Episode #1075

News Items

        Quickie with Evan

        https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/obituaries/erich-von-daniken-dead.html

        Questions and Emails

        More yellow sun, Ran across this ‘cognitive bias’ while exploring impacts and trends in AI: ‘Turkey Illusion was first introduced by Bertrand Russell to illustrate a problem with inductive reasoning.’ - Never heard of this cognitive bias before; wondered if you guys had any thoughts… ’Turkey illusion is a cognitive bias describing the surprise resulting from a break in a trend, if one does not know the causes or the framework conditions for this trend/’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_illusion ’Interpretation: The slaughter comes as a complete surprise to the turkey, who – in anthropomorphic formulation – ‘only extrapolates a trend’ and ‘does not recognize the impending trend break’. To recognize this trend break, the turkey would have had to find out the causes of the trend. By doing so, it would have known about the motivational state of the human who feeds it every day. In order to ‘think outside the box’ and leave known or familiar thought patterns, creativity and the ability to change perspectives are necessary. This was not possible for the turkey due to insufficient information. Here’s the ‘AI Singularity’ post quantifying a timeline and impacts of AI and society: https://campedersen.com/singularity Interesting, and self-aware enough to make it fun… - Jeffrey, Columbus, Ohio. LOOooong time listener and supporter! Keep it up! Love you guys!

        Science or Fiction

        Skeptical Quote of the Week.

        ‘The most difficult time to be skeptical is when we want, or don’t want, to believe. It all comes down to how willing we are to be honest with ourselves.’ Melanie Trecek-King