Synopsis
A podcast of stories, ideas, and speculations from the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. Each month, we'll bring you into a conversation between visionaries from the worlds of arts, sciences, humanities, engineering, and medicine on the nature of the imagination and how, through speculative culture, we collaborate to create the future.
Episodes
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Sean Carroll’s Biggest Ideas (#259)
20/09/2022 Duration: 01h28minSean Carroll joins me to discuss his magnificent new book, The Biggest Ideas In the Universe. Sean is an American theoretical physicist and philosopher who specializes in quantum mechanics, gravity, and cosmology. He is the Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He has been a contributor to the physics blog Cosmic Variance, and has published in scientific journals such as Nature as well as other publications, including The New York Times, Sky & Telescope and New Scientist. He is known for atheism, critique of theism and defense of naturalism. He has appeared on the History Channel's The Universe, Science Channel's Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, Closer to Truth (broadcast on PBS), and Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Carroll is the author of Spacetime And Geometry, a graduate-level textbook in general relativity, and has also recorded lectures for The Great Courses on cosmology, the physics of time and the Higgs boson. He is also the author of four oth
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Proving the Big Bang Happened with Dr Brian Keating on The Fraser Cain Show (#258)
18/09/2022 Duration: 01h13minFraser Cain, science youtuber and publisher www.universetoday.com interviews Dr. Brian Keating. They discussed the evidence for the Big Bang and the impact of James Webb Space Telescope on our current understanding of the Universe. See the video version here. www.universetoday.com Connect with me:
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Brian Keating on the Abhijit Chavda Podcast: Big Bang Theory, Alien Life, Cosmology, and the Nobel Prize (#257)
11/09/2022 Duration: 01h12minBrian is interviewed by Abhijit Chavda. Abhijit is a theoretical physicist, technologist, writer and host of the #AskAbhijit podcast and youtube channel. His work in theoretical physics involves research on the topics of dark matter, dark energy, black hole physics, quantum gravity and physical cosmology. He has authored and co-authored several research papers on these topics. He discusses a variety of eclectic topics including: Indian & world history, science, geopolitics, power, culture, art, education, technology, philosophy, the future of humanity, and everything in between and beyond. Abhijit Chavda Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/abhijit-chavda-podcast/id1583307621 https://twitter.com/AbhijitChavda https://www.youtube.com/c/AbhijitChavda Connect with me:
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Nick Bostrom: Superintelligence (#256)
07/09/2022 Duration: 01h08minNick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test. In 2011, he founded the Oxford Martin Program on the Impacts of Future Technology and is the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University. In 2009 and 2015, he was included in Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers list. Bostrom is the author of over 200 publications, and has written two books and co-edited two others. The two books he has authored are Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy (2002) and Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014). Superintelligence was a New York Times bestseller, was recommended by Elon Musk and Bill Gates among others, and helped to popularize the term "superintelligence". Bostrom believes that superintelligence, which he defines as "any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of
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Errors in the Big Bang Never Happened (#255)
03/09/2022 Duration: 01h03minThere's been speculation in the popular press, primarily by Eric Lerner ( @LPPFusion ), claiming the Big Bang never happened. Supposedly, new data from the James Webb Space Telescope presents a 'crisis' for an old universe that emerged from a hot dense plasma, in favor of a much more ancient cosmology -- a plasma cosmology. Prof. Lewis and I will present flaws in Eric Lerner's article, loosely based on his 30-year-old book of nearly the same name, "The Big Bang Never Happened", and evidence that contradicts his claims about the so-called crisis. Slides will be posted to my mailing list briankeating.com/list Yet the underpinnings of the Big Bang are more solid than ever, thanks in large part to the fossil evidence astrophysicists have found of primordial nucleosynthesis, also called BBN. Join us for a deep dive into the physics of the formation of the elements, the redshift distance relation, and the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation -- perhaps the most indisputable evidence for the hot Big Bang there is.
