For Episode 20, I am joined by Dr. Eric Steinhart to talk about navigating compossible worlds and timelines, tech gods (and monsters), mental illness, books that (maybe) shouldn’t be read, and “Bandersnatch” (the stand-alone, interactive Black Mirror episode), which first premiered in 2018.
Dr. Eric Steinhart is Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. He works primarily on metaphysics using contemporary analytical and logical methods and tools. He is also interested in historical metaphysical systems (particularly Plotinus, Neoplatonism, and Leibniz). Steinhart grew up on a farm. He was originally trained as a computer scientist and mathematician, and worked as a software designer for several years. Some of his algorithms have been patented. His past work has concerned Nietzsche as well as metaphor (analyzed using possible worlds semantics), and he has written extensively on the metaphysics and computation. He is featured in the film Chronotrip, a documentary about time travel. He is increasingly interested in the philosophy of religion, focusing on the intersection of the formal sciences and theology. He is especially interested in alternatives to Abrahamic religion. He affirms the existence of transfinitely endless hierarchies of sets, computers, languages, games, strategies, and minds. He believes in the existence of more things than you do. He also likes New York City, New England, mountain hiking, all sorts of biking, chess, microscopy, and photography. Steimhart is the author of several books, including Believing in Dawkins: The New Spiritual Atheism (2020), Your Digital Afterlives: Computational Theories of Life after Death (2014), More Precisely: The Math You Need To Do Philosophy (2017), and On Nietzsche: The Man and his Philosophy (1999).
- Jorge Luis Borges, The Garden of Forking Paths
- H.P. Lovecraft, The Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales
- Philip K. Dick, Ubik
- Open AI’s GPT-3
- Hubris in Greek tragedy and law