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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The State of The Universe With Eric Weinstein: Part 2 0f 2 - Trust in Science, Optimism About the Future and Eric's Crystal Ball (#228)
11/05/2022 Duration: 01h09minEric Weinstein and I go for a wide-ranging quarterly catch-up on all sorts of goings-on in our Universe. We'll chat about Elon Musk and Twitter, censorship and control, abortion and leaks, a possible solution to the Fermi Paradox on intelligent aliens, Galileo Galilei, and more! Topics Include: Does Elon Musk have Buyer’s Remorse over Twitter? Roe vs Wade and the immorality of leaks Trust in science is at an all-time low. What can we do? Advice to Elon Musk RESOURCES MENTIONED: Previous Videos with Eric Eric Weinstein: UFOs, Portal Podcast Reboot, & 2022 Predictions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMS02ueFso0 Eric Weinstein: What is WRONG With The World?!: https://youtu.be/CzbElaoMfjk Get GALILEO’S DIALOGUE ON TWO WORLD SYSTEMS Audiobook https://briankeating.com/dialogue Translated by Stillman Drake. With a Foreward by Albert Einstein. Salviati narrated by Carlo Rovelli, and Sagredo narrated by Brian Keating. Simplicio narrated by Lucio Piccirillo Albert Einstein’s Foreward read by Frank Wilczek
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State of the Universe with Eric Weinstein: Part 1 of 2 - Elon Musk and Roe vs. Wade (#227)
10/05/2022 Duration: 01h04minEric Weinstein and I go for a wide-ranging quarterly catch-up on all sorts of goings-on in our Universe. We'll chat about Elon Musk and Twitter, censorship and control, abortion and leaks, a possible solution to the Fermi Paradox on intelligent aliens, Galileo Galilei, and more! Topics Include: Does Elon Musk have Buyer’s Remorse over Twitter? Roe vs Wade and the immorality of leaks Trust in science is at an all-time low. What can we do? Advice to Elon Musk RESOURCES MENTIONED: Previous Videos with Eric Eric Weinstein: UFOs, Portal Podcast Reboot, & 2022 Predictions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMS02ueFso0 Eric Weinstein: What is WRONG With The World?!: https://youtu.be/CzbElaoMfjk Get GALILEO’S DIALOGUE ON TWO WORLD SYSTEMS Audiobook https://briankeating.com/dialogue Translated by Stillman Drake. With a Foreward by Albert Einstein. Salviati narrated by Carlo Rovelli, and Sagredo narrated by Brian Keating. Simplicio narrated by Lucio Piccirillo Albert Einstein’s Foreward read by Frank Wilczek
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Who Was James Webb? An honest conversation with Hakeem Oluseyi (#226)
03/05/2022 Duration: 55minThe James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is NASA’s next great flagship observatory. It’s set to continue — and extend — the illustrious scientific tradition established by the Hubble Space Telescope, while peering deeper into the universe and observing what Hubble could not. But who was James Webb? Considering the controversy surrounding his legacy, I wanted to explore the allegations against him with my friend Hakeem Oluseyi and answer the question: Why was the James Webb Space Telescope named after him? Hakeem claims that some allegations wrongly accused an innocent man who was, among more well-known achievements, a hero of diversity and inclusion in American government. He worked with Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy to use NASA facilities in America’s southern states to promote racial integration and equal opportunity in employment Hakeem Oluseyi is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, inventor, educator, science communicator, author, actor, veteran, and humanitarian. Oluseyi was named a Visiting Robin
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Quantum Thermodynamics: A Steampunk Adventure with Nicole Yunger Halpern (#225)
25/04/2022 Duration: 01h09minNicole Yunger Halpern is a theoretical physicist, NIST physicist and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland. She is also currently a Fellow of the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science at the University of Maryland. Nicole reenvisions 19th-century thermodynamics for the 21st century, using the mathematical toolkit of quantum information (QI) theory. She applies QI thermodynamics as a lens through which to view the rest of science, gaining new perspectives on atomic, molecular and optical physics, condensed matter, chemistry, high-energy physics, and biophysics. She calls this research “quantum steampunk,” after the steampunk genre of art and literature that juxtaposes Victorian settings with futuristic technologies. Dr. Yunger’s book, Quantum Steampunk is about how the Industrial Revolution meets the quantum-technology revolution! It is a steampunk adventure guide to how mind-blowing quantum physics is transforming our understanding of information and energy.
