 --> 00:10:42.340 it fits. It forbids nothing. That is such a huge 00:10:42.340 --> 00:10:44.940 shift in perspective. So a real scientific theory 00:10:44.940 --> 00:10:48.019 is defined by what it forbids. It draws a clear 00:10:48.019 --> 00:10:50.860 line in the sand and says, if you find a fossil 00:10:50.860 --> 00:10:53.399 of a rabbit in the Precambrian era, my entire 00:10:53.399 --> 00:10:56.419 theory of evolution is wrong. Precisely. Strength 00:10:56.419 --> 00:10:58.960 is not being irrefutable. Strength is being vulnerable 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:02.159 to refutation and surviving the attempt. But 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:04.019 this leads to a bit of an existential crisis, 00:11:04.139 --> 00:11:06.409 doesn't it? If we can't verify anything, we're 00:11:06.409 --> 00:11:08.309 just waiting around to be falsified. Does that 00:11:08.309 --> 00:11:10.490 mean we don't actually know anything? Is all 00:11:10.490 --> 00:11:12.490 our technology, our medicine, just a lucky guess 00:11:12.490 --> 00:11:14.860 it hasn't failed yet? That's the scary interpretation, 00:11:15.159 --> 00:11:17.779 and some people do go there. But Popper didn't 00:11:17.779 --> 00:11:19.480 view it that way at all. He didn't think it was 00:11:19.480 --> 00:11:22.240 nihilistic. He saw it as a dynamic evolutionary 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:24.740 process. He actually had a formula for it. I 00:11:24.740 --> 00:11:28.159 saw that in the notes. PS1 to TT1 to EE1 to PS2. 00:11:28.259 --> 00:11:29.919 It looks like, I don't know, a chemical equation 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:32.340 or something. It's simpler than it looks. PS1 00:11:32.340 --> 00:11:35.899 is problem situation one. We start with a problem. 00:11:36.220 --> 00:11:38.360 Why do the planets move like that? That's our 00:11:38.360 --> 00:11:40.159 starting point. Okay, that makes sense. Then 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:44.139 we move to TT1, tentative theory. We make a bold 00:11:44.139 --> 00:11:46.539 guess. Maybe they move in perfect circles because 00:11:46.539 --> 00:11:48.940 God loves circles. Reasonable guess for the time. 00:11:49.059 --> 00:11:52.940 Then EE1. Error elimination. This is the Thunderdome. 00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:54.980 This is where we attack the theory from every 00:11:54.980 --> 00:11:57.139 angle. We make observations. We look for the 00:11:57.139 --> 00:12:00.659 black swans. And we realize, wait, the data from 00:12:00.659 --> 00:12:03.559 Mars is moving weirdly. It's not a perfect circle. 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:07.100 So the circle theory dies. It's been falsified. 00:12:07.340 --> 00:12:09.799 So are we back to the start? Do we know nothing 00:12:09.799 --> 00:12:12.379 again? No, this is the crucial part. We are at 00:12:12.379 --> 00:12:16.000 PS2, problem situation two. We have a nearer, 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:19.039 better, more refined problem. If it's not a circle, 00:12:19.179 --> 00:12:21.759 what the heck is it? And then we make a new tentative 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:25.269 theory, TT2. Maybe it's an ellipse. And we start 00:12:25.269 --> 00:12:27.970 the process of error elimination all over again. 00:12:28.169 --> 00:12:30.250 So we're failing forward. We are failing our 00:12:30.250 --> 00:12:34.330 way to success. We are trading big, crude errors 00:12:34.330 --> 00:12:38.090 for smaller, more subtle errors. Popper called 00:12:38.090 --> 00:12:41.740 this verisimilitude. Which means truth -likeness. 00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:44.600 Exactly. We are getting closer to the truth, 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:47.179 increasing our truth -likeness, even if we can 00:12:47.179 --> 00:12:49.320 never be 100 % certain we have arrived at the 00:12:49.320 --> 00:12:52.080 final capital T truth. It's like Zeno's paradox. 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:54.500 You get halfway to the wall, then halfway again 00:12:54.500 --> 00:12:56.399 and halfway again, but you never quite touch 00:12:56.399 --> 00:12:58.950 it. You get close enough to build a GPS system 00:12:58.950 --> 00:13:01.490 that can guide a missile to a target or a car 00:13:01.490 --> 00:13:03.529 to your house. And for practical purposes, that's 00:13:03.529 --> 00:13:05.309 what matters. Okay, before we leave the science 00:13:05.309 --> 00:13:06.990 section, I have to challenge you on one thing. 00:13:07.029 --> 00:13:08.669 I'm playing the role of the skeptical listener 00:13:08.669 --> 00:13:10.629 here. Please do. You said we can't prove anything. 00:13:11.090 --> 00:13:14.970 But 2 plus 2 equals 4. Ah, yes. The mathematics 00:13:14.970 --> 00:13:17.389 dilemma. I mean, come on. That's not a theory. 00:13:17.470 --> 00:13:20.210 That's a fact. You can't falsify that. I can't 00:13:20.210 --> 00:13:22.529 go to Australia and find a 2 plus 2 equals 5. 00:13:22.750 --> 00:13:25.169 It's just true. You are absolutely right, but 00:13:25.169 --> 00:13:27.830 in a very specific sense. Popper had to deal 00:13:27.830 --> 00:13:29.710 with this, obviously. And he made a really clever 00:13:29.710 --> 00:13:32.710 distinction between pure math and applied math. 00:13:32.929 --> 00:13:35.909 What's the difference? Pure math. The statement 00:13:35.909 --> 00:13:39.690 2 plus 2 equals 4 is a logical definition. It's 00:13:39.690 --> 00:13:43.370 a closed loop of logic. It's true because we 00:13:43.370 --> 00:13:46.269 defined the symbol 2 and the symbol 4 and the 00:13:46.269 --> 00:13:48.669 operator plus in such a way that it has to be 00:13:48.669 --> 00:13:51.159 true. So it's a tautology. It's true by definition. 