Mindscape Ask Me Anything, Sean Carroll | May 2024
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- Опубликовано: 5 май 2024
- Patreon: / seanmcarroll
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Welcome to the May 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy!
Here is the memorial to Dan Dennett at Ars Technica: arstechnica.com/science/2024/...
Mindscape Podcast playlist: • Mindscape Podcast
Sean Carroll channel: / seancarroll
#podcast #ideas #science #philosophy #culture 
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If every teacher could communicate like Sean Carroll, we would have a much better society :)
I think so too
He’s one of the most uplifting and underrated RUclipsrs out there for sure
@@Hakor0 lol quaint, you called him a youtuber!!! Hahaha, the great thing about him is he wouldn't mind. Literally one the greatest current physicists on the planet, youtube is just his little side gig. He just can't stop working, he just loves to communicate physics.
@@georgewaters6424 well yeh not really I think being a good RUclipsr is one of the most important things available at the moment to people like myself for learning etc But I do understand your point obviously
@@georgewaters6424 And a great philosopher as well, plus a lovely professor.
What made Dan exceptional to me was not only his depth of thought, it was also that underlying aura of kindness and generosity, he was the sweet smart grandpa of the free thinking atheist of the world.
Well Dan is in Hell now, where his "kindness" is roasting.
@@CHURINDOKJesus would be ashamed of you for choosing to be threatening over being a good representative of faith. You ruined any chance you may have had to turn his heart to Jesus. How many people who don't believe do you think would read your words and be curious to learn more about God? You could just as easily typed kind words. Non believers are not exempt from Jesus's teaching to love your neighbor.
@@CHURINDOKAlso, please take your gullibility elsewhere. You are clogging up a forum of educated people with your little fairy tale threats. Go play dress up with your easily led homies. Let us brainstorm in peace.
Or leave a nasty remark that does nothing but prove you don't actually believe the very concept you are defending. Don't truly believe in it or don't truly understand it. Either one is a) non productive and b) incongruous to the degree of anger in your words defending your faith. (Pssst... and that is how I was able to tell that you aren't very smart.)
Lmao get shut down by your own kind...
Believe in whatever nonsense you want to Believe in, but be a decent person.
@@josephhall5681 Take a chillaxative, I knew Dan before Darwin's Dangerous Idea was published.
Sean is a most excellent communicator. We need more like him!
One thing I love about Sean Carroll and his concept of death is that under poetic naturalism one can feel sorrowful even if we know there's no life after death. RIP Dan.
Frans de Waal was my first hero in science, when studying evolutionary biology as an undergraduate. Dennett was my hero when I started using evolutionary biology methods to understand the real world during my PhD. Never met either but they’ve been in my brain for a long time. Really felt the gut punch more than I have for any other public figures today, but it was nice to hear your thoughts. Thanks Sean!
😢💛Dan Dennett, thank you Sean & Jennifer for your sharing/writing
Deeply saddened by Dan's passing. His passing is a tremendous loss.
Damn I needed this today. Just found out I’m the only person in my department at work who subscribes to naturalism. Everyone else is talking about how ghosts are real, and it’s a healthcare setting. Thanks for reminding me that I’m not alone in the grand scheme of things. Loved your interview with Lex Fridman too.
Daniel Dennet will be missed. I was crying too much the first time I listen to this and I didn't get a chance to write a goodbye. Sean mentions a bunch of friends who have passed in this episode, so it kind of hit me heavy. I don't remember agreeing with two people discussing life and reality more than when Sean and Dan did their last mindscape. I didn't think it was possible. Sean mentions musicians (I'm one myself), and even his tastes agree with mine, which is extremely rare, at the same time are some of those we've lost that I've known personally. My disbelief's alienates me from most, as I'm, well... and Daniel really hits it home for me. I'm so glad I'll still have his talks and books for the rest of my life. Thank you Sean. Gr8! Peace ☮💜Love
I'm so sorry about your friend Sean. I didn't know about his personal life until I read his memoir. What an incredible, diverse and awesome life. Thankfully he had the opportunity to share it with everyone alongside an incredible legacy of ideas and memes that people will take as theirs making it, in my opinion, the greatest form of flattery someone can ever give you.
