Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

• Your Brain Isn’t a Computer and That Changes Everything

  The best way to cook just got better. Go to http://HelloFresh.com/THEORIESOFEVERYTHING10FM now to Get 10 Free Meals + a Free Item for Life! * One per box with active subscription. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan. Get 50% off Claude Pro, including access to Claude Code, at http://claude.ai/theoriesofeverything For the first time on TOE, I sit down with professors Anil Seth and Michael Levin to test the brain-as-computer metaphor and whether algorithms can ever capture life/mind. Anil argues the “software vs. hardware” split is a blinding metaphor—consciousness may be bound to living substrate—while Michael counters that machines can tap the same platonic space biology does. We tour their radical lab work—xenobots, compositional agents, and interfaces that bind unlike parts—and probe psychophysics in strange new beings, “islands of awareness,” and what Levin’s bubble-sort “side quests” imply for reading LLM outputs. Anil brings information theory and Granger causality into the mix to rethink emergence and scale—not just computation. Along the way: alignment, agency, and how to ask better scientific questions. If you’re into AI/consciousness, evolution without programming, or whether silicon could ever feel—this one’s for you. Timestamps: - 00:00 - Anil Seth & Michael Levin: Islands of Consciousness & Xenobots - 08:24 - Substrate Dependence: Why Biology Isn't Just 'Wetware' - 13:13 - Beyond Algorithms: Do Machines Tap Into a 'Platonic Space'? - 21:46 - The Ghost in the Algorithm: Emergent Agency in Bubble Sort - 29:26 - Degeneracy: The Biological Principle AI is Missing - 36:34 - The Multiplicity of Agency: Are Your Cells Conscious? - 43:24 - Unconscious Processing or Inaccessible Consciousness? The Split-Brain Problem - 49:32 - The Ultimate Experiment to Decode Consciousness - 57:31 - A Counter-Intuitive Discovery: Consciousness is *Less* Emergent - 1:03:39 - Psychedelics, LLMs, and the Frontiers of Surprise Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Lilian Dindo: Mindfulness, Acceptance, Coping with Obsessive Thoughts, and ACT Therapy

  YouTube link: https://youtu.be/L_hI7JNsbt0 Lilian Dindo is a Professor of Medicine at Baylor College, and we talk about ACT therapy. Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal Crypto: https://tinyurl.com/cryptoTOE PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/better-left-unsaid-with-curt-jaimungal/id1521758802 Pandora: https://pdora.co/33b9lfP Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e Subreddit r/TheoriesOfEverything: https://reddit.com/r/theoriesofeverything Merch: https://tinyurl.com/TOEmerch LILIAN'S LINKS: -http://actfindyourpath.com -https://www.bcm.edu/people-search/lilian-dindo-20557 -https://www.bcm.edu/research/faculty-labs/act-on-health-lab -http://contextualscience.org LINKS MENTIONED: -Karl Friston episode: https://youtu.be/SWtFU1Lit3M -A H Almaas episode: https://youtu.be/6JlKf1QAvXA -Curt's Crash Course on Theoretical Physics: https://youtu.be/e8kyvdPP8os TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:04:05 What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) therapy? 00:08:12 Suffering is a part of life 00:11:06 ACT is not just for therapy, but for general illness and rejection 00:14:24 Lilian's feeling anxiety in this interview *right now*, but ACT is helping 00:15:57 Dealing with panic attacks 00:18:22 "Anxiety" and "excitement" are physiologically indistinguishable 00:20:00 Implementing ACT (specific example) 00:26:15 Stop avoiding. The mind works by addition (not subtraction)! 00:30:00 Choosing courage vs. "mustering" courage 00:30:51 Coping vs. mollifying 00:33:45 Goal oriented vs. Value oriented 00:36:06 How to uncover your own values? 00:42:14 Do values imply a "should"? (specific example) 00:47:45 What separates those for whom therapy works for, from those who it doesn't? 00:54:57 Suicidal ideation / psychosis (there's hope with ACT) 00:57:14 Enhancing learning math / physics 00:59:50 Acceptance vs Acknowledgement 01:01:40 Physical vs Psychology (mind and body connection) 01:05:53 A visual example you can employ to abate anxiety 01:10:39 The role of belief / hope / faith / trust 01:11:08 "Thanking" the negative thought / emotion 01:11:50 People don't suffer with just ONE issue, but multiple Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• The Mathematics That Predicts Your DMT Trip

