#149 – Diana Walsh Pasulka: Aliens, Technology, Religion, and the Nature of Belief

Diana Walsh Pasulka is a professor of philosophy and religion at UNCW and author of American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, and Technology. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - LMNT: https://drinkLMNT.com/lex to get free shipping - Grammarly: https://grammarly.com/lex to get 20% off premium - Business Wars: https://wondery.com/business-wars/ - Cash App: https://cash.app/ and use code LexPodcast to get $10 EPISODE LINKS: Diana's Website: https://uncw.edu/par/faculty/faculty-pasulka.html American Cosmic (book): https://amzn.to/3aK2kaj PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LexFridmanPage - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) - Introduction (08:28) - What is real? (13:56) - Can beliefs become reality? (18:59) - Donald Hoffman (22:57) - Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (26:27) - Ayn Rand (33:25) - How do religions start? (48:38) - Religion is an evolutionary advantage (53:59) - Religion used in propaganda (58:32) - What did Nietzsche mean by "God is Dead"? (1:03:59) - American Cosmic (1:07:45) - What do aliens look like? (1:16:28) - History of space programs (1:19:30) - Jacques Vallee (1:28:55) - Artificial intelligence (1:34:25) - Ufology community (1:45:38) - Psychedelics (1:49:35) - Tic Tac UFO (1:58:09) - Roswell UFO incident (2:09:14) - Bob Lazar (2:12:50) - Monoliths in the desert (2:23:39) - Humans will co-evolve with AI (2:26:58) - Neuralink (2:31:48) - Singularity (2:41:39) - Books: Nietzsche (2:46:44) - Books: Hannah Arendt (2:51:43) - Fear of death (2:56:11) - Meaning of life