Olaf Dreyer: This One Number Explains the Beginning

SPONSORS: - Buy your time back. Get 20% off Plaud for Fall Prime Day. For long conversations where every idea matters, Plaud helps you capture what was said and turn it into transcripts, summaries, key insights, and action items — so you can focus on the conversation, not your notes. Get 20% off for a limited time: → http://Plaud.ai/curt — code CURT → https://amzn.to/3Ta04lD — code CURT20PD - Visit https://mod.com for a free consultation and get 10% off your first order PLUS free shipping with promo code TOE Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.com This is a podcast on gravity, from the ringing of black holes to the number 0.04. Olaf Dreyer, a theoretical physicist who did his PhD with Abhay Ashtekar and now works in finance, joins to explain how he thinks spacetime and matter emerged together. We discuss black hole spectroscopy, the test he and his collaborators proposed and LIGO later ran. Olaf found that 0.04 in a condensed matter textbook, the same value as the tilt of the cosmic microwave background. He argues this means our world began in a phase transition, and he sketches a new way to implement the equivalence principle. The conversation also covers Robert Laughlin’s bucket of water, what banking taught Olaf about funding physics, and consciousness. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.com - Twitter: https://x.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord: https://discord.gg/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00 - Ashtekar's Failure Slide - 12:12 - String Theory's Carbon Copies - 19:47 - Don't Kill Ideas Early - 24:51 - Black Hole Spectroscopy Origins - 33:55 - Coherent States Critique - 42:51 - What Counts as Quantum Gravity? - 52:10 - Can AI Truly Create? - 1:02:17 - Consciousness Beyond the Hamiltonian - 1:07:44 - Emergence and the "Little I" - 1:14:16 - Strange Loops and Experience - 1:20:17 - Laughlin's Bucket of Water - 1:27:29 - Cosmological Constant Problem - 1:36:56 - The 0.04 Coincidence - 1:42:26 - Just Numerology? - 1:48:53 - Rethinking the Equivalence Principle - 1:55:38 - Gravity as Gauge Symmetry - 2:05:35 - Don't Be Arrogant About Tools - 2:11:41 - Narrowing Before Collapse - 2:17:34 - How Perimeter Became Normal - 2:23:34 - Next Generation's Burden LINKS: - The World Is Discrete [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1307.6169 - Black Hole Spectroscopy [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0309007 - Quasinormal Modes, the Area Spectrum, and Black Hole Entropy [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0211076 - Olaf's Papers: https://inspirehep.net/authors/1021936 - Principles of Condensed Matter Physics [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0521794501?tag=toe08-20 - A Different Universe [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/046503828X?tag=toe08-20 - AQFT: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/quantum-field-theory/ - LIGO Black Hole Collision Sound: https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/video/ligo20160211v2 - LISA: https://lisa.nasa.gov/ - Lee Samuel Finn: https://web.archive.org/web/20141020034610/http://gwastro.org/us/lee-samuel-finn - Rob Laughlin: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1998/laughlin/facts/ - DESY: https://desy.de/index_eng.html Full reading list for this episode (all 61 sources): https://curtjaimungal.com Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SPONSORS: - Head to https://www.factormeals.com/toe50off and use code toe50off to get 50% off and 1 free breakfast item per box for 1 year. - Get Tidy Today! Try CleanMyMac 7 days FREE and use my code THEORIES for 20% off - https://clnmy.com/THEORIES - Get 15% off OneSkin with the code TOE at https://www.oneskin.co/TOE #oneskinpod Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.com This episode is about what physics says is there when nobody is looking, including time itself. Jim Al-Khalili, theoretical physicist and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Surrey, joins to argue that the arrow of time is fundamental. Entropy increases because the arrow already points that way, and not the other way around. We discuss why he thinks the measurement problem is taught badly. He wants Bohmian mechanics to be right without claiming that it is, since the price is Einstein’s special relativity. He calls the past hypothesis a cheat. The conversation also covers the block universe, where he parts ways with Carlo Rovelli, and why he wants thermodynamics in the search for quantum gravity. I hope you enjoy. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.com - Twitter: https://x.