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Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

299 | Michael Wong on Information, Function, and the Origin of Life

Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

Sean Carroll | Wondery

Society & Culture, Physics, Philosophy, Science, Ideas, Society

4.84.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2024

⏱️ 74 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Living organisms seem exquisitely organized and complex, with features clearly adapted to serving certain functions needed to survive and procreate. Natural selection provides a compelling explanation for why that is so. But is there a bigger picture, a more general framework that explains the origin and evolution of functions and complexity in a world governed by uncaring laws of physics? I talk with planetary scientist and astrobiologist Michael Wong about how we can define what "functions" are and the role they play in the evolution of the universe.

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Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/12/16/299-michael-wong-on-information-function-and-the-origin-of-life/

Michael Wong received his Ph.D. in planetary science from Caltech. He is currently a Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at the Carnegie Institution for Scienceʼs Earth & Planets Laboratory. He is in the process of co-authoring two books: A Missing Law: Evolution, Information, and the Inevitability of Cosmic Complexity with Robert M. Hazen, and a revised edition of Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach with Jonathan Lunine.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Who can I talk to?

0:01.7

Can anyone relate to what I'm going through?

0:04.9

Who else understands what it's like to have cancer?

0:08.5

Sometimes you don't want to talk about cancer with people you know.

0:12.0

You just want to talk with someone who knows how you feel.

0:15.1

Open 24-7, Macmillan Cancer Support's online community is a safe space

0:19.9

to connect with people who understand what it's like to have cancer.

0:23.8

It's free to use and anonymous.

0:26.1

From day one, whatever you need to get off your chest, community members are available day and night to offer support on the online forum.

0:33.7

Talk openly and honestly with people who've been there too.

0:37.1

You're not in this alone. We're here to help.

0:40.3

To join Search McMillan Online community.

0:43.6

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Mindscape podcast. I'm your host, Sean Carroll.

0:47.3

Those of you who have been hanging around here for a while know that in my professional capacity,

0:52.3

I go to talks by and read papers by both physicists and

0:57.7

philosophers as well as other kinds of people. And, you know, I love the philosophers very much.

1:02.7

They tackle big questions. But sometimes when I'm reading a philosophy paper or going to a

1:07.7

philosophy talk, there's a part of my brain that is going, this would be

1:11.1

really good if only there were more equations in it. And that's not just physics snobbery in some

1:17.2

sense. There's plenty of physics papers that are full of equations and are truly deeply boring

1:21.4

and uninteresting. But it's a reflection of the fact that there's one thing, which is to sort of

1:27.4

put your finger

...

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