00:13:51.419 --> 00:13:53.220 Exactly. It doesn't tell us anything about the 00:13:53.220 --> 00:13:54.980 physical universe. It tells us about the rules 00:13:54.980 --> 00:13:57.379 of our own logical language. It's certain, but 00:13:57.379 --> 00:14:00.620 it's abstract. Okay, I think I follow. But what 00:14:00.620 --> 00:14:02.620 happens when you apply it? The moment you apply 00:14:02.620 --> 00:14:05.100 it to the physical world, to world one, as he'd 00:14:05.100 --> 00:14:07.299 call it, it becomes a hypothesis. It becomes 00:14:07.299 --> 00:14:09.460 falsifiable. Give me an example of that. Popper 00:14:09.460 --> 00:14:12.139 used the example of rabbits. If I say two apples 00:14:12.139 --> 00:14:14.659 plus two apples equals four apples, that's an 00:14:14.659 --> 00:14:17.120 applied theory. And it works. If I put two apples 00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:19.700 in a basket and add two more, I have four. The 00:14:19.700 --> 00:14:22.860 theory holds up. Sure. But if I take two rabbits 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:25.139 and I add two rabbits and I put them in a box 00:14:25.139 --> 00:14:27.899 and wait a year. I see where you're going with 00:14:27.899 --> 00:14:29.700 this. You're going to have a lot more than four 00:14:29.700 --> 00:14:32.580 rabbits. A lot more. So the applied physical 00:14:32.580 --> 00:14:34.840 theory, two rabbits plus two rabbits equals four 00:14:34.840 --> 00:14:38.120 rabbits, has been falsified by the biological 00:14:38.120 --> 00:14:40.840 process of reproduction. Or think about water 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:44.779 droplets. One drop plus one drop equals... One 00:14:44.779 --> 00:14:47.779 bigger drop. So one plus one equals one in that 00:14:47.779 --> 00:14:50.919 context. In that physical context, yes. So Popper's 00:14:50.919 --> 00:14:53.500 point is elegant. Logical truth is certain but 00:14:53.500 --> 00:14:56.179 abstract. Physical truth is concrete but uncertain. 00:14:56.500 --> 00:14:58.399 You can never have both at the same time. That 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:00.740 is actually kind of mind bending. The absolute 00:15:00.740 --> 00:15:03.720 certainty of math. only works if the physical 00:15:03.720 --> 00:15:05.840 world behaves itself according to the rules we 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:07.899 set. And the physical world loves to misbehave. 00:15:08.039 --> 00:15:09.340 Okay, so that's the engine of his intellect. 00:15:09.539 --> 00:15:11.940 Falsification, error is good, testing is everything. 00:15:12.220 --> 00:15:15.259 But I want to pivot now to the man himself. Because 00:15:15.259 --> 00:15:17.179 you mentioned earlier that he wasn't just sitting 00:15:17.179 --> 00:15:19.440 in a library dreaming this stuff up. He had a 00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:21.840 life that really, really informed this worldview. 00:15:22.179 --> 00:15:24.740 He really did. This wasn't just an abstract game 00:15:24.740 --> 00:15:28.419 for him. He was born in 1902 in Vienna. And we 00:15:28.419 --> 00:15:29.799 have to talk about his background because it 00:15:29.799 --> 00:15:32.279 sets up the tragedy that follows. He was from 00:15:32.279 --> 00:15:34.480 a family of Jewish descent that had converted 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:36.899 to Lutheranism before he was born. So they were 00:15:36.899 --> 00:15:39.460 very assimilated. Very assimilated. Very high 00:15:39.460 --> 00:15:42.480 culture. His dad was a successful lawyer with 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:45.200 a personal library of something like 12 ,000 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:47.559 to 14 ,000 books. That's not a library. That's 00:15:47.559 --> 00:15:49.539 a bunker made of paper. That's unbelievable. 00:15:49.879 --> 00:15:53.440 He grew up just swimming in ideas. But Popper 00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:56.340 was a bit of a contrarian from day one. He found 00:15:56.340 --> 00:15:58.399 formal schooling boring, so he quit school at 00:15:58.399 --> 00:16:01.350 16. And here's the detail I love. that grounds 00:16:01.350 --> 00:16:04.389 him. He decided he wanted to be a manual laborer. 00:16:04.409 --> 00:16:06.070 The rich kid who wants to get his hands dirty. 00:16:06.129 --> 00:16:09.190 A classic story. Exactly. He tried street construction 00:16:09.190 --> 00:16:11.850 first, but he was physically quite small and 00:16:11.850 --> 00:16:13.950 frail, and he literally couldn't handle the heavy 00:16:13.950 --> 00:16:17.330 labor. It was breaking him. So he switched apprenticeships 00:16:17.330 --> 00:16:19.610 and became a cabinetmaker. He became a carpenter. 00:16:19.980 --> 00:16:22.080 A journeyman cabinet maker. And I think this 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:24.480 matters so much. When you make a cabinet, you 00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:27.440 can't theorize it into existence. If you measure 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:29.580 the wood wrong, the door doesn't close. Reality 00:16:29.580 --> 00:16:31.259 hits you in the face immediately. There's no 00:16:31.259 --> 00:16:33.940 wiggle room. It's falsification in wood. Your 00:16:33.940 --> 00:16:37.879 theory, this piece is 30 centimeters, is tested 00:16:37.879 --> 00:16:40.659 by the saw. Exactly. But while he's sanding wood 00:16:40.659 --> 00:16:43.159 by day, he's getting radicalized by night. It's 00:16:43.159 --> 00:16:45.899 1919. The First World War is over. Vienna is 00:16:45.899 --> 00:16:49.019 in turmoil. Everyone is starving. And the communists 00:16:49.019 --> 00:16:51.620 are promising a worker's paradise, a utopia. 00:16:52.019 --> 00:16:55.559 A teenage Karl Popper says, sign me up. So he 00:16:55.559 --> 00:16:58.639 becomes a Marxist. For a few months. He really 00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:00.940 believed they had the answer. They had the scientific 00:17:00.940 --> 00:17:03.559 theory of history, you see. They claimed to know 00:17:03.559 --> 00:17:05.799 the future. But then the incident at Hörlgass 00:17:05.799 --> 00:17:07.759 happens. This is the turning point, isn't it? 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:10.779 Paint the picture for us. It's June 15th, 1919. 00:17:11.099 --> 00:17:13.559 There's a protest. The communists are trying 00:17:13.559 --> 00:17:15.339 to free some comrades from a police station in 00:17:15.339 --> 00:17:17.720 Hurghast. Popper is there, caught up in the fervor. 00:17:17.740 --> 00:17:19.599 The crowd is surging. It's chaotic. And then 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:23.359 the police open fire on the protesters. And people 00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:26.940 died. Eight young men. Unarmed party comrades. 00:17:27.259 --> 00:17:29.660 Some of them were Popper's friends. He saw them 00:17:29.660 --> 00:17:32.079 fall. He saw the blood on the pavement. And he 00:17:32.079 --> 00:17:34.599 was devastated. He felt personally responsible. 