Into The Impossible

   Part 1 of Brian Keating’s fascinating interview with mathematician & economist Eric Weinstein on the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE Podcast. Topics include Eric’s provocative new ideas on physics and science culture. Weinstein is a vocal critic of modern academic hierarchies and advocates for advances in scientific theory over an emphasis on experimental results. Keating’s own issues with what he calls the “academic Hunger Games” leads to a lively debate about funding, academic freedom, and theoretical vs experimental physics. Find show notes and resources are available here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php 00:11:09 Is there middle ground between cranks and peer review? 00:20:23 The value of Weinstein’s approach to communicating science. 00:30:50 The ethics of attribution. 00:41:26 Surviving the academic Hunger Games. 00:54:24 Theoretical physicists can save human life by getting us off Earth. 01:11:52 “Great science is whatever people have done to make major advances.” 01:22:00 Experiments are only the last

   #TechShabbat #character #neuroscience Filmmaker, and author Tiffany Shlain discusses her life, films and her book 24/6, about the neuroscience of how technology reshapes our brains and how the practice of turning off all screens 24 hours each week can make us healthier and more creative. http://tiffanyshlain.com https://twitter.com/tiffanyshlain Get the book   This practice of turning off all screens for twenty-four hours each week, which she’s done for over a decade with her husband and kids (sixteen and ten), has completely changed their lives, giving them more time, productivity, connection, and presence. She and her family call it “Technology Shabbat”, which has become a worldwide movement. Learn more about it at https://www.24sixlife.com/ Drawn from the ancient ritual of Shabbat, living 24/6 can work for anyone from any background. With humor and wisdom, Shlain shares her story, offers lessons she has learned, and provides a blueprint for how to do it yourself. It has become even more important r

   Sasha Sagan’s stirring debut book, “For Small Creatures Such As We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World,” is the topic of this week’s episode of INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE. Sagan is the daughter of late astronomer/author Carl Sagan and writer/producer Ann Druyan. Show notes and resources are available here: https://briankeating.com/blog.php Highlights: 00:10:02 The power of secular rituals versus relying on habits and willpower. 00:23:48 Rituals span the distinction between belief through evidence, faith, and philosophy. 00:27:01 Poetry for Physicists: Brian Keating reads poems by Walt Whitman and Richard Feynman 00:34:42 Academic rituals and how to share wonder through education. 00:44:34 Generational learning and how we’re influenced by family. 00:56:45 Would Carl Sagan have given up the search for extraterrestrial life by now? 01:01:46 Questions INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE asks of all authors. On this Mother’s Day episode, Sagan discusses her own upbringing and how becoming a mother inspired her

    Peter Diamandis is a remarkable entrepreneur, and futurist, best known as the Founder & Executive Chairman of XPRIZE Foundation. His new book, written with Steven Kotler, is “The Future is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives.” Already a bestseller, it is both timely and important. In this discussion with Brian Keating, Diamandis shares his vision for technological and educational advances over the next decade and how COVID-19 has accelerated the timeline. Show notes and resources are available here.  04:49 How COVID-19 will change what the next ten years look like. 13:02 The Tricorder XPRIZE and how Star Trek inspired Diamandis. 18:19 Artificial intelligence and human intelligence need to work together. 27:03 “For the first time ever, the human race has a singular enemy.” 36:46 Should universities offer lifelong subscriptions? 45:28 Technology marches forward; make it a force for good. 50:30 Arthur C. Clarke supported Diamandis’ ea

   Mario Livio is a renowned astrophysicist & best-selling author. His new book “Galileo and the Science Deniers” is the gripping first biography of Galileo Galilei written by an astronomer. Though Galileo’s quest to prove that Earth orbits the sun was correct, he eventually recanted his belief as punishment for heresy. Livio describes parallels to our modern world where, even 400 years later, some people assail science when it conflicts with their ideology. Show notes and resources are available here.  An interview with Dr. Livio and Steve Mirsky on Scientific American’s “Science Talk’ podcast is available here.  His research into whether Galileo actually said “And yet it moves!” is here.  00:05:37 Galileo’s quest for intellectual freedom wasn’t an attack on religion. 00:12:15 Telescopes are tools that allow augmented senses. 00:15:44 The importance of Galileo’s discoveries supporting Copernicanism. 00:20:48 Why ideological bias does a disservice to both science and religion. 00:25:51 Galileo was only h