I have to say that both of you have been incredibly influential in my life and I'm very grateful for it. Thank you
Meanwhile if you ask some of loudest voices - the likes of Dawkins and Krauss - they’ll bs about how “there are no barriers in science, you’re a left-wing woke troll who’s virtue signaling”
Thank you for everything you do Sean, and being a sensible voice who hasn’t failed/disappointed us!
Please do a rebuttal on Joe Rogans episode with Terrence Howard. Few people can keep up with the “word-salad” expressed. But you are certainly one that could keep up and in good sense explain where things go south …
Go Sean Go! 🙏🏻🤩
this and the video you did with brian greene just recently are both fantastic. Genuinely lifted me during very foggy and confusing times.
Sorry for the losses. Its true, it is so hard to see people around us pass away.
There is so much crazy in the world , all kinds of mind bending theories and abstract ideas that I like to navigate , however listening to Sean carrol makes me feel grounded , I can get back down to Earth and think rationally and logically .
Thank you 👍
Thank you for the poetry. Oh, and the sciencey stuff , as well.
Hi Sean, I am from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I did not know about Frans de Waal .. after listening to you I was shocked. It is very sad. He was a great scientist .
Oh Dan. What a gent.
Hooray
One of the greatest bass guitar players: Tom Jenkinson, a.k.a. Squarepusher. The catalog is wide and varied by this Generation X experimental electronic genius virtuoso, but maybe give a listen to "Squarepusher's Theme" or "Rat P's and Q's" as a starting point.
I have a question. Do you think ALL particals in the universe are entangled?
I'm sorry to hear about Dan, who I knew personally over 30 years, without ever agreeing. Nice requiem Sean
I've learned about Dan's death just after listening to the Robinson's podcast with you and him on.
"I don't have too much relationship advice" - gives better advice than 95% of relationship advice "content creators" on the internet who now that I am thinking about it, are rarely in relationships themselves
Sean can we get your thoughts on the Kendrick Drake beef
53:20- he travelled a longer distance by zipping out and coming back but still passed the same amount of time, so how can he be younger? - assuming TIME is a universally master clock, ie. every point in space has identical time always regardless of any other factors like movement. This time dialation thing itself is worth a lecture.
time is not global. time is local as measured by the observer
@@98danielray congrats Yr time, not mine
its locked in
45:25 best part
Love your podcast and lectures Sean.
Love Dan too.
I don’t agree with either of you on everything, but you are right. That’s ok.
On comparing natural selection to the process of inanimate change over time, I see it as almost diametric in purpose. In life, we resist the lowest energy state (death) by consuming free energy to propagate work. Inanimate systems in the universe instead evolve to the lowest energy state and things that require energy are "selected" out in an effort to inevitably wind up in a universe completely at rest.
Niccolo asked a question I’ve been wondering for years, and Sean didn’t answer it at all. The speed of light is set by causality isn’t it?
1:24:58 If you know of someone who is an expert on the concept of randomness, I think that would be a worthwhile topic to cover. I find the idea of the digits of pi being "random" paradoxical given that we can "predict" each digit with perfect accuracy by calculating it. I guess this is sort of like saying that flipping a coin is not random insofar as one could know what the outcome of a flip will be if one analyzes the physics of it accurately enough. This makes the whole idea of randomness seem slippery in the first place. In any case, it's by no means obvious to me that one can take for granted that any arbitrary sequence will appear somewhere in the digits of pi. That seems related to, albeit less stringent than, the question of whether pi is a normal number, which, according to the Wikipedia article on pi, has not been proven, and according to the article on normal numbers, has not been shown for many numbers of interest. Not trivial at all.
