Welcome to Monday’s News on the March – The week that was in my digital world.
Podcast at PowerfulJRE:
For a few years I have been watching Nick Bostrom discuss his Simulation Argument. This is one of the more laid back interviews with him. Unfortunately Rogan is unable to grasp Bostrom’s explanation of Option 3 of his Simulation Trilemma below, so the last 30 minutes where Nick repeats himself can be frustrating.
Bostrom’s trilemma argues that one of three unlikely-seeming propositions is almost certainly true:
- “The fraction of human-level civilizations that reach a posthuman stage (that is, one capable of running high-fidelity ancestor simulations) is very close to zero”, or
- “The fraction of posthuman civilizations that are interested in running simulations of their evolutionary history, or variations thereof, is very close to zero”, or
- “The fraction of all people with our kind of experiences that are living in a simulation is very close to one”
Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test. (Watch full interview)
Poem by River Dixon at The Stories in Between:
I may smile at you
But it stops there
I don’t have much
To give you
Some words
Nothing much at all…(read more)
Review by Seth Harris at PulpCult:
Stand By Me isn’t a perfect movie, but it has beautiful moments where the craft of the filmmakers and the themes of the narrative come together. It’s also another showcase for River Phoenix, a reminder of what we lost with his passing. His monologue is delivered with the most genuine emotion, and I could hear so many former students of mine in the expression of his pain. (Read more)
I wrote a review of Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master in March this year. I always find PTA an breath of fresh in interviews. You would expect someone who makes the kind of movies he does to be reluctant to reveal his own thoughts about them, but as you can see in this interview he is extremely candid and humble. I also recommend this longer interview on the Bill Simmons podcast where he discusses his whole career up to this point (including The Phantom Thread).
Video excerpt of Jordan Peterson in Auckland:
‘…Humans have discovered in this dramatic manner that if they make sacrifices in the present then hypothetically the future can be better. I don’t know if that’s not the major discovery of mankind…to give up something we want right now we can sort of bargain with fate as it were, to get something better in the future.’ – Watch the full video clip.
Podcast at PowerfulJRE:
Neil deGrasse Tyson doesn’t let Rogan get a word in edgeways, but the last hour is excellent.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, and science communicator. (Watch the full podcast here)
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
A very good review of Stand By Me. That movie is so easy to relate to. Everyone has those friends growing up…or at least a version of them but not all are that close.
That was my disappointment with the IT movies… the IT book was Stand By Me with some horror thrown in…they turned into just another horror movie.
I didn’t agree with the author regarding the weak dialogue. I thought it was perfect. I agree overall …a very good review.
That’s what I found when I saw the first IT movie, it was like they were trying to do a Stand By Me rehash.
The reviewer did say something about River Phoenix…you have to wonder what the world of acting lost with him.
The last two movies I’ve reviewed – Phoenix starred in and was even nominated for an Academy award (Running on Empty). He is of course sorely missed. Unlike James Dean, at least we have a pretty expansive catalogue in which to see him again. Not to mention enjoy the acting of his brother Joaquin.