This is the first episode in a new series devoted to an entirely new book: “The Science of Can and Can’t” by Chiara Marletto. Get the book anywhere ebooks are available (as of May, 2021) and learn more about Chiara and her work here: https://www.chiaramarletto.com
This book is an amazing work. It presents for the lay reader an introduction to “Constructor T ... Show More
Mar 11
Ep 259: Reaction to Michael Levin Part 3: Bait and Switch, Podcastistan and Surprising(?) algorithms.
In this, the third and final part of a series, I break down some work Michael Levin has done with sorting algorithms. That seems very dry until you hear his claim that these algorithms that are well known and have been studied for decades exhibit extremely unusual behaviour never ... Show More
59m 35s
Feb 16
Ep 258: Reaction to Michael Levin, Part 2: Bioelectricity, Consciousness and Knowing
This is the second in a multipart series where I react to some interviews with @drmichaellevin a biologist who, among other things, specialises in bioelectricity. His research can be found here: https://www.drmichaellevin.org and his "explainer articles" for his own professiona ... Show More
1h 38m
Feb 9
Ep 257: Reaction to Michael Levin, Part 1: Categories and Continuums.
This is the first in a multipart series where I react to some interviews with @drmichaellevin - a biologist who, among other things, specialises in bioelectricity. His research can be found here: https://www.drmichaellevin.org/publications/ and his "explainer articles" for his ow ... Show More
1h 8m
Oct 2021
167 | Chiara Marletto on Constructor Theory, Physics, and Possibility
Traditional physics works within the "Laplacian paradigm": you give me the state of the universe (or some closed system), some equations of motion, then I use those equations to evolve the system through time. Constructor theory proposes an alternative paradigm: to think of physi ... Show More
1h 35m
Aug 2021
Chiara Marletto, "The Science of Can and Can't: A Physicist's Journey Through the Land of Counterfactuals" (Viking, 2021)
There is a vast class of things that science has so far almost entirely neglected. They are central to the understanding of physical reality both at an everyday level and at the level of the most fundamental phenomena in physics, yet have traditionally been assumed to be impossib ... Show More
1h 6m
Oct 2023
253 | David Deutsch on Science, Complexity, and Explanation
David Deutsch is one of the most creative scientific thinkers working today, who has as a goal to understand and explain the natural world as best we can. He was a pioneer in quantum computing, and has long been an advocate of the Everett interpretation of quantum theory. He is a ... Show More
1h 42m
Oct 2014
Episode #039 ... The Limits of Empiricism
On this episode of the podcast, we explore the idea of reality and how our senses prevent us from perceiving its true nature. First, we launch a smear campaign against human eyes and their limitations. Next, we discuss the difference between deductive reasoning (the kind you see ... Show More
26m 57s
Feb 2021
#238 — How to Build a Universe
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sam Harris speaks with Frank Wilczek about the fundamental nature of reality. They discuss the difference between science and non-science, the role of intuition in science, the nature of time, the prospect that possibility is an illusion, the cu ... Show More
59m 13s