#292 - Blaise Pascal Predicted the Internet’s Biggest Problem 400 Years Ago

Are you sure this life is real? How do we know this life is real? What does being “real” even mean? According to Blaise Pascal, everything we know, everything we think we know is real, is a matter of feeling. It’s not a matter of reasoning, ultimately, at the foundation. This concept anchors my conversation today with Yuval Avnur, a Professor of Philosophy at Scripps College and author of Why Read Pascal Today?We dive into Blaise Pascal, the 17th-century true polymath genius who believed that a human being is a heart with a belief-forming mechanism attached as an afterthought. According to Pascal, feeling something with your heart is a way of knowing. We get into why this idea provides the perfect lens to view everything from the escalation of political polarization to rabid online echo chambers to moon-landing conspiracies. Instead of getting trapped in those realities, Yuval argues that Pascal offers a way out. He lays out Pascal’s remarkably modern advice on how to actually persuade someone: stop dunking on them with red-faced, shrieking facts, and start asking why the world looks the way it does from where the other person’s standing. It’s amazing how a guy who died over 350 years ago understands the internet age better than most of us alive today. We also get into whether or not we live in a simulation, what most people completely get wrong about Pascal’s Wager, what a debate would look like between Blaise Pascal, devout Catholic, against staunch atheist Sam Harris, why AI art makes us feel alone, and The Experience Machine Dilemma: Would you abandon reality for a perfectly fake life?Subscribe to The Zach Show 2.0 to gain early access to all future episodes, exclusive AMAs, the ability to suggest guest questions, bonus content, and more: TheZachShow.Supercast.ComYuval Avnur Links:Why Read Pascal Today?Scripps College ProfilePublicationsThe Zach Show Links: The Zach Show 2.0: ⁠https://thezachshow.supercast.com/⁠Spotify: ⁠https://spoti.fi/3zaS6sP⁠YouTube: ⁠https://bit.ly/3lTpJdj⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/auxoro/⁠TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@zachshowpod⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.auxoro.com/⁠Substack: ⁠https://thezachshow.substack.com/⁠If you’re not ready to subscribe to The Zach Show 2.0, rating the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts is free and massively helpful. It boosts visibility, helps new listeners discover the show, and keeps this chaos alive. Thank you: Rate The Zach Show on Spotify: ⁠https://bit.ly/43ZLrAt⁠Rate The Zach Show on Apple Podcasts: ⁠https://bit.ly/458nbha⁠