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What Happened Before the Big Bang? | An Infinity of Worlds - Will Kinney (#224)
17/04/2022 Duration: 01h19minWill Kinney is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, where he has been on faculty since 2003. Dr. Kinney's research focuses on the physics of the very early universe, including inflationary cosmology, the Cosmic Microwave Background, Dark Matter, and Dark Energy. He has authored more than seventy published research articles and received the SUNY Chancellor's award for excellence in teaching in 2014. In his new book, An Infinity of Worlds, physicist Will Kinney explains the theory that may hold the answers to these questions such as Why is the universe so big? Why is it so old? What is the origin of structure in the cosmos? It may even explain the ultimate origins of the universe. The theory of cosmic inflation, before the primordial fire of the Big Bang. Kinney argues that cosmic inflation is a transformational idea in cosmology, changing our picture of the basic structure of the cosmos and raising unavoidable questions about what we mean by a scientific theory. He expla
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Jim Al-Khalili Why I Love the Life Scientific! (#223)
11/04/2022 Duration: 58minJim is a theoretical physicist at the University of Surrey where he holds a Distinguished Chair in physics as well as a university chair in the public engagement in science. He received his PhD in nuclear reaction theory in 1989 and has published widely in the field. His current interest is in open quantum systems and the application of quantum mechanics in biology. He is a prominent author and broadcaster. He has written 14 books on popular science and the history of science, between them translated into twenty-six languages. His latest book, The World According to Physics, was shortlisted for the Royal Society Book Prize. He is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries, such as the Bafta nominated Chemistry: a volatile history, and he hosts the long-running weekly BBC Radio 4 programme, The Life Scientific. Jim is a past president of the British Science Association and a recipient of the Royal Society Michael Faraday medal and the Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal, the Institute of Physics Kelvin Medal and
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If Darwin Had A Spaceship | Arik Kershenbaum: The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy (#222)
04/04/2022 Duration: 01h36minWhat would a modern-day 'Voyage of the Beagle ' be like? Cambridge zoologist Arik Kershenbaum evokes Charles Darwin's travels in a trip not confined to the earth's confines. Come along with us on a journey of discovery through the entire galaxy where we encounter aliens and their planets with supersonic creatures, a moon where aliens have a language composed of smells, and aliens who scream with fear, act honestly and have technology. The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy answers these questions using the latest science to tell the story of how life really works, on Earth and in space. This is a wildly fun and scientifically sound exploration of what alien life must be like, using universal laws that govern life on Earth and in space. But short of aliens landing in New York City, how do we know what they are like? Using his own expert understanding of life on Earth and Darwin's theory of evolution - which applies throughout the universe - Cambridge zoologist Dr. Arik Kershenbaum explains what alien life must be
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Brian Keating On The Leon Logothetis Podcast (#221)
30/03/2022 Duration: 53minThe following is my appearance on the Leon Logothetis Podcast. Leon is the creator of THE KINDNESS DIARIES on Netflix and Amazon. He’s known for creating content around the world to highlight the best in humanity, and it was a privilege to be on his show. The show’s premise is that Leon does NOT know who is going to be his guest. That is why we start off with introductions. I was a bit nervous about going in blind, but Leon made it a great experience. Subscribe to his podcast here. From Leon’s show notes: “My guest this week is Brian Keating, who is an expert in the study of the universe’s oldest light, the cosmic microwave background, using it to learn about the origins and evolution of the universe. Brian is an author, speaker, inventor and a Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of physics at the Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences (CASS) in the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego. It was a privilege to have Brian on the show and share his incredible knowledge about the co
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Eve Vavagiakis: Inspiring The Next Generation (#220)
22/03/2022 Duration: 56minDr. Vavagiakis is a postdoctoral associate in the Physics Department at Cornell University. She work on four collaborations: ACT, CCAT-prime, CMB-S4, and the Simons Observatory. www.simonsobservatory.org https://act.princeton.edu https://ccatobservatory.org https://cmb-s4.org Eve got her PhD at Cornell University in 2021, where she was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and Provost Diversity Fellow on instrumentation and analysis for cosmology and astrophysics. She designed Mod-Cam, a first light instrument for the CCAT Observatory‘s Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST). And is currently leading the development of Mod-Cam for first light on the FYST, located at 5600 meter elevation in the Atacama Desert, Chile. In addition to building instrumentation, Dr. Vavagiakis analyzes maps of the cosmic microwave background to measure thermal and kinetic Sunyaev–Zel’dovich signals. These measurements probe the contents and evolution of galaxy groups and clusters and will constrain the fundamental physics of o
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Sara Walker: The Origin of Life (#219)