00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:36.980 He had been encouraging people to join this movement. 00:17:37.220 --> 00:17:39.640 That's a trauma. That stays with you for life. 00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:42.640 But the trauma of the deaths wasn't what changed 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:45.970 his philosophy. It was what happened after. He 00:17:45.970 --> 00:17:47.730 went back to the party headquarters, expecting 00:17:47.730 --> 00:17:50.430 everyone to be in mourning, horrified, expecting 00:17:50.430 --> 00:17:53.529 them to say, we made a terrible mistake. We shouldn't 00:17:53.529 --> 00:17:55.769 have provoked this. And instead. Instead, the 00:17:55.769 --> 00:17:57.930 party leaders were cool. They were calculated. 00:17:58.309 --> 00:18:01.289 They told him that this was necessary. They said 00:18:01.289 --> 00:18:03.230 the deaths were actually a good thing because 00:18:03.230 --> 00:18:06.349 they would intensify the class struggle and hasten 00:18:06.349 --> 00:18:09.289 the inevitable revolution. They were accelerationists. 00:18:09.349 --> 00:18:11.930 Exactly. They believed that things had to get 00:18:11.930 --> 00:18:14.369 worse to get better. They were willing to sacrifice. 00:18:14.700 --> 00:18:17.359 human lives for what they called historical destiny. 00:18:17.539 --> 00:18:20.200 They treated his dead friends like pawns in a 00:18:20.200 --> 00:18:23.559 chess game. Worse. They treated them like variables 00:18:23.559 --> 00:18:26.160 in an equation that they were certain was correct. 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:29.619 And that is when Popper snapped. He looked at 00:18:29.619 --> 00:18:32.839 these men and had this horrifying epiphany. You 00:18:32.839 --> 00:18:35.779 don't know the future. You are guessing. But 00:18:35.779 --> 00:18:38.380 you are willing to sacrifice living, breathing 00:18:38.380 --> 00:18:40.539 human beings for a guess that you've dressed 00:18:40.539 --> 00:18:43.339 up as a scientific certainty. That is the moment. 00:18:43.710 --> 00:18:45.930 That's the direct link between his philosophy 00:18:45.930 --> 00:18:49.009 of science and his politics. It is the rat trap. 00:18:49.269 --> 00:18:51.710 He saw this kind of ideology as a trap where 00:18:51.710 --> 00:18:54.410 you justify atrocities today for a paradise tomorrow 00:18:54.410 --> 00:18:56.450 that might never come. It poisons everything. 00:18:56.769 --> 00:18:58.849 And that sent him on the path to writing The 00:18:58.849 --> 00:19:01.700 Open Society and Its Enemies. It did. He realized 00:19:01.700 --> 00:19:03.920 that the intellectual arrogance of knowing the 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:05.920 truth is the root of all tyranny. If you are 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:08.839 100 % sure you are right and 100 % sure the revolution 00:19:08.839 --> 00:19:11.460 is inevitable, then killing a few people who 00:19:11.460 --> 00:19:13.859 stand in your way isn't murder. It's just sweeping 00:19:13.859 --> 00:19:16.339 up the dust of history. So he dedicates his life 00:19:16.339 --> 00:19:18.480 to fighting that certainty. But he has to run 00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:20.660 first, doesn't he? The Nazis are coming. He's 00:19:20.660 --> 00:19:23.640 of Jewish descent, living in Vienna in the 1930s. 00:19:23.700 --> 00:19:26.369 He knows exactly what's coming. He writes his 00:19:26.369 --> 00:19:29.130 first major book, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, 00:19:29.410 --> 00:19:32.029 partly as an academic credential, a resume, to 00:19:32.029 --> 00:19:34.549 get a job abroad so he can escape. It was literally 00:19:34.549 --> 00:19:36.849 his ticket out of Austria. And it worked. He 00:19:36.849 --> 00:19:39.230 got a post at Canterbury University College in 00:19:39.230 --> 00:19:42.650 New Zealand. So picture this. It's the late 1930s, 00:19:42.650 --> 00:19:46.980 early 1940s. Hitler is annexing Austria, invading 00:19:46.980 --> 00:19:49.799 Poland. The Holocaust is beginning. The world 00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:52.720 is on fire. And Karl Popper is literally on the 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:55.119 other side of the planet in quiet, peaceful, 00:19:55.460 --> 00:19:57.680 sheep -filled New Zealand. He must have felt 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:00.440 so helpless, so isolated. He felt incredible 00:20:00.440 --> 00:20:02.960 guilt. He was safe while his friends and family 00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:05.200 back in Europe were in mortal danger. Many of 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:07.500 them were murdered. So he decided to make his 00:20:07.500 --> 00:20:10.039 next book, The Open Society and Its Enemies, 00:20:10.039 --> 00:20:12.779 his war effort. He couldn't shoot a gun, so he 00:20:12.779 --> 00:20:14.359 was going to shoot bullets at the ideas that 00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:16.779 created Hitler and Stalin. Let's get into that 00:20:16.779 --> 00:20:19.380 book, because open society is a term we hear 00:20:19.380 --> 00:20:21.339 a lot, usually thanks to George Soros, who was 00:20:21.339 --> 00:20:23.119 his student, and we'll get to him later. But 00:20:23.119 --> 00:20:25.619 what does Popper actually mean by an open society? 00:20:25.980 --> 00:20:28.900 An open society is, at its core, a society that 00:20:28.900 --> 00:20:31.579 recognizes it could be wrong. It's a society 00:20:31.579 --> 00:20:33.720 that is structured around the principles of the 00:20:33.720 --> 00:20:35.960 scientific method. How does that translate to 00:20:35.960 --> 00:20:38.579 government and laws? Well, think about its opposite, 00:20:38.700 --> 00:20:41.549 a closed society. like a traditional tribe or 00:20:41.549 --> 00:20:44.730 a monarchy or a modern dictatorship. In a closed 00:20:44.730 --> 00:20:47.369 society, the truth is fixed and handed down from 00:20:47.369 --> 00:20:50.829 on high. The leader knows the truth. The ancestors 00:20:50.829 --> 00:20:54.369 know the truth. The sacred texts know the truth. 00:20:54.569 --> 00:20:57.109 You don't challenge it. It's rigid. It's tribal. 