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Dark Matter Doesn't Exist? With Mordehai "Moti" Milgrom (#253)
28/08/2022 Duration: 01h02minMordehai "Moti" Milgrom is an Israeli physicist and the Isidor Rabi Professor Emeritus of Physics in the department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. He received his B.Sc. degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1966. Later he studied at the Weizmann Institute of Science and completed his doctorate in 1972. In 1981, he proposed Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) as an alternative to the dark matter and galaxy rotation curve problems. Milgrom suggests that Newton's Second Law be modified for very small accelerations. In the academic years 1980–1981 and 1985–1986 he was at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Before 1980 he worked primarily on high-energy astrophysics and became well-known for his kinematical model of the star system SS 43. Connect with me:
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Claim: The Big Bang NEVER Happened? (#252)
24/08/2022 Duration: 40minBy popular demand, I'll present 10 reasons why I believe Eric Lerner's article, based on his 30 year old book of nearly the same name, "The Big Bang Never Happened" is wrong, as well as some legitimate claims he raises. Join me for some live questions and maybe some answers. Along the way, I'll provide insight into how I review such claims and how you can too even if you're not a professional cosmologist to judge for yourself Resources: https://iai.tv/articles/the-big-bang-didnt-happen-auid-2215 UCLA Professor Ned Wright: Errors in the "The Big Bang Never Happened": https://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/lerner_errors.html Watch my deep dive into the physics of the Big Bang nucleosynthesis: https://youtu.be/XLT05w79c64 T There's been lots of speculation in the popular press claiming the Big Bang never happened. Supposedly, new data from the James Webb Space Telescope presents a crisis for an old universe that emerged from a hot dense plasma, in favor of a much more ancient cosmology -- a plasma cosmology.
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This Proves the Big Bang Happened: 30 Minute Thesis (#251)
23/08/2022 Duration: 28minThere's been lots of speculation in the popular press claiming the Big Bang never happened. Supposedly, new data from the James Webb Space Telescope presents a crisis for an old universe that emerged from a hot dense plasma, in favor of a much more ancient cosmology -- a plasma cosmology. Yet the underpinnings of the Big Bang are more solid than ever, thanks in large part to the fossil evidence astrophysicists have found of primordial nucleosynthesis, also called BBN. Join me for a deep-dive into the physics of the formation of the elements, perhaps the most indisputable evidence for the hot Big Bang there is. 00:00 Intro 00:01 Pillars of the Big Bang Theory 05:40 I meant to say hydrogen makes up 60-70% of the body by atoms, not by mass 08:00 Time vs. temperature in the early universe 10:00 Planck's Law 19:00 Deuterium 20:20 What does Neil think? Connect with me:
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The Milky Way: An Autobiography with Dr. Moiya McTier (#250)
16/08/2022 Duration: 58minAstrophysicist and folklorist Dr. Moiya McTier channels The Milky Way in this approachable and utterly fascinating autobiography of the titular galaxy, detailing what humans have discovered about everything from its formation to its eventual death, and what more there is to learn about this galaxy we call home. After a few billion years of bearing witness to life on Earth, of watching one hundred billion humans go about their day-to-day lives, of feeling unbelievably lonely, and of hearing its own story told by others, The Milky Way would like a chance to speak for itself. All one hundred billion stars and fifty undecillion tons of gas of it. It all began some thirteen billion years ago, when clouds of gas scattered through the universe's primordial plasma just could not keep their metaphorical hands off each other. They succumbed to their gravitational attraction, and the galaxy we know as the Milky Way was born. Since then, the galaxy has watched as dark energy pushed away its first friends, as humans mytho
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Sabine Hossenfelder Gets Existential Without the Gobbledygook(#249)
09/08/2022 Duration: 01h16minFrom renowned physicist and creator of the YouTube series “Science without the Gobbledygook,” a book that takes a no-nonsense approach to life’s biggest questions, and wrestles with what physics really says about the human condition Not only can we not currently explain the origin of the universe, it is questionable we will ever be able to explain it. The notion that there are universes within particles, or that particles are conscious, is as scientific, as is the hypothesis that our universe is a computer simulation. On the other hand, the idea that the universe itself is conscious is difficult to rule out entirely. According to Sabine Hossenfelder, it is not a coincidence that quantum entanglement and vacuum energy have become the go-to explanations of alternative healers, or that people believe their deceased grandmother is still alive because of quantum mechanics. Science and religion have the same roots, and they still tackle some of the same questions: Where do we come from? Where do we go to? How much