So he's writing another book. Know what'd be nice? An illustrated QM book. Can anyone recommend one?
"QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter Book by Richard Feynman" It is short, has pictures, and yet is very deep and well worth your time
@@trevorcrowley5748 I have that book. I'm only about 1/5 through it but it's explained well with lots of visual aids.
1:25:08. we dont know pi is normal tho.
I had no idea he was unwell, expected a further decade of new ideas
It is surprising to know that Sean is a big proponent of philosophy and not just ethics or epistemology but how philosophy can relate to theoretical physics and science in general. What value does philosophy really have to contemporary physics? Isn't the scientific method complete enough without depending on another discipline especially one that does not depend on evidence like philosophy?
Ha, just started istening and living in the heart of San Francisco I thought those sirens weere happening here!
Haha I live in Los Angeles and thought the same!
Response to Sean on Compatibilism
Hi Sean, you said on this AMA that you never encountered someone who rejected your version of compatibilism who really understood what you meant by it. If I understood correctly you said all the anti-compatibilists were attacking a strawman or just not understanding you. Here is my attempt to explain your position in my own words and why I’m not a compatibilist.
Sean says that there is an effective theory or model of the everyday world where the objects of the model are humans making choices. This model makes good predictions about things that happen in everyday life and even stuff like geopolitical events are predicted by modeling humans as decision makers based on rational deliberations.
Its impossible to function in the world as an agent without modeling other agents as rational decision makers.
Is the model of the world *real* in an ultimate sense? I think you can argue that it is, even given reductive materialism.
The reason why the model or pattern is *real* is that it is multiply realizable. The world could be based on one set of laws of physics or another. We could be in a computer simulation, where the laws of physics we believe we are based are all in fact false. If a model of the world based on agents is predictive, it doesn't matter what the reductionistic basis of model is, it could be anything. I think this means that the high level model of the world has "substrate independence" and this independence from Physics gives it its own kind of independent reality.
A second consideration is this: what kind of beings could we wish ourselves to ideally be? I think no one on reflection should wish themself to be some sort of angelic being with no causal structure, or self causing, or anticausal, or indeterministic. I don't understand what that would actually entail or why it would be desirable. I don't understand what you think could be missing. What you want to be is a rational agent that makes optimal choices based on available information. You could wish for some power of hypercomputation like Penrose proposes but I don't think this makes you more indeterministic, if anything it makes you even more rational.
Now one attack on compatibilism is that we could potentially have a better model of human behaviour without being omniscient. We treat people as rational agents to a first approximation and this generates useful predictions. but perhaps it is possible to produce a model of a person which outperforms our naive model, and which is in dissonance with that person's own self model.
So suppose someone writes a program, based only on some limited observations of me or of my brain, which predicts that I will do X, when I myself predict that I will do Y. And people who know me also predict that I will do Y. And suppose the program outperforms me and the people who know me. then the effective theory where i am a rational agent is no longer the best model of the everyday world.
Another reason for rejecting compatibilism is more subjective. I'm very bad at predicting what I am going to do in a given situation. I don't really perceive myself as making decisions. I observe myself making decisions without knowing what they will be. So I don't need to be faced with a super program that outpredicts me, because I have no subjective experience of free will to begin with. This might be due to me being autistic and extremely neuro-atypical.
You could talk to Slavoj Zizek, he is interested in physics.
Ask me anything May 2021: listen from 0:00 to 1:00. Ask me anything May2024: listen from 0:00 to 2:30.
Does anyone see a correlation?