00:20:57.369 --> 00:21:00.289 But if the leader is wrong or the sacred texts 00:21:00.289 --> 00:21:02.369 are wrong about something, then the society drives 00:21:02.369 --> 00:21:05.369 straight off a cliff. There is no mechanism for 00:21:05.369 --> 00:21:07.990 error correction. To question the leader is treason. 00:21:08.410 --> 00:21:10.589 So an open society is all about building in mechanisms 00:21:10.589 --> 00:21:13.029 for error correction. Exactly. And this leads 00:21:13.029 --> 00:21:15.490 to his redefinition of democracy. This is really 00:21:15.490 --> 00:21:17.369 important. If you ask most people what is democracy, 00:21:17.670 --> 00:21:19.950 they'll say rule by the people or the majority 00:21:19.950 --> 00:21:22.529 is right. Or choosing the best leader, you know, 00:21:22.529 --> 00:21:24.910 finding the wisest person to put in charge. Right. 00:21:25.009 --> 00:21:27.569 And the ancient question from Plato onwards was 00:21:27.569 --> 00:21:30.269 always who should rule. That's the classic question 00:21:30.269 --> 00:21:32.789 of political philosophy. Popper says it's the 00:21:32.789 --> 00:21:35.029 wrong question entirely. Why is it the wrong 00:21:35.029 --> 00:21:37.380 question? Because if you ask who should rule, 00:21:37.660 --> 00:21:40.880 the answer is always some variation of the best 00:21:40.880 --> 00:21:44.839 person, the wisest, the strongest, the purest. 00:21:45.099 --> 00:21:48.380 But who defines the best? Hitler thought he was 00:21:48.380 --> 00:21:51.000 the best. Stalin thought he was the best. It's 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:53.700 an invitation to tyranny. So what's the right 00:21:53.700 --> 00:21:56.380 question to ask? The right question, Popper says, 00:21:56.460 --> 00:21:58.859 is how can we organize our political institutions 00:21:58.859 --> 00:22:01.740 so that bad or incompetent rulers can be prevented 00:22:01.740 --> 00:22:04.480 from doing too much damage and can be removed 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:06.779 without violence? That is incredibly pragmatic. 00:22:07.420 --> 00:22:09.440 It's not about finding a messiah. It's about 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:12.299 damage control. It's negative politics. Just 00:22:12.299 --> 00:22:14.460 like science is about eliminating bad theories, 00:22:14.740 --> 00:22:17.140 democracy is about peacefully eliminating bad 00:22:17.140 --> 00:22:19.519 leaders. The ballot box isn't a magical tool 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:21.759 for finding the truth. It's a nonviolent mechanism 00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:24.079 for firing the manager without having to start 00:22:24.079 --> 00:22:26.799 a civil war. That makes democracy sound less 00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:31.339 like a holy crusade and more like taking out 00:22:31.339 --> 00:22:33.950 the trash on a regular basis. Which is... Honestly, 00:22:33.970 --> 00:22:36.250 refreshing. It lowers the stakes. And in politics, 00:22:36.430 --> 00:22:38.470 lowering the stakes is a very, very good thing. 00:22:38.690 --> 00:22:40.849 But this brings us to the main villain of his 00:22:40.849 --> 00:22:45.730 book, this idea of historicism. Now, we need 00:22:45.730 --> 00:22:47.890 to clarify this because it sounds like he hates 00:22:47.890 --> 00:22:50.150 history. He loves history. He's a great historian. 00:22:50.210 --> 00:22:53.089 He hates historicism, capital H. This is the 00:22:53.089 --> 00:22:55.630 belief that history has a script. That there 00:22:55.630 --> 00:22:58.490 are inexorable laws of history, just like there 00:22:58.490 --> 00:23:01.470 are laws of physics. The Marxist idea, for example, 00:23:01.609 --> 00:23:04.369 that feudalism inevitably leads to capitalism, 00:23:04.529 --> 00:23:06.670 which inevitably leads to communism. Exactly. 00:23:06.670 --> 00:23:08.890 Or the fascist idea that the Third Reich will 00:23:08.890 --> 00:23:11.069 last a thousand years because it is the destiny 00:23:11.069 --> 00:23:14.059 of the Aryan race. Popper attacked this with 00:23:14.059 --> 00:23:16.279 a logic bomb that I think is just brilliant in 00:23:16.279 --> 00:23:18.680 its simplicity. Okay, walk us through the logic 00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:21.400 step by step. Step one, the course of human history 00:23:21.400 --> 00:23:23.420 is strongly influenced by the growth of human 00:23:23.420 --> 00:23:26.000 knowledge. Okay, that seems obvious. We invent 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:28.680 the printing press or the atomic bomb, and history 00:23:28.680 --> 00:23:33.480 changes course. Agreed. Step two, we cannot predict, 00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:37.200 by rational or scientific methods, the future 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:39.700 growth of our own scientific knowledge. Hold 00:23:39.700 --> 00:23:42.670 on, explain that. If you could predict that you 00:23:42.670 --> 00:23:45.390 will invent, say, a cure for cancer in the year 00:23:45.390 --> 00:23:48.549 2030, you would have to know what that cure is 00:23:48.549 --> 00:23:51.329 right now in order to predict it. And if you 00:23:51.329 --> 00:23:53.509 knew what it was now, you'd invent it now, not 00:23:53.509 --> 00:23:55.769 in 2030. Right. You can't predict an invention 00:23:55.769 --> 00:23:58.509 before you invent it. The act of predicting it 00:23:58.509 --> 00:24:01.549 is the act of inventing it. Exactly. So the conclusion. 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:04.759 Therefore, we cannot predict the future course 00:24:04.759 --> 00:24:08.180 of human history. The future is open. It's not 00:24:08.180 --> 00:24:10.400 written. It's not a movie we're just watching. 00:24:10.500 --> 00:24:13.279 So anyone standing on a podium telling you history 00:24:13.279 --> 00:24:15.859 is on our side or the decline of the West is 00:24:15.859 --> 00:24:18.740 inevitable is a fraud. They are selling you a 00:24:18.740 --> 00:24:21.240 snake oil prophecy to get you to give up your 00:24:21.240 --> 00:24:23.279 freedom and your critical mind. It's incredibly 00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:26.009 empowering, but also a little terrifying. Because 00:24:26.009 --> 00:24:28.630 if there's no destiny, there's no script, then 00:24:28.630 --> 00:24:30.509 we're driving the bus completely without a map. 00:24:30.650 --> 00:24:33.210 We are making the map as we go. That is the burden 00:24:33.210 --> 00:24:35.809 and the glory of an open society. Okay, we have 00:24:35.809 --> 00:24:37.849 to address the elephant in the room. The meme. 00:24:38.470 --> 00:24:41.430 The paradox of tolerance. We've set the stage. 