Diana Walsh Pasulka: Aliens, Technology, Religion & the Nature of Belief | Lex Fridman Podcast #149

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 "How many alien civilizations are out there?" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTmxA2MvEqk 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/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 2:03 - What is real? 7:32 - Can beliefs become reality? 12:34 - Donald Hoffman 16:33 - Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason 20:02 - Ayn Rand 27:00 - How do religions start? 42:13 - Religion is an evolutionary advantage 47:34 - Religion used in propaganda 52:07 - What did Nietzsche mean by "God is Dead"? 57:34 - American Cosmic 1:01:20 - What do aliens look like? 1:10:03 - History of space programs 1:13:06 - Jacques Vallee 1:22:31 - Artificial intelligence 1:28:00 - Ufology community 1:39:13 - Psychedelics 1:43:10 - Tic Tac UFO 1:51:44 - Roswell UFO incident 2:02:49 - Bob Lazar 2:06:25 - Monoliths in the desert 2:17:14 - Humans will co-evolve with AI 2:20:33 - Neuralink 2:25:23 - Singularity 2:35:14 - Books: Nietzsche 2:40:20 - Books: Hannah Arendt 2:45:18 - Fear of death 2:49:46 - Meaning of life CONNECT: - Subscribe to this YouTube channel - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LexFridmanPage - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman