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Rob’s out in an interview with Greg Gutfield, so it’s just Peter and James this week. Even so we’ve got a packed podcast-full of wonders and terrors. First up is Niall Ferguson to discuss his brand new book, Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe. He and the hosts explore our fascination with disaster. (Be sure to catch his interview with Peter on Uncommon Knowledge as well!) Then they’re joined by Stephen Meyer, who has a new book of his own: Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal The Mind Behind The Universe. (We’ve got UK episode for that as well!) Also, Peter is shocked to learn Biden’s economy is sputtering and James sets the record straight-on what, you ask? Listen to find out.
Music from this week’s episode: God Only Knows by the Beach Boys.
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No, not just you. The two guests weren’t discussing politics much this week, I suspect that is the reason.
Everything we take in through our senses is information. What an intelligent observer can do is process it and commit it to memory, and synthesize it to some extent with other observed remembered information. What a human intelligence can do is measure it, record it and communicate it, and synthesize it further with other recorded information through induction, deduction, etc. into a more complex body of knowledge.
That was my point though, the planet passing before the sun and reducing the light shown etc, is not itself “information.” That’s just an event. Us seeing it and figuring out what it means, is what makes it “information.”
The problem is that the VAERS statistics were not alarming at all to folks who know how the statistics are compiled. Tucker’s offense is pushing up the alarm level in his reporting in order to trigger his audience, for whatever reason.
Tuned into listen to Mr Ferguson. I’m a fan, and I love the way his Scottish accent sneaks out every once in awhile. I’m about halfway through.
Regarding the intro,, I’m curious at @jameslileks calling out Naomi Wolfe and Alex Berenson and Tucker, and flat out claiming that they’re wrong. Even going so far as to saying he didn’t want himself nor Ricochet to be associated with them. I’m not saying they’re correct – I’ve seen no evidence to convince me that they’re right or wrong.
I’m curious as to the certainty with which James made the claim that they’re absolutely wrong.
What I do know from personal experience is how everyone, at every level – from Fauci to my own GP – has mishandled this pandemic. In my opinion, is gone from incompetence to malfeasance.
And the bullying involved in getting the vaccine is flat-out creepy. I’m a pretty even-keeled person, not quick to suspicion. But my BS radar has been quivering for months now.
On April 5, James Delingpole interviewed Dr. Mike Yeadon. He was introduced as a former Vice-President of Pfizer, and subsequently an entrepreneur in pharma business. He seemed, to me, to be the most sensible person I have heard regarding the vaccine. He stated that it is experimental, and should not be pushed on anyone. It should be used by each person by balancing the risk of using the vaccine with the risk of getting Covid. The formal trials will not be finished until 2023 I think. If I recall correctly, he seemed most concerned with the risk of the vaccine concerning long term effects to women of child bearing age. The entire interview is worth listening to. Delingpole also interview Naomi Wolfe. Her concern was also for women. She noted that risk of Covid death or serious illness for women up to age 40 was very small, versus as the yet unknown long term risk of the vaccine. She also noted some immediate effects of the vaccine for women that had been communicated to her. She also noted some mr societal pressure not to report those effects. I think her main point was that no woman, especially in their child bearing years should be coerced, prodded, shamed, or harassed into getting the vaccines.
Listen to both interviews. It was very sensible to me.
We have Republicans, basically never trump, in Minnesota that are recommending peeling off mandates per county based on getting the shot. I mean I don’t know about that based on everything. I don’t get why somebody on the right would be so comfortable with that. They should probably start paying people to do it.
With the flu, every year they guess the formula X well and then Y people get the shot. Then I suppose you have seasonal issues like how hard the winter is. Everybody gets this on why the flu season is going to be good or bad.
With COVID-19, it seems to me it’s going to be a bad deal if the vaccinations aren’t over a certain penetration level. That has to be part of the conversation.
This is happening in some places.
I’m not thinking good things about Richard Nixon.
The media was successful in their character destruction of Richard Nixon.
He had the Vietnam war practically won prior to the election – but then congress cut funding and hung the South Vietnam Army out to dry. An honorable victory was with in reach when the congress took it away.
What is the latest on Novovax, the with no abortion connections?
Okay, I’ve listened to intelligent design proponents George Gilder, David Berlinski, and Stephen Meyer in good faith (so to speak). These gentlemen all use a lot of multisyllabic important-sounding sciencey words but I just cannot take any of it seriously. It all seems to down to, “it must be so because I hate the thought of it not being so.” Sorry.
I’ve always loved God Only Knows. It’s one of the most romantic pop songs ever.
It’s disappointing that Stephen Meyer omitted the greatest scientific discovery that supports his thesis: That human consciousness interacts directly with the physical world to affect outcomes of physical processes (see Shrodinger’s cat). One might forgive him, since no one else will talk about this either. Neils Bohr went to considerable lengths to assure that physicists did not seriously consider this phenomenon. Wigner kept insisting that they do so, but Bohr had the influence and pretty much called the shots. Of late physicists have looked at this more, but to little effect except to produce the bizarre idea that the Universe keeps splitting in two whenever human consciousness collapses the wave equation. Which pretty much violates all considerations of conservation of mass, energy, information, not to mention entirely elides any consideration of Entropy.
