Sean Carroll

Listen to good podcasts. Keep trying to get better ourselves at understanding the world, both in political ways and in scientific ways. It's an ongoing process. We're not going to declare victory and like, okay, now the world is good. We're going to try to keep on, in little tiny ways, making it better.

Sid Huff says, Jan 11, a former Mindscape guest in a recent episode of Robinson's podcast, stated that astrophysicists don't really care what goes on inside a black hole. The event horizon is the black hole. We simply don't care what's going on inside. Why would she say this? Why wouldn't she and other astrophysicists want to know?

Sid Huff says, Jan 11, a former Mindscape guest in a recent episode of Robinson's podcast, stated that astrophysicists don't really care what goes on inside a black hole. The event horizon is the black hole. We simply don't care what's going on inside. Why would she say this? Why wouldn't she and other astrophysicists want to know?

Well, astrophysicists are human beings, and a human being might want to know what's going on the inside. What Jana means is that for the purposes of astrophysics, it doesn't matter what's going on inside the black hole. That has to do with the no-hair theorem we were just talking about earlier.

Well, astrophysicists are human beings, and a human being might want to know what's going on the inside. What Jana means is that for the purposes of astrophysics, it doesn't matter what's going on inside the black hole. That has to do with the no-hair theorem we were just talking about earlier.

Once you throw that stuff in the black hole, and once the black hole settles down, it is entirely defined by what's going on at its event horizon. Astrophysics is not affected by what's going on inside. That's all that she meant. Randall Bessinger says, do you have any views on the current brouhaha and the atheist skeptical movement on the trans issue?

Once you throw that stuff in the black hole, and once the black hole settles down, it is entirely defined by what's going on at its event horizon. Astrophysics is not affected by what's going on inside. That's all that she meant. Randall Bessinger says, do you have any views on the current brouhaha and the atheist skeptical movement on the trans issue?

I'm not quite sure what kind of views you want me to think about here. I mean, I'm definitely on one side of this issue in the sense that I think that trans people are people and should be treated as such. And

I'm not quite sure what kind of views you want me to think about here. I mean, I'm definitely on one side of this issue in the sense that I think that trans people are people and should be treated as such. And

It's absolutely true that a certain segment of the atheist skeptic movement has just wandered into really bad territory at being very actively anti-trans in a way that seems very illiberal and immoral, honestly, and bigoted to me. As to why that's the case, it's a trickier question. I think that there's a lot of psychology going on here.

It's absolutely true that a certain segment of the atheist skeptic movement has just wandered into really bad territory at being very actively anti-trans in a way that seems very illiberal and immoral, honestly, and bigoted to me. As to why that's the case, it's a trickier question. I think that there's a lot of psychology going on here.

And so I'll just – again, I'm not a professional psychologist, not a professional sociologist for that matter, but I will point to one thing that seems to strike me about these things. Well, to two things. One very quick thing is – as soon as something is called a movement, it's in trouble.

And so I'll just – again, I'm not a professional psychologist, not a professional sociologist for that matter, but I will point to one thing that seems to strike me about these things. Well, to two things. One very quick thing is – as soon as something is called a movement, it's in trouble.

You know, whether it's the atheist movement, the skeptical movement, the effective altruism movement, or whatever, when you have an idea, like atheism, God does not exist, that's an idea. When it becomes a movement, all sorts of bad things can happen, right? You know, now, okay, there's people, you're in the movement or you're out the movement, there's good ways of behaving, there's

You know, whether it's the atheist movement, the skeptical movement, the effective altruism movement, or whatever, when you have an idea, like atheism, God does not exist, that's an idea. When it becomes a movement, all sorts of bad things can happen, right? You know, now, okay, there's people, you're in the movement or you're out the movement, there's good ways of behaving, there's

all sorts of possibilities for things to go wrong, and they typically do. So that's one very broad thing. The other thing is that in that particular movement that we're talking about of atheism and skepticism, there is the huge danger that you are in a movement that is in large part devoted to patting itself on the back for being more rational than the rest of the world, right?

all sorts of possibilities for things to go wrong, and they typically do. So that's one very broad thing. The other thing is that in that particular movement that we're talking about of atheism and skepticism, there is the huge danger that you are in a movement that is in large part devoted to patting itself on the back for being more rational than the rest of the world, right?

You people think that there's a giant man in the sky who is judging you, but I am too rational to believe that. And I'm in favor of being rational. I think that's a good thing, trying to be rational. But it sets you up for making the mistake when someone says that something that you're doing is –

You people think that there's a giant man in the sky who is judging you, but I am too rational to believe that. And I'm in favor of being rational. I think that's a good thing, trying to be rational. But it sets you up for making the mistake when someone says that something that you're doing is –

not rational or not correct or not nice of not listening to that kind of criticism because you've already decided that you're more rational, right? And so people become defensive. And in fact, there's a backfire effect where they double down on whatever it is they are believing.