Do you like philosophising? Then this conversation is for YOU! 🫵🏻

Brad Wray (https://shorturl.at/gY9Oh) is Associate Professor at Aarhus University, and together we tackle deep philosophical questions.

Find Back to the Stone Age on:

• YouTube: https://shorturl.at/c5a37
• Spotify: https://shorturl.at/11x47
• Apple Podcast: https://shorturl.at/pFRCC

Outline

00:35 - Philosophy of Science

01:17 - Definition of knowledge

01:52 - How do scientific discoveries shape our understanding of reality?

02:26 - Metaphysics

09:56 - God in Philosophy

11:41 - Limitation of human knowledge

13:52 - Theory of everything

19:45 - How is knowledge acquired?

29:24 - Role of epistemic communities for knowledge acquisition

34:40 - Disruptive science and increase of scientific papers

46:03 - Academic vs technological development

51:38 - Artificial intelligence and technology

01:00:44 - Collaborating with other researchers

01:04:15 - Thomas Kuhn

01:06:02 - Paradigm in science

01:13:30 - Kuhn cycle

01:20:19 - Revolutionising paradigm shifts: Copernican revolution and Plate tectonics

01:32:15 - Incommensurability in scientific revolutions

01:40:18 - Planck's principle

01:45:55 - Role of theories in understanding reality

01:52:11 - Is scientific progress linear?

01:52:55 - Scientific realism

01:58:25 - Antirealist perspective

02:05:40 - Death

02:09:25 - Nuclear weapons

02:16:27 - Conclusion

Enjoy Back to the Stone Age!

Here is a conversation I've had with Daniel Ruberman, Professor of Mathematics.

Daniel's website: https://people.brandeis.edu/~ruberman/

Find Back to the Stone Age on:

• YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZrhMJ5eusE_ACw6Ec3TqCbvDVZ6HP809&si=WhVnrLLAUuYW-Any
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3pT8MUeR8bskcsuu8gmUGK
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/back-to-the-stone-age/id1741219288

Outline

00:16 - Is math invented or discovered?

05:30 - Mathematics and the physical world

28:02 - Topology

38:00 - Manifolds and smooth manifolds

52:31 - Higher dimensions and low-dimensional topology

01:04:39 - Intuition about 4th dimension

01:24:01 - Gauge theories

01:38:02 - Knots and manifolds

01:44:33 - Applications of knot theory and topology

01:50:28 - Infinity

01:56:38 - Final thoughts

Enjoy Back to the Stone Age!

Some fundamental questions today with Gimmy, PhD student at GRAPPA doing research in black holes, gravitational-wave astronomy, and dark matter.

Gimmy is soon going to the Institute of Advanced Study of Princeton for a postdoc!

Gimmy's website: https://gimmytomas.github.io/index.html

Find Back to the Stone Age on:

• YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZrhMJ5eusE_ACw6Ec3TqCbvDVZ6HP809&si=WhVnrLLAUuYW-Any
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3pT8MUeR8bskcsuu8gmUGK
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/back-to-the-stone-age/id1741219288

Outline

00:32 - Is math invented or discovered?

06:40 - Are paradoxes intrinsic to our reality?

11:20 - String theory and mathematics

16:53 - Theories of everything

24:00 - Reconciling gravity and quantum mechanics

30:00 - Understanding the origin of the Big Bang

37:05 - Time

46:52 - Is time fundamental or emergent?

52:18 - Time and space swap inside a black hole

57:44 - Mental picture for spacetime curvature

01:04:19 - Weirdness of quantum mechanics: entanglement

01:07:00 - Schrödinger equation, probabilities, uncertainty principle

01:15:16 - Is the wave function real?

01:18:39 - “God” and death

01:24:25 - Biological engineering of human life

01:29:00 - Making sense of numbers in cosmology

01:34:20 - Fine-tuning of nature

01:40:26 - Inflationary multiverse and infinity

01:51:45 - Artificial intelligence

01:56:32 - Consciousness

02:03:22 - Free will

02:07:46 - James Webb Space Telescope

02:13:08 - Final thoughts and conclusion

Enjoy Back to the Stone Age!