16/03/2022 Duration: 01h43minSara Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist interested in the origin of life and how to find life on other worlds. She is most interested in whether or not there are “laws of life’ related to how information structures the physical world that could universally describe life here on Earth and on other planets. Walker is deputy director of the pioneering Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, which is devoted to confronting the big questions of science and philosophy. She is Associate Director of the ASU-Santa Fe Institute Center for Biosocial Complex Systems and Assistant Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration. She is also Co-founder of the astrobiology-themed social website SAGANet.org, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Blue Marble Space. She is active in public engagement in science, with appearances at the World Science Festival and on "Through the Wormhole" and NPR's Science Friday. Sara’s provocative paper: Origins of Life: A Problem for Physics can b
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James Altucher chats with Brian Keating about news in science, and his upcoming audio book with Carlo Rovelli - Galilleo's Dialogue! (#218)
12/03/2022 Duration: 01h32minJames Altucher chats Dr. Brian Keating on his new ventures, sciences, and he teased his upcoming book as well! Please Visit our Sponsors: LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/impossible to post a job for FREE Athletic Greens, makers of AG1 which I take every day. Get an exclusive offer when you visit https://athleticgreens.com/impossible AG1 is made from the highest quality ingredients, in accordance with the strictest standards and obsessively improved based on the latest science. All 33 Chairs. My All33 Chair is the ideal chair for all of us ‘knowledge workers’ suffering through unending Zoom calls. Sitting still is bad for you. All33 chairs are my choice because they allow your pelvis to move the way it does while you walk — so all 33 vertebrae align into perfect posture. The result? Better breathing, better blood flow, and relief from pain. It’s crazy what you can do when you set your body to it. To get $100 off your order, visit https://all33.com/impossible Search for The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podca
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Harvard Physicist Describes the Inside of a Black Hole | Shep Doeleman (#217)
10/03/2022 Duration: 01h25minSheperd S. Doeleman is an Astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and Founding Director of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a synchronized global array of radio observatories designed to examine the nature of black holes. He is also a Harvard Senior Research Fellow and a Project Co-Leader of Harvard’s recently established Black Hole Initiative (BHI). The BHI is a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary program at the University that brings together the disciplines of Astronomy, Physics, Mathematics, Philosophy, and History of Science to define and establish black hole science as a new field of study. As one of the founding members of the BHI, Doeleman leads a team studying supermassive black holes with sufficient resolution to directly observe the event horizon itself. Using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) methods, the EHT telescope networks observe astronomical radio sources at 1.3 millimeter (mm) wavelengths. These sources include the supermassive black holes at the cent
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Hakeem Oluseyi: Quantum Leaps! (#216)
01/03/2022 Duration: 01h15minHakeem Oluseyi is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, inventor, educator, science communicator, author, actor, veteran, and humanitarian. Oluseyi was named a Visiting Robinson Professor at George Mason University in 2021, a distinction by which the university recognizes outstanding faculty. In 2021, he published an autobiography titled: A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars co-authored with Joshua Horwitz. His best known scientific contributions are research on the transfer of mass and energy through the Sun's atmosphere; the development of space-borne observatories for studying astrophysical plasmas and dark energy; and the development of transformative technologies in ultraviolet optics, detectors, computer chips, and ion propulsion. Hakeem Is the president elect of the National Society of Black Physicists: https://nsbp.org/page/officers Please Visit our Sponsors: LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/impossible to post a job for FREE Athletic Greens, makers of AG1 which I take every da
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Marilyn Simons: Legion of Honor! (#215)
24/02/2022 Duration: 01h05minDr. Marilyn Hawrys Simons received a B.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from SUNY, Stony Brook and has volunteered in the non‑profit sector for the last thirty years. In 1994, she co‑founded the Simons Foundation together with her husband, Jim Simons, and served as its President until June 2021. Asteroid 10701 Marilynsimons is named after her! The Simons Foundation is a charitable organization that was founded to fund basic research and educational programs in mathematics, physical and life sciences. The Foundation’s vision and generosity in also underwriting symposia, visiting lectureships and initiating programs at underserved institutions in the United States and abroad has helped to advance knowledge in a diverse spectrum of fields. She recently retired as President of the Simons Foundation and received the Legion d'Honaire, the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, it has been retained by all later French governments and régimes. Her primary focus bei
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Jocelyn Bell Burnell: Mentors, Pulsars & Prizes (#214)
16/02/2022 Duration: 01h04minIn 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell made an astounding discovery. On 28 November 1967, she detected a "bit of scruff" on her chart-recorder papers that tracked across the sky with the stars. The signal had been visible in data taken in August, but as the papers had to be checked by hand, it took her three months to find it. She established that the signal was pulsing with great regularity, at a rate of about one pulse every one and a third seconds. Temporarily dubbed "Little Green Man 1" (LGM-1) the source (now known as PSR B1919+21) was identified after several years as a rapidly rotating neutron star. But as a young woman in science, her role was overlooked. Today's discussion is with one of the foremost astronomers of our time in a deep and revealing interview that shares a more personal side of her than ever before. In addition to describing her experimental research, we describe the surprising initial reaction to what was initially thought to be aliens, or Little Green Men. Since then we reveal what we've lear
