Nathaniel Kahn: The Cosmos, Filmmaking, Art, Humanity, Transcendence

As a listener of TOE you can get a special 35% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Curt Jaimungal argues that in an age where LLMs can produce beautiful prose on demand, we've discovered that output was always just a proxy for something deeper — understanding you can't outsource, especially on the questions that actually matter: death, meaning, identity, morality. Shallowness now wears the robe of eloquence. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00 - You Can't Vibe Your Way to Understanding - 02:22 - Shallowness Now Wears the Robe of Eloquence - 04:09 - Why We Never Knew Output Was a Proxy LINKS MENTIONED: - Why Write [Article]: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/why-write - 3 Rules of Writing [Article]: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/my-3-rules-of-writing - One Push Up [Article]: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/this-may-be-one-of-the-most-important - The Most Terrifying Philosopher Encounter I've Encountered [TOE]: https://youtu.be/BWYxRM__TBU - The Abused Theorem in Math [TOE]: https://youtu.be/OH-ybecvuEo Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SPONSORS: - Sign up for Claude today at http://Claude.ai/theoriesofeverything and checkout Claude Pro — which includes access to all of the features mentioned in today's episode. - Let AI do the note-taking. Visit https://plaud.ai/toe and use code TOE for 10% off at checkout. - Go to https://shortform.com/toe for a free trial and an exclusive $50 OFF on your annual subscription. - Accelerate your efficiency. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at http://shopify.com/theories. - As a listener of TOE you can get a special 35% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe What if you gathered every possible piece of evidence about the universe — every observation, past, present, and future — and it still wasn't enough? That's not a philosophical parlor trick. It's a theorem. J.B. Manchak proves it using the very tools of general relativity, and then connects it to Zen Buddhism's teaching on the self. This one is a quiet storm. TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Unknowability of the Universe - 00:05:14 - Space-Time Maximality Metaphysics - 00:11:02 - Time Travel in GR - 00:16:53 - Causal Structure and Topology - 00:24:01 - Cauchy Surfaces and Determinism - 00:32:13 - Solving the Halting Problem - 00:47:38 - Cosmic Censorship Hypothesis - 00:56:58 - The God Point Theorem - 01:02:16 - Global Structure Underdetermination - 01:11:21 - Heraclitus Space-Times Defined - 01:24:22 - Hierarchy of Classical Space-Times - 01:33:08 - The Universe Puzzle Analogy - 01:40:51 - Underdetermination of the Self - 01:51:39 - Zen Buddhism and Non-Self - 02:00:57 - Repeatability and Heraclitus - 02:06:41 - The Power of Slow Thinking Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many people think physics / reality is either guided by a probabilistic distribution or is “determined.” Actually, there’s a third, far‐more unsettling option. Curt Jaimungal explains why Einstein’s general relativity isn't actually deterministic. He discusses how Cauchy horizons and closed time-like curves break predictability, showing that math and physics don't always guarantee a set future for our universe. This is a solo deep‑dive. One that he's been meaning to make for a while. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe FOLLOW: - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 LINKS MENTIONED: - This Cosmologist Discovered Something Strange: https://youtu.be/73IdQGgfxas - The Most Abused Theorem in Math (Gödel's Incompleteness): https://youtu.be/OH-ybecvuEo - Harvard Scientist: "There Is No Quantum Multiverse" | Jacob Barandes [Part 3]: https://youtu.be/wrUvtqr4wOs - The Quantum Mechanics of Time Travel: https://youtu.be/yCQ_3qE6SmQ - The Dangerous Lie About Understanding: https://youtu.be/eASBzSNB8ts - Discovery That Changed Physics! Gravity Is Not a Force!: https://youtu.be/3pZNzF6LBII - Einstein's Amazing Theory of Gravity: Black Holes and Novel Ideas in Cosmology, Roger Penrose | LMS: https://youtu.be/xAcvNnSrkcM - The Geodesic Equation: Introduction and Derivation: https://youtu.be/5_79m-kHxts - Interpretation of the Wavefunction: https://youtu.be/R-5hjmV-bdY - Is the Future Already Set in Stone?: https://youtu.be/JBkB2D-_ZH0 - What Is Astrophysics Actually Explained: https://youtu.be/TCrRs_OBN0E - What Triggered the Big Bang? | How the Universe Works: https://youtu.be/gup4Cc0Ube0 - Visualization of the Gödel Universe: https://youtu.be/078jOiaevAQ - Iceberg of String Theory: https://youtu.be/X4PdPnQuwjY - The 300-Year-Old Physics Mistake No One Noticed: https://youtu.be/Tghl6aS5A3M - JB Manchak: Spacetime Asymmetry: https://youtu.be/lFbfhISreFY - Carlo Rovelli [TOE]: https://youtu.be/hF4SAketEHY - General