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Part 2: Sir Roger Penrose & Stuart Hameroff: What is Consciousness? (#248)
08/08/2022 Duration: 01h18minA conversation with Nobel Prize Winner and renowned mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist Dr. Stuart Hameroff about consciousness and quantum mechanics. Sir Roger Penrose and Dr. Stuart Hameroff have tackled one of the most vexing problems in science -- how does consciousness work? Their theories of consciousness were selected by the Templeton Foundation for study. We will discuss Is the brain a sophisticated computer or an intuitive thinking device? Following on from their conference in Tucson which pitted Integrated Information Theory (IIT) against Orchestrated Objective Reduction (Orch-OR), Sir Roger Penrose OM and Stuart Hameroff discuss the current state of theories that might explain human consciousness and objections to them from FQXI and others. Sir Roger Penrose describe examples of ‘non-computability’ in human consciousness, thoughts and actions such as the way we evaluate particular chess positions which cast doubt on ‘Turing’ computation as a complete explanation of brain f
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Part 1: Sir Roger Penrose & Stuart Hameroff: What is Consciousness? (#247)
07/08/2022 Duration: 31minA conversation with Nobel Prize Winner and renowned mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist Dr. Stuart Hameroff about consciousness and quantum mechanics. 00:00 Intro 01:00 Happy Birthday to Sir Roger! 05:00 Updates to The Emperor's New Mind 07:00 What about Schrödinger’s Cat? Part 2: https://youtu.be/OoDi856wLPM Sir Roger Penrose and Dr. Stuart Hameroff have tackled one of the most vexing problems in science -- how does consciousness work? Their theories of consciousness were selected by the Templeton Foundation for study. We will discuss Is the brain a sophisticated computer or an intuitive thinking device? Following on from their conference in Tucson which pitted Integrated Information Theory (IIT) against Orchestrated Objective Reduction (Orch-OR), Sir Roger Penrose OM and Stuart Hameroff discuss the current state of theories that might explain human consciousness and objections to them from FQXI and others. Sir Roger Penrose describe examples of ‘non-computability’ in human c
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If You Believe In God, Do This! A Conversation with Dennis Prager (#246)
04/08/2022 Duration: 35minDennis Prager and Brian Keating discuss the findings and impact of the James Webb Space Telescope. Brian's Prager videos: Prager U-What's a Greater Leap of Faith: God or the Multiverse?: https://www.prageru.com/video/whats-a-greater-leap-of-faith-god-or-the-multiverse Prager U-Follow The Sciene: https://www.prageru.com/video/follow-the-science Brian Keating on The Dennis Prager Show Ultimate Issues Hour, Sept 24 2019 https://youtu.be/uvU0FFt2rIY Dennis Prager interview with Professor Brian Keating: https://youtu.be/3E_6pIsQTjM Be Brian's friend:
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Part 2 of 2: Quantum Physics and The End of Reality with Sabine Hossenfelder, Carlo Rovelli, and Eric Weinstein hosted by Brian Keating for the Institute for Art and Ideas (#245)
01/08/2022 Duration: 48minWe imagine physics is objective. But quantum physics found the act of human observation changes the outcome of experiment. Many scientists assume this central role of the observer is limited to just quantum physics. But is this an error? As Heisenberg puts it, "what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning." In all our studies of reality and nature then, the observer plays a role -- not just in quantum physics. Should we recognize science can never access reality independent of the observer? Should we re-define science not as uncovering objective reality, but as uncovering the functions, limitations and structures of the mind of the observer themselves? And if we cannot remove the observer, might quantum physics help us to understand the observer - as Roger Penrose suggests consciousness "reeks of something quantum mechanical." Sabine Hossenfelder is a research fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, author of Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Ast
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Part 1 of 2: Quantum Physics and The End of Reality with Sabine Hossenfelder, Carlo Rovelli, and Eric Weinstein hosted by Brian Keating for the Institute for Art and Ideas (#244)
