09-04-25
Dave Hone: T-Rex, Dinosaurs, Extinction, Evolution, and Jurassic Park
Coming soon
All topics / evolution
Topic
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Evolution
10
episodes
11
thinkers
30h
of conversation
40
books & papers
24
terms defined
The neighbourhood: evolution and the ideas it travels with. Drag to roam, click a star for the episode, click a neighbour to travel.
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From foundational to frontier
Climb the spectrum. The most accessible conversations come first.
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12-09-23
Lee Cronin: Controversial Nature Paper on Evolution of Life and Universe
Coming soon
04-21-23
Manolis Kellis: Evolution of Human Civilization and Superintelligent AI
Coming soon
09-07-22
Nick Lane: Origin of Life, Evolution, Aliens, Biology, and Consciousness
Coming soon
06-25-22
Jonathan Reisman: The Human Body - From Sex & Sperm to Hands & Heart
Coming soon
06-12-22
Donald Hoffman: Reality is an Illusion - How Evolution Hid the Truth
Coming soon
09-20-21
Jay McClelland: Neural Networks and the Emergence of Cognition
Coming soon
04-24-21
Michael Malice and Yaron Brook: Ayn Rand, Human Nature, and Anarchy
Coming soon
10-04-20
Lisa Feldman Barrett: Counterintuitive Ideas About How the Brain Works
Coming soon
02-29-20
John Hopfield: Physics View of the Mind and Neurobiology
Coming soon
The lexicon
Every term the guests lean on, in plain language. Read one in full, or filter to find it.
- allostasis
- The brain's process of predictively controlling the body's resources to maintain balance.
- anarchism
- A political philosophy that advocates self-governed societies based on voluntary institutions.
- artificial womb
- A technological device that could support the growth of a fetus outside the human body.
- assembly index
- A measure of complexity based on the minimum steps required to recreate an object.
- attractor networks
- Systems where dynamics converge on defined pathways in high-dimensional spaces.
- backpropagation
- An algorithm for training neural networks by propagating error signals backward through the network.
- body budget
- The brain's management of bodily resources like glucose and salt.
- collectivism
- The practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it.
- conscious agents
- Mathematical structures proposed by Hoffman, suggesting consciousness is fundamental and constructs reality.
- digital twins
- Virtual replicas of individuals that can perform tasks, allowing for personal growth and self-actualization.
- endosymbiosis
- A symbiotic relationship where one organism lives inside another, leading to the evolution of eukaryotic cells.
- Hopfield networks
- Early models of associative memory that influenced deep learning development.
+12 more terms unlock the full lexicon with Read.
What the corpus says
The throughline across every conversation that touches this idea.
T. rex's massive size and powerful bite made it the largest carnivore in its ecosystem, outweighing even large elephants by a ton.
T. rex likely hunted juveniles and employed endurance running, rather than speed, to catch prey like Triceratops.
The evidence for pack hunting in dinosaurs is almost nonexistent, challenging popular media portrayals.
Spinosaurus's teeth and isotopic signatures suggest a primarily fish-eating diet, contrary to some swimming theories.
Birds are direct descendants of theropod dinosaurs, with feathers evolving for insulation and sexual selection.
Lee Cronin's assembly theory posits that the complexity of an object is determined by its assembly index, which captures the minimum steps needed to recreate it.
Cronin argues that life on Mars can be detected by identifying molecules with a molecular weight over 350 and more than 15 fragments, indicating biological origins.
Cronin challenges the notion that physics alone can explain life's emergence, asserting a disconnect between physics and biology.
Assembly theory suggests that time is fundamental, opposing deterministic views of the universe's future.
Cronin claims the probability of AGI doom is 0%, arguing that intelligence and decision-making are uniquely human.
Humans are 99.9% genetically identical, yet this similarity is often overlooked, leading to unnecessary conflicts.
AI lacks a limbic system, which limits its ability to replicate human emotional complexity and creativity.
Voices on evolution
12 standout quotes from across the corpus.
Go read
40 books and papers cited across these episodes.
For the specialist
What experts find new
27 expert-level takeaways for a specialist reader.
At the frontier
Still unresolved
15 open questions flagged across these conversations.
The thinkers
Who takes this idea on, by how often they return to it.
