The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Philosophy often feels like a disconnected discipline, obsessed with tedious and abstract problems. But MIT professor Kieran Setiya believes philosophical inquiry has a practical purpose outside the classroom to help guide us through lifes most challenging circumstances. He joins Sean to talk about self-help, FOMO, and midlife crises.

This episode originally aired in April 2024.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling) Guest: Kieran Setiya, author ofLife Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our WayandMidlife: A Philosophical Guide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What exactly is the basis for democracy?

Arguably Iiberalism, the belief that the government serves the people, is the stone on which modern democracy was founded. That notion is so ingrained in the US that we often forget that America could be governed any other way. But political philosopher John Gray believes that liberalism has been waning for a long, long time.

He joins Sean to discuss the great liberal thinker Thomas Hobbes and America’s decades-long transition away from liberalism.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling) Guest: John Gray, political philosopher and author of The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Check it out at vox.com/members. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There’s a lot of uncertainty when it comes to artificial intelligence. Technologists love to talk about all the good these tools can do in the world, all the problems they might solve. Yet, many of those same technologists are also warning us about all the ways AI might upend society, how it might even destroy humanity.

Julia Longoria, Vox host and editorial director, spent a year trying to understand that dichotomy. The result is a four-part podcast series — called Good Robot — that explores the ideologies of the people funding, building, and driving the conversation about AI.

Today Julia speaks with Sean about how the hopes and fears of these individuals are influencing the technology that will change all of our lives.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling) Guest: Vox Host and Editorial Director Julia Longoria

Good Robot is available in the Vox Unexplainable feed. Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why do we keep comparing AI to humans?

Jaron Lanier — virtual reality pioneer, digital philosopher, and the author of several best-selling books on technology — thinks that we should stop. In his view, technology is only valuable if it has beneficiaries. So instead of asking "What can AI do?," we should be asking, "What can AI do for us?"

In today’s episode, Jaron and Sean discuss a humanist approach to AI and how changing our understanding of AI tools could change how we use, develop, and improve them.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling) Guest: Jaron Lanier, computer scientist, artist, and writer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices