The best talk I have ever attended, was given by Ian McEwan in Athens, Greece in 2018. He was enthrallingly articulate, on several subjects, for 1,5 hours non-stop. I've never envied another person's intellect so much, as when he was holding forth on every topic under the sun, in mellifluous sentences.

@paulscottfilms

2 жыл бұрын

sure he holds forth ln everything he's a bloody elite left-wing precious transhuman specimen.

@lidiaadobato7822

2 жыл бұрын

Mellifluous: smooth and gentle flow. Very pleasant to listen to We don' t have the word in Spanish or rather, never used in this positive sense

I stumbled into this engrossing conversation. My mission now is to read all of Ian McEwan’s works. Such an interesting man.

Great interview Lawrence. One of my favourites! Please keep them coming.

Thank you Lawrence and Ian for this wonderful conversation.

Glad to see you back again.

What a rich conversation. Thank you so much.

Thank you for all your work.

Amazing interview, thank you.

Wonderful interview. Thank you!

Yes!!! Re-reading is amazing!

Fascinating interview

A good episode. I would love to watch and listen to Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro in this podcast.

Always a treat to see Hitch’s various friends carrying on with chats together.

How enlightening!

Ian McEwan personifies excellence in critical thinking, creativity, and an eros-driven, extremely generous kind of human emotional intelligence and sensibility -- thank you! This talk also reminded me of E.O. Wilson's book Consilience, a gem of a book carrying related, provocative, and inspiring ideas.

I really like the idea that consciousness doesn't exist, in the sense that it's a concept that represents a hugely dynamic set interactions that is just computationally unreasonable for us to deal with.. outside of borderline metaphysical vagaries

@plumjam

2 жыл бұрын

If consciousness doesn't exist, what is it that likes the idea that consciousness doesn't exist?

This beautiful discussion reminds me of the movie Departures

Wonderful conversation, thank you

Diving into their minds is just wonderful & a lifetime

Krauss rocks the party.

Brilliant.

thanks

Science = organized curiosity. Nice.

Hi Kraus!

Wonderful--I am so thankful for intelligent conversations these days. Thanks Lawrence. Keep it up.

well this is an unexpected delight.

32:00 on rereading books you read decades ago

Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman Is this the book Ian McEwan mentions??

@svenw8781

3 ай бұрын

Yes

The hunger by Martin Caparros.

I realize the morally cathartic (if less than emotionally cathartic) conclusion to the plot mentioned with lying about rape to make jail time for a true rapist who cannot be tried would be for the man to lie to the court and confess to a rape which did not happen, and for the woman he falsely claims to have raped to admit it did not happen and for *him* to go to jail for lying to the court. Assuming the only reason his true confession wouldn't bring jail time is because too much time passed from the crime since his confession is the faster solution.

How many adverts?

@doyle6000

2 жыл бұрын

i only had two KZread adverts

First?! Hello, is this live or just premiered?!

@drts6955

3 жыл бұрын

Premiered

Lawrence, your questions were insightful, however I was wishing that you would step back and let Ian speak more words.

@53:00 Krauss points out one reason why super intelligent creatures dont come to Earth to visit us. To paraphrase his answer: We're not exactly hunting down our microwaves from 1997 to see how they're doing either...😆🙃

@Hollis_has_questions

Жыл бұрын

If I were them, I wouldn’t visit us. Why would I? Observation from afar is enough of a reason to stay away.

"we delude ourselves so efficiently.." that will do when it comes to human consciousness. how efficient our delusions are. poetry, psychology and science, all in one. humans are doomed, so we better get on with the serious business of dreaming.

The book, "Anurag Sager Of Kabir" COULD INTEREST YOU.

You know, this discussion made.me rethink the "smallness" scale.of civilization success. At first I thought ranking a civilization by mastery of the small was futile. Surely that would just be a component, where a species would expand just with tinier and tinier circuits. Nor are small aliens a new concept, I remember the old Animorph books I read had a species of small invaders, and since the author borrowed from the Invasion of the Body Snatchers for the primary plot I assume she borrowed that too. Then Accelerando argued if an AI-human pre-singularity shot a sophisticated set of AI agents to visit a brown dwarf on the edge of the solar system and came back, the advancement at the singularity would be so great by comparison to the coke-can-computer to render the journey meaningless. Here, we see something similar... Why put ten million humans on this station, two billion on this planet, when we could fit sixty trillion on earth by making people smaller. But I think the value in expansion is still in redundancy - the more planets, the more collisions and other solar system phenomena required to end life. Hell, the more stars it becomes even more resilient.

