Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

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369 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud

  1. Scott Aaronson: “I Heard That a Robot Solved the Math Problem You Worked On”

    26 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 30 min

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    This episode is about math after AI started solving its open problems. Scott Aaronson, director of the Quantum Information Center at UT Austin, joins to explain why there is no making this go away. We discuss who gets credit for AI proofs, what is left for PhD students, and OpenAI’s apparent proof of the unique games conjecture. His wife, the complexity theorist Dana Moshkovitz, has worked on that conjecture since they met. The conversation also covers whether a lab that proved P equals NP should release it, and how AI overturned a conjecture he and Greg Kuperberg posed, with consequences for black hole firewalls. We end with Maxwell’s demon and why he thinks integrated information theory is wrong.

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    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00 - AI Solved the Unique Games Conjecture
    - 06:01 - Is Math About Understanding?
    - 14:26 - OpenAI vs. Anthropic Disclosure
    - 21:21 - Who Gets Credit for AI Proofs?
    - 26:46 - Mourning the Mathematician
    - 35:39 - The AI Denialism Problem
    - 41:31 - Association for Human Mathematics
    - 47:24 - If AI Proves P = NP
    - 52:53 - Is Physics Next?
    - 58:51 - Unitary Synthesis Problem Solved
    - 01:04:30 - Black Hole Firewalls & P vs PSPACE
    - 01:15:41 - Maxwell's Demon & Pseudo-Entropy
    - 01:22:32 - Why IIT I…

  2. Hirosi Ooguri: Could AI Find Physics We Can’t Understand?

    19 oktober 2026 · 2 uur 10 min

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    This is a podcast about whether AI could discover the laws of physics before we do. Hirosi Ooguri, chair of Caltech’s Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, joins for his first English podcast to explain why AI has moved faster in mathematics than in physics. He fears it could solve physics in a way we cannot understand. We discuss why quantum field theory lacks a firm mathematical foundation, quantum gravity as the “final boss,” the swampland distance conjecture he proposed with Cumrun Vafa, and his estimate that, left to humans, verifying string theory could take 2,250 years. The conversation also covers the PhD thesis numbers that turned up in a Mathieu group table twenty years later. What an honor.

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    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00 - Measuring Earth in Fifth Grade
    - 06:58 - Why Physics, Not Platonic Math?
    - 12:34 - Nothing Below the Planck Length?
    - 23:15 - Why AI Can't Verify Physics
    - 30:47 - Yang-Mills: Hardest Millennium Problem
    - 36:31 - Why QFT Resists Rigor
    - 46:19 - What If Yang-Mills Fails?
    - 52:35 - Are LLMs Just Grad Students?
    - 01:01:09 - Swampland and AdS/CFT
    - 01:12:57 - Gravity Breaks Wilson's Paradigm
    - 01:21:45 - Will AI Surpass Physicists?
    - 01:26:58 - 2,250 Years to Verify Strings?
    - 01:34:03 - Is String Theory Disappointing?
    - 01:40:27 - Distance Conjecture and Inflation
    - 01:46:24 - Mathieu Moonshine Discovery
    - 01:52:59 - What Would Make Him Quit Strings?
    - 02:02:28 - Days of Blank Paper

    LI…

  3. Philip Mannheim: Dark Matter and General Relativity Explained FROM SCRATCH

    12 oktober 2026 · 2 uur 17 min

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    This is Part One of a lecture where, as with Tim Maudlin, the professor was given unlimited time, so you can pause and check the derivations yourself. Philip Mannheim, professor of physics at the University of Connecticut, joins to explain why he traces dark matter, dark energy and quantum gravity to one cause: stretching Newton and Einstein beyond the solar system. We discuss the planet Vulcan that was never there, why dwarf galaxies are a bigger clue than spirals, the Tully-Fisher relation, and his fits to 138 galaxies with no dark matter. The conversation also covers general relativity from scratch, from metrics to the Riemann tensor, and whether Einstein’s equations are unique. Part Two is still to come.

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    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00 - Three Dark Problems, One Cause?
    - 08:31 - The 120-Order Cosmological Catastrophe
    - 13:17 - Newton, Kepler, and Ptolemy
    - 21:29 - Mercury's Anomalous Precession
    - 27:20 - Neptune Found, Vulcan Vanished
    - 34:12 - Galactic Rotation Curves
    - 40:00 - Dwarf Galaxies Break Universality
    - 45:48 - Where Are the WIMPs?
    - 52:00 - Tully-Fisher: Galaxies Know
    - 58:06 - Four Parameters, 138 Galaxies
    - 01:06:00 - Milgrom's Law and the RAR
    - 01:12:10 - Fourth-Order Poisson Equation
    - 01:20:28 - Missing Mass in Plain Sig…

  4. Jonathan Gorard: The Physicist Revolutionizing Physics With AI

    5 oktober 2026 · 2 uur 14 min

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    Math has a proof checker. Can physics get one? Jonathan Gorard, an applied mathematician and the cofounder and CEO of Lanyon AI, joins to explain why AI took off in math and coding but not yet in physics. We discuss an AI finishing the formal check of a Fields Medal proof and why it scared him, why he thinks “I detected a particle” rests on 20 to 50 levels of theory, and what Alan Turing’s PhD student Robin Gandy tried to build for physics. The conversation also covers his push to make physics executable, why he thinks mysteries are artifacts of description languages, and whether there is still a place for the physicist.

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    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00 - The Sphere Packing Shock
    - 05:53 - Science as Product vs Process
    - 11:20 - Is Science Just Hedonism?
    - 20:56 - Why Academics Ignored AI
    - 31:54 - Why Leave Princeton?
    - 39:56 - Turing's Student and Physics Formalization
    - 44:56 - Theory-Ladenness of Observation
    - 50:22 - Why Math Isn't Enough
    - 58:19 - Sapir-Whorf for AI
    - 01:05:49 - Filtering the Paper Deluge
    - 01:12:07 - Can AI Transmit Understanding?
    - 01:19:38 - Human-Readable AI Reasoning
    - 01:25:59 - Must AI Be Embodied?
    - 01:31:50 - Mysteries Are Description Language Artifacts
    - 01:41:54 - Grieving Physics
    - 01:49:59 - What's Left for Physicists?
    - 01:55:18 - The Next Description Language
    - 02:02:26 - Spacetime Discreteness and Beacons

    LINKS:
    - Jonathan Gorard [Wolfram Physics Project]: https://www.wolframphysics.org/pages/people/jonathan-gorard/
    - Lanyon AI: https:…

  5. Olaf Dreyer: This One Number Explains the Beginning

    28 september 2026 · 2 uur 32 min

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    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.

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    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…

  6. Jim Al-Khalili: The (Unsettling) Reason Time Only Runs One Way

    21 september 2026 · 1 uur 47 min

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    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.

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    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…

  7. She Says Spacetime Points Are Just Where Fields Meet

    14 september 2026 · 1 uur 33 min

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    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.

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    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 Obstru…

  8. Tanya Luhrmann: The Experience Is Real. But Is God?

    7 september 2026 · 1 uur 9 min

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    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.

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    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:…

  9. Tim Maudlin: Quantum Nonlocality Explained FROM SCRATCH

    31 augustus 2026 · 3 uur 19 min

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    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.

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    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
    - …

  10. Adrian Owen: Awake. Aware. Unable to Move.

    24 augustus 2026 · 1 uur 33 min

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    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.

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    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…

  11. Peter Godfrey-Smith: This Scientist Found Earth’s “Alien” Minds

    17 augustus 2026 · 1 uur 48 min

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    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.

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    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 Worksp…

  12. Jacob Tsimerman: The Last Generation of Mathematicians

    10 augustus 2026 · 1 uur 31 min

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    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. Lees meer

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    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/
    - And…

  13. Becca Tarnas: The Unsettling Link Between Jung’s Red Book and Tolkien

    3 augustus 2026 · 1 uur 54 min

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    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.

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    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…

  14. Tim Maudlin: Quantum Mechanics Explained FROM SCRATCH

    27 juli 2026 · 3 uur 3 min

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    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. Lees meer

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    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…

  15. Emily Adlam & David Wallace: The Quantum Interpretation That Divides Physicists

    20 juli 2026 · 1 uur 16 min

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    This is a podcast all about parallel universes, and whether we have any right to believe in them. David Wallace, professor of philosophy of science at the University of Pittsburgh and a leading defender of the Many Worlds Interpretation, joins Professor Emily Adlam, his former student, for a rare joint conversation. The central fault line: Adlam argues no one living inside a many-worlds universe could ever rationally confirm the theory describing it, since Everettian probability may undermine the evidence used to support quantum mechanics itself. Wallace disagrees, but takes the challenge seriously. From there they range across the nature of the wave function, relational quantum mechanics, QBism, and scientific intersubjectivity — two sharp, collegial minds disagreeing productively about what kind of universe we actually live in.

    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - Wave Function Ontology
    - 00:05:35 - Everettian Probability Problem
    - 00:11:45 - Relational Quantum Mechanics Limits
    - 00:19:15 - Quantum Gravity Frameworks
    - 00:24:50 - Subsystem Decomposition Approximations
    - 00:31:10 - Testing Wavefunction Collapse
    - 00:38:35 - Scientific Intersubjectivity Crisis
    - 00:47:55 - Many Worlds Rationality Constraints
    - 00:58:50 - QBism and Physical Reality
    - 01:05:05 - Conservative Philosophy of Physics

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Emily Adlam's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RlTqjZMAAAAJ
    - David Wallace's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Z35CeHAAAAAJ
    - Pointer Basis Of Quantum Apparatus [Paper]: https://libertadacademica.com/Cuantica/ModernaHist/Zurek%20b.pdf
    - Information Is Physical [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.13342
    - Relative Information, Relative Facts [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.11349
    - What Kind Of Relationality Does Quantum Mechanics Exhibit? [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06991
    - Models Of Wave-Function Collapse, Underlying The…

  16. Ginestra Bianconi: The Physicist Who (Unexpectedly) Derived Gravity From Entropy

    13 juli 2026 · 59 min

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    Ginestra Bianconi thinks gravity can be derived from entropy — and that gravity itself is fundamentally anti-reductionistic, since it's about geometry rather than isolated particle interactions. In this episode, the network-topologist-turned-gravity-theorist explains her "Gravity from Entropy" action, which treats matter and geometry symmetrically through a geometric quantum relative entropy (not the horizon entropy of Verlinde or Jacobson). She details why it reduces to Einstein's equations at low energy while predicting a dynamical, always-positive dark energy term (the "G field"), how it may avoid black hole singularities and reproduce the area law without invoking holography, and why she believes understanding the brain may be harder than understanding quantum gravity. We close with her advice for young researchers. I hope you enjoy. Lees meer

    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00 - Information Content of Geometry
    - 07:38 - Geometric Quantum Relative Entropy
    - 15:58 - Geometrizing the Matter Field
    - 23:45 - Emergent Dark Energy
    - 30:12 - Statistical Mechanics vs Thermodynamics
    - 37:59 - Structure and Dynamics Interplay
    - 45:20 - Holography and Area Law
    - 51:23 - Interdisciplinary Research Vision

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    Ginestra's Webpage: https://webspace.maths.qmul.ac.uk/g.bianconi/
    Ginestra's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ycQXwWgAAAAJ
    Gravity from Entropy [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.14391
    Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0393319911?tag=toe08-20
    The Thermodynamics of the Gravity from Entropy Theory [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.22545
    Notes on Some Entanglement Properties of Quantum Field Theory [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.04993
    Inflation from Entropy [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.23987
    Thermodynamics of Spacetime: The Einstein Equation of State [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9504004
    More Is Different [Paper]: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.177.4047.393
    Information, Physics, Quantum [Paper]: ht…

  17. Curt Jaimungal: Reality Is Bloody Terrifying

    8 juli 2026 · 9 min

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    What does it mean to investigate the "nature of reality"? In this episode, we break down the term across philosophy, physics, mathematics, cognitive science, and theology: exploring questions of metaphysics, fundamentality, reductionism, and grounding. We also touch on a conversation with Slavoj Žižek and why the question of why the universe follows laws at all may be the deepest question of all. Plus: why art belongs in this conversation, and why "fundamental" doesn't mean what most people think it means. Lees meer

    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00 - Metaphysical Foundations
    - 02:51 - Fundamentality vs. Reductionism
    - 05:12 - Phenomenology and Art
    - 07:14 - Münchhausen’s Trilemma (Curt's topological interpretation)

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Quantum Healing [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0553348698?tag=toe08-20
    - Realism [Paper]: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20115760
    - Mean, Means and Meaning [Article]: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/mean-means-and-meaning
    - Harvey Friedman [TOE]: https://youtu.be/gx3uKT1qJvY
    - The Reverse Elephant [TOE]: https://youtu.be/q2Zgp2EhSk8
    - Slavoj Žižek [TOE]: https://youtu.be/ZLVxfmfds38
    - John Norton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Tghl6aS5A3M
    - Most Abused Theorem in Math [TOE]: https://youtu.be/OH-ybecvuEo
    - Münchhausen Trilemma: https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/M%C3%BCnchhausen+trilemma
    - Know Time Interviews Curt: https://youtu.be/K_jCtpQgqB0

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  18. Philip Mannheim: No Big Bang. No Inflation. No Dark Matter.

    6 juli 2026 · 2 uur 36 min

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    This podcast is about dark matter — and Professor Philip Mannheim thinks it isn't missing at all, just hiding in plain sight as the rest of the visible universe. In his first-ever podcast, on ideas he's pursued since 1972, Mannheim lays out conformal gravity: a theory built on Weyl symmetry rather than Einstein's equations, which explains galaxy rotation curves without dark matter, tames the cosmological constant, and fits the accelerating universe without fine-tuning. With longtime collaborator Carl Bender, he also resolves gravity's infamous "ghost" problem using PT symmetry instead of Hermiticity — suggesting the graviton may not even exist as a particle. I hope you enjoy.

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    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - Einstein's Relativity Foundations
    - 00:05:47 - Riemann Tensor and Curvature
    - 00:11:50 - Flaws in Einstein's Equations
    - 00:17:23 - Quantum Gravity Renormalizability
    - 00:23:28 - Conformal Symmetry Principles
    - 00:30:09 - Dynamical Mass Generation
    - 00:37:08 - Inflation and Horizon Problems
    - 00:43:55 - Renormalization Group Fixed Points
    - 00:51:05 - Composite Higgs Solution
    - 00:57:03 - Weyl Tensor Action
    - 01:03:44 - Solving Dark Matter
    - 01:09:36 - Cosmic Coincidence Problem
    - 01:16:27 - Hubble Tension and Redshift
    - 01:24:31 - PT Symmetry and Ghosts
    - 01:31:21 - Probability Conservation vs. Hermiticity
    - 01:38:13 - CPT Theorem and Fermions
    - 01:45:14 - Quantum Decays and Resonances
    - 01:51:05 - Parity and Right-Handed Neutrinos
    - 01:56:14 - Gravitons and Wa…

  19. Curt Jaimungal: What is Existence, Exactly?

    1 juli 2026 · 23 min

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    Does Batman exist? Not really—but proving he doesn't turns out to be a logical minefield. This episode tackles negative existentials: why saying "X doesn't exist" seems to require referring to X in the first place. We trace the debate from Russell's theory of descriptions, through Kripke's devastating critique in Naming and Necessity, to Meinong's radical claim that non-existent objects still populate our domain of discourse. Plus: null pointer exceptions as computer science's Meinongianism, why AI struggles with fictional facts, and why three competing theories—descriptivism, Meinongianism, and abstract realism—each come with a steep philosophical price tag. I hope you enjoy. Lees meer