31/07/2022 Duration: 38minWe imagine physics is objective. But quantum physics found the act of human observation changes the outcome of experiment. Many scientists assume this central role of the observer is limited to just quantum physics. But is this an error? As Heisenberg puts it, "what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning." In all our studies of reality and nature then, the observer plays a role -- not just in quantum physics. Should we recognize science can never access reality independent of the observer? Should we re-define science not as uncovering objective reality, but as uncovering the functions, limitations and structures of the mind of the observer themselves? And if we cannot remove the observer, might quantum physics help us to understand the observer - as Roger Penrose suggests consciousness "reeks of something quantum mechanical." Sabine Hossenfelder is a research fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, author of Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Ast
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Ben Shapiro REACTS to New NASA Facts! (#243)
28/07/2022 Duration: 09minIn July NASA released the first images and data from the James Webb Space Telescope. Here's my discussion with @Ben Shapiro on this treasure trove of data including: Carina Nebula. The Carina Nebula is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, located approximately 7,600 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. Nebulae are stellar nurseries where stars form. The Carina Nebula is home to many massive stars, several times larger than the Sun. WASP-96 b (spectrum). WASP-96 b is a giant planet outside our solar system, composed mainly of gas. The planet, located nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth, orbits its star every 3.4 days. It has about half the mass of Jupiter, and its discovery was announced in 2014. Southern Ring Nebula. The Southern Ring, or “Eight-Burst” nebula, is a planetary nebula – an expanding cloud of gas, surrounding a dying star. It is nearly half a light-year in diameter and is located approximately 2,000 light years away from Earth. Stephan’s Quintet: About 290 millio
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The Elephant In The Universe: Govert Schilling (#242)
24/07/2022 Duration: 01h08minIn The Elephant in the Universe, Govert Schilling explores the fascinating history of the search for dark matter. Evidence for its existence comes from a wealth of astronomical observations. Theories and computer simulations of the evolution of the universe are also suggestive: they can be reconciled with astronomical measurements only if dark matter is a dominant component of nature. Physicists have devised huge, sensitive instruments to search for dark matter, which may be unlike anything else in the cosmos—some unknown elementary particle. Yet so far dark matter has escaped every experiment. Indeed, dark matter is so elusive that some scientists are beginning to suspect there might be something wrong with our theories about gravity or with the current paradigms of cosmology. Schilling interviews both believers and heretics and paints a colorful picture of the history and current status of dark matter research, with astronomers and physicists alike trying to make sense of theory and observation. Govert Schi
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Brian Keating with James Altucher (#241)
20/07/2022 Duration: 01h12minHave you ever thought about why Galileo Galilei, an Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer was willing to risk his life to speak out about science against the will of the church at that time? How was science back then? How can America maintain its leadership in the sciences? Is it slipping? Dr. Brian Keating, an American physicist, podcaster, and author, talks to James Altucher about his project of making the first-ever audiobook that was written by Galileo Galilei, and we also brainstorm on how we could better fund science. Download the first-ever audiobook by Galileo Galilei for your chance to win space dust here: https://BrianKeating.com/dialogue Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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James Webb Space Telescope First Results Q & A with Project Scientist John Mather, Nobel Prizewinner (#240)
17/07/2022 Duration: 35min@NASAWebb Senior Project Scientist, and @NobelPrize winner, John Mather answers questions about the JWST from listeners of Into The Impossible.
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Astrophysics Professor Explains James Webb Space Telescope Results: What do they mean? What's next? (#239)
13/07/2022 Duration: 18minWatch this on Youtube! Today NASA released the first images and data from the James Webb Space Telescope. Here's my reaction to this treasure trove of light, including: Carina Nebula. The Carina Nebula is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, located approximately 7,600 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. Nebulae are stellar nurseries where stars form. The Carina Nebula is home to many massive stars, several times larger than the Sun. WASP-96 b (spectrum). WASP-96 b is a giant planet outside our solar system, composed mainly of gas. The planet, located nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth, orbits its star every 3.4 days. It has about half the mass of Jupiter, and its discovery was announced in 2014. Southern Ring Nebula. The Southern Ring, or “Eight-Burst” nebula, is a planetary nebula – an expanding cloud of gas, surrounding a dying star. It is nearly half a light-year in diameter and is located approximately 2,000 light years away from Earth. Stephan’s Quintet: About 290 mil