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord: https://discord.gg/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Quantum Measurement Problem - 08:44 - Realist Quantum Interpretations - 18:19 - Scientific Empathy and Explanation - 30:19 - Electron's Ontological State - 41:05 - Minkowski's Block Universe - 51:59 - Flow vs. Arrow of Time - 1:01:01 - Entropy and Past Hypothesis - 1:14:56 - Rovelli and Emergent Time - 1:25:40 - Incomplete vs. Approximate Physics - 1:31:57 - Causal Set Theory LINKS: - Jim Al-Khalili's Website: https://www.jimal-khalili.com/ - On Time [Book]: https://amzn.to/46PNLxK - Jim Al-Khalili's Channel [Video]: https://www.youtube.com/@UnbaffledScience - Quantum Reality Series [Video]: https://youtu.be/sivQ-jbZ2oM - The Decoherent Arrow of Time and the Entanglement Past Hypothesis [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.03418 - Block Theory: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/ - Copenhagen Interpretation: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-copenhagen/ - Many Worlds: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-manyworlds/ - Bohmian Mechanics: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-bohm/ - Bell's Theorem: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bell-theorem/ - Collapse Theories: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-collapse/ - Schrödinger's Cat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat - Loschmidt's Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loschmidt%27s_paradox - Thermodynamic Asymmetry in Time: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time-thermo/ - Space and Time [Paper]: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Space_and_Time - The Strangest Man [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/B002LDM8QS?tag=toe08-20 - Beyond the Quantum [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0198853742?tag=toe08-20 - The Selfish Gene [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/B01GI5F2FS?tag=toe08-20 - Universe Today Article: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/quantum-physicist-takes-aim-at-the-universes-mysterious-arrow-of-time Full reading list for this episode (all 37 sources): https://curtjaimungal.com Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SPONSORS: - Visit https://mod.com for a free consultation and get 10% off your first order PLUS free shipping with promo code TOE - One thing to pack, five ways to power! Get 10% Off @Ridge with code CURT at https://www.Ridge.com/CURT #ridgepod - Take Cheers Restore after your last drink or before going to bed and wake up feeling at least 50% better — or your money back. For a limited time our listeners are getting 20% off their entire order at https://cheershealth.com/TOE. This episode is about relationality — the idea that spacetime isn't a stage but something built out of fields defining each other. Lucrezia Ravera, physicist at the Polytechnic University of Turin, joins to explain the dressing field method she's developing with Jordan François, and why she thinks the manifold itself disappears from the physical picture. We discuss Einstein's hole argument and the point coincidence argument, why gauge symmetry is a feature of physics rather than mere redundancy, and how a system as simple as two particles can act as quantum reference frames for one another. The conversation also covers relational quantum mechanics versus classical relationalism, why time and space variables vanish once you write physics in terms of fields on fields, and what it means to be a "first principle thinker" navigating a hyper-competitive, metrics-driven physics career. I hope you enjoy. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Bundle Differential Geometry - 00:05:31 - Dressing Field Method - 00:10:40 - Einstein’s Point Coincidence Argument - 00:15:45 - Relativity vs. Relationalism - 00:21:00 - Gauge Redundancy vs. Symmetry - 00:26:30 - Relational Quantum Mechanics - 00:33:52 - Gribov-Singer Obstructions - 00:39:00 - Invariant Path Integral Quantization - 00:45:00 - Lorentz Dressing and Locality - 00:52:11 - Ontic Structural Realism - 00:58:00 - LQG vs. String Theory - 01:03:10 - Relational Quantum Field Theory - 01:09:00 - Foundations of QFT - 01:14:40 - AI and Truth-Seeking - 01:20:00 - First Principle Thinking - 01:25:30 - Creativity in Physics LINKS MENTIONED: - Lucrezia's Website: https://lucreziaravera.com/ - Lucrezia's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@R3Fram3D - A Hundred Years Since Quantum Mechanics [Lecture]: https://youtu.be/UE0RKcnNdR0 - On The Geometric Approach To The Boundary Problem In Supergravity [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.01462 - Relational Bundle