Get the book. Made You Think episode. Read my notes.
“Darwin’s dangerous idea is that Design can emerge from mere Order via an algorithmic process that makes no use of pre-existing Mind.”
“Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” explores what it really means for us to accept the reality of evolution. On the surface, evolution is a harmless concept that explains speciation and divergences throughout biological history. But when we dig in, we have to accept that evolution suggests there is no Mind, no meaning to life, and certainly no afterlife.
Interesting section: One point Dennett makes about the evolution of ideas is that there’s likely great wisdom in the ideas that have stuck around, including the core ideas of many religions and certain kinds of ancient medicines. We’ve seen this idea popularized recently too in Antifragile.