Skeptic.com

Maggie Jackson discusses the importance of uncertainty in artificial intelligence (AI) and how it can lead to more collaborative and adaptable systems. Openly uncertain AI models are being develo...

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/importance-of-uncertainty-in-human-compatible-artificial-intelligence/

Shermer and Hood discuss: psychedelic drugs • defining the “good life” or “happiness” • measuring emotions • happiness as social contagion • eudaimonia (the pursuit of meaning) ve...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/bruce-hood-science-of-happiness/

Reames and Shermer discuss: what rhetoric is • what reason is • how rhetoric changed Reames’ life • rhetoric vs. facts (rhetorical truths vs. empirical truths) • the point of reason (to...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/robin-reames-power-of-rhetoric-in-polarized-times/

Bedbugs. Just mention of the word is enough to give people the heebie-jeebies and send shivers down their spines—or start scratching. Beginning in early fall of 2023 and coinciding with Paris F...

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/real-infestation-or-social-panic-in-paris/

Our society is obsessed with achievement. Young people are pushed toward the next test or the “best” grammar school, high school, or college they can get into. Adults push themselves toward t...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/adam-gopnik-all-that-happiness-is/

Shermer and Jacobsen discuss: why we have a nuclear triad • competition among military forces • increasing budgets for more weapons • types and quantities of nuclear weapons • why humans ...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/annie-jacobsen-what-happens-minutes-after-nuclear-launch/

This article explores the concept of truthiness, introduced by Stephen Colbert, and its implications in today's discourse, where subjective truths often overshadow objective reality. It discusses...

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/how-a-tool-for-bayesian-thinking-can-guide-us-between-relativism-and-truth-trap/

Bostrom and Shermer discuss: An AI Utopia and Protopia • Trekonomics, post-scarcity economics • the hedonic treadmill and positional wealth values • colonizing the galaxy • The Fermi par...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/nick-bostrom-life-meaning-in-solved-world/

Shermer and Zubrin discuss: why not start with the moon? • what it is like on Mars • whether Mars was ever like Earth • how much it will cost to go to Mars • how to get people to Mars •...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/robert-zubrin-new-world-on-mars/

Gerald Posner discusses the opioid crisis, highlighting the history of opioids, the role of the pharmaceutical industry, and the marketing tactics used to promote drugs like OxyContin. Posner emp...

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/pain-profit-who-is-responsible-for-opioid-crisis/

Shermer and Herold discuss: social robots, sex robots, robot nannies, robot therapists • flying cars, jetpacks and The Jetsons • Masahiro Mori • emotions, animism, mind • emotional intell...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/eve-herold-holding-on-to-our-humanity-in-age-of-social-robots/

Lance Grande explores the diversity of religions using evolutionary systematics and philosophy. Grande examines the growth and interrelationships of hundreds of religions throughout history, trac...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/lance-grande-formation-diversification-extinction-of-world-religions/

Maggie Jackson — an award-winning author and journalist known for her pioneering writings on social trends, particularly technology’s impact on humanity — explores the importance of uncer...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/maggie-jackson-wisdom-wonder-in-being-uncertain/

In a special double segment that is reminiscent of The National Enquirer in its heyday, 60 Minutes has aired another dramatic story on Havana Syndrome. If it had been a sporting event, the score ...

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/60-minutes-episode-on-havana-syndrome-is-tabloid-journalism/

Shermer and Hughes discuss: why he is considered “black” if he is “half-black, half-Hispanic” • what it means to be “colorblind” • population genetics and race differences • Bas...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/coleman-hughes-the-end-of-race-politics/

Michael H. Bernstein reviews The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America by Coleman Hughes, discussing the author’s analysis of neoracism and the need for a middle ground in di...

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/revisiting-colorblindness/

Law professor and author of dozens of articles and several books on the Constitution, Max Stearns examines the broken state of American democracy and the proposal to transform it into a parliamen...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/max-stearns-how-to-repair-americas-broken-democracy/

On March 18, 2024, the National Institutes of Health released two studies that failed to find any evidence of brain or inner ear damage in victims of Havana Syndrome—a mysterious array of ailme...

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/new-study-finds-no-evidence-for-havana-syndrome/

In the Political Accuracy & Divisions Study (PADS), we conducted an extensive survey of over 3,000 American adults to assess their accuracy about a variety of controversial topics including, abor...

https://www.skeptic.com/research-center/political-accuracy-divisions-study/

Shermer and Shrier discuss: Irreversible Damage redux: WPATH Files • what view this book for or against • what is the problem to be solved? • theories: coddling, social media, screen time, ...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/abigail-shrier-bad-therapy-why-kids-arent-growing-up/

“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” —Theodosius Dobzhansky Why can one person smoke and drink heavily into their 90s while another dies from cancer in their 4...

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/how-evolution-matters-to-our-health/

Shermer and Stone discuss: what is unfinished in the history of the Shoah • Holocaust denial • psychology of fascist fascination and genocidal fantasy • alt-right • ideological roots of N...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/dan-stone-holocaust-unfinished-history/

Shermer and Schwitzgebel discuss: bizarreness • skepticism • consciousness • virtual reality • AI, Turing Test, sentience, existential threat • idealism, materialism • ultimate nature...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/eric-schwitzgebel-world-weirdness/

While not going so far as arguing, as some have, that psychotherapy is always effective, I’d like to present some data and offer some contrasting considerations to Harriet Hall’s article: “...

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/psychotherapy-redeemed-response-to-harriet-hall/

A conversation with Leah Goldstein on becoming a kickboxing world champion, ultra-endurance cyclist, and an elite commando combating terrorism. For this she was to be honored at the International...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/leah-goldstein-no-limits/

Shermer and Jebara discuss: who wrote the Qur’an and why • translation and interpretation • Is the Muslim world stagnating? How does this book aim to help? • semitic mindset • Many ...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/mohamad-jebara-what-does-quran-really-say/

Skeptic: Let’s start with the big questions. What is the problem to be solved? And why is systems biology the right method to find the answer? Leroy Hood: The problem is this great complexity. ...

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/future-of-medicine-systems-biology-microbiome/

Shermer and Wilkinson discuss: • evolution: random chance or guided process? • selfishness and altruism • aggression and cooperation • inner demons and better angels • love and lust •...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/samuel-wilkinson-on-what-evolution-implies-about-meaning-of-our-existence/

Shermer and Reese discuss: • organisms and superorganisms • origins of life • the self • emergence • consciousness • Is the Internet a superorganism? • Will AI create a superorganis...

https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/byron-reese-how-humanity-functions-as-single-superorganism/

What happens when sex is more about identity than pleasure, intimacy, or interaction? And what happens when culture warriors gang up on sexuality—and from several directions? And has this affec...

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/sex-mental-health-culture-wars/