    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00 - The Batman Paradox
    - 03:26 - Russell’s Theory of Descriptions
    - 06:36 - Kripke’s Rigid Designators
    - 09:44 - Meinongian Domain Quantification
    - 12:45 - Nuclear and Extra-Nuclear Properties
    - 15:50 - Modal Descriptivism and AI
    - 18:54 - Presentism and Temporal Ontology

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Diana Pasulka [TOE]: https://youtu.be/E5MuTHUbMUs
    - Why I Don't Buy The Simulation Hypothesis [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3_lBPMc6JRY
    - Elan Barenholtz [TOE]: https://youtu.be/A36OumnSrWY
    - Naming And Necessity [Book]: https://neuroself.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/naming-and-necessity-full-text.pdf
    - Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0486404455?tag=toe08-20
    - Critique Of Pure Reason [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0140447474?tag=toe08-20
    - The Interpretations Of Quantum Mechanics In 5 Minutes [Article]: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/the-interpretations-of-quantum-mechanics
    - Alexius Meinong: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/meinong/
    - On Denoting [Paper]: https://www.uvm.edu/~lderosse/courses/lang/Russell(1905).pdf
    - Graham Priest [TOE]: https://youtu.be/ZGOMmGK4eeY
    - Nonexistent Objects [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0300024045?tag=toe08-20
    - Abstract Objects [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/9027714746?tag=toe08-20
    - Noam Chomsky [TOE]: https://yo…

  20. Simon Saunders: The Unsettling Mysteries of Time

    29 juni 2026 · 1 uur 46 min

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    This is a podcast all about time: depending on how you look at it, that's either unnerving or exhilarating. Professor Simon Saunders — Emeritus Fellow at Merton College, Oxford, and one of the most celebrated philosophers of physics alive — goes deep on what time actually is, why special relativity demands a block universe, and what any of this has to do with the Many Worlds Interpretation. Why doesn't space inherit the paradoxes of time? What's really missing from the block universe picture (and is it the same thing missing from quantum probability?) Saunders argues that Bell inequality violations aren't evidence against locality but evidence for Many Worlds, presents a novel derivation of the Born rule from a single physical postulate, and sketches a quantum version of Leibniz's monadology as a possible path through the mind-body problem. I hope you enjoy.

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    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - Defining Temporal Passage
    - 00:05:03 - Block Universe and Relativity
    - 00:11:15 - The Timeless Viewpoint
    - 00:18:07 - CMB and Global Time
    - 00:23:19 - Persistence and Spatial Revisitability
    - 00:31:02 - Philosophy of Physics Foundations
    - 00:38:46 - Relativistic Localization Problems
    - 00:49:22 - Reeh-Schlieder and Vacuum States
    - 00:55:23 - Branching and Actuality
    - 01:05:41 - Interval Probabilities and Frequentism
    - 01:14:14 - Decoherent Histories Interpretation
    - 01:25:49 - Ontic Structural Realism
    - 01:32:15 - Deriving the Born Rule
    - 01:38:02 - Leibnizian Quantum Monad…

  21. Neil Turok: A Route to Quantum Gravity (Without Strings)

    22 juni 2026 · 1 uur 55 min

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    This is a breaking podcast. We're premiering a new paradigm for quantizing 4D gravity here first, without strings. Neil Turok — inaugural Higgs Chair at Edinburgh, former director of Perimeter Institute, and 2026 Fellow of the Royal Society — believes quantum gravity may not require strings, extra dimensions, or a multiverse. The key: a 1970s theory called quadratic gravity, long abandoned over two seemingly fatal problems. Turok and Bateman argue both problems dissolve — one by reinterpreting a classical instability as ordinary gravitational expansion, the other by a subtle tweak to the Born rule that allows quantum states of negative norm without ever producing negative probabilities. One quiet assumption, Turok argues, underpins decades of string theory's necessity. Drop it, and the whole case for a multiverse unravels. Neil graciously gave me a sneak peek at his and his PhD student Sam Bateman's new research. Bleeding edge! I hope you enjoy.

    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - Quadratic Gravity Emergence
    - 00:05:03 - Renormalization and Asymptotic Freedom
    - 00:10:57 - Ghosts and Krein Spaces
    - 00:16:00 - Generalizing the Born Rule
    - 00:23:27 - Ostrogradsky Instability Reinterpreted
    - 00:31:29 - UV Completeness and QCD
    - 00:38:21 - Higgs Compositeness and Hierarchy
    - 00:43:58 - CPT Symmetric Universe Minimalism
    - 00:52:54 - The 36 Fields Mystery
    - 01:00:10 - Orthodoxy vs. Revolutionary Ideas
    - 01:06:39 - Gravitational Entropy and Smoothness
    - 01:16:14 - Multiverse Measure Problem
    - 01:23:05 - Theoretical Physics Health
    - 01:30:07 - Sam Bateman’s Breakthrough
    - 01:43:33 - Philosophy of Cosmology

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Neil's Papers: https://inspirehep.net/authors/985402
    - Renormalization of Higher-Derivative Quantum Gravity [Paper]: https:/…

  22. Roman Yampolskiy: We're Simulated. AI Is Conscious. And We Can't Win.

    1 juni 2026 · 2 uur 1 min

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    Roman Yampolskiy has spent two decades being right about things people wished he wasn't — and he's not here to scare you, but to be precise. He argues AI alignment isn't merely unsolved but fundamentally under-defined: no agreed-upon values, no way to formalize them even if there were, and no mechanism for enforcing them on something smarter than its creators. His strongest argument isn't a doom scenario, it's that you cannot indefinitely control something smarter than you.

    FOLLOW:
    - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e
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    - Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs
    - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE
    - PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE

    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - Defining General Intelligence
    - 00:05:58 - AI Instrumental Convergence
    - 00:11:11 - The Orthogonality Thesis
    - 00:16:15 - Escaping the Simulation
    - 00:21:45 - Principle of Indifference
    - 00:27:51 - Acquired Savant Syndrome
    - 00:33:51 - LLM Internal States
    - 00:41:02 - AI Safety Impossibility Results
    - 00:47:16 - Public Misconceptions
    - 00:53:21 - Existential vs. Suffering Risks
    - 01:01:20 - AI Alignment Definition Crisis
    - 01:09:28 - Computational Irreducibility
    - 01:16:20 - Substrate Independence
    - 01:22:50 - Philosophical Zombie Critique
    - 01:29:57 - The Cassandra Paradox
    - 01:37:35 - Religion and Simulation
    - 01:46:03 - Digital Physics Evidence
    - 01:51:20 - Limits of Control

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Roman's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0_Rq68cAAAAJ
    - Roman's Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPIq6Bb-1iLmqyksJjy4kLQ
    - Roman's Twitter: https://x.com/romanyam
    - Roman's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roman.yampolskiy
    - AI Identity [Paper]: https://philarchive.org/archive/ZIETPO-7
    - Basic AI Drives [Paper]: https://selfawa…

  23. Harvey Friedman: The Genius Who Invented Reverse Mathematics

    18 mei 2026 · 1 uur 39 min

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    Harvey Friedman — the youngest professor in Stanford's history, founder of reverse mathematics, and the mathematician Kurt Gödel chose to sponsor his final paper — has spent 60 years on one question: can ordinary, finite math be trusted? His theorems show that even concrete statements involving nothing more exotic than rational numbers cannot be proved or refuted within ZFC. The foundations of mathematics, Friedman argues, are not settled bedrock but vertiginous — made more mysterious, not less, by his own work.