00:24:41.569 --> 00:24:43.769 Now let's unpack it properly. Let's do it. The 00:24:43.769 --> 00:24:45.549 internet version, the one you see in that cartoon, 00:24:45.809 --> 00:24:50.269 is basically, if you are intolerant, I don't 00:24:50.269 --> 00:24:53.210 have to tolerate you. So I can punch you or ban 00:24:53.210 --> 00:24:55.789 you or deplatform you. Which is a very dangerous 00:24:55.789 --> 00:24:58.349 and simplistic reading. Yeah. Because who defines 00:24:58.349 --> 00:25:01.309 intolerant? If I disagree with your tax policy, 00:25:01.549 --> 00:25:04.710 am I being intolerant? Can you silence me? It 00:25:04.710 --> 00:25:07.650 becomes a weapon to shut down any dissent. So 00:25:07.650 --> 00:25:10.730 what was Popper's actual nuanced argument? He 00:25:10.730 --> 00:25:13.710 was a staunch, almost absolute defender of free 00:25:13.710 --> 00:25:16.529 speech. He says, and this is a key quote, I do 00:25:16.529 --> 00:25:18.569 not imply that we should always suppress the 00:25:18.569 --> 00:25:20.490 utterance of intolerant philosophies. As long 00:25:20.490 --> 00:25:22.549 as we can counter them by rational argument and 00:25:22.549 --> 00:25:24.890 keep them in check by public opinion, suppression 00:25:24.890 --> 00:25:27.910 would certainly be most unwise. So if a guy is 00:25:27.910 --> 00:25:29.930 standing on a street corner shouting some hateful 00:25:29.930 --> 00:25:33.490 garbage, Popper's first instinct is let him shout 00:25:33.490 --> 00:25:35.490 and then go over there and debate him. Show everyone 00:25:35.490 --> 00:25:38.680 why he's wrong. Yes. Don't make him a martyr. 00:25:39.039 --> 00:25:41.359 Don't drive his ideas underground where they 00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:43.960 can't be challenged. Defeat him with better ideas 00:25:43.960 --> 00:25:46.119 in the open marketplace. But there is a limit. 00:25:46.440 --> 00:25:48.559 There is a red line. There is a clear red line. 00:25:48.660 --> 00:25:51.039 He says we reserve the right to suppress them, 00:25:51.140 --> 00:25:54.119 if necessary, even by force, if they are not 00:25:54.119 --> 00:25:56.140 prepared to meet us on the level of rational 00:25:56.140 --> 00:25:59.039 argument, but begin by denouncing all argument. 00:25:59.359 --> 00:26:01.660 They may forbid their followers to listen to 00:26:01.660 --> 00:26:04.549 rational argument. and teach them to answer arguments 00:26:04.549 --> 00:26:07.250 by the use of their fists or pistols. So the 00:26:07.250 --> 00:26:09.990 moment you stop talking and you pick up a rock, 00:26:10.190 --> 00:26:12.730 you lose your right to be tolerated. Or even 00:26:12.730 --> 00:26:14.630 the moment you start inciting other people to 00:26:14.630 --> 00:26:17.109 pick up rocks and abandon debate. It's not about 00:26:17.109 --> 00:26:19.690 the content of their ideas, however vile. It's 00:26:19.690 --> 00:26:22.049 about their refusal to participate in the process 00:26:22.049 --> 00:26:25.769 of rational debate itself. If you use your freedom 00:26:25.769 --> 00:26:28.250 of speech to destroy the very possibility of 00:26:28.250 --> 00:26:30.430 free speech for others, you've broken the social 00:26:30.430 --> 00:26:32.910 contract of the open society. But it's a measure 00:26:32.910 --> 00:26:35.630 of left resort. It's a defensive measure to protect 00:26:35.630 --> 00:26:38.829 tolerance, not an offensive tool for canceling 00:26:38.829 --> 00:26:41.809 people you find annoying. Precisely. That nuance 00:26:41.809 --> 00:26:45.849 is missing from 99 .9 % of the Twitter debates 00:26:45.849 --> 00:26:49.210 on this topic. Nuance usually is. Before we get 00:26:49.210 --> 00:26:51.009 to the really trippy metaphysics, there is one 00:26:51.009 --> 00:26:53.470 more political point in the notes. The conspiracy 00:26:53.470 --> 00:26:57.269 theory of society. This feels huge right now. 00:26:57.410 --> 00:26:59.450 It's the default setting of the modern mind, 00:26:59.509 --> 00:27:02.039 isn't it? Something bad happens, a pandemic, 00:27:02.220 --> 00:27:06.200 a recession, a war, and we assume someone planned 00:27:06.200 --> 00:27:09.480 this. The elites, the deep state, the globalists, 00:27:09.500 --> 00:27:11.619 there's always a shadowy group pulling the strings. 00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:14.200 Popper says this is a theological error. It's 00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:16.099 a secularized version of the belief in gods. 00:27:16.619 --> 00:27:18.660 We used to think the gods made the crops fail 00:27:18.660 --> 00:27:21.339 or the storms rage. Now we've killed God, so 00:27:21.339 --> 00:27:22.759 we had to replace him with something just as 00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:24.779 powerful and all -knowing. We replaced him with 00:27:24.779 --> 00:27:27.200 conspirators. We assume that powerful people 00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:29.339 are competent enough to actually control the 00:27:29.339 --> 00:27:33.079 world. And Popper says, they aren't. He says 00:27:33.079 --> 00:27:36.059 famously, nothing ever comes off exactly as intended. 00:27:36.299 --> 00:27:38.720 Even the most powerful dictator in the world 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:41.119 issues an order. And by the time it trickles 00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:43.420 down through the bureaucracy, it gets misinterpreted. 00:27:43.420 --> 00:27:46.819 It changes. Then it hits the real world and a 00:27:46.819 --> 00:27:49.599 million unintended consequences happen that nobody 00:27:49.599 --> 00:27:51.759 could have predicted. So the recession isn't 00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:54.779 a secret plot by a cabal of bankers. Yeah. It's 00:27:54.779 --> 00:27:58.730 just a massive. complicated screw -up. It's usually 00:27:58.730 --> 00:28:02.930 a toxic mix of greed, incompetence, error, and 00:28:02.930 --> 00:28:04.910 just the chaotic friction of millions of people 00:28:04.910 --> 00:28:07.529 making individual choices. Popper thinks assuming 00:28:07.529 --> 00:28:10.130 a conspiracy is actually wildly optimistic because 00:28:10.130 --> 00:28:12.509 it implies someone is in control. The reality 00:28:12.509 --> 00:28:15.009 that no one is really driving the bus is much, 00:28:15.009 --> 00:28:17.150 much scarier. I think I prefer the Illuminati. 