Video pls
Keith Emerson & Oscar Peterson (as Sean mentioned watching the two piano players)
ruclips.net/video/2YHgWWX5DN0/видео.htmlsi=Ejp7ZbnTR8P61jkW
I was surprised when Sean told of these two idols of mine (I was drinking w/Keith towards the end of his life, and a great friend). I'm a little taken aback that this exists, as Keith never mentioned it, though he was humble I must say. Oscar was from where I grew up, and I learned both these giants' riffs as a lad. I'm now a synth programmer, and I want to add to Sean's comment that Oscar did play synthesizer in his private life (he even owned a Synclavier, a million-dollar syth: that I used to program professionally back in the day). I'm sure Oscar may have kicked my ass at programming sounds as well, as he was a monster talent and quite the force of nature. They both were, and I'm proud to have known Keith, and momentarily met Oscar... They were of different worlds even amongst everyone else. I love Sean for bringing this to my attention, and it brought me to tears for a while before I pasted the link here and wrote this. Please give this a watch, but know that calling up almost any of either of their recordings is far superior to what they demonstrate for this show. My favorite album of Keith is "Brain Salad Surgery", and any of the solo Oscar albums will blow you away. May they both rest in peace after lives of touring, shredding, and recording which is what they both loved. Gr8! Peace ☮💜Love
On the North Sentinel Island, the Onge people (the other tribe) are aware of them but not in contact. Neither them nor the small no. of Anthropologists, who visited the island in 1991, had any success in understanding the language. On the limited contact they did have with the other tribes or the people from Anthropological Survey of India, the Sentinelese have made clear indications that they want to be left alone. 🤷🏾♂️
Whoa Dan passed away. Dang
hello?
Kudos, Dr. Carroll, Freedom of expression is a fundamental right in America. The missing context is the political climate here in America. Do these students want to engage about the future possibility of Muslim travel ban or even worse Muslim deportation? Speculation yes, but with high credence. Grievance politics is destroying America.
when did you ever hear of any authority offer to negotiate with protestors. Protestors usually are deliberately but oeacfully obstructt normal business because that is the only way they have of getting their voice heard. there is no conflict between making the world a better place and getting your voice heard. in fact thats the whole point of the protest. US weapons are being sold to Israel who is committing war crimes ( as judged in the UN bit d by USA).
That is the voice to be heard, that change would make the world abetter place. If you think that the students should negotiate.. offer to negotiate on their behalf see how far would you get.
You seem to forget October 7
Now we are down to 2 of 4 horsemen of atheism.
Wonder Showzen Season 1, Episode 2 kind of counts. Ish.
You know what Mr. Sean, I will not engage with you on the sad statements you made on the protests against genocide and apartheid. I will make sure that the record will never fail to remember your cowardice and lack of integrity .Soon sir, history shall deliver you the justice you deserve.
Sean, you are one if the greatest thinkers and articulators of our time imo. Its the reason I click your podcast before anyone elses. But given your level of rational thought I'm completely shocked that you support these college protests. Please understand that these kids actually have no idea what they are standing for. This is group think and group mentality. You've clearly been in academia for some time now.
That being said still love you and keep up the best content on youtube
Im a farmer, so don t expect much of my question. If I lived in a 2 dimensions world, stuff on the 3rd dimension would be impossible for me to see (unless the crossed my plane) but forces from the 3rd dimension would interact with my world. Shouldnt we be feeling forces coming from the 4th dimension?
I know this isnt where you place questions, but was hoping one of you smart people knew the answer
I seem to recall that the Russian philosopher P.D. Ouspensky posited a similar notion.
@@joaocourinha8222I'm an electrician, so don't expect much of my comment. Where does the assumption that there are forces in the 4th dimension come from? Time is the 4th dimension. And it does things that seem bizarre to us, 3-dimensional brings (like warping and stretching due to gravity). Isn't that enough? :)
@@vitaly2432 4th spatial dimension, place that casts 3d shadowa 🤭
I think in string theory that is kinda the idea behind how gravity works, but don't take my word for it. It also depends on whether you imagine the world we see as having all the dimensions with the nontraditional ones being curled up and compactified, or if we live on a sort of 4d membrane embedded in full higher dimensional spacetime.
Its suspicious that people keep dying after beeing on your podcast....
😅
Yeah, would be less suspicious if they died before coming on the podcast
...fine, I'll subscribe to your channel then but I'm only doing it to impress girls by making myself appear intellectual and informed...