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    - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e
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    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - Gödel’s Incompleteness Misinterpretations
    - 00:09:48 - Woodin vs. Friedman Foundations
    - 00:17:28 - Category Theory vs. Logic
    - 00:24:30 - Borel Determinacy Paradoxes
    - 00:31:23 - Embedded Maximality Principles
    - 00:41:18 - Tree(3) and Kruskal’s Theorem
    - 00:47:40 - Finitism and Large Cardinals
    - 00:53:11 - Divine Consistency and Angels
    - 01:03:25 - Reverse Mathematics Origins
    - 01:11:14 - Constructive Logic and Intuitionism
    - 01:21:17 - Theology and AI Immortality

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Harvey Friedman Papers: https://u.osu.edu/friedman.8/foundational-adventures/publications/
    - Harvey Friedman YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@harveyfriedman4465/videos
    - Harvey Friedman Chess Club: https://cclchess.com/
    - This Man Is About to Blow Up Mathematics [Article]: https://nautil.us/this-man-is-about-to-blow-up-mathematics-236446
    - Harvey Lecture at OSU: https://youtu.be/NAGQD-bSXok
    - Most Abused Theorem in Math [TOE]: https://youtu.be/OH-ybecvuEo
    - John Norton [TOE]…

  24. Janna Levin: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of the Klein Bottle

    11 mei 2026 · 2 uur 5 min

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    Janna Levin — Claire Tow Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College, founding Director of Sciences at Pioneer Works, and co-host of Quanta's The Joy of Why — works with Brian Greene to explore whether hidden Klein-bottle dimensions could explain why matter beat antimatter after the Big Bang. The geometry does the work — no fudged parameters.

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    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - Universe as Gödel Sentence
    - 00:05:24 - Unknowable Initial Conditions
    - 00:10:28 - AI and Non-Computable Consciousness
    - 00:15:36 - The Hard Problem Paradox
    - 00:25:25 - Klein Bottle Topology
    - 00:32:04 - Pin Structures and Chirality
    - 00:39:56 - Breaking Matter-Antimatter Symmetry
    - 00:51:26 - Topology and Dark Energy
    - 00:57:00 - Black Hole Information Paradox
    - 01:07:04 - ER=EPR and Firewalls
    - 01:13:37 - Black Holes as Particles
    - 01:18:42 - Emergent Gravity and Holography
    - 01:23:43 - Rejecting Physical Infinities
    - 01:31:41 - Narrative Truth vs. Axioms
    - 01:41:22 - Insomnia and Mathematical Madness
    - 01:47:22 - Scientific Mysticism and Honesty
    - 01:53:34 - Biological Morality and Advice

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Janna's Substack: jannalevin.substack.com
    - Janna's Books: amazon.com/stores/author/B001IXTNZQ
    - Janna's Papers: inspirehep.net/authors/1000438
    - Pioneer Works: pioneerworks.org
    - Whales Don't Want to Go to Mars [Article]: jannalevin.substack.com/p/billions-of-exoplanets-zero-aliens
    - Black Hole Blues [Book]: amzn.to/4cPOcfr
    - A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines [Book]: amazon.com/dp/1400032407?tag=toe08-20
    - Gö…

  25. Juan Maldacena: Geometry as Entanglement, and the Emergence of Spacetime

    4 mei 2026 · 1 uur 48 min

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    Juan Maldacena wrote the most cited paper in theoretical physics, birthing AdS/CFT and realizing holography — and today, the problem keeping him up at night is wormholes. He suspects space-time isn't fundamental at all, that geometry itself might be what entanglement looks like from the inside. The singularity isn't a place, it's a name for everything we don't yet understand. I hope you enjoy it.

    FOLLOW:
    - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e
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    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - Emergent Space-Time Geometry
    - 00:05:28 - GR and QM Incompatibility
    - 00:11:52 - The Singularity Problem
    - 00:17:00 - Extremal Black Hole Thermodynamics
    - 00:22:00 - The Island Formula
    - 00:27:30 - Spacetime and Quantum Information
    - 00:34:15 - ER equals EPR
    - 00:41:51 - Traversable Wormhole Physics
    - 00:47:24 - Simulating Wormholes with Qubits
    - 00:52:53 - Celestial Holography and Symmetries
    - 00:58:00 - dS/CFT and Dark Energy
    - 01:04:24 - Quantum Error Correction Codes
    - 01:10:00 - The Physicist’s Mindset
    - 01:15:19 - Inflationary Gravity Wave Predictions
    - 01:21:03 - Clocks and Emergent Time
    - 01:26:44 - Is Space-Time Doomed?
    - 01:32:00 - AI in Theoretical Physics
    - 01:38:00 - Overcoming Academic Inadequacy

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Juan Maldacena's Website: https://www.ias.edu/sns/malda
    - Large N Limit of Superconformal Field Theories [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9711200
    - Eternal Black Holes in AdS [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0106112
    - Holographic Derivation of Entanglement Entropy [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0603001
    - Real Observers Solving Imaginary Problems [Paper]…

  26. Slavoj Zizek: “Buddhism Can’t Explain This”

    27 april 2026 · 1 uur 35 min

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    Slavoj Žižek doesn't answer your question — he dismantles it, rebuilds it, and hands you something stranger and more useful than what you started with. Philosopher, provocateur, and self-described pessimist, he's spent decades insisting on something most thinkers shy away from: that freedom isn't the absence of necessity — it's the moment you choose what you fundamentally are. The fall comes first. Paradise was never real to begin with. Reality is the gap, not the thing on either side of it.

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    TIMESTAMPS:

    00:00:00 - Socrates and Radical Freedom
    00:05:02 - Quantum Indeterminacy vs. Freedom
    00:10:06 - Ontological Collapse Paradoxes
    00:15:07 - Adorno and Social Antinomies
    00:20:36 - Democritus: Less Than Nothing
    00:25:40 - Sartre and Existential Choice
    00:30:45 - Freudian Death Drive
    00:36:01 - Heidegger and Hysterical Awareness
    00:42:10 - Imp of Perversity
    00:48:07 - Einstein vs. Bohr
    00:53:15 - God’s Ontological Laziness
    00:58:17 - Hegel’s Retroactive Necessity
    01:03:41 - Digital Spirituality and AI
    01:09:18 - Stalin and Failed Projects
    01:14:41 - Hegel in a Wired Brain
    01:20:10 - Religious Convictions and Physics
    01:25:12 - Zen Buddhism and War

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Slavoj's Books: https://amazon.com/stores/author/B000APK7P8
    - Philosophical Investigations into Human Freedom: https://amazon.com/dp/0791468747?tag=toe08-20
    - Freedom: A Disease Without Cure: https://amazon.com/dp/1350559164?tag=toe08-20
    - Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals: ht…

  27. Curt Jaimungal: Consciousness, Irreducibility, and the Local to Global

    22 april 2026 · 1 uur

    Afspelen
    Why can't local agreement scale to global truth? At the Mind at Large consciousness conference, hosted by the Center for Process Studies, I make the case using sheaf theory and physics — breaking down consciousness, free will, and the hard problem to show why sincerity beats any polished, totalizing philosophy. Lees meer

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    - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e
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    - Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs
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    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - Intellectual Slogan Fatigue
    - 00:06:11 - The Reverse Elephant Metaphor
    - 00:11:12 - Local-to-Global Extension Failures
    - 00:16:13 - Three Senses of Irreducibility
    - 00:21:16 - Sheaf Theory and Obstructions
    - 00:26:30 - Hard Problem Formalizations
    - 00:31:36 - Averted Vision and Consciousness
    - 00:36:36 - Taxonomy of Everything
    - 00:41:39 - Pre-articulate Scientific Intimations
    - 00:46:45 - Speculative Philosophy and Humility
    - 00:51:47 - Ontological Significance of Vagueness

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Matthew Segall [TOE]: https://youtu.be/DeTm4fSXpbM
    - Jenann Ismael [TOE]: https://youtu.be/7kvXihDAOi0
    - Aephraim Steinberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/cOZ3Kto6NIc
    - The Third Option [TOE]: https://youtu.be/tJsghrZQaYU
    - Scott Aaronson & David Chalmers [TOE]: https://youtu.be/7PlmOXQ18jk
    - Curt Debunks "All Possible Paths" [TOE]: https://youtu.be/XcY3ZtgYis0
    - Consciousness Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/65yjqIDghEk
    - Stephen Wolfram [TOE]: https://youtu.be/FkYer0xP37E
    - Karl Friston [TOE]: https://youtu.be/uk4NZorRjCo
    - Michael Levin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s
    - Geoffrey Hinton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/b_DUft-BdIE
    - Noam Chomsky [TOE]: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ7ikzmc6zlORiRfcaQe8ZdxKxF-e2BCY
    - Anna Ciaunica & Michael Levin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/2aLhkm6QUgA
    - Mind-at-Large Project…

  28. George Ellis: Hawking's Co-Author on Why Reductionism Is Dead

    20 april 2026 · 1 uur 35 min

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    George Ellis is one of those guests who makes you rethink what you thought you understood. Co-author with Stephen Hawking of the singularity theorems, he's spent decades insisting on something most physicists won't touch: that reductionism is simply — patently — false. Physics doesn't decide outcomes. Context does. The thermostat sets the temperature. The algorithm tells the electrons what to do. The physics is the servant, not the master.