Im watching from Argentina and there are so many adverts. If announcers understood how one can hate the product advertised and swear to never ever buy it.

@a.t.c.3862

2 жыл бұрын

😄 I consciously and deliberately do that; and bad mouth the advertised article or service whenever the occasion arises. Perhaps they'll learn.

Dinner Time!!

Chaos theory Consciousness.

Brexit - is independence that's for what

@tefilobraga

3 жыл бұрын

And is independence supposed to be intrinsically good? Or is it just a religious and tribal irrational value?

@sircharlesnot

3 жыл бұрын

@@tefilobraga it's the only true good. Liberty is the founding principle of all democratic countries!!!

We are unwittingly constructing the Matrix

Hey, maybe the octopus' are the intelligent aliens.

@jorgegomez524

3 жыл бұрын

if they end up in my plate, they aren’t that intelligent. First sign of intelligence is becoming the apex predator.

Hello my 👽s

P is

Listen to the archetypal petit bourgeois rant about Brexit and lost trade deals at the end . Can anyone seriously imagine Proust / Mann / Tolstoy or any other truly great novelist chuntering on about lost trade deals ?!?!..... Sums McEwen up perfectly.

God created man so he can experience what he jacked, mortality and ignorance.

Great interview, although it's clear that Ian hasn't had a serious debate about Brexit to help him understand the real issues.

@davidleibel

2 жыл бұрын

You provide not a single argument in support of your statement, Mr Linton. Because there is none. As McEwan says Brexit has become a religious belief unsupported by evidence.

@gordonlinton3555

2 жыл бұрын

@@davidleibel I assume projecting Brexit as some kind of religious belief makes you feel comfortable inside lol... It's not a good look to the outside world.

Lawrence, quit interrupting

Krause sure likes to hear himself talk... He's got a guest but spends more time pontificating his own views rather than listening

@oldskeptic1513

3 жыл бұрын

... if you've got it, flaunt it... some need to be pontificating to...

@monicaangelini3324

2 жыл бұрын

It is not an interview it is a talk

@doyle6000

2 жыл бұрын

@@monicaangelini3324 exactly

AI = BLX

@geoffreynhill2833

3 жыл бұрын

Just let computers do the boring bits.

Get rid of the background noise

As much as I admire him as a writer, it’s clearly easy to boggle his mind, and in stating that no-one is making an economic argument for Brexit he’s clearly very short sighted on the costs of uncontrolled immigration that the EU refused to budge on, forcing us to leave. A “folly” according to the multi-millionaire whose living standards haven’t been impacted by 40 years of real wage deflation

@urbansoundscapes7734

2 жыл бұрын

Please don't forget that it has been UK government policy to encourage immigration (to help the economy) over many decades, not the EU forcing uncontrolled immigration upon us. Pressure for the UK to leave the EU came predominantly from the very wealthy (many overseas) who funded the Brexit campaign. Brexit was driven and motivated by money, power and the retention of control of British tax havens for the wealth of the few. For the vast majority Brexit is bringing a lower quality of life; lower regulatory standards, fewer opportunities to study, work and live our lives where we want, negatively impacting the economy and with it public services and infrastructure - not to mention the undermining of established security alliances. In my view his mind is anything but boggled!

@daviddavids2884

2 жыл бұрын

your uninvited and under-informed OPINION is noted.

@ian7666

2 жыл бұрын

@@daviddavids2884 If you say so, snowflake 🤷‍♂️

Fastest way to lose respect for an intellectual with their arrogance towards the majority of people when they don't like their decisions.

@johnlee5423

3 жыл бұрын

And why should he LIKE the majorities decision

@doyle6000

2 жыл бұрын

@@johnlee5423 he should at least respect it

@johnlee5423

2 жыл бұрын

@@doyle6000 why

@doyle6000

2 жыл бұрын

@@johnlee5423 because it's a democracy - majority rules!

@johnlee5423

2 жыл бұрын

@@doyle6000 stupidity of the majority does not have to be respected

again with loaded questions pushing right wing narrative that krauss buys into.did it with woody allen also.

Lawrence feels forced, something is wrong. - Perhaps the fact that Ian doesn't think science is anything more special than organized curiously.

@drts6955

3 жыл бұрын

it gets better

boring self-indulgent nonsense

@christopherhamilton3621

2 жыл бұрын

You’re projecting again… 🙄

what an amazing interview. so true...thank you