   Science journalist and author Sarah Scoles talks about her new book “They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers”, a study of UFO culture and its critics. What makes people believe intelligent alien life has visited the Earth? Fresh off this week’s news that the Pentagon has declassified and released three videos of UFOs (or UAPs Unidentified Aerial Phenomena as the government prefers to call them), Scoles talks about why some people are more prone to believe than others. And, for an alternate explanation, we refer you to Mick West, a popular skeptic, who analyzed the Nimitz #UFO / #UAP video last year.  Show notes and resources are available here. And a worksheet for this episode can be found here. 03:20 How a New York Times article about UFOs led to inspiration. 06:00 Why don’t astronomers see UFOs? 10:30 Confirmation bias for fans of the X-Files. 14:10 Why people believe the government, and even astronomers, are hiding something. 18:10 Could UFO investigations benefit from the scientif

   Brian Keating interviews Dave Rubin (The Rubin Report) on the most interesting issues of the day: free speech and expression, classical liberalism, lessons from Jordan Peterson, and the imperative of tolerance. More about Dave Rubin: https://daverubin.com/ Find Dave on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/RubinReport Get Dave’s book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason: https://amzn.to/2KCurtT  00:01:00 The mellifluousness of the Long Island accent! 00:05:00 Coming out of the Closets: first as a gay man, and then as a classical liberal 00:12:07 The Exclusive story of how Dave named the book and designed the cover 00:21:00 Shadow Banning: the new normal? 00:23:11 Are we running out of time to defend liberalism? 00:26:46 Is there a danger in overblowing your message? 00:30:00 Similar messages like Michael Shermer’s https://youtu.be/5dGzMTdfsic 00:34:36 Digital Detox: why and how? 00:41:02 Jordan Peterson: what do you do when your mentor struggles? 00:47:43 Are you worried about getting to

   Stephen Wolfram, Founder & CEO of Wolfram Research, Creator of Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha, Author of A New Kind of Science, discusses computational science, his new Project to Find a Fundamental Theory of Physics, and more. Over the course of 4 decades, Stephen Wolfram has pioneered the development & application of computational thinking. He has been responsible for many discoveries, inventions & innovations in science, technology, and business. In this wide-ranging interview with Brian Keating @DrBrianKeating , Wolfram discusses his decades in-the-making Wolfram Physics Project, his career, his philosophy & approach to science, his hoped-for legacy, and questions from the audience including whether mathematical beauty matter at all, or is it just falsifiability? We also discuss his books A New Kind of Science (2002), Idea Makers (2016) and Adventures of a Computational Explorer (2019). Show notes and resources available here:  Topics discussed in this in-depth interview: The Impact of Computers on his li

   Find show notes and other resources here Brian Keating, Director of the Simons Observatory, interviews Greg Zuckerman, author of the bestselling biography of Jim Simons, “The Man Who Solved The Market”. Portfolio/Penguin has published Greg Zuckerman’s latest book, THE MAN WHO SOLVED THE MARKET: How Jim Simons Launched The Quant Revolution. This book, the culmination of two challenging years of research, is the story of how Simons, a secretive mathematician and code breaker, set out to conquer financial markets, overcoming a series of imposing obstacles to become the greatest moneymaker in modern finance. Recruiting colorful and enigmatic mathematicians and scientists, Simons embraced algorithms and computer models while Mark Zuckerberg was still in grade school, launching a quantitative revolution that has shaken Wall Street. With their winnings, Simons, his colleague Robert Mercer, and others at Renaissance Technologies have upended the worlds of education, science and politics. THE MAN WHO SOLVED THE MAR

    http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2020/04/more-repercussions-in-plague-year-and.html https://www.davidbrin.com http://www.davidbrin.com/fiction/givingplague.html A Conversation with Physicist and Science Fiction Author David Brin about his work and his recent post: More repercussions in a plague year… and some long term (excerpted here) : And yes, some foresee all this accelerating the exodus of the uber-rich, abandoning us to simmer in festering cities and suburbs. Connecticut, Wyoming and New Zealand have seen such influx. Certainly there is a “prepper” wing of oligarchy that’s bought up whole mountain ranges in Patagonia, Siberia and under the sea. I portrayed that mind set in The Postmanand in Earth and in Existence. Of course the smarter half of the zillionaire caste wants no part of such insanity. Nor will such preparations avail the selfishness-fetishists an iota, even if the fit truly hits the shan. There are five reasons why this masturbatory survivalist fantasy is utter proof of mental defecti