00:28:17.190 --> 00:28:18.769 At least they have a plan, you know? That's the 00:28:18.769 --> 00:28:20.869 psychological appeal. It's comforting. All right, 00:28:20.890 --> 00:28:23.109 let's take a deep breath. We've done the science. 00:28:23.170 --> 00:28:26.079 We've done the politics. Now... The notes say 00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:28.579 we're going to the three worlds. And frankly, 00:28:28.700 --> 00:28:30.259 this part of the outline looks a little sci -fi. 00:28:30.339 --> 00:28:33.460 It is where Popper gets really creative and a 00:28:33.460 --> 00:28:36.859 bit strange. He wasn't just a dry logician. He 00:28:36.859 --> 00:28:39.880 had a theory of reality and ontology. He said 00:28:39.880 --> 00:28:42.380 the entire universe consists of three distinct 00:28:42.380 --> 00:28:45.359 but interacting worlds. Okay. Let's start with 00:28:45.359 --> 00:28:47.660 world one. World one is the physical stuff, the 00:28:47.660 --> 00:28:50.460 easy stuff. Atoms, rocks, tables, your brain, 00:28:50.640 --> 00:28:53.680 the stars, plants, animals, everything that physics, 00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:56.549 chemistry, and biology study. Got it. The hardware 00:28:56.549 --> 00:28:58.990 of the universe. So what's World 2? World 2 is 00:28:58.990 --> 00:29:01.549 the psychological stuff. Your subjective consciousness, 00:29:01.970 --> 00:29:03.930 your thoughts, your feelings of joy or pain, 00:29:04.190 --> 00:29:06.670 the feeling of seeing the color blue, your memories. 00:29:06.809 --> 00:29:08.789 It's the software running inside your individual 00:29:08.789 --> 00:29:11.509 head. Okay, the hardware and my personal software. 00:29:11.829 --> 00:29:14.309 For a long time, philosophers pretty much stopped 00:29:14.309 --> 00:29:16.930 there, right? Matter in mind, dualism. Yeah, 00:29:16.930 --> 00:29:19.470 they did. But Popper said, no, there is a third 00:29:19.470 --> 00:29:21.819 crucial thing, and he called it World 3. And 00:29:21.819 --> 00:29:23.900 what is World 3? World 3 consists of the objective 00:29:23.900 --> 00:29:26.000 products of the human mind. Things like myths, 00:29:26.180 --> 00:29:28.460 stories, philosophical arguments, scientific 00:29:28.460 --> 00:29:31.400 theories, mathematical laws, symphonies, engineering 00:29:31.400 --> 00:29:35.140 diagrams, legal codes. But wait a minute. A book 00:29:35.140 --> 00:29:38.339 containing a theory is World 1. It's paper and 00:29:38.339 --> 00:29:41.119 ink. And my understanding of the theory is, in 00:29:41.119 --> 00:29:44.130 my head... That's world two. Why do we need a 00:29:44.130 --> 00:29:46.630 separate world three? This is the key. Popper 00:29:46.630 --> 00:29:49.250 argued that once you create an idea and put it 00:29:49.250 --> 00:29:51.490 out into the world, once you write the book or 00:29:51.490 --> 00:29:53.710 compose the symphony, it becomes autonomous. 00:29:53.809 --> 00:29:56.470 It takes on a life of its own, independent of 00:29:56.470 --> 00:29:59.450 its creator and of any individual mind. I'm not 00:29:59.450 --> 00:30:01.390 sure I get that. Give me a concrete example. 00:30:01.730 --> 00:30:26.480 Think about the number system. Oh. Oh. They exist 00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:28.660 objectively, whether we know about them or not. 00:30:28.819 --> 00:30:31.559 So World 3 is like a jungle we planted, but things 00:30:31.559 --> 00:30:33.619 are now growing in it that we didn't plant ourselves. 00:30:34.039 --> 00:30:36.299 That's a perfect analogy. Or think about an algorithm 00:30:36.299 --> 00:30:39.480 today. A team of coders writes a social media 00:30:39.480 --> 00:30:42.000 algorithm. That's a World 3 object. That algorithm 00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:43.799 is then released onto the Internet. It starts 00:30:43.799 --> 00:30:46.299 interacting with millions of teenagers. It starts 00:30:46.299 --> 00:30:48.519 changing their self -esteem, which is World 2. 00:30:48.680 --> 00:30:51.099 It keeps them awake at night, raising their cortisol 00:30:51.099 --> 00:30:53.940 levels, which is World 1. And the coders didn't 00:30:53.940 --> 00:30:55.920 intend for the algorithm to cause insomnia in 00:30:55.920 --> 00:30:58.500 a kid in Ohio. Exactly. But the World 3 object 00:30:58.500 --> 00:31:01.380 is doing it. It has real causal power. It acts 00:31:01.380 --> 00:31:03.900 back on World 2 and World 1. World 3 pushes back. 00:31:04.279 --> 00:31:06.119 That makes the thought experiment in the outline, 00:31:06.279 --> 00:31:08.579 the one about the libraries, really haunting. 00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:11.700 It is. Popper asks, If the human race was wiped 00:31:11.700 --> 00:31:14.480 out tomorrow, every single world to mind just 00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:16.700 gone, and all our machines broke down, world 00:31:16.700 --> 00:31:19.220 one tools all gone, but our libraries remained 00:31:19.220 --> 00:31:22.720 intact, does the knowledge still exist? If an 00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:25.359 alien lands and decodes a physics textbook, the 00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:27.859 knowledge is dormant, but it is objectively there. 00:31:28.319 --> 00:31:31.180 The solution to a problem is in that book, waiting. 00:31:31.420 --> 00:31:33.900 It doesn't need a human mind to actively sustain 00:31:33.900 --> 00:31:36.680 it. It has crystallized into a world three object. 00:31:36.940 --> 00:31:39.420 I feel like this has to connect to his view on 00:31:39.420 --> 00:31:42.259 evolution. Because if ideas and problems can 00:31:42.259 --> 00:31:45.220 have this objective power, that changes how we 00:31:45.220 --> 00:31:48.460 see biology. Massively. This is his act of Darwinism. 