Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

• Physics Absorbed Artificial Intelligence & (Maybe) Consciousness

  As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe MIT physicist Max Tegmark argues AI now belongs inside physics—and that consciousness will be next. He separates intelligence (goal-achieving behavior) from consciousness (subjective experience), sketches falsifiable experiments using brain-reading tech and rigorous theories (e.g., IIT/φ), and shows how ideas like Hopfield energy landscapes make memory “feel” like physics. We get into mechanistic interpretability (sparse autoencoders), number representations that snap into clean geometry, why RLHF mostly aligns behavior (not goals), and the stakes as AI progress accelerates from “underhyped” to civilization-shaping. It’s a masterclass on where mind, math, and machines collide. Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e Timestamps: - 00:00 - Why AI is the New Frontier of Physics - 09:38 - Is Consciousness Just a Byproduct of Intelligence? - 16:43 - A Falsifiable Theory of Consciousness? (The MEG Helmet Experiment) - 27:34 - Beyond Neural Correlates: A New Paradigm for Scientific Inquiry - 38:40 - Humanity: The Masters of Underestimation (Fermi's AI Analogy) - 51:27 - What Are an AI's True Goals? (The Serial Killer Problem) - 1:03:42 - Fermat's Principle, Entropy, and the Physics of Goals - 1:15:52 - Eureka Moment: When an AI Discovered Geometry on Its Own - 1:30:01 - Refuting the "AI Doomers": We Have More Agency Than We Think Links mentioned: - Max’s Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=eBXEZxgAAAAJ&hl=en - Language Models Use Trigonometry to Do Addition [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.00873 - Generalization from Starvation [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.08255 - Geoffrey Hinton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/b_DUft-BdIE - Michael Levin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s - Iceberg of Consciousness [TOE]: https://youtu.be/65yjqIDghEk - Improved Measures of Integrated Information [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.02626 - David Kaiser [TOE]: https://youtu.be/_yebLXsIdwo - Iain McGilchrist [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Q9sBKCd2HD0 - Elan Barenholtz & William Hahn [TOE]: https://youtu.be/A36OumnSrWY - Daniel Schmachtenberger [TOE]: https://youtu.be/g7WtcTATa2U - Ted Jacobson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8 - The “All Possible Paths” Myth [TOE]: https://youtu.be/XcY3ZtgYis0 SUPPORT: - Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join - Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 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 labelled sponsors; no guest or associated entity has ever given compensation, directly or through intermediaries. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  1:49:53

  --------

  1:49:53
• Christian Symbolism, Heaven, Earth, Femininity, & Satan | Matthieu Pageau

  As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe In this episode, I speak with Matthieu Pageau, author of The Language of Creation. This is a rare (and almost unbelievable) interview. With a high degree of likelihood, I can say that this interview, if watched all the way until the end, will change your life. Pageau argues that Satan is first a function—the tester and accuser—before a villain. Think Job’s auditor or a hired penetration tester. When will-to-power takes over, the function falls. He lays out a symbolic grammar: heaven as plan, earth as materials. Water renews. The feminine crowns and renovates forms. Abraham and Moses act as faithful adversaries. Adam and Eve show what secrecy breaks. Borderline stories like Tamar and Ruth trace exile and redemption. Pageau speaks from his own exile, leaning Orthodox/Catholic, critiquing without grasping for power, and letting reality correct him. Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e Timestamps: - 00:00 - Who Are You? (Identity as Relational vs. Self-Defined) - 04:54 - How Matthieu’s Project Differs From His Brother’s (Jonathan Pageau) - 10:25 - The God-Created Function of Satan vs. The Fallen Entity - 18:34 - Are Internal Critics “Functional Satanists”? - 23:02 - Satan in the Book of Job: The Divine Hacker - 27:50 - The Axioms of Reality: A Computer Scientist’s Worldview - 32:08 - Heaven as “The Plan,” Earth as “The Materials” - 36:50 - The Dual Nature of Chaos (Symbolism of Water) - 44:08 - Why Are Women Central to the Resurrection Story? - 49:14 - The Simple Act That Could Have Prevented “The Fall” - 52:18 - Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem as the ‘Feminine’ Crown - 59:31 - Redeeming the Exiled: The Pattern of Ruth - 1:05:00 - A Christian in Exile: Matthieu’s Spiritual Homelessness - 1:16:15 - How to Escape Metaphysical Exile - 1:21:44 - The Will to Power: When Criticism Becomes Corrupt - 1:26:53 - The Paradox: Why You MUST Believe Yours is ‘The Real Church’ - 1:34:25 - What ‘Nature’ Truly Means - 1:47:44 - Why Renewal, Updating, and Competition Are ‘Feminine’ - 1:55:10 - The Story of Tamar: Deception as Righteous Renewal - 2:01:00 - How to Read the Bible Symbolically - 2:09:51 - Why Symbolism Applies to Stories, Not Raw Data - 2:21:34 - The ‘Dangerous’ Vision That Birthed The Book - 2:31:31 - Mind vs. Spirit vs. Outlook (And The Final Paradox) Links Mentioned: - The Language Of Creation [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Language-Creation-Symbolism-Genesis-Commentary/dp/1981549331/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0 - Jonathan Pageau [TOE]: https://youtu.be/X3co_AA6yec - Wolfgang Smith [TOE]: https://youtu.be/vp18_L_y_30 - Claudia de Rham [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Ve_Mpd6dGv8 - Leo Gura [TOE]: https://youtu.be/YspFR9JAq3w - The Story Of The Fall: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203&version=NIV - The Most Abused Theorem In Math [TOE]: https://youtu.be/OH-ybecvuEo SUPPORT: - Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join - Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 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 labelled sponsors; no guest or associated entity has ever given compensation, directly or through intermediaries. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  2:50:40

