THINK INC. THURSDAYS #004

It’s been a big week for great thinkers. Peter Singer appeared on Sam Harris’ podcast, Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote a great piece in UnHeard and luckless-of-late Jordan Peterson got depicted as a Marvel supervillain.

If you come across news that everyone should know about, send me a link to it via info@thinkinc.org.au and we might include it in the next edition!

Warm regards,
Suzi

JORDAN B PETERSON VS MARVEL

Jordan Peterson seems to never catch a break from negative publicity. This time it’s coming from Ta-Nehisi Coates, the writer who’s gotten on the nerves of some Think Inc favourites such as Glenn Loury, John McWhorter and Dr. Cornel West for his pessimistic views on race in America. Well this time Mr Coates has written a comic for Marvel’s Captain America, in which he shows the supervillain Red Skull to be corrupting young men with Jordan Peterson’s ideas.

→ Click here to learn more.

ASKING UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS

One of the bravest thinkers, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has written a powerful piece for UnHerd. She talks about how liberals are unwilling to ask uncomfortable questions about immigration, for example, whether it’s affected the number of sex crimes in Europe. Countries such as Sweden have found that certain ethnic groups are overrepresented in committing sex crimes. Other countries, like Germany, are reluctant to research and publish the statistics.

→ Click here to learn more.

SINGER NEWS

Our favourite Aussie philosopher, Peter Singer, has written a very timely piece in Project Syndicate about the increasing number of countries that are legalising voluntary euthanasia, and the ethical questions euthanasia poses.

Peter also had a chat with Sam Harris on the most recent episode of the Waking Up podcast. He’s joined by his colleagues Francesca Minerva and Jeff McMahan, who together founded the Journal of Controversial Ideas. They discuss the ethics of exploring dangerous ideas, the taboo around the topic of race and IQ, the relationship between activism and academia, and heaps more.

→ Click here to learn more.

ABSOLUTELY MENTAL

Speaking of Sam Harris, he’s planning to join the incredibly funny and intelligent Ricky Gervais on a new podcast venture. It will be called “Absolutely Mental”, and they plan to talk about all things related to “being human”, including free will, evolution, and religion. The launch date is yet to be announced.

→ Click here to learn more.

HASTA LUEGO, HELEN

Avid readers of Areo Magazine will be saddened to hear that editor Helen Pluckrose has announced she’ll be handing over all responsibilities to her colleague, Iona Italia. But don’t worry! She’ll stay on as a director and writer, and you can find the great chat that Claire Lehmann hosted with Helen last year on our Youtube channel.

→ Click here to learn more.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

You’ve seen monkeys do math, ride bikes, and paint, but have you seen one control a computer with its brain? The amazing folk at Neuralink implanted a tiny device in both sides of a monkey’s brain (don’t worry! It doesn’t hurt). The device feeds info from the monkey’s neurons into a decoder, which can then predict its movements. The company aims to be able to help paralysed people use a phone or other device with their brain alone.

→ Click here to watch the video.