Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

• Do We Have Free Will and Will AI Have It Too? (ft. Sabine Hossenfelder)

  Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 Does free will exist? It's a question that's haunted philosophers for centuries. But physicist Sabine Hossenfelder has a provocative answer that might just disturb you. She says free will doesn't exist. Everything is determined by the laws of physics. But here's the paradox that's fascinated me. I've talked to Sam Harris, Dan Dennett, Robert Sapolsky, all brilliant minds who agree that free will is an illusion. Yet, when I asked them if they've ever encountered someone who acts like they don't have free will, they all said no. So how can this be? How can we all be determined by physics, yet live as if we're making genuine choices? This isn't some abstract philosophical exercise, no. Sabine's insight has real implications for artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and the future of consciousness itself. She explains why AI may already have the same kind of agency that we do, and why quantum computers could reveal that we fundamentally misunderstand the nature of reality. Key Takeaways: 00:26–04:39 – Determinism over “free will,” reframes self as information processor. 07:21–09:19 – Defines agency as internal deliberation vs. external input; AI has low agency. 10:48–14:50 – AI can learn without bodies; emotions could emerge via reward functions. 15:18–17:16 – UFO claims are mostly flaky but worth some serious consideration. 18:16–22:52 – “Quiz with It” uses AI for quizzes; AI may replace poor lecturers. 24:37–30:37 – Warns of LLM “lock-in”; expects new AI paradigms. 31:15–32:42 – Quantum computing promising for finance optimization; uncertain impact. 34:15–36:37 – Likes debates; thinks “theories of everything” overemphasized. 39:09–42:14 – Would fund quantum gravity & measurement problem experiments. 43:21–50:31 – Supports fuzzy dark matter search; inflation underdetermined; MOND captures some truth. 51:16–57:26 – Skeptical of DESI’s dark energy claim; cosmology data messy, model-dependent. 58:40–01:00:14 – Academic decline due to systemic incentives. 01:00:50–01:02:36 – Quantum tech advances reviving foundational physics interest. 01:09:30–01:12:23 – AI-generated junk (“AI slop”) threatens science publishing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Additional resources: Check out Sabine’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SabineHossenfelder ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get a copy of my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un 📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺 Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1 Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1 Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating #sabinehossenfelder Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  1:18:40

  --------

  1:18:40
• Are Humans Smart Enough to Understand the Universe? (ft. Stephen Wolfram)

  Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 Why aren't whales building rockets? They have bigger brains than we do after all. In this episode with Stephen Wolfram, we talk about why more brainpower doesn't always mean more understanding, and how neural architecture faces physical constraints. Stephen Wolfram says even super intelligent AIs may hit hard computational limits. In our conversation today, we explore why intelligence has a ceiling, and how ideas like Wolfram's Ruliad, computational irreducibility and brain size scaling reveal the boundaries of thought itself. Wolfram created Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha, it's probably in your pocket right now, in your cell phone, and he's now building a radical new theory of everything grounded in computational reality. If he's right, smarter doesn't always mean deeper. It might just mean we get stuck. Key Takeaways: 00:00 – 01:34 Are we discovering or simulating the universe? 01:34 – 06:50 Ruliad defines reality 06:50 – 10:02 Brains compress data into decisions, experience. 10:02 – 17:00 Math models nature, not necessarily its foundation. 17:00 – 25:07 AI may trap us like algebra did. 25:07 – 29:42 LLMs mimic minds, but lack depth. 29:42 – 35:57 Shared minds define reality; Boltzmann brains questioned. 35:57 – 42:28 Free will arises from irreducibility. 42:28 – 47:04 AIs may inherit computational free will. 47:04 – 52:45 Exploring Ruliad = expanding intellectual paradigms. 52:45 – 59:06 Massless particles = timeless, universal concepts? 59:06 – 01:07:32 Immortality blocked by biological irreducibility. 01:07:32 – End Biggest question: extend life or decode reality? ------------------------------------------- Additional resources: The Second Law: Resolving the Mystery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics: https://www.amazon.com/Second-Law-Resolving-Mystery-Thermodynamics/dp/1579550835 https://www.wolframalpha.com/ ------------------------------------------- Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get a copy of my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un 📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺 Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1 Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1 Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  1:17:42

  --------

  1:17:42
• Exploring the Edge of the Universe: Brian Keating on Telescopes, CMB, and Scientific Discovery

  Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/yt to win a meteorite 💥 In this captivating conversation, we dive deep into the cosmos with renowned cosmologist, podcaster, and UC San Diego professor Dr. Brian Keating. Joined by Mike Misha and Xinghui, Brian takes us on a journey from the childhood wonder inspired by the Moon to the high-altitude peaks of Chile and the frigid expanse of the South Pole, where he's helped pioneer the development of cutting-edge telescopes aimed at unlocking the secrets of the universe. This episode is from the 632nm Podcast - Takeaways: 00:00 Moon Fascination and Antarctic Astronomy 09:38 "Proof of Earth's Orbit via Parallax" 14:36 Uncharted Light Polarization Exploration 19:45 Challenges in Measuring Polarization 23:41 "Transistor Tech for Microwave Signals" 26:52 Optimal Telescope Size for Science 31:13 Collaborative Scientific Learning Journey 37:20 "Steady State vs. Big Bang" 46:43 Universe's Earliest Light Revealed 51:25 Rapid Advances in Observational Technology 58:01 Motel Suicide and Leadership Shift 58:50 Near-Miss: Nobel Prize Revelation 01:04:13 Missed Signals, Planck Pressure 01:13:54 Detecting Cosmic Phenomena with Telescopes 01:18:42 Balanced Research in Cosmology 01:23:27 Space Telescope Vision Expansion 01:26:51 AI's Limits in Predicting Relativity 01:31:28 Reevaluating the Nobel Prize Criteria 01:38:20 Musk's Mars Vision: Science Disruption 01:41:46 Balancing Science and Personal Life - Watch the episode on other platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z3THHIQorc&list=PL87anKnyrxSINa7feABRBcXA_fIQzqPH0 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-we-build-telescopes-to-explore-the-early-cosmos/id1751170269?i=1000719643327 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/60hbFQNpmBJvDsdHM5WgDW?si=e91b6fbc60a5411d Twitter: https://x.com/632nmPodcast/status/1950231216143126552 Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/632nmpodcast/p/listening-to-the-echoes-of-the-big?r=409hsq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true ------------------------------------------------------------------- Join this channel to get access to perks like monthly Office Hours: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 Get a copy of my books: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA The first-ever audiobook from Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un 📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺 Neil Turok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5cFLN65fI Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1 Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI0AZ4Y4Ip4?sub_confirmation=1 Sir Roger Penrose: https://youtu.be/AMuqyAvX7Wo Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/g00ilS6tBvs Avi Loeb: https://youtu.be/N9lUceHsLRw Follow me to ask questions of my guests: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list; just click here http://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Detailed Blog posts here: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Listen on audio-only platforms: https://briankeating.com/podcast #universe #podcast #briankeating #intotheimpossible #science #astronomy #cosmology #cosmicmicrowavebackground #intotheimpossible #briankeating Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  1:50:59

  --------

  1:50:59
• Is There A WAR On Science? Lawrence Krauss

  Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/list to win a meteorite 💥 In a sweeping conversation sparked by his new book The War on Science, Lawrence Krauss charts how well-intentioned campus DEI bureaucracies, politicized funding mandates, and “language-as-violence” taboos are eroding the core scientific virtues of open inquiry and empirical scepticism, while drawing historical parallels from Lysenkoism to today’s hiring rubrics and challenging listeners to defend freedom of thought with the same passion they reserve for social justice. He then pivots from diagnosis to remedy, outlining a five-point rescue plan—slashing ideological litmus tests, restoring merit-based evaluation, insulating grant agencies from mission creep, teaching students to steel-man opposing views, and benchmarking success against China’s unencumbered research surge—arguing that only by re-centering evidence over ideology can science remain humanity’s most reliable truth-seeking enterprise. — Key Takeaways:  00:00 Intro  01:04 The most dangerous idea threatening science today 02:35 The role of universities and academic freedom  10:26 Tenure and indirect costs in academia  14:58 Sanctions against free speech  17:39 The problem with tuition  18:42 Decolonializing STEM  23:57 What Trump is doing to address these issues  28:03 Free market education? 36:46 Judging a book by its cover 38:44 The distortion of science during COVID  44:12 Inequality in science  48:43 If Lawrence were president of the US  52:33 Audience questions  55:28 Outro — Additional resources:  📚 The War On Science by Lawrence Krauss: https://a.co/d/6ntEbll  — ➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms: ✖️ Twitter:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating⁠⁠  🔔 YouTube:⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1⁠⁠  📝 Join my mailing list:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://briankeating.com/list⁠⁠  ✍️ Check out my blog:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://briankeating.com/cosmic-musings/⁠⁠  🎙️ Follow my podcast:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://briankeating.com/podcast⁠⁠  — Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known. Make sure to follow/subscribe so you never miss an episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  1:01:58

  --------

  1:01:58
• Our Universe Almost Didn’t Exist (ft. Fred Adams)

  Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/list to win a meteorite 💥 Is the universe fine-tuned for life, or is it just a lucky accident?  Could the multiverse explain why our universe is so perfectly suited for life? And how much can the fundamental constants change before life becomes impossible?  Today, I’m joined by Fred Adams, a theoretical physicist from the University of Michigan. Fred works in the general area of theoretical astrophysics with a focus on the study of star formation and cosmology. He is internationally recognized for his work on the radiative signature of the star formation process, the dynamics of circumstellar disks, and the theory of the initial mass function for forming stars. Fred is the author of The Five Ages of the Universe and Origins of Existence, and has dedicated much of his career to understanding the structure and fate of the cosmos.  In this episode, we break down the concepts of fine-tuning, the anthropic principle, and the multiverse. Could the universe's perfect conditions for life point to a deeper, purposeful design, or is it just a product of chance? What if there are other universes out there with completely different rules, maybe even with their own forms of life?  Trust me, this episode is going to make you rethink everything you thought you knew about existence, so don’t miss out! — Key Takeaways:  00:00 Intro  01:29 Judging a book by its cover 02:12 DESI results and the equation of state 06:39 The cosmological constant and its role in our universe  12:31 Fine-tuning as a tool  32:37 The Hoyle resonance and carbon production  39:28 Probability distribution and fundamental theory  45:11 Intelligent design and anthropic arguments 52:30 The multiverse and its implications  58:14 Outro  — Additional resources:  Learn more about Adam: 💻 Website: ⁠https://freelanceastrophysicist.com/⁠  📚 More Everything Forever: ⁠https://a.co/d/ajlYHvZ⁠  — ➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms: ✖️ Twitter:⁠ ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating⁠  🔔 YouTube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1⁠  📝 Join my mailing list:⁠ ⁠⁠https://briankeating.com/list⁠  ✍️ Check out my blog:⁠ ⁠⁠https://briankeating.com/cosmic-musings/⁠  🎙️ Follow my podcast:⁠ ⁠⁠https://briankeating.com/podcast⁠  — Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known. Make sure to follow/subscribe so you never miss an episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  59:54

  --------

  59:54

Mais podcasts de Ciência

Podcasts em tendência em Ciência

Sobre Into the Impossible With Brian Keating