Massimo Pigliucci on Story, Virtue, Character and AI

Prof. Massimo Pigliucci is one of those very rare people who manage to combine the pursuit of deep science and the living ethos of practical philosophy. Massimo has Ph.D. degrees in Genetics, Evolutionary Biology, and Philosophy. He is also the author of hundreds of technical papers in both science and philosophy as well as a number of books including most recently, The Quest for Character: What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us About Our Search for Good Leaders. During this 1-hour conversation with Massimo Pigliucci, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as Mas Maiorum – i.e. “the way of the ancestors” and whether it is a kind of an organizing story; the need for a new global story and whether virtue and character can help solve problems such as Climate Change; the impact of role-models such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.; whether we can teach virtue [or anything] by demonstrating the “how” or the “what” [or both]; transhumanism and AI as technocrat solutions to engineering out humanity’s flaws. As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes or become a patron: https://www.singularityweblog.com/donate-and-support-singularity-weblog/