329 | Steven Pinker on Rationality and Common Knowledge
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Release Date: 09/22/2025
AMA | Feb 2026
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Welcome to the February 2026 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy! Blog post with AMA questions and transcript: Note that Mindscape now has a new hosting provider, . (Actually a return home, as that was my first host when...
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342 | Rachell Powell on Evolutionary Convergence, Morality, and Mind
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
I talk with philosopher Rachell Powell about how minds and social forms arise under evolution.
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341 | Stewart Brand on Maintenance as an Organizing Principle
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
I talk with technologist Stewart Brand about the importance of taking maintenance seriously.
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340 | Rebecca Newberger Goldstein on What Matters and Why It Matters
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
I talk with philosopher and novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein about what it means for us to matter to ourselves and others.
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339 | Ned Block on Whether Consciousness Requires Biology
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
I talk with philosopher Ned Block about whether machines can ever truly be conscious.
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Holiday Message 2025 | The Romance of the University
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Happy Holidays everyone!
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AMA | December 2025
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape for December 2025.
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338 | Ryan Patterson on the Physics of Neutrinos
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
I talk with physicist Ryan Patterson about how we detect neutrinos and what we have learned from them.
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337 | Kevin Zollman on Game Theory, Signals, and Meaning
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
I talk with philosopher Kevin Zollman about how game theory helps us understand the human and biological worlds.
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336 | Anil Ananthaswamy on the Mathematics of Neural Nets and AI
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Machine learning using neural networks has led to a remarkable leap forward in artificial intelligence, and the technological and social ramifications have been discussed at great length. To understand the origin and nature of this progress, it is useful to dig at least a little bit into the mathematical and algorithmic structures underlying these techniques. Anil Ananthaswamy takes up this challenge in his book Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI. In this conversation we give a brief ove
info_outlineGetting along in society requires that we mostly adhere to certainly shared norms and customs. Often it's not enough that we all know what the rules are, but also that everyone else knows the rules, and that they know that we know the rules, and so on. Philosophers and game theorists refer to this as common knowledge. In Steven Pinker's new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows..., he explores how common knowledge (or its absence) explains money, power, and a wide variety of subtextual human interactions.
Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/09/22/329-steven-pinker-on-rationality-and-common-knowledge/
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Steven Pinker received his Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University. He is currently the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is the author of several best-selling books and recipient of several honorary doctoral degrees. Among his awards are Humanist of the Year (two different organizations) and the William James Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Psychological Science.