Joscha Bach: Time, Simulation Hypothesis, Existence

Joscha Bach is a cognitive scientist focusing on cognitive architectures, consciousness, models of mental representation, emotion, motivation and sociality.

0:00:00 Introduction
0:00:17 Bach's work ethic / daily routine
0:01:35 What is your definition of truth?
0:04:41 Nature's substratum is a "quantum graph"?
0:06:25 Mathematics as the descriptor of all language
0:13:52 Why is constructivist mathematics "real"? What's the definition of "real"?
0:17:06 What does it mean to "exist"? Does "pi" exist?
0:20:14 The mystery of something vs. nothing. Existence is the default.
0:21:11 Bach's model vs. the multiverse
0:26:51 Is the universe deterministic
0:28:23 What determines the initial conditions, as well as the rules?
0:30:55 What is time? Is time fundamental?
0:34:21 What's the optimal algorithm for finding truth?
0:40:40 Are the fundamental laws of physics ultimately "simple"?
0:50:17 The relationship between art and the artist's cost function
0:54:02 Ideas are stories, being directed by intuitions
0:58:00 Society has a minimal role in training your intuitions
0:59:24 Why does art benefit from a repressive government?
1:04:01 A market case for civil rights
1:06:40 Fascism vs communism
1:10:50 Bach's "control / attention / reflective recall" model
1:13:32 What's more fundamental... Consciousness or attention?
1:16:02 The Chinese Room Experiment
1:25:22 Is understanding predicated on consciousness?
1:26:22 Integrated Information Theory of consciousness (IIT)
1:30:15 Donald Hoffman's theory of consciousness
1:32:40 Douglas Hofstadter's "strange loop" theory of consciousness
1:34:10 Holonomic Brain theory of consciousness
1:34:42 Daniel Dennett's theory of consciousness
1:36:57 Sensorimotor theory of consciousness (embodied cognition)
1:44:39 What is intelligence?
1:45:08 Intelligence vs. consciousness
1:46:36 Where does Free Will come into play, in Bach's model?
1:48:46 The opposite of free will can lead to, or feel like, addiction
1:51:48 Changing your identity to effectively live forever
1:59:13 Depersonalization disorder as a result of conceiving of your "self" as illusory
2:02:25 Dealing with a fear of loss of control
2:05:00 What about heart and conscience?
2:07:28 How to test / falsify Bach's model of consciousness
2:13:46 How has Bach's model changed in the past few years?
2:14:41 Why Bach doesn't practice Lucid Dreaming anymore
2:15:33 Dreams and GAN's (a machine learning framework)
2:18:08 If dreams are for helping us learn, why don't we consciously remember our dreams
2:19:58 Are dreams "real"? Is all of reality a dream?
2:20:39 How do you practically change your experience to be most positive / helpful?
2:23:56 What's more important than survival? What's worth dying for?
2:28:27 Bach's identity
2:29:44 Is there anything objectively wrong with hating humanity?
2:30:31 Practical Platonism
2:33:00 What "God" is
2:36:24 Gods are as real as you, Bach claims
2:37:44 What "prayer" is, and why it works
2:41:06 Our society has lost its future and thus our culture
2:43:24 What does Bach disagree with Jordan Peterson about?
2:47:16 The millennials are the first generation that's authoritarian since WW2
2:48:31 Bach's views on the "social justice" movement
2:51:29 Universal Basic Income as an answer to social inequality, or General Artificial Intelligence?
2:57:39 Nested hierarchy of "I"s (the conflicts within ourselves)
2:59:22 In the USA, innovation is "cheating" (for the most part)
3:02:27 Activists are usually operating on false information
3:03:04 Bach's Marxist roots and lessons to his former self
3:08:45 BONUS BIT: On societies problems

[coderjd]

Hey this is the second time I'm watching TOE with Curt Jaimungal... I'm glad you popped up on the feed again!
Tbh: the first time I seen you I was quite taken aback by how unabashed you were when you would give your own takes and dive into the subject with your own speculative and critical reasoning.
Slightly cringy at first, yet I was entranced by this.
Curt Jaimungal questions a giant in the field!? Oh no!! Are mere mortals allowed to question like this? Speculate like this?
Are we allowed to have such technical conversation in long form? Shouldn't you explain the basics? But people are stupid right?
Btw all those questions are rhetorical... No.

