Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I want to distinguish between four points of contact: one, symbol systems; two, representation; three, mathematical principles; and four, principles of existence. When you hear those four concepts, what do they trigger for you? Rick Rosner: They trigger thoughts of more efficient ways of representing certain aspects of the world because the brain takes …
Tag: politics
Ask A Genius 952: Round Two! President Biden and Former President Trump
Rosner: Part two of the discussion on Trump versus Biden focuses solely on Trump. I argued this morning on Pod TV that Trump aims to replace taxes with tariffs, which is a disastrous idea. It’s highly inflationary as most costs get passed on to consumers. For example, if a $10,000 tariff is imposed on cars …
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Ask A Genius 951: President Biden Versus Former President Trump
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: President Biden and former President Trump are the oldest candidates in American history. Before them, they set the record. So, it’s very unusual to observe American politics from a distance. What are some of your thoughts on the context? Rick Rosner: They have the first presidential debate of this cycle in 10 days. Each …
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Ask A Genius 945: Rick Rosner on Israel Jacobson and Reformed Judaism
[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: You had assigned homework for me, which I didn't complete because I took a nap. You wanted to discuss the role of God in Judaism? It's not only that, but a specific concept within a particular reform of Judaism. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: The idea involves the Hebrew word for Messiah, meaning anointed. In …
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Ask A Genius 944: Canadian and American Women’s Progress
[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I wanted to talk about the comparison and contrast between American styles of women's rights and Canadian styles, focusing on what Canadians and Americans are doing better. In my view, Canadians are probably doing better, even though the United States is a wealthier country. In the contemporary period, Canadian women …
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Ask A Genius 937: Roast of Joan Rivers
[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: Right, so you just showed me a clip from the roast of Joan Rivers featuring Gilbert Gottfried, where he describes in great, flowery detail what it is like to have sex with Joan Rivers. It was all made up, but it went on for a long time. I've seen him perform …
Ask A Genius 936: Opportunities for the Fabled Fame
[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, you have had opportunities to gain fame. Rick Rosner: Yes, I have done four pilots centered on either myself as a smart person or involving other people as well. None of these pilots have been successful, which is not unusual, but it is frustrating. I have a significant number …
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Ask A Genius 935: Mathematicizing Our Collaborations
[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: There it is. So we are back after a while. I wanted to cover a little bit about the colossal amount of work over a decade or more, in fact, more than a decade, doing a lot of the independent journalistic work that I've done. I typically pick a topic, and …
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Ask A Genius 912: Carole has a Book, Too!
[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: So, I'm going through my book and talking, which is set like ten years in the future, about what life might be like then. You said to plug Carole's book, too. I've been working on this thing for years and years; you could argue for decades because I'm taking much stuff from …
Ask A Genius 911: The Square Root Law of Mesh Networks
[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: I was talking about the square root law of mesh networks, which states that the efficiency of people whose brains are linked is proportional to the square root of the number of people in the network. Black box-ness. So, we see this with AI and Google Translate, where AI can be effective, …
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Rick Rosner 