Relativity Is Not (Technically) Deterministic: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/general-relativity-is-not-deterministic - The Strong Cosmic Censorship Conjecture by Maxime Van de Moortel [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.13180 - Some Black Holes Erase Your Past: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180221091334.htm - Determinism and General Relativity [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2009.07555 - A Family of Local Deterministic Models for Singlet Quantum State Correlations [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/html/2408.09579v1 - Examples of Cosmological Spacetimes Without CMC Cauchy Surfaces: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11005-024-01843-7 - Asymptotic Dynamics on the Worldlines for Spinning Particles [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.07863 - World Line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_line - Counterexamples in Topology [Book]: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4612-6290-9 - Quantum Charged Black Holes [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404.07192 - Charged Hayward Black Hole with a Cosmological Constant and Surrounded by Quintessence and a Cloud of Strings [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.02191 - Strong Cosmic Censorship in Charged Black-Hole Spacetimes: Still Subtle [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1808.03631 - Chaos and Deterministic Versus Stochastic Non-Linear Modelling: https://academic.oup.com/jrsssb/article/54/2/303/7035838 - Reopening the Hole Argument by Klaas Landsman [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2206.04943 - Is Time Travel Too Strange to Be Possible? [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1704.02295 - Counterexamples in Topology [Book]: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4612-6290-9 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor John Donoghue explains why quantum physics and gravity actually work perfectly together. He tackles quadratic gravity, effective field theory, and random dynamics, arguing that grand unification and naturalness aren't required for a theory of everything. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe SUPPORT: - Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 JOIN MY SUBSTACK (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Limits of Quantum Mechanics - 00:06:35 - Effective Field Theory - 00:12:24 - Gravity: Geometry or Force? - 00:18:46 - QFT and Gravity Tension - 00:24:59 - Quadratic Gravity Theory - 00:34:16 - Dueling Arrows of Causality - 00:41:57 - Random Dynamics and Anti-Unification - 00:48:13 - The Naturalness Problem - 00:53:40 - Questioning Hidden Assumptions LINKS MENTIONED: - John's lectures: https://www.youtube.com/@johndonoghue469/featured - John's papers: https://arxiv.org/a/donoghue_j_1.html - The Renormalization Group and Critical Phenomena [Paper]: https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/wilson-lecture-2.pdf - Anthropic Considerations in Multiple-Domain Theories [Paper]: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.1822 - Old "Ghost" Theory of Quantum Gravity Makes a Comeback [Article]: https://www.quantamagazine.org/old-ghost-theory-of-quantum-gravity-makes-a-comeback-20251117/ - Unitarity, Stability and Loops of Unstable Ghosts [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1908.02416 - An Effective Field Theory of Gravity for Extended Objects [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0409156 - Not Quite a Black Hole [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1612.04889 - On Quadratic Gravity [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2112.01974 - Quadratic Gravity [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1804.09944 - Renormalization of Higher Derivative Quantum Gravity [Paper]: http://www.weylmann.com/stelle.pdf - Quantum Theory in a Nutshell [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Field-Theory-Nutshell-nutshell/dp/0691140340 - Field Theory: A Modern Primer [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Field-Theory-Modern-Frontiers-Physics/dp/0201546116 - Origin of Symmetries [Book]: https://amzn.to/4qxnLzj - String Theory Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/X4PdPnQuwjY - Neil Turok [TOE]: https://youtu.be/zNZCa1pVE20 - Avshalom Elitzur [TOE]: https://youtu.be/pWRAaimQT1E - Sir Roger Penrose [TOE]: https://youtu.be/iO03t21xhdk - Ted Jacobson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8 - Leonard Susskind [TOE]: https://youtu.be/2p_Hlm6aCok - Jonathan Oppenheim [TOE]: https://youtu.be/NKOd8imBa2s - Peter Woit [TOE]: https://youtu.be/TTSeqsCgxj8 - Joseph Conlon & Peter Woit [TOE]: https://youtu.be/fAaXk_WoQqQ - Michael Levin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SPONSORS: - Let AI do the note-taking. Visit https://plaud.ai/toe and