00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:51.539 He hated this standard, almost mechanical view 00:31:51.539 --> 00:31:53.500 of evolution that was common at the time. This 00:31:53.500 --> 00:31:57.180 idea that animals are just passive victims. You 00:31:57.180 --> 00:31:59.319 know, oh, the environment got cold, so the ones 00:31:59.319 --> 00:32:01.599 with thin fur died. It's too passive. It's too 00:32:01.599 --> 00:32:04.059 robotic. Right. Popper proposed the spearhead 00:32:04.059 --> 00:32:06.680 model. He said the organism is an explorer. It 00:32:06.680 --> 00:32:08.859 has goals. It is trying to solve problems. The 00:32:08.859 --> 00:32:10.920 hopeful behavioral monster. I love that name. 00:32:10.920 --> 00:32:13.079 It sounds like a rock band. It's great, isn't 00:32:13.079 --> 00:32:15.599 it? The core idea is that the behavior often 00:32:15.599 --> 00:32:18.880 changes before the body does. The mind leads 00:32:18.880 --> 00:32:21.470 the way. How does that work? Take the giraffe. 00:32:21.710 --> 00:32:25.069 The old passive view is random mutations produced 00:32:25.069 --> 00:32:27.589 a giraffe with a slightly longer neck and that 00:32:27.589 --> 00:32:29.549 giraffe survived better and had more babies, 00:32:29.789 --> 00:32:32.630 Popper says. Maybe the giraffe's ancestor developed 00:32:32.630 --> 00:32:35.750 a preference, a world to desire for the tender 00:32:35.750 --> 00:32:38.490 leaves at the tops of the trees. It wanted to 00:32:38.490 --> 00:32:40.690 reach them. So it spent its life stretching its 00:32:40.690 --> 00:32:43.160 neck. Trying to get to those leaves. It pushed 00:32:43.160 --> 00:32:46.519 itself into a new ecological niche. This new 00:32:46.519 --> 00:32:49.519 behavior created a new selection pressure. Now, 00:32:49.619 --> 00:32:52.579 any small genetic mutation that gave a slightly 00:32:52.579 --> 00:32:55.680 longer neck was suddenly hugely valuable. The 00:32:55.680 --> 00:32:58.660 mind, the desire, the problem solving led the 00:32:58.660 --> 00:33:01.319 way. The physical body followed over generations. 00:33:01.799 --> 00:33:04.140 That puts the mind and preference in the driver's 00:33:04.140 --> 00:33:06.680 seat of evolution, not just random chance. It 00:33:06.680 --> 00:33:09.319 restores a kind of dignity and agency to life. 00:33:09.819 --> 00:33:11.859 We aren't just clay being molded by the wind 00:33:11.859 --> 00:33:14.720 and rain. We are active agents solving problems. 00:33:14.799 --> 00:33:16.859 Which leads us directly to the question of free 00:33:16.859 --> 00:33:19.400 will. He was an interactionist dualist, which 00:33:19.400 --> 00:33:21.299 is a bit of a mouthful, but he worked with a 00:33:21.299 --> 00:33:24.200 neuroscientist, Sir John Eccles, and they basically 00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:27.400 believed the non -physical mind, world two, genuinely 00:33:27.400 --> 00:33:30.059 controls the physical brain. World one, not just 00:33:30.059 --> 00:33:32.420 the other way around. He called the mind the 00:33:32.420 --> 00:33:34.670 editor. The editor. What does that mean? Think 00:33:34.670 --> 00:33:37.569 of your physical brain as a creative but chaotic 00:33:37.569 --> 00:33:40.109 generator. It's constantly throwing up random 00:33:40.109 --> 00:33:43.710 thoughts, impulses, ideas, maybe spurred by quantum 00:33:43.710 --> 00:33:46.750 indeterminacy at the neuronal level. It's brainstorming. 00:33:47.130 --> 00:33:50.250 But you, the self, the conscious world too, mind 00:33:50.250 --> 00:33:52.750 you, are the editor. You sit at the desk and 00:33:52.750 --> 00:33:55.049 you say, no, not that thought. That's a stupid 00:33:55.049 --> 00:33:57.809 idea. No, not that impulse. That would be rude. 00:33:58.289 --> 00:34:00.549 Yes, that one. That's a good one. Let's act on 00:34:00.549 --> 00:34:03.140 that. So freedom isn't in generating the random 00:34:03.140 --> 00:34:05.420 thoughts. It's in selecting which ones to approve 00:34:05.420 --> 00:34:08.260 and act on. Exactly. Freedom is the power of 00:34:08.260 --> 00:34:10.400 veto. It's the selection mechanism that sits 00:34:10.400 --> 00:34:13.139 on top of the random generation. Wow. Okay. We 00:34:13.139 --> 00:34:16.380 have built a pretty towering statue of this man. 00:34:16.940 --> 00:34:19.380 But we have to be Popperian about Popper himself. 00:34:19.579 --> 00:34:21.159 We have to criticize him. We have to try and 00:34:21.159 --> 00:34:23.639 falsify him. Who are his biggest critics? The 00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:26.679 biggest challenger by far was Thomas Kuhn. He 00:34:26.679 --> 00:34:29.099 wrote the hugely influential book, The Structure 00:34:29.099 --> 00:34:31.380 of Scientific Revolutions. And he basically said, 00:34:31.480 --> 00:34:34.079 Popper, this is a nice, logical story, but have 00:34:34.079 --> 00:34:37.000 you ever actually met a scientist? What do you 00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:39.380 mean by that? Kuhn argued that in the real world, 00:34:39.539 --> 00:34:41.539 scientists don't spend their days actively trying 00:34:41.539 --> 00:34:44.119 to falsify their core theories. They love their 00:34:44.119 --> 00:34:45.900 theories. They've built their entire careers 00:34:45.900 --> 00:34:48.150 on them. them. They have tenure. They have grants. 00:34:48.530 --> 00:34:51.789 The sunk cost fallacy is huge in academia. Enormous. 00:34:51.969 --> 00:34:54.769 Kuhn said if you spent 30 years working on, say, 00:34:54.929 --> 00:34:57.289 string theory and a new experiment comes out 00:34:57.289 --> 00:34:59.409 that seems to contradict it, you don't jump for 00:34:59.409 --> 00:35:02.289 joy and shout, hooray, falsification. You say 00:35:02.289 --> 00:35:04.590 the experimental equipment must be broken or 00:35:04.590 --> 00:35:07.670 the data was analyzed wrong. You invent patches 00:35:07.670 --> 00:35:10.489 and modifications to protect your theory. So 00:35:10.489 --> 00:35:13.030 Kuhn is saying science is more political and 00:35:13.030 --> 00:35:17.800 tribal and. Well, more human than Popper's idealized 00:35:17.800 --> 00:35:20.500 version. Yes. Kuhn's big idea was that science 00:35:20.500 --> 00:35:23.460 works in paradigms. For long periods of normal 00:35:23.460 --> 00:35:25.599 science, everyone agrees on the fundamental rules 00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:27.360 and they just solve little puzzles within that 00:35:27.360 --> 00:35:29.699 framework and they actively ignore the anomalies 00:35:29.699 --> 00:35:32.380 until the anomalies get so numerous and so bad 00:35:32.380 --> 00:35:35.019 that the whole system crashes. That's a paradigm 00:35:35.019 --> 00:35:38.239 shift. So Popper is describing the ideal of how 00:35:38.239 --> 00:35:40.800 science should work, and Kuhn is describing the 00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:43.559 messy reality of how it often does work. That's 00:35:43.559 --> 00:35:46.739 a very fair summary. And Popper really, really 00:35:46.739 --> 00:35:50.260 hated Kuhn's view. He called it the myth of the 00:35:50.260 --> 00:35:53.579 framework. He thought it was a dangerous, relativistic 00:35:53.579 --> 00:35:56.239 idea to say we are all trapped in our paradigms 00:35:56.239 --> 00:35:58.440 and can't talk to each other. He believed we 00:35:58.440 --> 00:36:00.619 could always break out if we had enough critical 00:36:00.619 --> 00:36:03.059 spirit. And what about the naive falsification 00:36:03.059 --> 00:36:06.030 critique? The notes mention the discovery of 00:36:06.030 --> 00:36:07.989 Neptune. Right. This is the practical issue. 