Episode: 48 Xenogenesis - Adulthood-Rites: III: Chkahichdahk Chapter 11

Show Notes

In episode 48, Richard and Michael discuss Akin’s task to prepare the way for a Human Akjai, Tiikuchahk’s choice of a sex/gender, and get a bit sidetracked relating the workings of the Oanlaki consensus to human political considerations. We also reflect on the ark and review some of the subjects we discussed while reading it.

Timestamps

00:00:00 - Start
00:00:32 - Welcome
00:01:56 - Chapter 11 predictions
00:03:50 - The eventual expansion of the Sun
00:06:40 - Chapter 11 summary begins
00:09:30 - Tiikuchahk’s choice of a sex/gender
00:11:50 - Inability of the adult Ooloi to fix the dissonance
00:13:20 - Limits on adult Ooloi’s abilities?
00:16:30 - The decision of the consensus
00:17:30 - Akin positioned to be able to choose
00:20:45 - Tiikuchahk to study teraforming
00:21:29 - Chapter 11 ends
00:21:30 - Ooloi as manipulators
00:22:20 - Tiikuchahk’s choice and Analogy to human gender identity [1]
00:24:32 - Biology of sex determination revisited [2]
00:34:40 - Part III Summary
00:37:05 - Tino’s sense that he has betrayed humanity
00:38:08 - Subjective certainty of the Oankali that a human Akjai is doomed [3,4,5]
00:40:38 - Are the Onankali wrong about us? [6,7]
00:43:05 - The current malaise & a spark of hope? [8,9,10]
00:52:16 - Humane Technology [11]
00:57:50 - Truth, Privacy & the epistemic commons in consensus [13,13]
01:05:00 - Data exposes the hypocrisy of legal systems [14]
01:09:40 - Changing your mind in the era of a permant record.
01:23:30 - Why the declining trust in science, is it deserved? [15,16,17]
01:26:00 - Poor communitcation in the scientific literature [18]
01:28:00 - reeling it back in
01:29:10 - Retrospecive on topics covered in this part
01:42:46 - Part IV, Chapter 1 predictions
01:47:00 - Outro

References

Tiikuchahk’s choice:

• [1] Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science by Alice Domurat Dreger (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22571733-galileo-s-middle-finger)
• [2] Varied Biology of Sex determination: The Evolution of Males and Females - with Judith Mank, Royal Institution lecture (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En26p6GvtHw)

Is the certainy of experts a good guide?:

• [3] Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23995360-superforecasting)
• [4] Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11468377-thinking-fast-and-slow)
• [5] Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts by Annie Duke (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35957157-thinking-in-bets)

Humans, are we doomed?:

• [6] The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13543093-the-better-angels-of-our-nature)
• [7] The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12391521-the-psychopath-test)

Analogies to the consensus, and our current pollitical situation:

• [8] End State: 9 Ways Society is Broken – and how we can fix it by James Plunkett (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58738045-end-state)
• [9] similar but comparing now to the Enlightenment not the industrial revolution - Enlightenment 2.0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVUg4NeYpgA)
• [10] Democratic innovation in Taiwan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K54Nf_K8Wro&list=PLNEfwKn4eF0Viixb5Np6YDrWFw17PvH9z)
• [11] The Centre for human technology & their podcast ‘your undivided attention’ https://www.humanetech.com/

Privacy, data & Self-sovereign identity:

• [11] Recent episode of the Reality 2.0 podcast covering data & Digital identity (https://www.reality2cast.com/97)

• [12] Privacy is Power: Reclaiming Democracy in the Digital Age by Carissa Véliz (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51781479-privacy-is-power)

• [13] Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent by Harvey A. Silverglate (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6611240-three-felonies-a-day)

Errosion of the episetmic commons & trust in science:

• [14] Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming by Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7799004-merchants-of-doubt)
• [15] DW documentary: Fact vs fake why don’t we trust science anymore. feat. Naomi Oreskes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BawZdfnhc_I)
• [16] Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19 (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58647975-viral) by Alina Chan, Matt Ridley
• [17] ‘science-ese’: The readability of scientific texts is decreasing over time (https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.27725)

Intro: L’Etoile danse (Pt. 1) by Meydan Outro: Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio

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