use code TOE for 10% off at checkout. - Go to https://expressvpn.com/theoriesofeverythingyt to find out how you can get up to 4 extra months thanks to our sponsor, ExpressVPN - As a listener of TOE you can get a special 35% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Physicist Nir Lahav joins me to argue that the hard problem isn't hard so much as confused—a consequence of treating consciousness as an absolute property rather than a relative one. Drawing on the principle of relativity, he proposes that subjective experience is a genuine physical property that manifests only from within a cognitive system's own internal simulation, where the felt sense of good and bad becomes as real as location in space. This conversation requires zero prior background in physics or philosophy. Every concept is built from scratch. SUPPORT: - Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 JOIN MY SUBSTACK (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e LINKS MENTIONED: - Nir's Website: https://www.lahavnir.com/about-me - Nir's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LFMD5RkAAAAJ - Nir's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nir.Lahav - Nir's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thewonderofscience9863/videos - A Relativistic Theory of Consciousness [Paper]: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.704270/full - Church-Turing Thesis: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/church-turing/ - What Is It Like to Be a Bat? [Paper]: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Nagel_Bat.pdf - On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies [TOE]: https://users.physics.ox.ac.uk/~rtaylor/teaching/specrel.pdf - Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/037575766X?tag=toe08-20 - Discourse on Metaphysics [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1474457789?tag=toe08-20 - The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity [Paper]: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/cosmology_2025/pdf/Einstein_Extension_Relativity_1916.pdf - Some Functional Effects of Sectioning the Cerebral Commissures in Man [Paper]: https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.48.10.1765 - Reasoning or Reciting? [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.02477 - The Conscious Mind [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0195117891?tag=toe08-20 - Consciousness Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/65yjqIDghEk - Michael Levin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s - Karl Friston [TOE]: https://youtu.be/2v7LBABwZKA - Daniel Dennett [TOE]: https://youtu.be/bH553zzjQlI - Bernardo Kastrup [TOE]: https://youtu.be/lAB21FAXCDE - Joscha Bach [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3MNBxfrmfmI - Matt Segall [TOE]: https://youtu.be/DeTm4fSXpbM - Leo Gura [TOE]: https://youtu.be/YspFR9JAq3w - What Is Energy, Actually? [TOE]: https://youtu.be/hQk9GLZ0Fms - Plato's Cave [TOE]: https://youtu.be/PurNlwnxwfY - Iain McGilchrist [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Q9sBKCd2HD0 - Andres Emilsson: https://youtu.be/BBP8WZpYp0Y - Ruth Kastner [TOE]: https://youtu.be/-BsHh3_vCMQ - Urs Schreiber [TOE]: https://youtu.be/1KUhLHlgG2Q - Ted Jacobson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8 - Stephen Wolfram [TOE]: https://youtu.be/0YRlQQw0d-4 - Emily Adlam and Jacob Barandes [TOE]: https://youtu.be/rw1ewLJUgOg - David Chalmers [TOE]: https://youtu.be/RH5qjdHhtBk - Donald Hoffman and Philip Goff [TOE]: https://youtu.be/MmaIBxkqcT4 - Donald Hoffman [TOE]: https://youtu.be/CmieNQH7Q4w - Michael Levin and Anil Seth [TOE]: https://youtu.be/_kuwwmFnxGY - Elan Barenholtz [TOE]: https://youtu.be/A36OumnSrWY - Geoffrey Hinton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/b_DUft-BdIE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Curt Jaimungal argues that astrophysicists like Neil deGrasse Tyson and spiritual gurus Deepak Chopra and Thomas Campbell can’t logically claim they don’t hold beliefs. This “Theories of Everything” with Curt Jaimungal episode uses analytic philosophy to show why belief’s vital for understanding physics and consciousness, countering what Thomas Campbell and NASA scientist Nathalie Cabrol say. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00 - The "No Belief" Fallacy - 03:00 - Faith vs. Propositional Belief - 04:57 - Implicit Belief in Hypotheses - 07:10 - van Fraassen’s Constructive Empiricism - 11:51 - Fallibilism and Epistemic Virtue SUPPORT: - Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 JOIN MY SUBSTACK (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e LINKS MENTIONED: - Neil deGrasse Tyson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/HhWWlJFwTqs - Kierkegaard: The Most Terrifying Philosopher I've Encountered [TOE]: https://youtu.be/BWYxRM__TBU - Curt Interviews NASA Scientist on NPR: https://youtu.be/C8zrfZq1XEs - Bayesian Epistemology: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology-bayesian/ - Belief: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/belief/ - The Norm Of Assertion: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29684696/ - Truth And Objectivity [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0674910877?tag=toe08-20 - Constructive Empiricism Now [Paper]: https://www.princeton.edu/~fraassen/articles/pdfs/CE_Now.pdf - Willard Quine: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/quine/ SOCIALS: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs Guests do not pay to appear. Theories of Everything receives revenue solely from viewer donations, platform ads, and clearly labelled sponsors; no guest or associated entity has ever given compensation, directly or through intermediaries. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is mathematics, really? Mathematician David Bessis joins me to argue that math isn't about numbers in a Platonic realm or a meaningless game of symbols—it's a cognitive technology for rewiring your brain. We explore why the official definitions of mathematics have been unresolved for 2,300 years, why understanding something means finding it obvious, and how the gap between a beginner and Terence Tao looks less like genetic destiny and more like compound interest on intuition. When asked what mathematics fundamentally is, his answer cuts through millennia of philosophy: it's what happens in your head when you pretend something is true until it feels real. LINKS MENTIONED: Papers, books, websites: - https://davidbessis.substack.com/ - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YmJL9KwAAAAJ - https://amazon.com/dp/0300283288?tag=toe08-20 - https://davidbessis.substack.com/p/the-magic-of-mathematical-intuition - https://davidbessis.substack.com/p/weve-been-wrong-about-math-for-2300 - https://arxiv.org/abs/math/9404236 - https://amazon.com/dp/0387900926?tag=toe08-20 - https://davidbessis.substack.com/p/the-curious-case-of-broken-theorems - https://mathworld.wolfram.com/FermatsLastTheorem.html - https://xenaproject.wordpress.com/2024/12/11/fermats-last-theorem-how-its-going/ - https://gwern.net/doc/math/1979-hersh.pdf - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_universals - https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/set-theory/zf.html - https://imperialcollegelondon.github.io/FLT/blueprint/ - https://amazon.com/dp/1015393233?tag=toe08-20 - https://annals.math.princeton.edu/2015/181-3/p01 - https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0610778 - https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~bts82/events/homotopyF20/notes/bar-construction-typed.pdf - https://www.edge.org/conversation/reuben_hersh-reuben-hersh-1927-2020 - https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Ramanujan/ - https://amazon.com/dp/1107536510?tag=toe08-20 - https://viennot.org/abjc-lectures.html - https://pdf.sciencedirectassets.com/272332/1-s2.0-S0021869306X06555/1-s2.0-S0021869305006150/main.pdf Videos: - https://youtu.be/tYgiVnQubyw - https://youtu.be/RX1tZv_Nv4Y - https://youtu.be/73IdQGgfxas - https://youtu.be/lhpRAWxvY5s - https://youtu.be/rJz_Badd43c - https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s - https://youtu.be/81sPQGIWEfM - https://youtu.be/wbP0KjWm0pw - https://youtu.be/mTwvecBthpQ - https://youtu.be/_sTDSO74D8Q - https://youtu.be/DeTm4fSXpbM SOCIALS: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs Guests do not pay to appear. Theories of Everything receives revenue solely from viewer donations, platform ads, and clearly labelled sponsors; no guest or associated entity has ever given compensation, directly or through intermediaries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if gravity is just entropy in disguise? Professor Erik Verlinde joins me to argue that gravity isn't a fundamental force—it's thermodynamic, emerging from quantum information the way gas pressure emerges from molecules bouncing around. We explore why spacetime may be stitched together by entanglement, and how dark energy and dark matter both pop out automatically without extra particles or parameters. Verlinde explains why the cosmological constant problem is a red herring, and why there may be no final theory of physics. When asked where the universe comes from, his answer is one word: chaos. SUPPORT: - Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 JOIN MY SUBSTACK (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Thermodynamic Gravity and Information - 00:06:35 - Beyond Effective Field Theory - 00:13:08 - Turtles All The Way Down - 00:25:41 - Entropy as a Force - 00:36:31 - Entanglement and Spatial Connectivity - 00:47:31 - Deriving Inertia and F=ma - 00:56:41 - De Sitter Space Challenges - 01:02:01 - Dark Matter and Milgram - 01:11:51 - The Emergence of Time - 01:21:01 - Statistical Gravity Fluctuations - 01:27:01 - Quantum Computational Complexity - 01:36:01 - Physics Intuition and Mentorship - 01:47:31 - Beauty, Garbage, and Chaos LINKS MENTIONED: Papers, books, websites: - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Tm64-J0AAAAJ - https://journals.aps.org/prb/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevB.4.3174 - https://arxiv.org/abs/1001.0785 - https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.02269 - https://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.47.777 - https://amazon.com/dp/0486600688?tag=toe08-20 - https://www.nature.com/articles/248030a0 - https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:The_Field_Equations_of_Gravitation - https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9504004 - https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0603001 - https://arxiv.org/abs/1005.3035 - https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0106112 - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1408.3203 - https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.02087 - https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.08255 - https://www.ias.edu/sns/events/iaspctspgi-workshop-quantum-aspects-black-holes-and-spacetime - https://amazon.com/dp/0262533413?tag=toe08-20 Videos: - https://youtu.be/HIoviZe14pY - https://youtu.be/X4PdPnQuwjY - https://youtu.be/xZnafO__IZ0 - https://youtu.be/gEK4-XtMwro - https://youtu.be/-BsHh3_vCMQ - https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8 - https://youtu.be/bprxrGaf0Os - https://youtu.be/zNZCa1pVE20 - https://youtu.be/ZUp9x44N3uE - https://youtu.be/2p_Hlm6aCok - https://youtu.be/kUHOoMX4Bqw - https://youtu.be/_yebLXsIdwo - https://youtu.be/Ve_Mpd6dGv8 - https://youtu.be/0YRlQQw0d-4 - https://youtu.be/Bnh-UNrxYZg - https://youtu.be/hF4SAketEHY - https://youtu.be/Iya6tYN37ow - https://youtu.be/0_Px5gbs9i0 - https://youtu.be/gsSJPLX-BTA - https://youtu.be/73IdQGgfxas - https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if physics is just the universe learning? Most Theories of Everything episodes are mind‑bending for their math, physics, philosophy, or consciousness implications. This one hits all four simultaneously. Professor Vitaly Vanchurin joins me to argue the cosmos isn't just modeled by neural networks—it literally is one. Learning dynamics aren't a metaphor for physics; they are the physics. Vanchurin shows why we need a three‑way unification: quantum mechanics, general relativity, and observers. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - The Neural Network Universe - 00:05:48 - Learning Dynamics as Physics - 00:11:52 - Optimization and Variational Principles - 00:21:17 - Deriving Fundamental Field Equations - 00:28:47 - Fermions and Particle Emergence - 00:37:17 - Geometry of Learning Algorithms - 00:44:53 - Emergent Quantum Mechanics - 00:50:01 - Renormalization and Interpretability - 00:57:00 - Second Law of Learning - 01:05:10 - Subatomic Natural Selection - 01:15:40 - Consciousness and Learning Efficiency - 01:24:09 - Unifying Physics and Observers - 01:31:01 - Qualia and Hidden Variables - 01:40:24 - Free Energy Principle Integration - 01:46:04 - Epistemological Doubt and Advice LINKS MENTIONED: - Vitaly's Papers: https://inspirebeta.net/literature?sort=mostrecent&size=25&page=1&q=find%20author%20vanchurin - Vitaly's Lecture: https://youtu.be/TagDLiLb2VQ - Vitaly's Website: https://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/~vitaly/ - Towards A Theory Of Machine Learning [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2004.09280 - Autonomous Particles [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.10077 - Emergent Field Theories From Neural Networks [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.08138 - Covariant Gradient Descent [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.05279 - A Quantum-Classical Duality And Emergent Spacetime [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.06083 - Emergent Quantumness In Neural Networks [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.05082 - Predictability Crisis In Inflationary Cosmology And Its Resolution [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9905097 - Stationary Measure In The Multiverse [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/0812.0005 - The World As A Neural Network [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2008.01540 - Self-Organized Criticality In Neural Networks [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.03402v1 - One Hundred Authors Against Einstein [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/B09PHH7KC8?tag=toe08-20 - Geocentric Cosmology: A New Look At The Measure Problem [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1006.4148 - Jacob Barandes [TOE]: https://youtu.be/gEK4-XtMwro - Yang-Hui He [TOE]: https://youtu.be/spIquD_mBFk - Eva Miranda [TOE]: https://youtu.be/6XyMepn-AZo - Felix Finster [TOE]: https://youtu.be/fXzO_KAqrh0 - Stephen Wolfram [TOE]: https://youtu.be/FkYer0xP37E - Stephen Wolfram 2 [TOE]: https://youtu.be/0YRlQQw0d-4 - Avshalom Elitzur [TOE]: https://youtu.be/pWRAaimQT1E - Ted Jacobson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8 - Geoffrey Hinton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/b_DUft-BdIE - Wayne Myrvold [TOE]: https://youtu.be/HIoviZe14pY - Cumrun Vafa [TOE]: https://youtu.be/kUHOoMX4Bqw - Claudia De Rham [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Ve_Mpd6dGv8 - Lee Smolin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/uOKOodQXjhc - Consciousness Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/65yjqIDghEk - Matthew Segall [TOE]: https://youtu.be/DeTm4fSXpbM - Andres Emilsson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/BBP8WZpYp0Y - Will Hahn [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3fkg0uTA3qU - David Wallace [TOE]: https://youtu.be/4MjNuJK5RzM - Karl Friston [TOE]: https://youtu.be/uk4NZorRjCo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Ancient Egypt to Leibniz... Brand‑new interview out with Robert Spekkens of the Perimeter Institute, one of the sharpest minds working on quantum foundations. In 2004, he constructed a classical toy theory where your maximum knowledge is always incomplete—and out popped the no-cloning theorem, teleportation, and interference effects Feynman deemed impossible to reproduce classically. Spekkens compares our situation to Egyptian hieroglyphs before Champollion: a category mistake where we treat quantum states as descriptions of reality when they actually describe knowledge of reality. If you’re interested in the topics above, you’ll love this podcast. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe SUPPORT: - Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 JOIN MY SUBSTACK (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Defining Quantum Innovation - 00:06:40 - Realism vs. Empiricism - 00:12:12 - Leibnizian Methodological Principle - 00:23:40 - Causal Explanations of Correlations - 00:30:24 - Epistemic Quantum States - 00:41:00 - Foil Theory Methodology - 00:54:00 - Causal Influence vs. Signaling - 01:07:27 - Thermodynamics and Ignorance - 01:15:00 - Conceptual Understanding in Physics - 01:21:00 - Philosophy of Physics Utility - 01:30:00 - Speckins' Toy Theory Origins - 01:40:13 - Perimeter Institute's Ambitious DNA - 01:52:00 - PBR Theorem Implications - 02:05:40 - Ontic Separability Assumptions - 02:17:40 - Hieroglyphs and Category Mistakes - 02:29:00 - Revolutionizing Modern Physics - 02:37:20 - Unscrambling Causation and Inference LINKS MENTIONED: Journals, papers, books: - https://www.rwspekkens.com - https://pirsa.org/speaker/Robert-Spekkens - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.01122 - https://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0401052 - https://arxiv.org/abs/0706.2661 - https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0406166 - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2207.11779 - https://amazon.com/dp/1108066488?tag=toe08-20 - https://www.jstor.org/stable/687269 - https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-copenhagen/ - https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity-indiscernible/ - https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/specrel.pdf - https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spacetime-holearg/ - https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/mathematics/hidden-variable-theory - https://www.nature.com/articles/299802a0 - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2011.01286 - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02058098 - https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.07161 - https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/maxwells-equation - https://www.einstein-online.info/en/spotlight/equivalence_principle/ - https://perimeterinstitute.ca/ - https://amazon.com/dp/9810241054?tag=toe08-20 - https://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.47.777 - https://arxiv.org/abs/1111.3328 - https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/rosetta-stone-hieroglyphs-champollion-decipherment-egypt-180980834/ - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160932707000282 Videos: - https://youtu.be/gEK4-XtMwro - https://youtu.be/YWbjI-QsH2E - https://youtu.be/fU1bs5o3nss - https://youtu.be/NKOd8imBa2s - https://youtu.be/6I2OhmVWLMs - https://youtu.be/Tghl6aS5A3M - https://youtu.be/HIoviZe14pY - https://youtu.be/bprxrGaf0Os - https://youtu.be/4MjNuJK5RzM - https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s - https://youtu.be/9AoRxtYZrZo - https://youtu.be/uOKOodQXjhc - https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8 - https://youtu.be/gsSJPLX-BTA - https://youtu.be/FFW14zSYiFY - https://youtu.be/HhWWlJFwTqs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices