Jenann Ismael: Why Free Will Is Written Into the Laws of Physics

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

Curt Jaimungal

Physics, Philosophy, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2025

⏱️ 135 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Physicist and philosopher Jenann Ismael argues that free will is a physical reality grounded in thermodynamics and relativity. She explains why no system, not even a perfect computer, can predict its own future, and how this unpredictability underpins genuine agency.- 00:00 - Introduction- 01:42 - Free Will- 29:16 - The Limits of Predictability- 41:45 - Defining Free Will- 59:42 - Life and Cognition in the Universe- 1:05:30 - The Choices We Make- 1:08:01 - Dark Nights of the Soul- 1:09:35 - Philosophical Responses to Free Will- 1:11:03 - Personal Reflections on Life- 1:11:54 - The Weight of Loss- 1:13:40 - Patterns of Persistence- 1:17:17 - Understanding the Self- 1:18:41 - The Continuity of Existence- 1:20:17 - The Nature of Mortality- 1:22:27 - Time and Its Mysteries- 1:51:42 - The Nature of Existence- 2:04:23 - The Paradox of Newcomb's Dilemma- 2:08:38 - Lessons Learned from SufferingSPONSORS:- I personally subscribe to The Economist. TOE listeners get 35% off the annual subscription. No other podcast has this! https://economist.com/TOE- Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal- Coinbase: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9- PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4- YouTube Membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/joinRESOURCES:- How Physics Makes Us Free [Book]: https://amzn.to/44CcHr8- Why Physics Should Care About The Mind [Paper]: https://www.jenanni.com/wp-content/uploads/Why-physics-should-care-about-the-mind-and-how-to-think-about-it-without-worrying-about-the-mind-body-problem.pdf- Diana Pasulka [TOE]: https://youtu.be/E5MuTHUbMUs- Leonard Susskind [TOE]: https://youtu.be/2p_Hlm6aCok- Sean Carroll [TOE]: https://youtu.be/9AoRxtYZrZo- Matt Segall [TOE]: https://youtu.be/DeTm4fSXpbM- Tim Maudlin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/fU1bs5o3nss- David Lewis’s Metaphysics: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lewis-metaphysics/#Bib- Robert Sapolsky [TOE]: https://youtu.be/z0IqA1hYKY8- David Lewis’s Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B000APAW62- Stephen Wolfram [TOE]: https://youtu.be/0YRlQQw0d-4- Roy Baumeister [TOE]: https://youtu.be/aXoK-C2c2AQ- Free Will Ontoprism [TOE]: https://youtu.be/SSbUCEleJhg- Michael Levin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s- Dark Night Of The Soul: https://basilica.ca/documents/2016/10/St.%20John%20of%20the%20Cross-Dark%20night%20of%20the%20soul.pdf- George Musser [TOE]: https://youtu.be/KVy3NeXpMaI- Tim Maudlin & Tim Palmer [TOE]: https://youtu.be/883R3JlZHXE 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Reality is incomplete. That is our view of the world can't be complete because reality isn't yet complete.
0:05.7	Our common sense has no authority whatever about what the fundamental structure of reality is.
0:14.4	Standard classical physics assumes an initial state determines everything thereafter.
0:20.0	However, Professor Jananne Ismail found something startling.
0:24.1	Relativity makes such determinism impossible.
0:28.2	Why?
0:29.0	The past light cone of any event never contains sufficient information to predict that event with
0:34.6	certainty.
0:35.1	In this episode, the professor demonstrates that reality, viewed from within, is fundamentally
0:40.7	incomplete.
0:42.1	Ask any system to predict its own next output and watch it fail, not from ignorance, but from
0:48.1	an actual logical impossibility.
0:50.7	And this is the beginning of the flame of free will.
1:00.0	Ismail argues that over evolutionary time, organisms learn to exploit this openness. This is a fascinating conversation that reconceptualizes you as a self-curating information structure
1:06.0	that constitutes yourself via choices and beliefs.
1:10.0	When you die, an irreplaceable pattern of information
1:13.1	vanishes forever. We also explore consciousness why time is experienced as coming into being
1:19.9	rather than being revealed, and how thermodynamics grounds the arrow of causation. On this channel,
1:26.5	I interview researchers regarding their theories of reality with rigor
1:29.6	and technical depth.
1:31.0	Janand Is Mill is an expert at making abstract concepts accessible, and this is the clearest
1:36.1	explanation of the paradox of identity and free will you'll ever hear.
	...

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