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    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - Reductionism is Patently False
    - 00:07:37 - Top-Down Causation Mechanics
    - 00:13:46 - Modular Hierarchical Structures
    - 00:21:00 - Causation at Emergent Levels
    - 00:26:56 - Universal Biological Principles
    - 00:36:07 - Critiquing Penrose and CCC
    - 00:42:41 - The Physics of Infinity
    - 00:48:50 - Agency and Physical Constraints
    - 00:56:08 - The Open Future
    - 01:07:23 - Bioelectricity and Goal-Directedness
    - 01:12:28 - Evolving Block Universe
    - 01:19:32 - Multiverse as Metaphysics
    - 01:24:49 - Moral Realism as Data

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - George's Papers: https://inspirehep.net/authors/1010821
    - George's Books: https://amazon.com/stores/George-Francis-Rayner-Ellis/author/B00287T2PW
    - Arrow of Time [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1302.7291
    - Why Reductionism Does Not Work [Paper]: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-662-63187-4_6
    - Recognizing Top-Down Causation [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1212.2275
    - Top-Down Causati…

  29. Aephraim Steinberg: The Physicist Who Measured Negative Time

    13 april 2026 · 2 uur 27 min

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    Professor Aephraim Steinberg, winner of Physics World's Breakthrough of the Year in 2011, is an experimentalist who thinks deeply about foundations. For 30 years he's measured aspects of physics others wouldn't touch: Bohmian trajectories, Heisenberg's disturbance bound (he showed it was wrong), even where the photon is inside the double slit. His lab measured negative time, and it keeps reappearing across different experiments.

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    - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e
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    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - Defining Negative Time
    - 00:06:50 - Quantum Trajectory Theory
    - 00:12:44 - The Holland Tunnel Analogy
    - 00:18:40 - Resonant Atomic Interactions
    - 00:26:05 - Superluminal Energy Propagation
    - 00:32:00 - Eight Velocities of Light
    - 00:38:00 - Causality and Retrocausality
    - 00:44:00 - Dwell Time vs. Delay
    - 00:50:24 - Time: Operator or Parameter?
    - 00:58:21 - Bell's Theorem and Realism
    - 01:04:55 - Heisenberg's Measurement Disturbance
    - 01:11:26 - Weak Measurement Formalism
    - 01:17:37 - Time Symmetry and Entropy
    - 01:27:07 - Bohmian Trajectories Observed
    - 01:35:56 - Spin-Statistics and Indistinguishability
    - 01:42:14 - Quantum Computational Advantage
    - 01:48:15 - Many Worlds vs. Complexity
    - 01:54:51 - Psi-Ontic vs. Psi-Epistemic
    - 02:01:37 - Collapsing Tunneling Particles
    - 02:08:48 - Larmor vs. Atto Clocks
    - 02:15:24 - Locality and Information

    LINKS:
    - Website: https://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~aephraim/
    - Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PzU…

  30. Curt Jaimungal: Why You Are Brighter Than You Think

    10 april 2026 · 16 min

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    The intellectual world is designed to erode your confidence — through rejection rates, delayed feedback, unfair comparisons, and the silence of everyone you've actually helped. In this video I break down why feeling like a fraud is almost a structural inevitability in serious academic and self-directed learning, not a reflection of your actual ability. If you've ever stared at your own work and wondered what's wrong with you, this one's for you.

    FOLLOW:
    - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e
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    - 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 - Intellectual Negativity Bias
    - 03:22 - Rigor and Intellectual Giants
    - 05:33 - Invisible Intellectual Impact
    - 08:43 - Quinean Web of Metrics
    - 11:01 - Genius Culture Pathologies

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - 7 Signs You're Smarter Than You Think [Substack]: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/7-signs-youre-smarter-than-you-think
    - Math Proof No One Could Explain [Part 1] [TOE]: https://youtu.be/RX1tZv_Nv4Y
    - Roger Penrose: Quantum Theory Is Wrong [TOE]: https://youtu.be/sGm505TFMbU
    - Bernardo Kastrup: Escaping the Illusion [TOE]: https://youtu.be/lAB21FAXCDE
    - Terence Tao: https://mathstodon.xyz/@tao/113721192051328193
    - Curt's Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com
    - Jacob Barandes: Quantum Theory as Stochastic Process [Wolfram]: https://youtu.be/JsmX3YxiUj0
    - The 2,300-Year-Old Math Mistake [TOE]: https://youtu.be/GHGi_XDqKNw
    - David Bessis: Dual Braid Monoid [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0101158
    - Scott Aaronson: Greatest Unsolved Problem in Math [TOE]: https://youtu.be/1ZpGCQoL2Rk
    - Scott Aaronson: Truth About Quantum Computing [IAI]: https:…

  31. Curt Jaimungal: What Is Infinity, Actually?

    7 april 2026 · 17 min

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    For much of history, many mathematicians—following thinkers like Aristotle—viewed infinity as a never-ending process rather than a completed object. In the late 19th century, Georg Cantor revolutionized this view by treating infinite sets as mathematical objects that could be compared and studied. His work showed that not all infinities are equal, and that there are infinitely many different sizes of infinity. While his ideas are foundational in modern mathematics, some philosophical schools, such as finitism and ultrafinitism, continue to question whether infinite objects meaningfully exist. Lees meer

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    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00 - Potential vs. Actual Infinity
    - 03:12 - Cardinality and Aleph-Null
    - 06:12 - Diagonalization and Uncountability
    - 09:21 - ZFC and Logical Independence
    - 12:23 - Finitism and Ultrafinitism
    - 15:26 - Continuum Hypothesis Paradoxes
    - 16:00 - Foundational Mathematical Crisis

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - The Most Abused Theorem in Math [TOE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH-ybecvuEo
    - Dror Bar Natan [TOE]: https://youtu.be/rJz_Badd43c
    - Hilbert’s Problems: https://mathworld.wolfram.com/HilbertsProblems.html
    - The Independence of the Continuum Hypothesis [paper]: https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.50.6.1143
    - Piano arithmetic: https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/Peano+arithmetic
    - Cantor’s Diagonal Argument: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335364685_A_Translation_of_G_Cantor's_Ueber_eine_elementare_Frage_der_Mannigfaltigkeitslehre
    - Hartog’s Construction: paultaylor.eu/trans/HartogsF-wellord.pdf
    - Cohen’s Forcing Method: https://timothychow.net/forcing.pdf
    - Norman Wildberger [TOE]: https://youtu.be/l7LvgvunVCM
    - Woo…

  32. Emily Riehl Makes Infinity Categories Elementary

    6 april 2026 · 2 uur 50 min

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    Emily Riehl, one of the world’s leading category theorists, shares her vision for making infinity category theory something undergrads can actually learn. In this talk, she breaks down how rethinking the foundations of math could change the way it’s taught and understood—and why it might redefine what math even is. Lees meer

    Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe

    Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com

    Listen on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/SpotifyTOE

    Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos):
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join

    Links:
    •⁠ ⁠Emily’s profile: https://emilyriehl.github.io/
    •⁠ ⁠Emily’s presentation: https://emilyriehl.github.io/files/undergraduates-TOE.pdf
    •⁠ ⁠A Type Theory For Synthetic ∞-Categories (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.07442
    •⁠ ⁠Could ∞-Category Theory Be Taught To Undergraduates? (paper): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2302.07855
    •⁠ ⁠RZK proof assistant: https://rzk-lang.github.io/rzk/en/latest/
    •⁠ ⁠Lean Zulip chat: https://leanprover.zulipchat.com/#recentnews

    Timestamps:
    00:00 A Dream for the Future
    01:55 Exploring Infinity Categories
    03:54 The Role of Category Theory
    10:17 Key Concepts of Category Theory
    12:01 The Curry-Howard Correspondence
    15:37 Understanding Left Adjoint Functors
    24:38 The Innate Lemma Explained
    38:29 Proving the Isomorphism
    41:50 The Importance of Abstraction
    44:04 A Crash Course in Category Theory
    44:17 Introduction to Infinity Category Theory
    56:27 Fundamental Infinity Groupoids
    1:03:34 What Are Infinity Categories?
    1:09:12 The Case for Infinity Categories
    1:18:12 Transitioning to Homotopy Type Theory
    1:22:49 Crash Course in Homotopy Type Theory
    1:30:56 Type Constructors Explained
    1:34:19 Propositions as Types
    1:42:50 Understanding Dependent Types
    1:49:01 Identity Types and Their Importance
    1:54:03 The Structure of Infinity Groupoids
    1:59:33 Hierarchies of Types
    2:06:19 The Univalence Axiom
    2:08:36 Tra…

  33. Renato Renner: Quantum Mechanics Contains Its Own Contradictions

    30 maart 2026 · 3 uur 26 min

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    Renato Renner (ETH Zurich) proves quantum mechanics has logical contradictions that undermine its foundations.Quantum theory may be history's most successful theory — yet it can't consistently describe itself. Not a philosophical objection. A theorem. From there it spirals into black holes, reference frames, and why some of his students refused to keep working on it. It's a quiet storm, blending the foundations of physics with something uncomfortably personal: the question of what you are. Lees meer

    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - Quantum Theory's Internal Contradiction
    - 00:05:51 - Recursive Consistency Checks
    - 00:11:00 - Wigner’s Friend Paradox
    - 00:18:11 - Global vs. Local Inconsistency
    - 00:25:04 - The Inhabitant’s Perspective
    - 00:31:12 - Modeling Multi-Agent Reasoning
    - 00:44:25 - Three Fundamental Assumptions
    - 00:56:36 - Quantum Reference Frames
    - 01:06:14 - Black Hole Information Paradox
    - 01:15:06 - Operationalizing Hawking Radiation
    - 01:24:48 - Realizability of Thought Experiments
    - 01:41:16 - Emotional Physics: Many Worlds
    - 01:50:03 - The Limits of Probability
    - 02:01:06 - Operationalizing the Measurement Problem
    - 02:15:41 - Generalized Probabilistic Theories
    - 02:29:16 - Quantum-Gravity Correspondence
    - 02:40:10 - The Source of Disagreement
    - 02:56:54 - Physics as Communication

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Renato's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OEBtlWgAAAAJ
    - Renato's Helgoland Lecture: https://youtu.be/NxIyldEZzZI
    - Against Probability [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.18872
    - Testing Quantum Theory with Thought Experiments [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.05314
    - Quantum Advantage in Cryptography [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.04078
    - Quantum Theory Cannot Consistently Describe the Use of Itself [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.07422
    - Security of Quantum Key Distribution [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0512258
    - Thought Experiments in a Quantum Computer [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.06236
    - The Black Hole Information Puzzle…

  34. Jenny Wagner: What If We've Been Wrong About Dark Matter For Decades?

    26 maart 2026 · 2 uur 38 min

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    Jenny Wagner on the inverse problem: mapping dark matter without assuming what it is.What if 85% of the universe's matter isn't missing, and our models were never clean enough to know? Wagner proves mathematically that every dark matter map is extrapolation. The data tells you only what is local. The rest is a model assumption dressed as evidence. She ties this to Einstein's 1917 warning, that homogeneity and isotropy were always a placeholder, never a truth, and argues cosmology is not in crisis. It's finally ready for more detail.

    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00 - Dark Matter Model Fallacy
    - 05:06 - Gravitational Lensing Mechanics
    - 12:14 - Local vs. Global Information
    - 21:58 - Statistical Mechanics vs. Gravity
    - 31:28 - Inverse Problem Methodology
    - 39:58 - MOND and Modified Gravity
    - 51:58 - CMB Data Processing Biases
    - 59:56 - Bullet Cluster Re-evaluation
    - 01:12:41 - Functional Analysis Breakthrough
    - 01:24:39 - Challenging the Cosmo. Principle
    - 01:42:44 - Minimalist Neutrino Solutions
    - 01:51:02 - Naked Singularity Detection
    - 02:04:27 - AI Limits in Cosmology
    - 02:11:02 - Scientific Method Evolution

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Jenny's Site: https://thegravitygrinch.blogspot.com/
    - Jenny's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HBSfYZIAAAAJ
    - Millennium Sim.: https://wwwmpa.mpa-garching.mpg.de/galform/virgo/millennium/
    - Cosmic Structures (Math): https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.00960
    - MOND (Milgrom 1983): https://doi.org/10.1086/160167
    - Bullet Cluster JWST: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.21870
    - Much Ado About No Offset: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.11779
    - Model-Indep. Gravitational Lenses: https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.01630
    - Einstein 1917 Cosmo. Paper: https://www.scribd.com/doc/211769217/Cosmological-Considerations-In-The-General-Theory-of-Relativity
    - Imre Lakatos: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lakatos/
    - Against Cosmo. Principle: https://youtu.be/nASUsWQyemc
    - Obs. Uni…

  35. Curt Jaimungal: I'm Worried About Us

    19 maart 2026 · 6 min

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    Curt Jaimungal argues writing reveals something deeper than output—what LLMs expose about human purpose.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
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    - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt
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    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.

    Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal features long-form, technically detailed interviews with leading researchers in physics, mathematics, consciousness, and philosophy, exploring topics at the level of active research. For academics, graduate students, and anyone seeking depth beyond popular science.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  36. JB Manchak: Time Travel in Physics and What We Still Don't Know

    16 maart 2026 · 2 uur 18 min

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    Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe Lees meer

    Curt Jaimungal examines why physicists still can't resolve whether time travel is possible or forbidden.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

    Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal features long-form, technically detailed interviews with leading researchers in physics, mathematics, consciousness, and philosophy, exploring topics at the level of active research. For academics, graduate students, and anyone seeking depth beyond popular science.

    FOLLOW: Substack | Spotify | YouTube | Twitter

    - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  37. Curt Jaimungal: Why General Relativity Is Not Deterministic

    12 maart 2026 · 22 min

    Afspelen
    Curt Jaimungal explains why Einstein's general relativity isn't actually deterministic: how Cauchy horizons and closed time-like curves break predictability, and why math and physics don't always guarantee a set future. A solo deep-dive. Lees meer

    Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe

    FOLLOW:

    - Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt
    - Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs
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    - PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE

    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
    - 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, Roger Penrose | LMS: https://youtu.be/xAcvNnSrkcM
    - The Geodesic Equation: 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?: 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
    - General Relativity Is Not (Technically) Deterministic: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/general-relativity-is-not-deterministic
    - Strong Cosmic Censorship Conjecture, Van de Moortel: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.13180
    - Some Black Holes Erase Your Past: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180221091334.htm
    - Dete…

  38. John Donoghue: We Have Already Quantized Gravity (And It Works)

    11 maart 2026 · 1 uur 7 min

    Afspelen
    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. Lees meer

    Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe

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    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
    - Quadrati…

  39. Nir Lahav: What If Consciousness Follows the Rules of Relativity?

    5 maart 2026 · 3 uur 9 min

    Afspelen
    Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe Lees meer

    Physicist Nir Lahav proposes a relativistic theory of consciousness: subjective experience as a genuine physical property manifested only from within a cognitive system's own internal simulation. No prior background in physics or philosophy required.

