Nassim Taleb (1) - La Ciudad de las Ideas 2009 [05]

[akshayzz1]

What he's saying is right but he's confused. He should rather be saying the same thing from hitchens' side. He's sitting with 2 charlatans and criticizing charlatans. He should either be on the neutral side or the against side. There's no reason why he's on the theistic side. Doesn't make any sense.

[Karimha]

Nassim Taleb is a crank and a fraud. He is the last person on earth that should give any advice on not being arrogant or overconfident.

[rafacacique]

Wow, this speech is such a piece of crap! I pity this guy, who has to argue with guys like Harris and Hitchens.

[Ond7]

Religion is not about faith? We where much wiser before the enlightenment?! We humans cannot be trusted with knowledge?! What we don’t understand = God?

These are the thoughts from a extremely ignorant person.

Now I know why you always bet on destruction. It says so in a book. God knows...

[Poltionorch]

For 99,9% of human history, we died mainly from dental decay. Babies had a 50% chance of not surviving the first 5 months. Would this man want us to return to that quality of life?

He is a moron. He argues against the science that has improved his life. Next time he gets the flue, let us offer him the treatment that the "wise" healers would have given him before the scientific revolution. Let us see how he survives on faith and ancient wisdom alone.

[az091186]

We can say we don't know, we say God knows!!!! Fantastic tosh

[mtklaric]

@az091186 You ignorant person.....its how you dealt with incomplete knowledgde....its a metaphore...dont take it literally

[RockySeven7]

im a big 'fan' of taleb, but his arguments in this debate dont make a lot of sense if you ask me...

[outoftimeonpandora]

Even if Christopher Hitchens met "God" he still wouldn't TRUST him. LOL. Taleb sucks.

[epoxyresin]

Arguing for ignorance and trust and disavowing knowledge.

No thank you.

[kcf6969]

This dumbass thinks that better decisions were made. The decisions made only helped the people in power.

[whateva1983]

Is awesome how Nassim passes simply for a man who favors obscurantism to prejudiced closed-minded individuals. Not that they aren't abundant among the arrogant who believe we KNOW already all we need to know about episteme!

[whateva1983]

Aweszome Nassim!! Thank you for reminding us that we don't know everyhting; that reason and science aren't complete and we don't really know how much they aproximate to Knowledge with capital K. Thank you for reminding us that we don't have all the answers, and probably much less answers than we actually believe! Don't liste to superficial rationalists who have never cared about questioning the tendencies of their own time.

[DJMarcO138]

Um...if you believe the stock market you're automatically an atheist? What kind of moron argument is that??? I love how all of the arguments for religion all come from absolutely RETARDED people with easily picked apart arguments.

[InnerSmile72]

Even if this guy was right about what he is saying, I would still think he's a loser.

[evanakm]

Nassim Taleb has a lot of wonderful ideas, he's just not that good at public speaking.

[Imreason]

lol. funny guy.

[chyckenfeet]

what kind of lunatic endorses ignorance? i've heard of argument from ignorance being a logical fallacy, not a virtue

[mtklaric]

@chyckenfeet show me the part where he advocates ignorance over knowledge? what he is saying is that in TODAYs world we rely too much on scientific knowledge which is always incomplete but we make decisions based on that knowledge thinking its is complete sound and veryfied when it is not.......this especially is true to the field of economics

[FranciscoKGuerreiro]

No arguments were exposed..

Waste of time..

"We don´t know, so God know´s"...is this any kind of valid argument?

How blind can you be?...

[mtklaric]

@FranciscoKGuerreiro Idiot....it is how humans dealt before science...it was a way of making decisions based on incomplete knowledge wheres we make decisions today based on scientific knowledge which is ALWAYS incomplete but these atheists take it as complete truth...he esentialy is saying that even the belivers and the atheists should all be sincere and say I dont know...

[acme181169]

I can't believe they even let this guy on the stage!

