Lord Martin Rees On The Future (#107)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Physics, Natural Sciences, Science

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2021

⏱️ 96 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lord Martin Rees has played a huge role in my career and is an inspiration to me and millions of scientists around the world. There is literally nothing beyond his purview and our conversation bore this out — we covered everything from A to Z: artificial intelligence to zoology! Nothing was off-limits — we even shared our mutual and controversial distaste for alchemy and astrology! Lord Rees of Ludlow, the Astronomer Royal, is the Co-founder of Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and an Emeritus Professor of Cosmology & Astrophysics, at Cambridge University. He is the 38th Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is the author of ‘On the Future’ and 10 other books and the 60th President of the Royal Society. Find Lord Rees on https://www.martinrees.uk/ and on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LordMartinRees Buy ON THE FUTURE here: https://amzn.to/2Lg9MPT 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:36 ON THE FUTURE book cover 00:03:00 Reading the Queen’s Horoscope! 00:03:41 What is your view of Karls Popper’s demarcation philosophy? Refuting Copernicus! 00:08:11 Do physicists envy mathematicians? 00:11:24Why is Einstein so often a target of criticism? 00:12:13 Why are theorists so popular and not experimentalists? 00:15:45 Theories don’t get retracted, but experiments often do! What’s going on? 00:16:04 The steady-state of the universe debate and cosmology’s earlier days. 00:22:47 Martin’s prediction that the CMB could be polarized 00:24:47 How even incorrect theories can lead to important discoveries. 00:29:13 Theories of Everything. Do we need them? 00:37:45 Complex vs.Complicated 00:40:57 Are you a pessimist or optimist? 00:57:52 There may be some benefits to the pandemic! 00:59:00 What do you think about blockchain and bitcoin? 01:07:46 How coins got their ridges. 01:17:46 What is your ethical will? 01:26:24 What advice would you give your younger self? Watch my most popular videos: Sheldon Glashow: https://youtu.be/a0_iaWgxQtA?sub_confirmation=1 Sir Roger Penrose, Nobel Prize winner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMuqyAvX7Wo?sub_confirmation=1 Frank Wilczek https://youtu.be/3z8RqKMQHe0?sub_confirmation=1 Jill Tarter https://youtu.be/O9K9OBd3vHk?sub_confirmation=1 Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/YjsPb3kBGnk?sub_confirmation=1 Sir Roger Penrose https://youtu.be/H8G5onAqlVo?sub_confirmation=1 Juan Maldacena’s First Podcast Interview: https://youtu.be/uIzTliTHn7s?sub_confirmation=1 Jim Simons: https://youtu.be/6fr8XOtbPqM?sub_confirmation=1 Sara Seager Venus LIfe: https://youtu.be/QPsEDoOTU6k?sub_confirmation=1 Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/Iaz6JIxDh6Y?sub_confirmation=1 Sabine Hossenfelder: https://youtu.be/V6dMM2-X6nk?sub_confirmation=1 Sarah Scoles: https://youtu.be/apVKobWigMw Stephen Wolfram: https://youtu.be/nSAemRxzmXM ‍♂️ Find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating Find me on Instagram at https://instagram.com/DrBrianKeating Buy my book LOSING THE NOBEL PRIZE: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA Subscribe for more great content https://www.youtube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone it's a pleasure to welcome you back to this inaugural episode of the
0:05.9	Into the Impossible Podcast I'm your ever fearful host Dr Brian Keating and today is
0:12.3	quite a treat because we are going to hear about the future from Lord Martin Reese.
0:19.0	He is the Astronomer Royal, which means that he tells not only the Queen her horoscope, but he tells
0:28.0	mortals like us as well, as you'll find out on today's episode.
0:33.2	We talk about everything in this episode, Sir Lord Martin
0:37.4	Rother, is a legend.
0:38.7	He basically founded my field of CMB polarization, as you hear about and it came about thanks to a wrong
0:46.3	turn a misdirection a distraction a mirage that later turned out to be quite
0:51.2	prescient and he is as prescient a prognosticator as exists as
0:56.2	you'll hear in this episode you'll learn many things including what he thinks about
1:01.2	artificial intelligence, blockchain, and
1:04.8	CMB. So that's ABC, artificial intelligence blockchain and
1:08.6	and cn B, but he'll also talk about his many, many interests, including how we can look forward to things in the future, but still remain cautiously pessimistic.
1:20.0	So sit back, enjoy the ride. If you can do me a favor in this year of continuing
1:26.3	pandemic podcast, I ask you to leave a small constellation of stars as a review or maybe even a written review and
1:34.4	rating on iTunes or wherever you hear this listen to this watch this
1:38.2	podcast and all my podcasts it really helps you make new friends find new guests and do better for the
1:46.5	multiverse of minds that I'm attempting to connect to one another in this
1:50.9	continuing year. So sit back, enjoy this episode of the
1:55.8	Into the Impossible Podcast.
1:57.3	Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
	...

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