    SUPPORT:
    - Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe
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    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
    - Conscious…

  40. Curt Jaimungal: Why Neil deGrasse Tyson Gets "Belief" Wrong

    2 maart 2026 · 17 min

    Afspelen
    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. Lees meer

    Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe

    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:
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    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 labell…

  41. David Bessis: The Mistake We All Make About Mathematics

    23 februari 2026 · 2 uur 19 min

    Afspelen
    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. Lees meer

    Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe

    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?t…

  42. Erik Verlinde: Gravity Is Not Fundamental, It Is Entropic

    16 februari 2026 · 1 uur 59 min

    Afspelen
    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. Lees meer

    SUPPORT:
    - Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe
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    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://arxi…

  43. Vitaly Vanchurin: The Universe Is a Neural Network That Learns

    9 februari 2026 · 1 uur 59 min

    Afspelen
    What if physics is the universe learning? Professor Vitaly Vanchurin argues the cosmos isn't merely modeled by neural networks, it literally is one. He calls to unify QM, GR, and observers. Lees meer

    Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe

    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:
    - Vitaly's Papers: https://inspirebeta.net/literature?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: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2004.09280
    - Autonomous Particles: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.10077
    - Emergent Field Theories From Neural Networks: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.08138
    - Covariant Gradient Descent: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.05279
    - A Quantum-Classical Duality And Emergent Spacetime: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.06083
    - Emergent Quantumness In Neural Networks: https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.05082
    - Predictability Crisis In Inflationary Cosmology: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9905097
    - Stationary Measure In The Multiverse: https://arxiv.org/abs/0812.0005
    - The World As A Neural Network: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2008.01540
    - Self-Organized Criticality In Neural Networks: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.03402v1
    - One Hundred Authors Against Einstein: https://amazon.com/dp/B09PHH7KC8?tag=toe08-2…

  44. Rob Spekkens: Why the Quantum Wave Function Is Not Real

    2 februari 2026 · 2 uur 48 min

    Afspelen
    Perimeter Institute's Robert Spekkens on quantum foundations. His 2004 classical toy theory makes maximum knowledge always incomplete, and out pops no-cloning, teleportation, and interference Feynman deemed impossible classically. He likens our situation to hieroglyphs before Champollion: a category mistake treating quantum states as describing reality when they describe knowledge of it. Lees meer

    Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe

    SUPPORT:
    - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE
    - PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE
    - Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com

    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:
    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/hidde…

  45. Subir Sarkar: Why Dark Energy Is a Local Illusion

    26 januari 2026 · 2 uur 4 min

    Afspelen
    Hot off the press, Professor Subir Sarkar makes the case that dark energy doesn’t exist (and he’s not being provocative for its own sake). He’s the former head of Oxford’s particle theory group, serves on the Particle Data Group. Sarkar's group has found that the cosmic acceleration supposedly driving the universe's expansion is directional—not uniform as required by a cosmological constant—appearing only in the direction we're moving through space. He claims the 2011 Nobel Prize-winning discovery rests on a century-old assumption of cosmic isotropy that his data now falsifies at over 5 sigma. "We need to go back to square one." Lees meer

    SUPPORT:
    - Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe
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    - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4
    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - https://inspirehep.net/literature/52370
    - https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.174.2168
    - https://www.nature.com/articles/srep35596
    - https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.08972
    - https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1993ApJ...413L.105P/abstract
    - https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.01229
    - https://inference-review.com/article/heart-of-darkness
    - https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/206/2/377/1024995
    - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235329300_The_NRAO_VLA_sky_survey
    - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1304.3627
    - https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.06483
    - https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=hYPXSjkAAAAJ&citation_for_view=hYPXSjkAAAAJ:k_IJM867U9cC
    - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.18.533281v2.full
    - https://amazon.com/dp/0486472051?tag=toe08-20
    - https://youtu.be/xZnafO__IZ0
    - https://youtu.be/kUHOoMX4Bqw
    - https://youtu.be/5pOpcCT6AmY
    - https://youtu.be/guQIkV6yCik
    - https://youtu.be/6I2OhmVWLMs
    - https://youtu.be/dG_uKJx6Lpg
    - https://youtu.be/sGm505TFMbU
    - https://youtu.be/Ve_Mpd6dGv8
    - https://youtu.be/hF4SAketEHY
    - https://youtu.be/X4PdPnQuwjY
    - https://youtu.be/zNZCa1pVE20
    -…

  46. Stuart Kauffman: “If I’m Right, There Is No Theory of Everything”

    20 januari 2026 · 1 uur 28 min

    Afspelen
    Stuart Kauffman, one of the founders of complexity theory, invented random Boolean networks at 23 and helped establish the Santa Fe Institute. Now 86, he makes a striking claim: there is no theory of everything. Kauffman argues that biological evolution creates genuinely new possibilities that cannot be deduced from prior states—paralleling the ancient Chinese Tao more than Plato's Logos. He also believes he's found something new in quantum gravity (and, in his words, "genuinely huge"). He unveils it here for the first time. Lees meer

    Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe

    SUPPORT:
    - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE
    - PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE

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    LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Investigations [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/B00W0DHAH6?tag=toe08-20
    - Stuart Kauffman's Books [Amazon]: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B000APT8XK
    - A Third Transition In Science? [Article]: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsfs/article/13/3/20220063/89381/A-third-transition-in-science-A-third-transition
    - Genetic Regulatory Mechanisms In Protein Synthesis [Paper]: https://www.gs.washington.edu/academics/courses/braun/55106/readings/jacob_and_monod.pdf
    - Is Mind In Spacetime? [Paper]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38969235/
    - The World Is Not A Theorem [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2101.00284
    - Origins Of Order [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0195079515?tag=toe08-20
    - The Universal Constructor [Article]: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.157.3785.180.a
    - Metabolic Stability And Epigenesis In Random Genetic Nets [Paper]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0022519369900150
    - Antichaos And Adaptation [Article]: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24938683
    - The Selfish Gene [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0199291152?tag=toe08-20
    - Biological Organization As Closure …

  47. Timothy Williamson: The Logician Who Says Vagueness Has Exact Answers

    13 januari 2026 · 1 uur 57 min

    Afspelen
    Timothy Williamson (Oxford) challenges modal logic, epistemic possibility, and the nature of philosophical knowledge.Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe Lees meer

    SUPPORT:
    - Support me on Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe
    - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE
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    LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e

    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - Vagueness & Sorites Paradox
    - 00:07:12 - Identity, Physicalism, Non-Physicals
    - 00:22:30 - Realism vs. Anti-Realism
    - 00:29:50 - The Problem of Skepticism
    - 00:35:40 - Cognitive Heuristics & Doubt
    - 00:43:00 - Solipsism's Appeal & Pitfalls
    - 00:50:00 - Solipsism: A Critique
    - 00:57:30 - Pluralism & Consciousness
    - 01:06:00 - AI, Mental States, Ontology
    - 01:15:50 - Mind, Knowledge, Meaning
    - 01:26:00 - Philosophical Heuristics
    - 01:32:00 - Counterfactuals & Logic
    - 01:38:00 - Personal Philosophy