John Bell, in his spare time, so as to not jeopardize his professional standing, produced his Inequality that showed how one might test this phenomenon, and to the extent that it has been tested (Alain Aspect is one that has tried to apply Bell’s Inequality), has proven true: Human conscious induces the collapse of the Wave Equation.
If human level consciousness directly affects the material, physical world, then there must be the possibility that higher level consciousness can do the same, even more. Not only is the God hypothesis brought back in to consideration, it is virtually proven. I suspect that Stephen Meyer would disagree with this were he to read it, but, as he most assuredly won’t, I won’t have the opportunity to find out.
The implication is that Consciousness inheres in the Universe. That the Creator was present and necessary at the beginning and continues to be so. Or, in the words of Hebrews, “He sustains the Universe by the Word (logos? Consciousness? Mind?) of His power.” Shrodinger’s wave formulation of Quantum Mechanics supports this view.
Further, physicists tell us that the unfolding of the Universe was entirely encoded in the event of the Big Bang, determined by the Fine Structure Constant. Though the physicists won’t go there, what that means is that you and I were entirely prefigured in the Big Bang (not just the distributions of the galaxies and nebulae, and etc). (Or, to put it Biblically: Before He formed us in the womb, He knew us).
Stephen Meyers also misses in omitting discussion of Godel’s Incompleteness Theorems. These confirm–e.g., mathematically prove–that Human consciousness is transcendent. (Godel uses the term “Transfinite”). If Human consciousness is transcendent, there must be levels of consciousness that are even more so than Human consciousness. Q.E.D. God.
What is consciousness? Daniel Dennet tells us that it is an illusion. Godel proves otherwise. Shrodinger proves otherwise. Perhaps Stephen Meyer can enlighten us as to what Consciousness is? If not, I’d be happy to proffer a suggestion(see “Noesis, the book).
He is right. He just does not have any idea how right he is.
Its so sad to me, that Canadian literature seems to be only represented by Margret Atwood. Did anyone read anything from Farley Mowat?
His book. “Never Cry Wolf” was made into a movie in 1983. It has a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes.
I thought I was boorish at the start, not the end.
That’s my point, and my question: the reason. Will Tucker’s numbers drop if he doesn’t do “vaccine questions”? Probably not. Will they rise if he does? Probably not, and maybe the opposite happens.
Is it worth noting that James’ (the Lileks verion) Post Of The Week still isn’t in the sidebar etc, and wasn’t mentioned in the podcast “notes” either?
I’m sorry. I’m lost. Are you asking why Tucker does vaccine questions? And then conjecturing that it has something to do with ratings going up or down ?
Excellent show. I have most of Ferguson’s books and will listen to him wax on any subject he cares to. Wasn’t familiar with Meyer but am ordering his book today after listening to his segment. Civil, rational and intellectually provoking in the best way. This episode with these two guests are what my college lectures should’ve been like.
It was at the end of the zoom feed, which is how I saw the show.
‘Tis now…
One can disagree with Rob Long (I do on occasion), but “boorish”? And James Lileks, as fine a gentleman as one can meet online? Oh, please…
Everything Tucker does is about ratings. He is basically a TV tabloid.
At the risk of engaging in name-dropping, I am proud to say that I know Stephen Meyer personally, though a sibling of mine knows him much better. Brilliant, brilliant! The universe is so designed that I can tell people that I know someone who knows Peter Robinson and James Lileks. Yes, it all has meaning! By the way, I watched both Uncommon Knowledge interviews–and with enormous pleasure. Peter Robinson is a master of the art! I hope that more Ricochet Podcast fans tune in.
Tucker was a lot better when he was injecting his analysis on the Saturday and Sunday morning shows.
My wife had COVID in December. She’s not getting the jab. Would James criticize her for that decision. Why hasn’t there been a major push for people to test their Vitamin D levels and lose weight if they’re obese. Both are major risk factors. Since the major positive effect of the jab is to reduce the severity of COVID, why is there no focus on these less interventionist methods of lowering COVID severity. I strongly disagree with James’s comments. The largest COVID risk factor is age. A healthy 20 year old faces little risk from COVID. Seasonal flu is much more dangerous for this age group. Yet many colleges are requiring strident to get the jab. Why? Is James in favor of vaccine passports or documents. That’s an issue where I agree with Naomi Wolf about its totalitarian nature. Even if you like it for COVID, it’s the Chinese social credit system and will be abused.
James works for a Progressive corporation in a Progressive city in a Progressive state. It would take a lot of time and work to avoid adopting some of their assumptions.
On a related note, I want it entered into the Congressional record that masks didn’t do anything for the coefficient of spread.
Ferguson appears to think that the system worked against Trump. I’d respond that the system (Deep state) is the problem. The IC spies on Republicans, including General Flynn, and gets away with at most a slap on the wrist. The IC has been hopelessly corrupted and now they’re working on the military. The FBI is a corrupt appendage of the Democratic Party. I think Ferguson does not understand the damage Obama has done to our institutions. Even pre Obama we saw the way Scooter Libby was framed.
I can’t read Tucker’s mind or heart, but my best guess based on observing him and news outlets today in general is: cranking up the level of outrage, dismay, and distrust toward any institution or authority not named Tucker Carlson amongst his viewers will result in those viewers relying more and more on him for their news, and needing more constant updates in hopes of one day actually feeling well informed.