Geometric Formulation Of Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.02046 - Geometric Relational Framework For General-Relativistic Gauge Field Theories [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.04043 - Lecture Notes On Symmetry Reduction Via The Dressing Field Method [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.29505 - Stueckelberg Action: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stueckelberg_action - The Hole Argument: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spacetime-holearg/ - Mechanics As A General-Relativistic Gauge Field Theory, And Relational Quantization [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.19845 Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SPONSORS: - Nobody likes a call center — ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs fixes that with voice AI that sounds human and works 24/7 in 30+ languages. Try it: https://elevenlabs.io/TOE - Don’t sleep on [@ultrapouches]. New customers get 15% Off with code TOE at http://takeultra.com! #UltraPouches #ad This episode is about how an invisible God comes to feel present to someone who prays. It is not about whether God exists. Tanya Luhrmann, professor of anthropology at Stanford, joins to explain how people come to experience God as real, and why she thinks there are an awful lot of atheists sitting in church pews. We discuss Augustine hearing God speak, why the "spiritual but not religious" category has grown to nearly a third of Americans, why a more lovable, therapeutic God is paradoxically harder to believe in than a demanding one, and how practices like prayer and the Ignatian spiritual exercises make an invisible God feel present. The conversation also covers why religious studies classes (not biology classes) most often unsettle a young believer's faith, and the "liminal" psychological space — the same one that makes a childhood teddy bear feel alive — where Luhrmann argues God actually lives. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Experiencing God as Real - 00:05:32 - William James and "The More" - 00:10:45 - The "Teddy Bear" God - 00:16:00 - Neoplatonic Vibrational Theology - 00:21:40 - Placebo and Hypnotic Focus - 00:27:22 - Charles Taylor’s Secular Age - 00:33:46 - Feynman’s Two Heritages - 00:41:44 - Productive Doubt in Faith - 00:46:50 - Tarski and Belief Hierarchies - 00:55:40 - Apophatic vs. Cataphatic Prayer - 01:00:42 - Paracosms and Ignatian Exercises LINKS MENTIONED: - Tanya Luhrmann's Website: https://www.tanyaluhrmann.com/ - How God Becomes Real [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0691234442?tag=toe08-20 - When God Talks Back [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0307264793?tag=toe08-20 - The Faith Frame [Paper]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327517833_The_Faith_Frame_Or_Belief_is_Easy_Faith_is_Hard - The Varieties Of Religious Experience [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1439297274?tag=toe08-20 - Many Religious 'Nones' Around The World Hold Spiritual Beliefs [Article]: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/09/04/many-religious-nones-around-the-world-hold-spiritual-beliefs/ - The Cultural Kindling Of Spiritual Experiences [Paper]: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/677881 - Sacred Books Of The East: https://archive.org/details/SacredBooksEastVariousOrientalScholarsWithIndex.50VolsMaxMuller/01.SacredBooksEast.VarOrSch.v1v2v3comb.Muller.Buhler.Legge.Oxf.1879.1897./page/n43/mode/2up - A Secular Age [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0674986911?tag=toe08-20 - Two Great Heritages: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman - The Book Of Job: https://www.sefaria.org/Job.1.2 - The Highs And Lows Of Sufi Whirling [Article]: https://www.gqmiddleeast.com/article/the-highs-and-lows-of-sufi-whirling - Say What Your Longing Heart Desires [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1503614247?tag=toe08-20 - Sechit Madra [Trainer]: https://www.instagram.com/sechit_madra/ Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SPONSORS: - Go to https://www.plaud.ai/curt and use the promo code "CURT" to get a Plaud device today - Visit https://mod.com for a free consultation and get 10% off your first order PLUS free shipping with promo code TOE. This is Part Two of the previous lecture with Tim Maudlin (which went obscenely viral). It is the one with Bell's theorem in it. Maudlin traces how David Bohm's reframing of EPR using particle spin opened the door for Bell's 1964 proof, walked through step by step with a simple chart of coin flips: any theory ruling out "spooky action at a distance" must be deterministic, and no such local theory can match quantum mechanics's actual statistics. We cover common misreadings of Bell — that he assumed determinism (he didn't) and that his "free variables" require free will (they don't) — and close with the 1989 GHZ experiment, a cleaner, fully deterministic version of the same proof. Along the way: why Einstein's real objection was locality, not indeterminism, and why Maudlin calls the death of locality the most astonishing proof in the history of physics. Part Three is still to come. Stay tuned. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00 - EPR Completeness Criterion - 05:25 - Einstein’s Reality Criterion - 10:40 - Locality Implies Determinism - 16:20 - Bohm’s Spin Reformulation - 22:40 - Entangled Spin States - 27:40 - Stern-Gerlach and Quantization - 34:40 - Infinite Experimental Orientations - 41:00 - Heisenberg Uncertainty in Spin - 47:15 - The Singlet State Symmetry - 57:40 - Einstein vs. Copenhagen - 01:02:40 - Pilot Wave Theory Ontology - 01:11:30 - Configuration Space vs. Reality - 01:23:40 - Von Neumann’s "Foolish" Proof - 01:31:45 - Eliminating the Observer - 01:41:15 - Kochen-Specker and Contextuality - 01:51:15 - Contrapositive Logic of EPR - 02:03:10 - Offset Angles and Statistics - 02:14:00 - Bell’s Mathematical Impossibility - 02:20:00 - The 75% Disagreement Proof - 02:31:00 - Many Worlds Non-Locality - 02:37:15 - Statistical Independence Assumption - 02:42:50 - Free Will Red Herring - 02:54:40 - GHZ Three-Particle Entanglement - 03:03:30 - Mermin’s Cocktail Napkin Proof - 03:11:30 - Superdeterminism and Matrix Loopholes LINKS MENTIONED: - Tim Maudlin [Part 1]: https://youtu.be/9R0wrBpafYI - Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete? [Paper]: https://www.drchinese.com/David/EPR.pdf - A Suggested Interpretation of the Quantum Theory in Terms of "Hidden" Variables [Paper]: https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.85.166 - On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox [Paper]: https://journals.aps.org/ppf/pdf/10.1103/PhysicsPhysiqueFizika.1.195 - Bertlmann's Socks [Paper]: https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~pbarfuss/Bertlmann'sSocks.pdf - Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0691028931?tag=toe08-20 - Quantum Theory [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0486659690?tag=toe08-20 - A Simple Proof of the Kochen-Specker Theorem [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/0801.4931 More links at https://curtjaimungal.com Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SPONSORS: - Visit https://mod.com for a free consultation and get 10% off your first order PLUS free shipping with promo code TOE. There are three questions people ask about consciousness: what it is, how to explain it, and how to measure it. This episode is entirely the third one. Adrian Owen, professor of cognitive neuroscience at Western University, joins to explain how he detects consciousness in patients thought to be completely unaware — and why he believes thousands have been "hiding in plain sight" for decades. Owen walks through the landmark case that started it all: asking a non-responsive patient to imagine playing tennis, and watching her brain light up like a healthy person's. We discuss the differences between coma, vegetative state, minimally conscious state, and locked-in syndrome, and what recovered patients have reported about their experience — including one man whose memories were sharper than his doctor's. The conversation covers how movies like Taken are used to detect awareness through brain synchronization, why negative results can never prove someone is unconscious, and the ethics of asking a locked-in patient if they want to keep living. This is an in-depth conversation with Adrian Owen. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Trapped Consciousness Detection - 00:05:15 - Total Locked-in Syndrome - 00:10:40 - Wakefulness Without Awareness - 00:15:45 - The fMRI Tennis Test - 00:21:00 - Decoding Neural Intent - 00:26:30 - Mapping the Grey Zone - 00:32:00 - Non-Responsive Patient Lucidity - 00:37:30 - Life-Support Ethical Dilemmas - 00:43:00 - Brain-Computer Interface Futures - 00:48:30 - Hijacking Consciousness via Narrative - 00:54:00 - The Liam Neeson Test - 00:59:30 - Thalamocortical Pathway Disruption - 01:05:00 - Deep Brain Stimulation Potential - 01:10:30 - Anesthetic Awareness Dangers - 01:16:00 - AI and Language Lures - 01:21:30 - IIT Pseudoscience Controversy LINKS MENTIONED: - The Owen Lab: https://owenlab.org/ - Think Before You Think [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1324075163?tag=toe08-20 - Into The Gray Zone [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1501135201?tag=toe08-20 - Into The Gray Zone [Lecture]: https://youtu.be/01_ECXZK9dA - Detecting Awareness In The Vegetative State [Paper]: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1130197 - Cortical Processing In Persistent Vegetative State [Paper]: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)77805-3/abstract - Response To 'Minimally Conscious State Or Cortically Mediated State?' [Paper]: https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/141/4/e26/4838964 - Risk, Diagnostic Error, And The Clinical Science Of Consciousness [Paper]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25844313/ - A Common Neural Code For Similar Conscious Experiences In Different Individuals [Paper]: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1407007111 - Locked-In Syndrome: https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/locked-syndrome - Early Identification Of Recovery Potential After Acute Brain Injury Using Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy [Paper]: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12028-026-02605-0 Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SPONSORS: - Take Cheers Restore after your last drink or before going to bed and wake up feeling at least 50% better — or your money back. For a limited time our listeners are getting 20% off their entire order at https://cheershealth.com/TOE Peter Godfrey-Smith, professor at the University of Sydney and author of Other Minds: The Octopus and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, joins to explain why he thinks meeting an octopus is the closest we'll get to meeting an alien. He's now developing a new, speculative theory of consciousness centered on rhythm. The conversation explores why he thinks "having a mind" is a graded property rather than a yes-or-no one — and what that implies for earthworms, bacteria, and plants. We discuss how many selves may exist inside a single octopus. Godfrey-Smith explains why he suspects rhythmic, large-scale electrical activity in the brain — not just point-to-point neural firing — is essential to consciousness. He also addresses what Anthropic's discovery of a "workspace" inside Claude does and doesn't show, and why he assigns computers a very low probability of being conscious. Finally, he makes the case for why a silicon neuron could never do "exactly" what a biological one does. This is an in-depth conversation with Peter Godfrey-Smith. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Cephalopods: The Closest Aliens - 00:05:30 - Defining the Unconscious Mind - 00:10:40 - Selfhood vs. Information Processing - 00:16:10 - The Graded Nature of Mind - 00:22:15 - Deflating the Concept of Life - 00:29:00 - Convergent Evolution of Intelligence - 00:35:40 - Distributed Neural Control Systems - 00:42:50 - Multiple Subjects in One Body? - 00:48:40 - Global Workspace Theory Critique - 00:56:10 - AI and the Conscious Workspace - 01:01:28 - Simulation Hypothesis Probabilities - 01:08:40 - Biological Hardware Constraints - 01:16:10 - Rhythmic Consciousness Theory - 01:22:30 - Mind Uploading and Silicon Neurons - 01:31:00 - Neural Dynamics of Subjectivity - 01:37:00 - Deep Ocean Intelligence LINKS MENTIONED: - Other Minds [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0374227764?tag=toe08-20 - Peter's Website: https://petergodfreysmith.com/ - Reality+ [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0393635805?tag=toe08-20 - A Materialist Theory of the Mind [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0415100313?tag=toe08-20 - Rodolfo Llinas: https://med.nyu.edu/faculty/rodolfo-llinas - Bruno's Research: https://qbi.uq.edu.au/groups/vanswinderen - Dehaene's Commentary on Language Models [Paper]: https://www-cdn.anthropic.com/files/4zrzovbb/website/cc4be2488d65e54a6ed06492f8968398ddc18ebe.pdf - A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness [Book]: http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Abstracts/Baars_88.html - Oscillations in the Central Brain of Drosophila Are Phase Locked to Attended Visual Features [Paper]: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2010749117 - The ENCODE Project: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/genomics/encode-project.html - What Is It Like to Be a Bat? [Paper]: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Nagel_Bat.pdf More links at https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ten days after winning the Fields Medal — math's highest honor — Jacob Tsimerman joins to explain why he's leaving academia temporarily for OpenAI's AI safety team, and why he's grieving even as he does it. The conversation covers why math is one of the first fields being radically reshaped by AI, whether a proof still counts if no one can understand it, what mathematical "understanding" really means, the ethics of elite access to frontier models, his disagreements with the Leiden Declaration, and his advice for young people weighing a career in pure math in an age of rapidly advancing AI. This is an exclusive first podcast with Jacob Tsimerman. 