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David Chalmers: You Are in a Sim (#213)
09/02/2022 Duration: 01h28minDavid Chalmers is an Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist specializing in the areas of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. He is a Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science at New York University, as well as co-director of NYU's Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness (along with Ned Block). In 2006, he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 2013, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. David Chalmers first formulated the problem in his paper Facing up to the problem of consciousness (1995) and expanded upon it in his book The Conscious Mind (1996). His works have proven to be provocative. Some, such as David Lewis and Steven Pinker, have praised Chalmers for his argumentative rigor and "impeccable clarity." Others, such as Daniel Dennett and Patricia Churchland, believe that hard problem is really more of a collection of easy problems, and will be solved through further analysis of the brain and behavior. Reality+: Virtual World
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Harry Cliff: How to Make an Apple Pie (#212)
04/02/2022 Duration: 01h31minWin a copy of Harry’s book, HOW TO MAKE AN APPLE PIE! Click here Harry Cliff is a particle physicist at the University of Cambridge working on the LHCb experiment, a huge particle detector buried 100 metres underground at CERN near Geneva. He is a member of an international team of around 1400 physicists, engineers and computer scientists who are using LHCb to study the basic building blocks of our universe, in search of answers to some of the biggest questions in modern physics. He also spends a big chunk of his time sharing his love of physics with the public. His first popular science book, How To Make An Apple Pie From Scratch, which will be published in August 2021. From 2012 to 2018 he held a joint post between Cambridge and the Science Museum in London, where he curated two major exhibitions: Collider (2013) and The Sun (2018). He has given a large number of public talks, including at TED and the Royal Institution, and made numerous appearances on television, radio and podcasts. Visit our Sponsor Link
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Part 1 of 2: Brian Keating Λ Lee Cronin on Life in the Universe, Assembly Theory, and the Meaning of Time -A debate on Curt Jaimungal's Theories of Everything YouTube Channel (#210)
01/02/2022 Duration: 01h15minVisit our Sponsor LinkedIn.com/impossible to post a job for FREE!Search for The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts, or go to jordanharbinger.com/subscribe Watch the debate here on Curt's channel https://youtu.be/BI7-5YnXSqk LINKS MENTIONED: -Brian Keating's Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating -Brian Keating's "Losing the Nobel Prize": https://amzn.to/3AyXMyE -Brian Keating's "Into the Impossible": https://amzn.to/33IjsfC -Brian Keating's Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating -Lee Cronin's Twitter: https://twitter.com/leecronin -Brian Keating's appearance on Lex's podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhGwJ... -Stephon Alexander podcast with TOE: https://youtu.be/VETxb96a3qk TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:04:59 Brian Keating's opening statements 00:08:21 Lee Cronin's opening statements 00:13:45 Why defining "life" is difficult 00:23:43 Disagreements on the origin of life 00:38:12 The definition of Entropy is "wrong" (controversial clai
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Part 2 of 2: Brian Keating Λ Lee Cronin on Life in the Universe, Assembly Theory, and the Meaning of Time - A debate on Curt Jaimungal's Theories of Everything YouTube Channel (#211)
01/02/2022 Duration: 01h39minVisit our Sponsor LinkedIn.com/impossible to post a job for FREESearch for The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts, or go to jordanharbinger.com/subscribe Watch the debate here on Curt's channel https://youtu.be/BI7-5YnXSqk LINKS MENTIONED: -Brian Keating's Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating -Brian Keating's "Losing the Nobel Prize": https://amzn.to/3AyXMyE -Brian Keating's "Into the Impossible": https://amzn.to/33IjsfC -Brian Keating's Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating -Lee Cronin's Twitter: https://twitter.com/leecronin -Brian Keating's appearance on Lex's podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhGwJ... -Stephon Alexander podcast with TOE: https://youtu.be/VETxb96a3qk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Nobel Prizewinner Reinhard Genzel: The Monster Black Hole at the Heart of our Galaxy! (#209)
25/01/2022 Duration: 01h38minReinhard Genzel studied physics at Bonn Univ., and received his doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy Bonn (1978), He was a Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (1978-1980), Cambridge, MA, was Associate Professor of Physics and Associate Research Astronomer, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley (1981- 1985), Full Professor of Physics, University of California, Berkeley (1985-1986). He is Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (since 1986), Honorary Professor Munich Univ. (since 1988), Full Professor of Physics University of California Berkeley (since 1999). Professor Reinhard was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics 2020 together with Roger Penrose and Andrea Ghez "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy." Since nothing, not even light, can escape black holes, they can only be observed by the radiation and the movement of nearby objects. Since the 1990s