   Brian Keating Interviews Skeptic Magazine publisher and author of “Giving The Devil His Due” Michael Shermer. Get Michael Shermer’s Books here: GIVING THE DEVIL HIS DUE HEAVENS ON EARTH THE MORAL ARC:  Find Show Notes and Links here Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, the host of the Science Salon Podcast, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University where he teaches Skepticism 101. For 18 years he was a monthly columnist for Scientific American. He is the author of New York Times bestsellers Why People Believe Weird Things and The Believing Brain, Why Darwin Matters, The Science of Good and Evil, The Moral Arc, and Heavens on Earth. His new book is Giving the Devil His Due: Reflections of a Scientific Humanist. Follow Michael on Twitter: https://twitter.com/michaelshermer and Brian Keating here: https://twitter.com/drbriankeating Michael regularly contributes opinion editorials, essays, and reviews to: the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Science, Nature,

   https://www.mmaacademy.com https://www.facebook.com/John.Eric.Goff.Sports.Physicist http://johnericgoff.blogspot.com https://www.lynchburg.edu Krav Maga (“contact combat” in Hebrew) is a hard-hitting and efficient form of self-defense that was popularized by Israeli soldiers. Stressing practical, real-world fighting and a philosophy of self-defense, its popularity has grown worldwide over the past few decades. In The Physics of Krav Maga, John Eric Goff, a physicist, best-selling author, and martial arts practitioner, explains the science behind dozens of Krav Maga moves, from headlocks to hammer fists. Focusing on Warrior Krav Maga, a fighting style that combines the key elements of Krav Maga with kickboxing, wrestling, karate, and other fighting specialties, this equation-free, conceptual introduction is aimed at martial arts practitioners interested in refining their fighting technique and all fans of the fascinating moment when sports meet science. With step-by-step descriptions and detailed photo

   https://chasingeinsteinfilm.com http://www.xenon1t.org  Elena Aprile is UCSD’s Margaret Burbidge Visiting Professor at UC San Diego and Professor of Physics at Columbia University. She is the founder and spokesperson of the XENON Dark Matter Experiment. Aprile is well known for her work with noble liquid detectors and for her contributions to particle astrophysics in the search for dark matter. Professor Aprile appears in the documentary CHASING EINSTEIN about the search for dark matter. Could Einstein have been wrong about the true nature of gravity? Does his general theory of relativity and the Standard Model need an update? Unprecedented advances in experimental particle physics, astronomy and cosmology are uncovering mysteries of cosmic consequence. Among the most challenging is the realization that 80% of the universe consists of something unknown that exerts galactic forces pulling the universe apart. The search for Dark Matter extends from the worlds most powerful particle accelerators to the most

   Books mentioned in this episode: The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence by Paul Davies The Demon in the Machine: How Hidden Webs of Information Are Solving the Mystery of Life by Paul Davies Starship Century, Edited by Greggory & James Benford A technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilization could likely detect life on Earth, if such beings exist. Life on Earth could be detectable in our planet’s atmospheric spectral lines for over a billion years. Most of our atmospheric oxygen is due to life, and can be observed over interstellar distances — across thousands of light-years. Over this long time, many stars have swept near our solar system and Earth. If extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) on such “nearby” planets did send probes to remotely observe our planet, where in the Solar System should we look to find evidence of their past visitation? The Moon is the obvious, closest place. Another option would be a newly discovered class of co-orbital objects, an equally logical plac

   Books mentioned in this episode: The Emperor’s New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics  Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness Sir Roger Penrose OM FRS (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematical physicist, mathematician and philosopher of science. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus fellow of Wadham College, Oxford and an honorary fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. Penrose has made contributions to the mathematical physics of general relativity and cosmology. He has received several prizes and awards, including the 1988 Wolf Prize for physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for the Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems. Penrose sat down with Professor Brian Keating to discuss artificial intelligence, consciousness, cosmology, and the many fascinating developments in physics since the publication of The Emperor’s New Mind in 1989. Previous talks at UC San Diego: Conformal Cyclic Cosm

