Very Bad Wizards

Episode 255: Beloved Child of the House (Susanna Clarke's "Piranesi")

February 28th, 2023  |  1 hr 43 mins

ai, bing, personal identity, piranesi, susanna clarke, sydney

David and Tamler get lost in the world of Susanna Clarke’s "Piranesi," a hauntingly beautiful and thrilling novel with echoes of Borges, Plato, C.S. Lewis, and even Parfit. The first part of our conversation is spoiler-free so you can listen to that section if you haven’t read it yet. (But seriously read this book! We both read it in a few days.)

Plus, watch out ladies - Sydney the Bing chatbot is coming to steal your man.

Episode 254: Nobody's Parfit

February 14th, 2023  |  1 hr 19 mins

aphantasia, derek parfit, personal identity

Tamler’s earlier self committed to doing an episode on Parfit, and David holds his current self to that promise, which shows how unconvinced David was by Parfit’s skepticism about personal identity. Or something like that. We argue about the value of Parfit’s sci-fi thought experiments and the implications of believing there’s no clear sense of “me.” Plus, we talk about a recent article on aphantasia – the inability to conjure images in your mind – and the question that pops into everyone’s head when they hear about this condition.