Disappointed, but not surprised, to hear Sean dismiss student protests as merely a 'nice to have' for universities. It's a 'hey kids, have fun, but don't disrupt anyone' mentality. Even disruptive protests, in his view, should be minimal - a 'tiny sip' that doesn't inconvenience others.
This 'both sides' perspective, where he can even tolerate listening to Nazis, stems from a place of privilege. He feels so secure that he can't understand the experience of being targeted for annihilation. He doesn't grasp how the silence or indifference can embolden the oppressors. It's a one-sided issue - a crime against humanity. Despite his views, I'll continue listening to his physics podcasts.
What are you talking about? All Sean is saying is that it isn't fair that some peoples opinion shouldn't affect others' chance to go to school.
It could be a lot of "once in a lifetime opportunities" that are going down the drain.
Israel is in a war with Hamas not Palestine
Isn't there too many physical problems in the world, like poverty and wage gaps, shouldn't physicist be more concerned about the real problems of the physical world instead of searching for dark matter and whatever metaphysical thing that won't make any diference in the real world?!
pure science leads to a better world. things like fertilizer and hydroponics and telecommunications all help with real world issues, but would not have happened withtpute scientific research. if you're concerned about poverty and wage gaps, I'm sure there are ways you could help.
@@orionred2489 i'm really starting to think otherwise... we have a few billionaires and a billion miserables, i don't think that a scientific way of sharing resourses and whealth, there's got be a way, a scientific way to divide the resourser around the world more equally
@@user-hz3xo8xw6n Well, we have all of those ways figured out. We can feed and house people. It's not mistargeted research letting those issues continue.
With all due respect sir, I think wokeness has got the better of you. Are you blind to the anti semitic actions carried out by the protestors? Can you please explain the message - river to sea? Do you believe Israel should exist? I think this fear and ignorance is what will introduce a large threat to your freedoms you keep so close to your heart.
I read the transcript covering this content: believe the summary is that students are young and it is good that they are expressing themselves, trying to make a better world; also that listening is good so is compromise; hear many sides, think about what is said, try to be respectful and make up your own mind. Lastly, if you are upsetting and inconveniencing others, try to be strategic in your rule-breaking so as to better enable the future you wish to bring about. Agree about the fear and ignorance. Let's hope that their continued schooling makes them wiser and better. כָּבוֹד
@@trevorcrowley5748 with due respect I think you too are on blinkers. If you feel the protest in colleges is just wrong planning, you too are deluded. You think videos/news of what’s going on in America doesn’t reach us in rest of the world?
@@bestest1234567 You make a very good point. I will share my limited experience and understanding and would appreciate your thoughtful perspective. My wife and I are from Canada, and in 2008 we visited Haifa and Bethlehem as a trip to see different parts of the world. Sixteen years later I still remember what I saw and felt in both very ancient and complex places. Honestly, I did feel fear and I did feel ignorance of those thousands of years of history and fighting. With blinkers off, what do you see? And what would you recommend we can do to reduce our fear and ignorance?
@@trevorcrowley5748 call the reality for what it is. Israel wants peace, neighbours want Israel gone. Only one party is ok with the two state solution. All these protestors can be divided into- people taken in by the Marxist academia, Islamist radicals, idiots looking for a cause to make themselves relevant and feel better. All i hear is free speech which I completely advocate for. Why the complete ignorance of their criminal, hate spreading and violent behaviour. ESP from the academia. We saw how Harvard and mit deans spoke, we see the antisemitic stabbings and threats post Hamas attack in Oct. makes me feel so good here in India going to equivalent colleges like IIT and having never to deal with guns or islamocommunist threats. We do have a few of those types of colleges here who started violent protests were nipped very early post the attacks.
@@trevorcrowley5748 I had replied but unfortunately RUclips and it’s management is severely biased in the same way as institutes and my replies without abuse or vulgarity is auto deleted