ÑóẊîöʼn
4th December 2011, 04:24
Skepticon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skepticon) 4, held on November 18-20, 2011 at the Gillioz Theatre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillioz_Theatre) had some really interesting talks this year. I wasn't able to attend, but thankfully Hambone Productions (http://www.youtube.com/user/HamboneProductions) has stepped up to the plate to provide recordings for YouTube. I picked a number of my personal favourites, shown below:
Bayes Theorem: Key to the Universe - Richard Carrier
HHIz-gR4xHo
Here Richard Carrier introduces Bayes' theorem, a powerful logical-mathematical tool for making the best use of available evidence. Carrier also introduces his "bold statement" that Bayes' theorem is the mathematical model for all correct reasoning about empirical claims.
Heuristics and Biases - Eliezer Yudkowsky
TwqYB1uzcU4
[this talk actually happened before the above one, but in terms of understanding it's best to see the above video first]
Eliezer Yudkowsky is a prominent member of Less Wrong (http://lesswrong.com/), a community blog dedicated to improving thinking and decision-making, where they use the latest insights from cognitive science, probability theory and decision theory to improve our understanding of how the world works and what we can do to achieve our goals. In this talk, Yudkowsky discusses heuristics and biases in human reasoning.
Rummaging About In The Genetic Junkyard - PZ Myers
DRsN7w7iW08
In this talk, associate professor of biology at UMM and outspoken atheist blogger (http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula) PZ Myers conclusively destroys a creationist claims and teaches us some molecular genetics into the bargain.
Bayes Theorem: Key to the Universe - Richard Carrier
HHIz-gR4xHo
Here Richard Carrier introduces Bayes' theorem, a powerful logical-mathematical tool for making the best use of available evidence. Carrier also introduces his "bold statement" that Bayes' theorem is the mathematical model for all correct reasoning about empirical claims.
Heuristics and Biases - Eliezer Yudkowsky
TwqYB1uzcU4
[this talk actually happened before the above one, but in terms of understanding it's best to see the above video first]
Eliezer Yudkowsky is a prominent member of Less Wrong (http://lesswrong.com/), a community blog dedicated to improving thinking and decision-making, where they use the latest insights from cognitive science, probability theory and decision theory to improve our understanding of how the world works and what we can do to achieve our goals. In this talk, Yudkowsky discusses heuristics and biases in human reasoning.
Rummaging About In The Genetic Junkyard - PZ Myers
DRsN7w7iW08
In this talk, associate professor of biology at UMM and outspoken atheist blogger (http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula) PZ Myers conclusively destroys a creationist claims and teaches us some molecular genetics into the bargain.