Human development is where it is today precisely because of our ability to use information. If it was up to this guy and others like him we'd still be in a cave. It's all very well to spout this nonsense now he's made millions on the stock market and has developed a (misguided) conscience, but I'll bet a £ to a pile of shit he won't be giving any of it back and retire to a cave!

[Sarusource]

One word: embarrassing.

[FJYardley]

Err, THE Nassim Taleb? Just twigged he's the author of the bestseller 'The Black Swan'. What the blazes was he doing here?

His main argument appears to be, 'humans are irrational', and it was a struggle to tease that from 6 sticky minutes.

'Religion is also a good way of handling uncertainty. It lowers blood pressure' (Taleb)

business.timesonline .co.uk/tol/business/economics/­article4022091.ece

His own site: fooledbyrandomness . com/



[martialme84]

Negative advice is shit. If a wealthy person tells me, i can show you how to get wealthy, i WILL believe them. If a person who is very good at something else tells me they will show me how to do that particular thing, i will believe them as well.

So his argument about positive/negative advice and sharlatans is shit.

[asiekdilsa]

Wow! A new height in gibberish.

[l337pwnage]

So knowledge makes people over-confident, but religion does not? lol.

[mtklaric]

@l337pwnage incomplete knowlegde...did you listen?

[unsung1984]

The only thing I agreed with in this presentation was him calling self help, get rich schemers frauds. I would however claim religion as just another one of these frauds.

[eraticus]

Wow! This is embarrassingly bad.

[sswindgassen]

his vehemence makes me fear a beheading

[jmosler9]

how did this guy get invited?

[MrDarkbloom]

This is nonsense.

[MrSalamander7]

They paid this man to speak here?!?!

[staylopictures]

OK, Nassim, a few terms you should become familiar with: induction, deduction, sanity.

[Shundra]

Worst presentation, You don't know = God. the worst argument ever. Don't trust science... yeas please don't take the plane to go to a conference next time use the donkey provided by God.

[8thArmada]

lol!

[FranciscoKGuerreiro]

@Shundra

Hahahahaha...go donkey.



[whateva1983]

@Shundra @mycironlungca Nassim ideas are awesome. He is reminding us that science isn't complete in knowledge. Popper: science knows only its errors. Any theory is not a truth discovered, but one that hasn't been proven false. Even with all our 'knowledge' there are a bunch of unpredictable important events (Black Swans), not implied by rational models. Also, no definitive proof that rational = true. Notice how Nassim NEVER -implicitly or explicitly- says we should abandon reason and science.

[mtklaric]

@Shundra Nassim is first league and the rest second, including the atehists and the belivers....

[rmeddy1]

Taleb is brilliant but he does fit in this debate at all.

[rxangel18]

Guilt of the self without the self knowing of the selfs guilt is guilt still. some criminals actauly habbitually believe thay are innocent, even though they are primarily dead to rights, red handed. so people can make deciesions for which they cause, and thuogh they may not even consider themselves criminally neglagent, the criminality of their actions is STILL contengent upon the available evince, and, evidence not withhold, the question is unansswerable either way.

[rxangel18]

bump the stock market and bump religion.

[nthoctave]

Seriously? This is the worst professional speaker in favor of religion I've ever heard. I don't say this because of his accent, but because his arguments make no sense. This guy makes Dinesh D'Souza sound eminently reasonable and intellectually honest.

[BillKiernan]

holy shit this guy is the worst apologist for religion i've heard thus far. he's basically arguing against the Enlightenment.

[myironlungca]

What a load of drivel

[rothery86]

Saying "God knows" is how we deal with incomplete information?

DUH! He just made the opposite point he was trying to make.

[KarlVasquez]

Taleb is definitely out there . . . wow.

I'm betting D'Souza and Boteach regret he's arguing for their "team" here. And they aren't exactly the greatest imo either.

[village1diot]

Thanks for posting these. I find them very informative.