Eric Weinstein vs. Stephen Wolfram: The Battle of the Theories of Everything (#357)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2023

⏱️ 111 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are you ready for the battle of the theories of everything? Eric Weinstein and Stephen Wolfram, two mathematical mavericks and personal heroes of mine, joined me on the show to debate their theories of everything, answer questions from the audience, and discuss the fundamental nature of the universe. I thoroughly enjoyed this deep and wide-ranging conversation, and I hope you will, too! Tune in. Key Takeaways: Intro (00:00) Why are young people so interested in theories of everything? (06:32) Is it possible to reconcile Eric's and Stephen's theories? (13:43) The notion of paradigm shifts (20:22) Too simplistic or too complex? (40:02) Comparing and contrasting different approaches (1:07:15) Of what value is a theory if it’s not testable? (1:17:03) The role of AI and the simulation hypothesis (1:31:46) Final thoughts (1:43:59) Outro (1:49:30) — Additional resources: 🥗 Thanks, HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/50impossible and use code 50impossible for 50% off plus 15% off the next 2 months. 📝 With a MasterClass annual membership, you can take one-on-one classes from the world’s best for $10 a month with your annual membership, get unlimited access to every class — and even better, right now, as an Into The Impossible listener, you can get 15% off when you go to MASTERCLASS.com/impossible. 🧑‍💻 Visit LinkedIn.com/IMPOSSIBLE to post your job for free! 🎤 Join me and ⁦Lawrence Krauss for an Onstage Dialogue ⁦at the San Diego Air & Space Museum Tuesday, Oct 17, 2023 at 7:00 PM: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/live-onstage-dialogue-brian-keating-lawrence-m-krauss-tickets-699430514497 📚 A Project to Find the Fundamental Theory of Physics by Stephen Wolfram: https://a.co/d/3EijLiy 🎤 Watch Wolfram’s TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60P7717-XOQ 🎙️ Find Eric's Portal Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR85PW_B_7_Aisx5vNS7Gjw ✖️ Find Stephen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephen_wolfram ✖️ Find Eric on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericrweinstein 👀 Find Sabine Hossenfelder's commentary on Stephen and Eric here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdu9KvLxHFg ➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms: ✖️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list: https://briankeating.com/mailing_list ✍️ Check out my blog: https://briankeating.com/blog.php 🎙️ Follow my podcast: https://briankeating.com/podcast — Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known. Make sure to follow so you never miss an episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The fear that comes out of whatever is left of the core community is you guys don't have a right to go direct to a consumer,
0:07.0	you don't have a right to talk about the field.
0:10.0	That belongs to a tiny number of people who do this morning,
0:14.1	noon, and night, who are all possessed of common beliefs.
0:16.7	There have to be some standards.
0:18.2	On the other hand, the core group that's been trying to gate this has failed. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
0:33.2	Open the pod bay doors now.
0:37.5	We have graciously been joined with two of the most prominent and two of my real heroes in this field that are
0:47.0	Maverick mathematicians who are self-made mathematicians in a way and I want to talk about how they view the current spirit of the times as I
0:57.0	Gies as we say in terms of theories of everything that are percolating around in the in the atmosphere.
1:05.2	And to begin with, I'll ask my guest Eric to introduce yourself and say a little bit
1:11.4	about where people can find you.
1:13.0	We'll do that right up front and then we'll get started with our discussion topics.
1:17.0	We're going to have a nice clean fight.
1:19.0	We're going toe to toe.
1:20.0	No, there's not going to be any fight.
1:21.0	It's going to be very, very respectful. So thank you both for joining.
1:25.5	Eric, can you introduce yourself and they'll buy me some time to tweet out this link?
1:29.3	Check my feed. Eric Weinstein, I'm managing director at Teal Capital. I come from a mathematics
1:36.6	background so I'm not a physicist and I have an eclectic podcast called The Portal, which I hope to have, in fact I've got agreements
1:48.5	from both of these gentlemen to be my guests on the portal, so I'm really looking forward to that and happy to help blow up into the impossible. Brian, you're doing a fantastic job.
1:59.0	I love it and it's all thanks to you guys. You guys are actually my first guest in what I call
	...

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