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Overfitting and Heuristics in Philosophy [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Overfitting-Heuristics-Philosophy-Rutgers-Lectures/dp/0197779212
    - Timothy Williamson's Published Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IH-44VwAAAAJ&hl=en
    - Sorites Paradox: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sorites-paradox/
    - Philosophical Investigations [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Investigations-Ludwig-Wittgenstein/dp/0631205691
    - I Do Not Exist [Paper]: https://academic.oup.com/book/53296/chapter-abstract/422023005
    - O'Shaughnessy Ventures: https://www.osv.llc/
    - Barry Loewer & Eddy Chen [TOE]: https://youtu.be/xZnafO__IZ0
    - Bas Van Fraassen [TOE]: https://youtu.be/lhpRAWxvY5s
    - Matthew Segall [TOE]: https://youtu.be/DeTm4fSXpbM
    - Jennifer Nagel [TOE]: https://youtu.be/CWZVMZ9Tm7Q
    - Leo Gura [TOE]: https://youtu.be/YspFR9JAq3w
    - Iain McGilchrist [TOE]: https://youtu.be/M-SgOwc6Pe4
    - The Consciou…

  48. I’m Giving Away $5,000 to Explain Hard Physics (and AI)

    18 december 2025 · 10 min

    Afspelen
    Host Curt Jaimungal launches #CORE1, a competition seeking high-level video explainers for physics, AI, and philosophy. If you're a researcher or student, you'll have a chance to win part of the $5,000 prize pool by sharing your technical expertise with the world. Lees meer

    For inquiries, email: core_toe@proton.me

    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00 - Incentivizing Advanced Research Exposition
    - 05:05 - Formalizing Pedagogical Evaluation Standards

    LINKS:
    - CORE1 FAQ: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/core
    - CORE1 Submission Form: https://tally.so/r/xXrk1o
    - CORE1 Discord Link: https://discord.com/invite/VdGFUYtPDS
    - For Inquiries, email: core_toe@proton.me
    - Constructive QFT: https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/constructive+quantum+field+theory
    - Coleman-Mandula Theorem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman%E2%80%93Mandula_theorem
    - Eva Miranda [TOE]: https://youtu.be/6XyMepn-AZo
    - Emily Riehl [TOE]: https://youtu.be/mTwvecBthpQ
    - Summer of Math Exposition: https://some.3b1b.co/
    - Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2001.08361
    - Elan Barenholtz [TOE]: https://youtu.be/A36OumnSrWY
    - Elan Barenholtz & William Hahn [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Ca_RbPXraDE
    - Joscha Bach & Karl Friston [TOE]: https://youtu.be/CcQMYNi9a2w
    - Double Descent Demystified [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.14151
    - Ted Jacobson on Diffeomorphism Invariance: https://youtu.be/r6kdHge-NNY
    - Jacob Barandes [TOE]: https://youtu.be/7oWip00iXbo
    - Barry Loewer & Eddy Chen [TOE]: https://youtu.be/xZnafO__IZ0
    - 3Blue1Brown's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/3blue1brown
    - Bas van Fraassen [TOE]: https://youtu.be/lhpRAWxvY5s
    - Can Physics Explain Its Own Laws? [TOE]: https://youtu.be/0_Px5gbs9i0
    - Max Tegmark [TOE]: https://youtu.be/-gekVfUAS7c
    - Geoffrey Hinton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/b_DUft-BdIE
    - Sir Roger Penrose [TOE]: https://youtu.be/iO03t21xhdk
    - Why I Don't Buy the Simulation Hypothesis [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3_lBPMc6JRY
    - String Theory Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/X4PdPnQuwjY…

  49. Bas van Fraassen: Why Science Does Not Reveal the Truth

    15 december 2025 · 2 uur 17 min

    Afspelen
    Bas van Fraassen argues science doesn't deliver literal truth, so unobservable physics is a model. The self isn't a thing, logic permits free will, and he keeps faith in God without metaphysics. Lees meer

    Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe

    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00 - Reality vs. Appearance
    - 08:40 - Scientific Realism vs. Anti-Realism
    - 16:30 - The "No Miracles" Argument
    - 22:26 - Common Sense Realism
    - 27:54 - Trusting Instruments vs. Theories
    - 34:22 - Kierkegaard's Call to Decision
    - 41:50 - Determinism is a Model
    - 48:50 - Sartre on Free Will
    - 56:47 - Causation Doesn't Exist in Physics
    - 01:05:47 - Language of Human Action
    - 01:15:54 - Tarski's Limitative Theorems
    - 01:23:50 - "I Am Not a Thing"
    - 01:34:20 - Rejecting Analytic Metaphysics
    - 01:40:17 - Does God Exist?
    - 01:50:50 - Disagreement on Monty Hall
    - 01:56:15 - Conversion to Catholicism

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - The Scientific Image: https://amzn.to/499SA72
    - Bas's Blog: https://basvanfraassensblog.home.blog/about-me-2/
    - The Empirical Stance: https://amzn.to/3MWbKEK
    - Bas's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EBj6wCAAAAAJ
    - Bas's Books: https://amzn.to/3L0njdw
    - Reality Is Not What It Seems: https://amzn.to/3YseMDe
    - Matthew Segall [TOE]: https://youtu.be/DeTm4fSXpbM
    - "No Miracles" Argument: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-realism/#MiraArgu
    - Bas On Closer To Truth: https://youtu.be/nQnQ9ndlYi4
    - The Most Terrifying Philosopher [TOE]: https://youtu.be/BWYxRM__TBU
    - Curt Reads Plato's Cave [TOE]: https://youtu.be/PurNlwnxwfY
    - Avshalom Elitzur [TOE]: https://youtu.be/pWRAaimQT1E
    - Formal Philosophy: https://archive.org/details/formalphilosophy00mont/page/n5/mode/2up
    - Robert Sapolsky [TOE]: https://youtu.be/z0IqA1hYKY8
    - Time And Chance: https://amzn.to/4qb6tru
    - Nancy Cartwright: https://www.profnancycartwright.com/publications/books/
    - Einstein, Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/Einstein_gr…

  50. Roger Penrose and Ivette Fuentes: A Bold New Test of Gravity

    25 november 2025 · 1 uur 14 min

    Afspelen
    Sir Roger Penrose and Professor Ivette Fuentes analyze the Ron Folman T-cubed experiment and whether the equivalence principle holds in quantum mechanics. Lees meer

    SPONSORS:
    - Thank you Nolah for sponsoring! Click here https://nolahmattress.com/toe and use CODE: TOE to get an extra $50 off your mattress.

    Every episode days early, ad-free, plus my essays: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe

    SUPPORT:
    - Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE
    - Support me on PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE

    JOIN MY SUBSTACK (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com

    LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e

    TIMESTAMPS:
    - 00:00:00 - The Ron Folman Experiment
    - 00:08:12 - Quantum Equivalence Principle
    - 00:15:00 - Gravitational Wavefunction Collapse
    - 00:25:14 - Active vs. Passive Gravity
    - 00:33:40 - Bose-Einstein Condensate Tests
    - 00:44:30 - Do Gravitons Exist?
    - 00:56:02 - Evidence Before the Big Bang
    - 01:04:11 - Testing Collapse Models

    LINKS MENTIONED:
    - Ivette’s Website: https://ivettefuentes.weebly.com/
    - Ivette’s Published Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=W7-xksIAAAAJ
    - Roger’s Published Papers: https://inspirehep.net/authors/993859
    - Human Test: How Predictability, Creativity, And The Quantum Mind Will Redefine Life In The Age Of AI [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/149308920X?tag=toe08-20
    - The Equivalence Principle: https://www.britannica.com/science/equivalence-principle
    - Nikita Nekrasov [TOE]: https://youtu.be/PH0CzN5qspI
    - Exploring The Unification Of Quantum Theory And General Relativity With A Bose-Einstein Condensate [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1812.04630
    - Jacob Barandes & Manolis Kellis [TOE]: https://youtu.be/MTD8xkbiGis
    - Observation Of The Quantum Equivalence Principle For Matter-Waves [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2502.14535
    - Claudia de Rham [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Ve_Mpd6dGv8
    - Markus Aspelmeyer’s Published Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DH7xfEgAAAAJ
    - Hendrik Ulbric…