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://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Fields Medal and Grieving - 00:05:38 - Canonical Human Cognition Patterns - 00:10:40 - Prompting the Mathematical Future - 00:15:40 - Pure Math and Physics Loops - 00:21:00 - Epistemic Black Boxes - 00:26:00 - Rigor Outgrowing Intuition - 00:31:20 - Cognitive Mechanics of Understanding - 00:37:00 - Gödel and Working Memory - 00:42:10 - Mathematics as Improvised Art - 00:47:30 - AI Power and Meritocracy - 00:52:50 - Math on the Chopping Block - 00:58:20 - Unrestricted Optimization Risks - 01:03:40 - AI Safety Manhattan Project - 01:08:50 - Training for Post-AI Careers - 01:14:10 - The Managerial Shift - 01:19:40 - Cognitive Offloading and Adaptation LINKS MENTIONED: - Jacob's Website: https://www.math.utoronto.ca/~jacobt/ - Jacob's Publications: https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Jacob-Tsimerman/3130599 - Quanta's Story On Jacob [Article]: https://www.quantamagazine.org/jacob-tsimerman-wins-2026-fields-medal-for-andre-oort-conjecture-proof-20260723/ - André-Oort Conjecture: https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/202410/rnoti-p1307.pdf - Canonical Heights On Shimura Varieties And The André-Oort Conjecture [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.08788 - O-Minimal GAGA And A Conjecture Of Griffiths [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1811.12230 - Ten Advances In Mathematics And Theoretical Computer Science: https://openai.com/index/ten-advances-in-mathematics/ - Thoughts About The Leiden Declaration: https://gowers.wordpress.com/2026/07/26/thoughts-about-the-leiden-declaration/ - Tobias Osborne LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tobias-osborne-601830a5_farewell-to-the-conjecture-prover-several-share-7487777959299276800-mxsa/ - Math For AI Safety: https://mathforaisafety.org/ - Charles Fefferman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fefferman - G-Functions, Motives, And Unlikely Intersections [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.09867 - Tobias Osborne's QFT Lectures: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDfPUNusx1EpRs-wku83aqYSKfR5fFmfS - AISI Website: https://www.aisi.gov.uk/ - Sebastian Jaimungal: https://sebastian.statistics.utoronto.ca/ - Edward Frenkel [TOE]: https://youtu.be/RX1tZv_Nv4Y - Roger Penrose [TOE]: https://youtu.be/iO03t21xhdk More links at https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SPONSORS: - Nobody likes a call center — ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs fixes that with voice AI that sounds human and works 24/7 in 30+ languages. Try it: elevenlabs.io/TOE This podcast explores the uncanny link between two of the twentieth century's great visionary works. Becca Tarnas, assistant professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, joins to discuss her doctoral research into the parallels between Carl Jung's Red Book and J.R.R. Tolkien's lesser-known visionary writings. The central claim: working independently, both men produced strikingly similar imagery, timing, and figures — Jung's Philemon and Tolkien's Gandalf, the Eye of the Evil One and the Eye of Sauron — while each insisted their material felt discovered rather than invented. From there the conversation moves through active imagination, the reality of archetypes, psyche versus mind, and the line between mystical insight and psychosis — a wide-ranging look at where imagination ends and reality begins. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Jung and Tolkien's Red Books - 00:05:42 - Archetypal Rhymes and Parallels - 00:11:26 - Defining the Imaginal Realm - 00:16:38 - Active Imagination vs. Dreaming - 00:22:00 - Active Imagination Protocol - 00:27:00 - Psyche’s Spontaneous Expression - 00:33:57 - Ontology of Imaginal Figures - 00:39:03 - Psychologizing vs. Mythologizing - 00:45:57 - Planetary Archetypes Experience - 00:51:34 - Perceiving Universal Beauty - 00:58:23 - Universal vs. Objective Reality - 01:04:00 - Psychosis vs. Gnosis - 01:09:00 - Grounding the Visionary - 01:15:00 - Symbolic Language of Madness - 01:21:00 - Unearned Wisdom and Psychedelics - 01:26:30 - Motherhood as Expanded State - 01:33:57 - Meaning in Disconnection - 01:40:56 - Intuition in Science - 01:46:55 - Leonardo’s Light and Shade LINKS MENTIONED: - Journey To The Imaginal