   Dr. Stefano Spagna, PhD. and Ivy Lum Fipps, MS are both alumni of UC San Diego Physics. Dr. Spagna is Chief Technology Officer and Mrs. Fipps is Final Test Engineer specializing in dilution refrigerators. Since its inception in 1982, Quantum Design International (a privately held corporation) has developed and manufactured automated temperature and magnetic field testing platforms for materials characterization. These systems offer a variety of measurement capabilities and are in widespread use in the fields of physics, chemistry, biotechnology, materials science, nanotechnology, and quantum information research. Building on its expertise in the global marketing and distribution of its own scientific instruments, Quantum Design International (QDI) eventually broadened its scope to distribute quality scientific instruments from other manufacturers through an international network of wholly-owned subsidiaries in every major technological center around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph

   Books mentioned: The Trouble with Gravity: Solving the Mystery Beneath Our Feet  Empiricism, heavens and earth, gravity in history, god, religion, and politics, a thrilling tour guide from ancient concepts to the very present.  The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum  The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality  Richard Panek is most recently the author of The Trouble with Gravity: Solving the Mystery Beneath Our Feet, published in July 2019 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. His previous book, The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality, received the Science Communication Award from the American Institute of Physics. He is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Antarctic Artists & Writers grant from the National Science Foundation, and a Fellowship in Nonfiction Literature from the New York Foundation for the Arts. His own books have been translated into sixteen languages, while his collaboration

   https://nanome.ai/ @StevenMcCloskey Steve McCloskey is an Alumni from the first class of Nanoengineering at the University of California, San Diego. Steve’s work is focused on emerging technologies applied to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). During his time at UC San Diego Steve worked directly with the founding Chair of the Nanoengineering Department, Ken Vecchio helping set the foundation for the Nanoengineering Materials Research Center and developing thermodynamic processing methods for Iron-based Superelastic alloys. After graduating from UCSD he founded Nanome Inc to build Virtual Reality solutions for Scientists and Engineers working at the nanoscale, specifically protein engineering and small molecule drug development. Steve is also a founder of the Matryx blockchain platform which provides a secure framework for collaborative design and development for STEM. Nanome is transforming how we interact with and understand science, creating a virtual world where users can experim

   Proving Einstein Right on Amazon  Jim Gates is the Ford Foundation Professor of Physics, and the Director of The Brown University Theoretical Physics Center. He is a 2013 recipient of the National Medal of Science He was a Distinguished University Professor, University System of Maryland Regents Professor, John S. Toll Professor of Physics, and Director of the Center for String and Particle Theory. Gates is well known for his pioneering work in supersymmetry and supergravity, and his 1977 doctoral dissertation on supersymmetry earned him a prominent place in the early development of the field, as did the 1984 book he co-authored, Superspace, or One thousand and one lessons in supersymmetry, which is widely considered the first comprehensive book on the subject. His study of string theory and supersymmetry has recently led Gates to develop an interest in what are called adinkras. Adinkra symbols are graphical representations of supersymmetric algebras named after symbols created by the Asante people. Adinkr

   Buy Sean’s books on Amazon Find Sean Carrol online and listen to his Mindscape podcast  Sean Carroll on Joe Rogan Sean M. Carroll is a Research Professor of Physics at CalTech. He is a theorist who thinks about the fundamental laws of nature, especially as they connect to cosmology. His research involves theoretical physics and astrophysics, especially cosmology, field theory, and gravitation. He has worked on questions involving dark matter and dark energy, modified gravity, violations of Lorentz invariance, extra dimensions, topological defects, cosmic microwave background anisotropies, causality violation, black holes, and the cosmological constant problem. Currently, most of his attention is focused on the origin of the universe and the arrow of time, including the roles of inflation, baby universes, and quantum gravity. Quantum mechanics is the most important idea in physics, and physicists themselves readily admit that they don’t understand it. But rather than treating this situation as an urgent cal