  --------

  2:50:40
• Frederic Schuller: The Physicist Who Derived Gravity From Electromagnetism

  As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe In this episode, I speak with Frederic Schuller, an award-winning theoretical physicist and professor, who insists the undergrad tale of energy sloshing between kinetic and potential is just talk unless the math says so. Borrowing Port-Hamiltonian thinking, he’s building probability ports to pull measurement talk into actual quantum formalism—no change to QM, just sharper math. He also flips gravity: start from the matter action and construct the compatible gravitational dynamics—Maxwell in, Einstein–Hilbert out. And if nature ever breaks our current causal picture, the scheme points to richer structures (and the gravity to match)—a modest idea, pushed hard. Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e Timestamps: - 00:00 - Deriving Einstein from Maxwell Alone - 05:55 - Why Energy Doesn't Flow in Quantum Systems - 11:45 - How Modest Ideas Lead to Spacetime Revolution - 19:00 - Matter Dynamics Dictate Spacetime Geometry - 24:03 - Maxwell to Einstein-Hilbert Action - 31:00 - If Light Rays Split in Vacuum Then Einstein is Wrong - 38:04 - When Your Theory is Wrong - 46:10 - From Propositional Logic to Differential Geometry - 54:00 - Never Use Motivating Examples - 1:02:00 - Why Only Active Researchers Should Teach - 1:09:40 - High Demands as Greatest Motivator - 1:16:00 - Is Gravity a Force? - 1:27:00 - Academic Freedom vs Bureaucratic Science - 1:38:00 - Why String Theory Didn't Feel Right - 1:46:05 - Formal vs Conceptual Understanding - 1:54:10 - Master Any Subject: Check Every Equal Sign - 2:04:00 - The Drama of Blackboard Teaching - 2:13:15 - Why Physical Presence Matters in Universities Links Mentioned: - Frederic’s Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations - Frederic’s Lectures: https://www.youtube.com/@FredericSchuller - Frederic’s Bio: https://people.utwente.nl/f.p.schuller - General Relativity Lecture Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist - Quantum Harmonic Oscillator [Lecture]: https://youtu.be/s3I_MGfGm-w - Constructive Gravity [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2003.09726 - Geometry Of Manifolds [Paper]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-th/0508170 - Jacob Barandes [TOE]: https://youtu.be/7oWip00iXbo - Roger Penrose [TOE]: https://youtu.be/sGm505TFMbU - All Possible Paths [TOE]: https://youtu.be/XcY3ZtgYis0 - Neil Turok [TOE]: https://youtu.be/ZUp9x44N3uE - Space-Time Structure [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Space-Time-Structure-Cambridge-Science-Classics/dp/0521315204 - Greg Chaitin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/PoEuav8G6sY - Ivette Fuentes [TOE]: https://youtu.be/cUj2TcZSlZc - Ted Jacobson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8 - Eva Miranda [TOE]: https://youtu.be/6XyMepn-AZo - Jonathan Oppenheim [TOE]: https://youtu.be/6Z_p3viqW1g - String Theory Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/X4PdPnQuwjY - Sabine Hossenfelder [TOE]: https://youtu.be/E3y-Z0pgupg - Leonard Susskind [TOE]: https://youtu.be/2p_Hlm6aCok - What Is Energy? [TOE]: https://youtu.be/hQk9GLZ0Fms - Claudia De Rham [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Ve_Mpd6dGv8 SUPPORT: - Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join - Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 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 labelled sponsors; no guest or associated entity has ever given compensation, directly or through intermediaries. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  2:37:22

  --------

  2:37:22
• The Nobel Laureate Who (Also) Says Quantum Theory Is "Totally Wrong"

