{"podcast":{"title":"The Theory of Anything","slug":"the-theory-of-anything-859886","podcast_index_feed_id":859886,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/14b6fc10/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://www.patreon.com/c/brucenielson/membership","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/3375364/3375364-1690501163627-161f1070cc703.jpg","author":"Bruce Nielson and Peter Johansen","episode_count":140,"summary":"A podcast that explores the unseen and surprising connections between nearly everything, with special emphasis on intelligence and the search for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) through the lens of Karl Popper's Theory of Knowledge. David Deutsch argued that Quantum Mechanics, Darwinian Evolution, Karl Popper's Theory of Knowledge, and Computational Theory (aka \"The Four Strands\") represent an early 'theory of everything' be it science, philosophy, computation, religion, politics, or art. So we explore everything. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/brucenielson/membership","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886"},"episode":{"title":"Episode 137: Ray Scott Percival on Incurable Mind Viruses","slug":"episode-137-ray-scott-percival-on-incurable-mind-viruses","published_at":"2026-04-15T11:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episode-137-ray-scott-percival-on-incurable-mind-viruses","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/four-strands/episodes/Episode-137-Ray-Scott-Percival-on-Incurable-Mind-Viruses-e3hu2h5","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/14b6fc10/podcast/play/118474725/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-3-15%2Fe6e936bc-94e3-6677-ea1e-7ef1e331f675.mp3","summary":"This week we were honored to interview Ray Scott Percival, a significant but also woefully under-appreciated figure in critical rationalism. Percival has been active in critical rationalist forums, conferences, and academic journals since the 90s and before. He has written for Quillette. He was the editor of a book of critical responses to Steven Pinker. He created an excellent documentary film called Liberty Loves Reason. But most significantly, in 2012 he wrote a book called Myth of the Closed Mind, which is available on Amazon in all the formats, including audio. The basic idea he explores there is that humans care about truth. We are truth seekers that create and pass on both rational and irrational memes. Dawkins calls the worst of these memes “mind viruses,” but what Percival points out is that as flawed as humans are, the good kind of memes have a competitive advantage in the war of ideas. Such a simple idea, but the implications of this are profound, and Percival has spent a lifetime wresting with them. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Myth of the Closed Mind: https://amzn.to/48xAoDG X: @Ray_S_Percival","meta_description":"This week we were honored to interview Ray Scott Percival, a significant but also woefully under-appreciated figure in critical rationalism. Percival has…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":7675,"processing_state":"processed","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episodes/episode-137-ray-scott-percival-on-incurable-mind-viruses/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episode-137-ray-scott-percival-on-incurable-mind-viruses.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}