Steven Pinker on Cancel Culture, Common Knowledge & AI - #518

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In this episode, Steven Pinker unpacks how common knowledge shapes everything from why rational people can’t agree to disagree to why markets boom and bust. We explore the risks of falsifying expert claims, the power of social norms, and whether civilization is held together by truths—or by the fictions we all agree to share.

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Key Takeaways:

•
00:00 Intro

00:58 When common knowledge is wrong

02:37 The role of common knowledge in social
coordination

08:48 Free will and determinism

14:48 Judging a book by its cover

21:08 Government suppression and common knowledge

30:08 The agree to disagree theorem

34:54 Generosity and charity in human affairs

41:12 The role of common knowledge in religious
beliefs

48:31 LLMs and common knowledge

50:39 Outro

Additional resources:

📚 When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows… by Steven Pinker: ⁠a.co/d/bKJzohi⁠ (a.co/d/bKJzohi)

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