  As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe In this episode, I speak with Nobel laureate Gerard ’t Hooft, a theoretical physicist known for his work on the electroweak interaction and his radical ideas about quantum mechanics. To him, the universe is a cosmic pinball machine. Every ball follows a fixed path. No randomness. No mystery. We only invented quantum mechanics to cope with our ignorance. In his picture, there are no real numbers. No wave functions. No superposition. Just discrete states clicking forward, one after another, beneath everything we see. Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e Timestamps: - 00:00 - Why Quantum Mechanics is Fundamentally Wrong - 05:00 - The Frustrating Blind Spots of Modern Physicists - 11:27 - The "Hidden Variables" That Truly Explain Reality - 17:00 - The "True" Equations of the Universe Will Have No Superposition - 23:00 - Our Universe as a Cellular Automaton - 30:02 - Why Real Numbers Don't Exist in Physics - 39:14 - Can This Radical Theory Even Be Falsified? - 46:29 - How Superdeterminism Defeats Bell's Theorem - 58:19 - 't Hooft's Radical View on Quantum Gravity - 1:08:24 - Solving the Black Hole Information Paradox with "Clones" - 1:14:00 - What YOU Would Experience Falling Into a Black Hole - 1:20:17 - How 't Hooft Almost Beat a Nobel Prize Discovery Links Mentioned: - Gerard’s site: https://webspace.science.uu.nl/~hooft101/ - Gerard’s papers: https://inspirehep.net/authors/1019113 - Cellular Automaton Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Cellular-Automaton-Interpretation-Mechanics-Fundamental/dp/3319823140 - David Wallace [TOE]: https://youtu.be/4MjNuJK5RzM - Emily Adlam & Jacob Barandes [TOE]: https://youtu.be/rw1ewLJUgOg - Roger Penrose [TOE]: https://youtu.be/sGm505TFMbU - Conway’s Game Of Life: https://playgameoflife.com/ - Julian Barbour [TOE]: https://youtu.be/bprxrGaf0Os - Emily Adlam [TOE]: https://youtu.be/6I2OhmVWLMs - Sabine’s video on Gerard: https://youtu.be/2kxoq5UzAEQ - Sabine Hossenfelder [TOE]: https://youtu.be/E3y-Z0pgupg - Tim Palmer [TOE]: https://youtu.be/vlklA6jsS8A - Carlo Rovelli [TOE]: https://youtu.be/hF4SAketEHY - Stephen Wolfram [TOE]: https://youtu.be/0YRlQQw0d-4 - Bernardo Kastrup & Sabine Hossenfelder [TOE]: https://youtu.be/kJmBmopxc1k - Tim Maudlin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/fU1bs5o3nss - Jacob Barandes [TOE]: https://youtu.be/wrUvtqr4wOs - Ted Jacobson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3mhctWlXyV8 - Claudia De Rham [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Ve_Mpd6dGv8 - Neil Turok [TOE]: https://youtu.be/ZUp9x44N3uE - Latham Boyle [TOE]: https://youtu.be/nyLeeEFKk04 - David Kaiser [TOE]: https://youtu.be/_yebLXsIdwo - String Theory Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/X4PdPnQuwjY - Birth of Asymptotic Freedom [Paper]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0550321385902068 - How To Become A Good Theoretical Physicist [Article]: https://www.goodtheorist.science/index.html SUPPORT: - Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join - Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 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 labelled sponsors; no guest or associated entity has ever given compensation, directly or through intermediaries. #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  1:33:35

  --------

  1:33:35
• Philosophers vs. Physicists

  Curt discusses how philosophy has directly contributed to physics through Bell's theorem, decoherence theory, the hole argument, and more. Meanwhile, via John Norton, we uncover the hidden philosophical assumptions in physics that most scientists don’t even realize they’re making. As a listener of TOE you can get a special 20% off discount to The Economist and all it has to offer! Visit https://www.economist.com/toe Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e SUPPORT: - Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join - Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal - Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/de803625-87d3-4300-ab6d-85d4258834a9 - Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4 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 labelled sponsors; no guest or associated entity has ever given compensation, directly or through intermediaries. LINKS MENTIONED: - Curt's Substack article: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/philosophers-vs-physicists - John Norton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Tghl6aS5A3M - Neil deGrasse Tyson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/ye9OkJih3-U - How Not to Do Philosophy of Science [article]: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/Goodies/How_not/How_not.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com - Jacob Barandes [TOE]: https://youtu.be/gEK4-XtMwro - The Hole Argument: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spacetime-holearg/ - General covariance and general relativity [paper]: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/decades.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com - Emily Adlam Λ Jacob Barandes [TOE]: https://youtu.be/rw1ewLJUgOg - Eaters of the lotus [paper]: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/Eaters_final.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com - John Norton’s profile: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/jdnorton.html For further reading on these critiques of instrumentalism: - Hempel (1988) - Oltre il positivismo logico - Popper (1963) - Conjectures and Refutations, Ch. 3 - Deutsch (1997) - The Fabric of Reality #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  9:31

  --------

  9:31

Más podcasts de Ciencias

Podcasts a la moda de Ciencias

Acerca de Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal: Podcasts del grupo