Dumb Dive tries something new with a close friend of the show and special guest. Show Notes: 00:00:48 - Pranav's Housing Crisis00:08:46 - Why do we procrastinate?00:17:07 - Netflix's The Sandman00:23:37 - The philosophy of horror00:24:37 - (Correction) It is the Apprehension Machine not the 'nightmare machine' [Link]00:30:21 - Horror as a product of a time's culture00:34:35 - On fear00:41:51 - Horror in Terminator 200:46:30 - Effect of noise on our psyche00:48:45 - (Correction) UNEP World's...

Pranav tells us the story of his adventures being a bartender for a farmer's convention in rural UK and the pros of getting into the gig economy. For the core of the discussion, Arvind brings up ideas from the book "God, Human, Animal, Machine" by Meghan O'Gieblyn regarding intelligence, consciousness and how we interact with increasingly intelligent robots and machines. Links aibo (robot dog)What Is It Like To Be A Bat?Chiropterology (BATS) with Dr. Merlin Tuttle [Ologies podcast]Jumping...

Do you like cartoons? We like cartoons and we'll make sure you know how much. Once again, we discuss how cartoons have changed and why? Cartoons are so much more than just a time waste and distraction for kids and young teenagers, they stimulate creativity, empathy and learning when done well.

Content Warning: Death Pranav and Arvind talk about the 24 hour news cycle and how it ties into fear mongering, a book discussion on Tuesdays with Morrie (Spoiler alert!) and the cultural identity of Indian cities and how colonialism has influenced them. Topics 00:00:46 - Philosophy of Fear by Lars Svendsen00:03:55 - Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan00:07:47 - State of Fear by Michael Crichton00:11:33 - Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom00:22:54 - One - Metallica00:35:59 - Before the Coffee...

On this episode of Dumb Dive, Pranav and Arvind talk education, looking at teaching styles, what it means to really learn something, and why marketing and design actually matter a LOT in education.

Pranav introduces some of the stories and games he has been revisiting, and Arvind talks about his love for weird gimmick video games and how the metaverse looks worse than games from the 2000s. We also each have our highly caffeinated rants against tea-travesties (travesteas perhaps?) Notes 00:00:47 Berserk (Manga) 00:02:46 "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you" - Nietzsche 00:05:20 "man created God in his own...

Join Pranav and Arvind as we dive into the headbanging, doomthumping sound of metal music and culture. As connoisseurs of fine metal, we talk about our favourite bands, the role metal plays in emotional release, mosh etiquette and the nature of elitism that differentiates 'true metal' from 'poseurs'. Some stuff we mention 00:00:50 - Metal Lords on Netflix 00:05:54 - Behemoth - Ov Fire and the Void 00:07:40 - Tap Tap Revenge 00:23:54 - In Flames style change...

After a bit of a hiatus, we're back with an episode where we discuss books, anime and sitcoms. What connects food science with relatable and realistic characters in fiction? What role does a novel's world and environment play in character development? And what makes a good sitcom? All this and more... On this episode of Dumb Dive

In this episode of the Dumb Dive Literature Club, we discuss No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. TW: In this episode, we discuss the plot of the book which deals with a lot of potentially triggering and incredibly sensitive topics such as addiction, suicide, depression, abuse and assault. Please do listen at your own discretion.

In this episode, we reminisce about the way the Internet was when we were younger versus how it is now, and the economic and political implications of this shift in the Internet as it exists. We also look at the predatory nature of this shift in the Internet, and if there is an alternative form of the Internet that can arise. ​yesterweb ​hood mansion

Radio shows by ants, how the inability to withstand the charge of a bison accelerated our development of tools and the spread of the digital meme - this week is an absolute doozy to kick off 2022. Pranav and Arvind talk about evolution and the development of what we call consciousness. What is intelligence and how is it different from consciousness? Is self-awareness a requisite for being conscious or is that just because of our human-centric look at life and existence? Reading...

Science Fiction is a mirror into a society at any point in time. How has colonialism and post-colonialist thought been manifested into popular works of fiction across the decades? We also talk about Indian science fiction and some of our favourite cartoons Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama (1992)Terra NovaGameworld Trilogy

We discuss the maker movement, and how we can build communities and shared spaces for innovation. Arvind explains what jailbreaking is and why users often want to 'root' their devices. Pranav compares the maker movement to other sub-cultures across gaming, car modification and more. What resources can we leverage to build shared repositories of information that are curated by the community? Apple announces Self Service RepairMakers by Cory DoctorowAwesome Lists

Welcome to Dumb Dive Literature Club, where we discuss a book that treads the lines between philosophy, society, science and culture. This episode, we take a lool at Illusions by Richard Bach, and talk about philosophy, self-help and how difficult it actually is to really talk about a book. Illusions explores our perception of reality, breaks down our purpose in life and what it really means to be a Messiah.

In this episode, we make fun of an ill-conceived and alarming proposal for a college dorm, and in doing so, discuss what hostile architecture and hostile design really means.

On this episode, we look at why understanding consciousness is so interesting and understanding why we see and experience things the way we do, how mythology gave rise to a version of dualism, and how changing our theory of mind can affect our ethical stances.

Join us in this episode as we talk about accessible design in software, inclusive stairs, medical systems and the future of gaming. Also, the game we talk about towards the end is blinddrivegame.com, available on Steam, Google Play Store, iOS and itch.io.

Based? On what? Plants and insects, maybe. In this episode, we pontificate extemporaneously and at length on the ethical dilemmas surrounding food and its future. We talk a lot about food, basically. P.S: based (slang) - godlike or "worthy of adulation"

This week we grab a brush to dust off the layers of soot from Pranav's college thesis and discuss some of the topics he wrote about. Who takes moral responsibility when an AI inflicts harm on human lives on accident? What would happen if we live in a society where robots are allowed to make the decision to harm people?

We discuss the new e-RUPI digital payment initiative in India, the value of money and the history of currency. Things we mention: e-RUPIThe Ascent of Money - Niall Ferguson linktr.ee/dumbdive

In this episode, Pranav and Arvind discuss the toxic and harmful side of productivity and 'hustle' culture, all while Pranav shows off his vocabulary a little.

We revisit video games and the peculiar vocabulary gamers use to classify and describe games. Is any game where you play a defined role a 'role-playing game' or is there more nuance to it?Also Pranav and Arvind verbally joust to decide whether games should be classified by mechanics and gameplay or by emotion and story.

"... but a miserable pile of secrets." - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Join Arvind and Pranav as they discuss what they like about their favourite video games, what it means for a video game to be good, and why video games as a storytelling medium do something completely different from film and prose.

Join Arvind and Pranav on their latest episode on artificial intelligence, language, and whether teaching computers to speak will lead to the Rise of the Machines. Sources: On Less than One Shot Learning and Tiny Data - https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/16/1010566/ai-machine-learning-with-tiny-data/An Overview of GPT-3 - https://hackernoon.com/first-talos-now-gpt-3-a-deep-dive-8o1p3zofOn the Role of Language in Intelligence -...