Stephon Alexander on The Autodidactic Universe, String Theory, Matrix Models & Cherns-Simons Gravity

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/4xlXUEEnZ6s Sponsors: https://curiositystream.thld.co/TOE for 25% off Curiosity Stream. https://brilliant.org/TOE for 20% off Brilliant. For Algo's podcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9IfRw1QaTglRoX0sN11AQQ and website https://www.algo.com/.  Merch (until end of Oct 2021): https://tinyurl.com/TOEmerch Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal Crypto: 3CSm4FH6975J8wvKp8x8BSefH6QCVuk736 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 LINKS MENTIONED: -Fear of a Black Universe: https://amzn.to/3rxGFcj -The Jazz of Physics: https://amzn.to/3qR7KIx -Brian Keating's podcast with Stephon Alexander: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehEbrD42U_g TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:04:46 BTS banter and framing the conversation 00:06:05 The Autodidactic Universe 00:18:54 BMN vs BFSS (type IIA String Theory) 00:26:45 Lee Smolin's evolutionary model of the universe as black hole spawn 00:29:06 Curt posits a link between the matrix models and particles, rather than laws 00:30:36 Explaining D-branes and their dimensionality 00:36:02 When watching TOE, it's okay to be confused 00:36:55 Chern-Simons Gravity 00:49:03 Anomaly Cancellations 00:51:43 Klein Gordon equation and renormalization 00:55:55 What is a Theory of Everything? What are the conditions? 00:59:15 Stephon tells a story about Curt's brother's "genius" (they were in grad school together) 01:02:40 Doubting your own mathematical abilities 01:06:02 Advice for those in their 20s / 30s / 40s learning String Theory without a math background 01:10:24 Brian Keating is no friend to Stephon (kidding) 01:11:08 How does learning math / physics change with age? 01:15:14 Anomalies and purposeful mistakes leading to insights 01:18:02 No Go theorems (and AdS / CFT correspondence) 01:23:26 Why does the Graviton have Spin 2? 01:25:41 There are gems in Geometric Unity 01:29:12 Opinion on Stephen Wolfram's theory / project on physics 01:31:05 Future plans for TOE: Geometric Algebra and Categorical Unification * * * Just wrapped (April 2021) a documentary called Better Left Unsaid http://betterleftunsaidfilm.com on the topic of "when does the left go too far?" Visit that site if you'd like to watch it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Om Podcasten

Exploring theoretical physics, consciousness, Ai, and God in a technically rigorous manner. If you'd like to support this endeavor, then please visit the Patreon ( https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal ). Thank you for your charitable and kindhearted support. My name's Curt Jaimungal, a Torontonian with a degree in mathematical physics from the University of Toronto and I analyze various Theories of Everything from this analytic perspective, though more and more opening up to alternative approaches. The separating factor of TOE from other podcasts is its focus on depth even at the risk of limiting the audience due to how much detail we delve into subjects. Paralleling the intensity found in academic discourse, we're increasingly embracing a spectrum of unconventional ideas to conduct research during this podcast, rather than merely conveying existing information. Contact toe [at] indiefilmTO [dot] com for business inquiries / sponsorship.