  Improve your sleep today! Head to https://evening.ver.so/toe to get 15% off your first order of Verso's Nightcap Elixir. 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 Live from MIT Media Lab’s Augmentation Lab Summit, I speak with Andres Gomez-Emilsson of the Qualia Research Institute about modeling consciousness and rendering it. You haven't seen psychedelic visuals /experiences explained like this before. We separate qualia from sensory input and map the “geometry” of experience through color—synesthesia, pure hues, after-images, and “is your blue my blue?” Andres demos QRI’s GPU tool, a Photoshop for psychedelia built on coupled oscillators and feedback. It recreates LSD/psilocybin’s fractal tapestries, DMT’s entity-like mirror tunnels, global synchrony, and “white-out.” We cover “psychedelic thermodynamics,” neural annealing and valence flips, and pseudo-time—loops and timeless stretches. The episode makes a case for real-time, in-state phenomenology over questionnaires. This was specifically structured to be informative to both those who have never experienced psychedelics and those who are, let’s say, well acquainted. Thank you to Dunya Baradari, Addy Cha, and Andres, of course. Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b9... SUPPORT: Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos):    / @theoriesofeverything   Support me on Patreon:   / curtjaimungal   Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkou... Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_... Twitter:   / toewithcurt   Discord Invite:   / discord   SOCIALS: 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Curt Jaimungal: 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/4gL14b9... SUPPORT: Become a YouTube Member (Early Access Videos):    / @theoriesofeverything   Support me on Patreon:   / curtjaimungal   Support me on Crypto: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkou... Support me on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_... Twitter:   / toewithcurt   Discord Invite:   / discord   Curt's Substack article: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/... John Norton [TOE]:    • The 300-Year-Old Physics Mistake No One No...   Neil deGrasse Tyson [TOE]:    • "Philosophers Are USELESS!" Neil & Curt Cl...   How Not to Do Philosophy of Science [article]: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/Good... Jacob Barandes [TOE]:    • The Physicist Who Found Quantum Theory's U...   The Hole Argument: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sp... General covariance and general relativity [paper]: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/pape... Emily Adlam Λ Jacob Barandes [TOE]:    • Harvard Physicist: Why Multiple Universes ...   Eaters of the lotus [paper]: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/pape... John Norton’s profile: https://sites.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/jdno... Hempel (1988) - Oltre il positivismo logico Popper (1963) - Conjectures and Refutations, Ch. 3 Deutsch (1997) - The Fabric of Reality SOCIALS: 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: For further reading on these critiques of instrumentalism: #science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Stephen Wolfram: Computation, Physics, Going Beyond "Evolution"

  Get 50% off Claude Pro, including access to Claude Code, at http://claude.ai/theoriesofeverything 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 Stephen Wolfram—creator of Mathematica and Wolfram Language—about a “new kind of science” that treats the universe as computation. We explore computational irreducibility, discrete space, multi-way systems, and how the observer shapes the laws we perceive—from the second law of thermodynamics to quantum mechanics. Wolfram reframes Feynman diagrams as causal structures, connects evolution and modern AI through coarse fitness and assembled “lumps” of computation, and sketches a nascent theory of biology as bulk orchestration. We also discuss what makes science good: new tools, ruthless visualization, respect for history, and a field he calls “ruliology”—the study of simple rules, where anyone can still make real contributions. This is basically a documentary akin to The Life and Times of Stephen Wolfram. I hope you enjoy it. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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