Realm [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1947544217?tag=toe08-20 - Participatory Imagination [Lecture]: https://beccatarnas.com/2020/08/28/jungs-participatory-imagination/ - Becca's PhD Defense: https://youtu.be/3soOYajHUBM - The Red Book [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0393089088?tag=toe08-20 - The Holy Grail Of The Unconscious [Article]: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/magazine/20jung-t.html - Active Imagination: https://jungiancenter.org/jung-on-active-imagination-features-methods-and-warnings/ - Jung On Active Imagination [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0691015767?tag=toe08-20 - Richard Tarnas's Website: https://cosmosandpsyche.com/ - The Passion Of The Western Mind [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0345368096?tag=toe08-20 - Psychological Types [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1614279705?tag=toe08-20 - The Fellowship Of The Ring [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0547928211?tag=toe08-20 - Kant's 'Categories': https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant/ - The Imaginary And The Imaginal [Paper]: http://www.bahaistudies.net/asma/mundus_imaginalis.pdf - Toni Wolff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Wolff - The Call Of Cthulhu [Book]: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a careful lecture that can be followed with zero background knowledge. Einstein thought he'd caught quantum mechanics in an act of spookiness — this podcast asks whether he was even worried about the right thing. Tim Maudlin, professor of philosophy at NYU and a leading philosopher of physics, delivers a rare full lecture tracing Einstein, EPR, and the road to Bell's theorem. The central claim: Einstein's real objection was never determinism — "God does not play dice" is a red herring — but non-locality, which he inferred rather than assumed. Maudlin traces the argument from Einstein's overlooked 1927 Solvay objection through the EPR paper's criterion of reality, showing why Bohr's famous reply never actually answered it. FOLLOW: - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt - Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE - PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE TIMESTAMPS: - 00:00:00 - Einstein's Quantization Hypothesis - 00:07:20 - Photoelectric Effect Implications - 00:12:30 - Wave-Particle Duality Myths - 00:20:40 - De Broglie's Matter Waves - 00:26:40 - Copenhagen's Completeness Doctrine - 00:34:10 - Solvay 1927: Two Conceptions - 00:41:20 - Pinhole Diffraction Problem - 00:48:00 - Collapse and Relativity Violations - 00:56:00 - Epistemic vs. Ontic Collapse - 01:05:00 - Ontological vs. Dynamical Locality - 01:14:00 - Configuration Space Objections - 01:25:00 - EPR's Criterion of Reality - 01:32:40 - Analyzing the Reality Criterion - 01:40:50 - Causal Isolation and Locality - 01:48:45 - Entangled Momentum Eigenstates - 01:56:45 - Logical Core of EPR - 02:04:40 - Position-Momentum Simultaneous Reality - 02:14:00 - Inferring Determinism from Locality - 02:26:30 - Conservation Laws and Information - 02:37:40 - Counterfactual Definiteness Debunked - 02:44:00 - Bohr's Incoherent Response - 02:52:00 - Schrödinger's Entanglement Confession LINKS MENTIONED: - Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1444331272?tag=toe08-20 - On a Heuristic Point of View About the Creation and Conversion of Light [Paper]: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/lectures/Rotman_Summer_School_2013/Einstein_1905_docs/Einstein_Light_Quantum_WikiSource.pdf - The Ghost in the Atom [Paper]: https://vdoc.pub/download/the-ghost-in-the-atom-a-discussion-of-the-mysteries-of-quantum-physics-1guq071e2ukg - Collected Papers on Wave Mechanics [Paper]: https://mwolf.pracownicy.uksw.edu.pl/MK/Schrodinger_Collected_Papers_on_Wave_Mechanics.pdf - Quantum Theory at the Crossroads [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0521814219?tag=toe08-20 - Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete? [Paper]: https://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.47.777 - Bohr's EPR Critique [Paper]: https://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.48.696 - The Present Situation in Quantum Mechanics [Paper]: https://personal.lse.ac.uk/robert49/teaching/partiii/pdf/SchroedingerPresentSituation1935(1980trans).pdf - Bertlmann's Socks and the Nature of Reality [Paper]: https://cds.cern.ch/record/142461/files/198009299.pdf - On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox [Paper]: https://journals.aps.org/ppf/pdf/10.1103/PhysicsPhysiqueFizika.1.195 Guests do not pay to appear. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices