Stephon Alexander on The Autodidactic Universe, String Theory, Matrix Models & Cherns-Simons Gravity

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/4xlXUEEnZ6s

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Subreddit r/TheoriesOfEverything: https://reddit.com/r/theoriesofeverything

LINKS MENTIONED:

-Fear of a Black Universe: https://amzn.to/3rxGFcj

-The Jazz of Physics: https://amzn.to/3qR7KIx

-Brian Keating's podcast with Stephon Alexander: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehEbrD42U_g

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:04:46 BTS banter and framing the conversation

00:06:05 The Autodidactic Universe

00:18:54 BMN vs BFSS (type IIA String Theory)

00:26:45 Lee Smolin's evolutionary model of the universe as black hole spawn

00:29:06 Curt posits a link between the matrix models and particles, rather than laws

00:30:36 Explaining D-branes and their dimensionality

00:36:02 When watching TOE, it's okay to be confused

00:36:55 Chern-Simons Gravity

00:49:03 Anomaly Cancellations

00:51:43 Klein Gordon equation and renormalization

00:55:55 What is a Theory of Everything? What are the conditions?

00:59:15 Stephon tells a story about Curt's brother's "genius" (they were in grad school together)

01:02:40 Doubting your own mathematical abilities

01:06:02 Advice for those in their 20s / 30s / 40s learning String Theory without a math background

01:10:24 Brian Keating is no friend to Stephon (kidding)

01:11:08 How does learning math / physics change with age?

01:15:14 Anomalies and purposeful mistakes leading to insights

01:18:02 No Go theorems (and AdS / CFT correspondence)

01:23:26 Why does the Graviton have Spin 2?

01:25:41 There are gems in Geometric Unity

01:29:12 Opinion on Stephen Wolfram's theory / project on physics

01:31:05 Future plans for TOE: Geometric Algebra and Categorical Unification

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Just wrapped (April 2021) a documentary called Better Left Unsaid http://betterleftunsaidfilm.com on the topic of "when does the left go too far?" Visit that site if you'd like to watch it.