00:36:08.110 --> 00:36:10.789 When astronomers in the 19th century looked at 00:36:10.789 --> 00:36:13.590 the orbit of Uranus, it was wrong. It didn't 00:36:13.590 --> 00:36:16.429 follow Newton's laws precisely. So technically, 00:36:16.670 --> 00:36:19.889 Newton's theory of gravity was falsified. Technically, 00:36:19.989 --> 00:36:22.510 yes. A strict Popperian would have had to say, 00:36:22.650 --> 00:36:25.130 OK, throw Newton in the trash. But they didn't. 00:36:25.130 --> 00:36:27.760 They said, maybe the theory is right. But our 00:36:27.760 --> 00:36:29.880 assumptions are wrong. Maybe there is another 00:36:29.880 --> 00:36:32.699 planet out there that we can't see and its gravity 00:36:32.699 --> 00:36:35.519 is pulling on Uranus. So they used Newton's laws 00:36:35.519 --> 00:36:37.920 to predict where this invisible planet must be. 00:36:38.079 --> 00:36:40.219 Exactly. They pointed their telescopes to that 00:36:40.219 --> 00:36:43.320 spot in the sky and there was Neptune. So by 00:36:43.320 --> 00:36:45.500 refusing to give up on the theory, by being a 00:36:45.500 --> 00:36:48.239 bit dogmatic, they made one of the greatest discoveries 00:36:48.239 --> 00:36:51.199 in the history of astronomy. Sometimes being 00:36:51.199 --> 00:36:54.590 stubborn is good. If you falsify a good theory 00:36:54.590 --> 00:36:57.530 too early because of one weird result, you might 00:36:57.530 --> 00:37:00.030 miss the bigger picture. Precisely. Popper later 00:37:00.030 --> 00:37:03.010 admitted this. He said, a certain amount of dogmatism 00:37:03.010 --> 00:37:05.969 is necessary. You have to defend the theory for 00:37:05.969 --> 00:37:07.730 a while to see what it can really do. It's a 00:37:07.730 --> 00:37:10.550 delicate balance. You defend it, but you have 00:37:10.550 --> 00:37:13.630 to know when to fold them, as they say. Exactly. 00:37:13.670 --> 00:37:16.949 The Kenny Rogers philosophy of science. So let's 00:37:16.949 --> 00:37:19.349 bring it all home. Why does Karl Popper matter 00:37:19.349 --> 00:37:22.179 today? We are sitting here in the mid -2020s. 00:37:22.179 --> 00:37:24.760 Why should you, the listener, care about a guy 00:37:24.760 --> 00:37:27.659 who died in 1994? Just look at the world around 00:37:27.659 --> 00:37:30.639 you. We have the rise of new forms of authoritarianism. 00:37:30.679 --> 00:37:33.079 We have strongman leaders promising they alone 00:37:33.079 --> 00:37:35.579 can fix it, that they have the answers. That 00:37:35.579 --> 00:37:38.579 is the closed society fighting back with a vengeance. 00:37:39.340 --> 00:37:41.420 Popper's work is the best intellectual defense 00:37:41.420 --> 00:37:43.719 we have. He reminds us that the strongman is 00:37:43.719 --> 00:37:46.320 a myth. No one knows the future. And in science 00:37:46.320 --> 00:37:49.030 and public life. We have a crisis of trust and 00:37:49.030 --> 00:37:51.369 expertise. People don't trust the experts anymore. 00:37:51.570 --> 00:37:53.610 Popper gives us a way to rebuild that trust, 00:37:53.730 --> 00:37:56.289 but on a more honest foundation. We shouldn't 00:37:56.289 --> 00:37:58.590 say, trust me, I'm a scientist, I know the absolute 00:37:58.590 --> 00:38:01.949 truth. We should say, trust this finding for 00:38:01.949 --> 00:38:04.670 now. Because we have tried our absolute hardest 00:38:04.670 --> 00:38:07.409 to break it, to prove it wrong from every angle, 00:38:07.530 --> 00:38:10.389 and so far, we couldn't. That is a much more 00:38:10.389 --> 00:38:13.090 humble, and frankly, a much more honest pitch. 00:38:13.559 --> 00:38:15.960 And finally, on a personal, individual level, 00:38:16.219 --> 00:38:18.599 Popper's philosophy teaches us how to think. 00:38:18.739 --> 00:38:21.420 It teaches us that being wrong isn't a sin. It's 00:38:21.420 --> 00:38:23.539 not a failure of character. It's a necessary 00:38:23.539 --> 00:38:26.260 step towards being less wrong. I think that's 00:38:26.260 --> 00:38:28.179 the hardest lesson for any of us to learn. Our 00:38:28.179 --> 00:38:30.360 egos hate being wrong. It feels like a personal 00:38:30.360 --> 00:38:32.380 defeat. But if you can learn to separate your 00:38:32.380 --> 00:38:35.380 ego from your ideas, if you can say my idea died 00:38:35.380 --> 00:38:37.440 in that argument, but I am still here and now 00:38:37.440 --> 00:38:39.980 I know better, that is liberation. That is the 00:38:39.980 --> 00:38:42.610 open mind. So here's the challenge for everyone 00:38:42.610 --> 00:38:45.309 listening. The next time you are in an argument 00:38:45.309 --> 00:38:49.070 about politics, about work, about anything, and 00:38:49.070 --> 00:38:51.829 you feel that hot flash of absolute certainty, 00:38:51.829 --> 00:38:55.389 that feeling of I am 100 % right, just pause 00:38:55.389 --> 00:38:58.630 and ask yourself the popper question. What evidence, 00:38:58.789 --> 00:39:01.429 what fact, what piece of information would convince 00:39:01.429 --> 00:39:04.449 me that I am wrong about this? And if the answer 00:39:04.449 --> 00:39:07.599 that comes back is nothing. Then you aren't thinking. 00:39:07.880 --> 00:39:10.119 You're preaching. Yeah. And you've closed the 00:39:10.119 --> 00:39:11.719 door to knowledge. We're going to leave you with 00:39:11.719 --> 00:39:14.539 one final image to chew on. Go back to that alien 00:39:14.539 --> 00:39:18.179 library. The human race is gone. The books are 00:39:18.179 --> 00:39:20.820 all there. World 3 is waiting in the dark. Does 00:39:20.820 --> 00:39:23.199 the truth of the Pythagorean theorem exist if 00:39:23.199 --> 00:39:25.320 there's no one there to read it? Or do we light 00:39:25.320 --> 00:39:27.440 it up with our consciousness? Thanks for diving 00:39:27.440 --> 00:39:29.019 deep with us. We'll see you in the next one.