Your channel seems to be one of those milestones in the history (in this case communication; )
I particularly enjoy how it is presumed for the most part the listeners are informed with much of the prerequisite domains required to understand.

In other words? Your channel is going to go down as one of the *first* channels that gets to the farthest into the minds of these great thinker's concepts without demeaning the listener/viewer's capabilities...

I was skeptical at first; but now I really applaud you...
you now have my sub...

[fiveshorts]

Wisest human on the planet. And his access to answers to the hardest questions is so immediate. And honest. And humble. But still powerful and succinct. He’s a marvel.

[sanjayyethipathi]

every time joscha widens his eyes he's beaming knowledge into us

[Earthgazer]

I've spent *too* much time exploring very cerebral topics in science and philosophy, but no one has come close to developing and often rewriting my model of reality as often and as quickly as Joscha. It's like he traveled here from 2085.

[jonathanaroi]

The Interviewer does a good Job because he doesn't pretend to understand but asks questions and this gives Joscha Bach the opportunity to explain things in a more precise and understandable manner.

[vaskoMCL]

Joscha is quietly but increasingly more prominently emerging as the sharpest and most insightful thinker of our time. Can't wait to see the future of the development of his work. All thumbs up!

[lilfrnkie]

I love how Joscha never lets a question go unanswered, he’ll branch off on a tangent until a new questions asked then he’ll zoom back to answer the first which somehow leads up to where the new question arises.

[patrickl]

I love Joscha. Trying to keep up with his intellect is a true work out for my monkey brain. It's nice to have humans like him in the world. Thanks for this.

[matttgray]

Joscha Bach has quickly become my favorite thinkers of this time period. Always gotta hit the like button so the YT algorithm gives him a little more value ;)

Thank you so much for having Bach as a guest!

[rezasahand]

This dude has an immense intellectual faculty to reduce every possible thinking process into natural language, i.e English. Some good stuff 👏
Thank you Curt for having him

[HD-yepv]

„...please forgive me.“
„I have no problem forgiving you.“

Epic answer from Optimus J.Bach 🤖

[thecrackfox]

Finally got round to finishing this. Probably my favourite conversation with Bach, you really pushed him to expound his ideas further than I’ve seen elsewhere. Thanks Curt

[OfCourseICan]

What a mind I can't get enough of this genius. Knowing Joscha's philosophy should be mandatory learning for all Mental Councillor's!

[jeff__w]

What’s fascinating and striking about Joscha Bach is his complete, whole schema of whatever he is talking about. He can say exactly how whatever he is talking about fits without any contradictions into a larger whole. That allows him to clarify and qualify precisely whatever he says and to speak articulately and without hesitation about whatever the topic is. Offhand, I can’t recall hearing anyone else speak in quite the same way.

[myshkakozlovski]

Every now and again I feel blessed to have discovered, or to have been discovered, by such an inspiring individual.

[rajshv]

How can this man speak so fast and coherently.

[sigigle]

Ah I've come to the end of this information packed interview.
Time to watch it again, so that hopefully I might be able to absorb more than 5% of it.

[gridcoregilry]

I gotta say it now listening to it again for a 2nd time: these absolute intellectual BOMBS Joscha is dropping, every few lines is incredible. Curt, congrats for maintaining such a great conversation with him while being confronted with the raw source code of our reality's simulation. Keep it up! Love from Germany

[gridcoregilry]

As someone who has watched a lot of long interviews with him and some of his presentations, this was one of the best ones if not the best one for a deep dive into his brilliant mind. THX for that ♥

[TheoriesofEverything]

No intro this time. No need. Just Bach.
Check the description for timestamps.


- Curt