Great interview from arguably the clearest thinker in theoretical physics alive today. Interviewer asks honest, interesting questions and gives Paul the space to express his thoughts in his typically engaging and personable style.
My friends & I have spent most Thursday nights over the past thirty years, down the pub, trying to chew over these fundamental questions of life. What a wonderful guest Paul would make at one of our sessions! He is the master of explaining difficult concepts in an understandable way. He also avoids scientific zealotism, which blinkers many of his contemporaries & has a sense of humour to boot! Marvellous. 10/10
Sounds like great some conversations to share pints over! Definitely a privilege to get the opportunity to speak to Paul for so long. Glad you enjoyed the discussion.
Well, I can very well relate to his opening words, having been born around the same time. We had to make our own "play" as it were, having little money or means, so...started doing our own radio dramas , movies etc....along with the usual "kids playing in the dirt, play-acting as soldiers, space travelers etc" things that kids did at the time. Everyone tried to spend a lot of time outdoors, running around, making stuff out of nothing (examples would be too many, but cardboard, old crates, and all kinds of cast-off odds and ends were the usual materials)...and getting dirty. Everyone of us was dirty one way or another. But one wondered---dirt-covered or not---about those other things. Like how does the sun work---what's inside of it? And all those bigger issues. The stars, life elsewhere, the whole "where did I come from" kind of thing....along with, mainly, what' are we doing tomorrow? Some kind of crazy adventure, no doubt.
Paul has a logical mind and though not qualified in micro biology has an accurate grasp of its many layered complexities. However he closes his eyes saying he does not believe in God, that some time in the future science will learn the "theory of everything"and answer all our unknowns. I venture to say he has never studied the Bible and, if he has has not understood it, especially its many prophecies most of which are written in symbols, deep symbols. He is far from alone in this and unless he or anyone else has studied withJehovahs witnesses.
Explanations are at different layers of abstraction. The lower the abstraction layer, the more closer to the basic building principles one gets. At every abstraction layer there are assumptions that hold true for that layer; some scientists refer to these as "miracles". Some assumptions may hold true all the way down to the lowest layers. Will we ever reach an abstraction layer with no first assumptions? Somehow I doubt this. That is why I have written a paper on "angelic" agency and its role in information transfer for the formation of life. It is at a high level of abstraction. I hope Paul Davies and his team will be able to drill down to the lower abstraction layers and come up with a principle that is more grounded in lower level scientific principles. Donald Hoffman with his theory of "conscious agents" may be closer to my abstraction layer, and could well be grounded in first scientific principles.
My most fundamental evidence of life is "Movement"! The undeniable cause of movement is life. The most foundational cause of purposed interaction is desire! To fail to recognize that which is before you is ignorance! To see limitations as opposed opportunity is death! A definition is a box but no box is perfect. You have a brain which you use to rationalize the world around you but can't figure out who put your life inside the box in which you live! Nor do you know why you are or why you are stuck inside the box until the day you'll be stuck into a box and the dirt from which you came shall envelope the sum total of your being! Unless....
Great interview from arguably the clearest thinker in theoretical physics alive today. Interviewer asks honest, interesting questions and gives Paul the space to express his thoughts in his typically engaging and personable style.
My friends & I have spent most Thursday nights over the past thirty years, down the pub, trying to chew over these fundamental questions of life. What a wonderful guest Paul would make at one of our sessions! He is the master of explaining difficult concepts in an understandable way. He also avoids scientific zealotism, which blinkers many of his contemporaries & has a sense of humour to boot! Marvellous. 10/10
Sounds like great some conversations to share pints over! Definitely a privilege to get the opportunity to speak to Paul for so long. Glad you enjoyed the discussion.
Awesome thanks. I hope you have sorted out your audio leveling.
Well, I can very well relate to his opening words, having been born around the same time. We had to make our own "play" as it were, having little money or means, so...started doing our own radio dramas , movies etc....along with the usual "kids playing in the dirt, play-acting as soldiers, space travelers etc" things that kids did at the time. Everyone tried to spend a lot of time outdoors, running around, making stuff out of nothing (examples would be too many, but cardboard, old crates, and all kinds of cast-off odds and ends were the usual materials)...and getting dirty. Everyone of us was dirty one way or another. But one wondered---dirt-covered or not---about those other things. Like how does the sun work---what's inside of it? And all those bigger issues. The stars, life elsewhere, the whole "where did I come from" kind of thing....along with, mainly, what' are we doing tomorrow? Some kind of crazy adventure, no doubt.
Paul has a logical mind and though not qualified in micro biology has an accurate grasp of its many layered complexities. However he closes his eyes saying he does not believe in God, that some time in the future science will learn the "theory of everything"and answer all our unknowns. I venture to say he has never studied the Bible and, if he has has not understood it, especially its many prophecies most of which are written in symbols, deep symbols. He is far from alone in this and unless he or anyone else has studied withJehovahs witnesses.
everything, we discover, is the based on possibilities, and , any of those theories, is important to be considered
Explanations are at different layers of abstraction. The lower the abstraction layer, the more closer to the basic building principles one gets. At every abstraction layer there are assumptions that hold true for that layer; some scientists refer to these as "miracles". Some assumptions may hold true all the way down to the lowest layers. Will we ever reach an abstraction layer with no first assumptions? Somehow I doubt this.
That is why I have written a paper on "angelic" agency and its role in information transfer for the formation of life. It is at a high level of abstraction. I hope Paul Davies and his team will be able to drill down to the lower abstraction layers and come up with a principle that is more grounded in lower level scientific principles.
Donald Hoffman with his theory of "conscious agents" may be closer to my abstraction layer, and could well be grounded in first scientific principles.
This was a great free-flowing, wide-ranging discussion. I was glad that you covered many areas. Very thought-provoking.
My most fundamental evidence of life is "Movement"! The undeniable cause of movement is life. The most foundational cause of purposed interaction is desire! To fail to recognize that which is before you is ignorance! To see limitations as opposed opportunity is death! A definition is a box but no box is perfect. You have a brain which you use to rationalize the world around you but can't figure out who put your life inside the box in which you live! Nor do you know why you are or why you are stuck inside the box until the day you'll be stuck into a box and the dirt from which you came shall envelope the sum total of your being! Unless....